‘You have your holiday to look forward to,’ she said, and Candy nodded. ‘It’s a good job you booked it before you knew.’
‘Oh, yes,’ Candy said, because it would be her first and last overseas adventure alone. ‘I don’t think I’ll be lounging around on the beach next time I go. It will be buckets and spades...’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t see how I’ll manage,’ she admitted.
‘You know, I can remember being alone and pregnant,’ Macey said. ‘I expect it’s still a very scary place even fifty years on, even with all the choices you girls have these days. I still remember how scared I felt when I got pregnant but I’ll tell you this much—by the end of my pregnancy I wasn’t scared about having a baby. I wanted him so much and I know you’ll feel the same way about your two.’
Candy nodded. She knew Macey was right. ‘I’m sorry for what happened to you, Macey.’
‘I know you are but don’t be sorry. My nieces are getting into contact with him. If I can see him just once I’ll be happy...’ Her voice trailed off and she looked up and Candy followed her gaze and saw that Steele had popped his head in.
‘Sorry,’ Candy said, standing up from the bed. She was supposed to have removed Macey’s dressing and she was embarrassed at him seeing her cry.
‘It’s fine,’ Steele said. ‘I’ll come back later.’
He left them to it. He was glad that Candy was having a chat and a cry with Macey and when she came out a little while later and told him Macey’s dressing was down, instead of ignoring what he’d seen he addressed it.
‘Do you feel better after speaking with Macey?’
‘I do,’ she said. ‘I’m going to miss her.’
And I miss you, Candy thought, but she could not say that without starting to cry again.
‘Could we go somewhere after work?’ he said. ‘Just to talk.’
She didn’t really want to say goodbye to him here, not like this, so she nodded.
They returned to the café he had first taken her to, yet it felt so different now—the innocence and fun of before had left them.
‘What would you like to eat?’ he asked.
‘I’ll just have a cup of tea,’ she said. ‘I’m meeting my parents tonight.’
‘Have you told them?’
Candy shook her head ‘I’ll tell them about the twins when I get back.’
‘They’ll know very soon.’ He’d tried not to notice her bump but now that he had he couldn’t not see it. ‘I’m not a very good doctor, am I?’
He somehow made her smile.
‘I think it popped out about ten seconds after I found out...’ Candy said. ‘I’ll just wear a big baggy top tonight. They’re not talking to me anyway, because I changed the locks and I’m going to Hawaii, so I doubt I’ll be there for very long.’
‘Yet you still go.’
‘I love them. I don’t agree with them a lot of the time but I still love them very much and I know when I do tell them I’ll break their hearts.’
‘For a little while,’ Steele said.
He took a breath. He could do this type of thing so easily for his patients but when it came to matters of a very private heart, things were very different, but he forced himself to step up.
‘Would you like me to tell your parents for you?’
Candy frowned. ‘Why would you do that?’
‘Because I’m used to breaking news to difficult, stubborn, immutable people. I do it every day,’ he said, and then made her smile. ‘I promise to leave out the part that we’ve been at it like rabbits. I’ll just say I’m a colleague. A doctor...’
Candy smiled. She really understood why he wore a suit and tie for work—the older people liked it. And he was right, her parents would respond very differently to Steele from the way they would to her. If not at first then fairly soon, they would calm down for the dottore.
‘I need to do this myself, Steele. It’s really nice of you to offer and I admit I’m tempted to pass it over, but...no. Thank you, though.’
‘Is there anything I can do to help?’