She loathed that she’d done it.
She loathed more than that that she’d had to, but she had realised that despite the move she hadn’t really left home. Her parents saw her flat as a bedroom with a slightly longer hall to walk down. Candy thought of Steele hiding in her room that night and knew that was the reason they stayed at his place.
No, Candy thought as she turned the new lock on her door and then headed for Steele’s, it was her life.
* * *
It was a long day for Steele.
A very long day.
He stopped by Macey’s bed at the end of his shift and she asked if he would speak with her niece when she visited tomorrow.
‘Of course I will,’ Steele said.
Then he had a meeting to sit through, which really had nothing to do with him, given that he’d be gone in a few weeks. Not that it stopped him putting his point across about the lengthy waits in Emergency. Oh, and a few other things too.
By nine he should be more than ready for home but for once Steele was tentative.
There was no bread waiting for him in the toaster.
Steele walked through his apartment and put Candy’s case, which he had bought in from the car, down in the hallway. He knew she was here and he knew where she probably was.
He walked through to the bedroom and, sure enough, there was Candy, fast asleep in bed with the light still on. He looked at her black curls all splayed out on the pillow and he looked at the dark circles under her eyes and he stood there for a full two minutes, watching her sleep deeply.
Steele made his own toast and then had a shower and tried to watch a film. It was a film that he had been meaning to watch for ages but, unusually for him, he couldn’t concentrate.
There was something else, far deeper, on his mind.
He turned off the television and lights and got into bed next to Candy, and she rolled into him.
‘Sorry,’ she said sleepily. ‘I saw the bed and couldn’t resist. When did you get back?’
‘Just now,’ he said, though it had been a good hour.
‘I changed the lock on my front door.’ Her voice was groggy with sleep.
‘Good for you,’ Steele said. ‘Go back to sleep.’
She did.
He didn’t.
Instead, he lay staring at the ceiling.
Yes, there was a lot on his mind.
Macey’s words had now seriously rattled him too.
CHAPTER NINE
After
CANDY WOKE IN Steele’s arms and listened to the sound of his breathing.
She wanted him to wake and roll over and make love to her. She wanted the pregnancy thought in her head to be obliterated by his kiss.
Then she didn’t want his kiss because she felt sick.
Candy’s mind flicked over the past few weeks.
Yes, she’d been sick last month, but it had been one of those bugs.
Surely?
She really felt sick now and she crept to the bathroom and tried to throw up as quietly as she could.
It was exhaustion, Candy told herself, brushing her teeth and then showering, but when she glanced in the mirror she could see the fear in her eyes.
Steele lay there listening to Candy flush the toilet to drown out her gags and he blew out a breath.
‘Morning,’ he said a few moments later, when he came in and she was already in the shower.
‘Morning.’ Candy smiled but she couldn’t quite meet his eyes.
There was an elephant in the room that they both chose to ignore and they dashed around, getting dressed, finding keys, exclaiming they were running late when really they were actually doing quite well for time.
There was the first uncomfortable silence between them as Steele drove Candy and the massive elephant in the car to work.
There was no frantic kissing and they walked through the car park in silence, Candy making the decision to do a pregnancy test as soon as she got there, Steele wondering what the hell he should say.
If anything.
The sound of an ambulance siren had her look up and she saw Lydia standing in the forecourt, frantically gesturing for her to run. Clearly there was something big coming in.
‘I’ve got to go,’ she said.
‘Go!’ Steele said, and he watched her run through the car park and to the forecourt, where not one but three flashing-light ambulances were now pulling up. Kelly ran past him too and as Steele walked up the corridor the anaesthetists and trauma teams were running down it towards Emergency.