Autumn Dreams at Mermaids Point, page 19
‘Anyway, enough of that. How are you and the kids settling in?’
‘Good,’ Tom said, before draining the last of his beer. ‘Max is finding his feet at school and Emily’s going to the college a couple of days a week to study for some resits.’ He checked the time, then grabbed his phone and sent a quick text to Nerissa.
Everything okay?
* * *
All good. M’s playing a game…
No surprise there, Tom thought.
E’s in her room on a live watch party with some friends from college (whatever that is).
Nerissa added a shrugging emoji at the end of her message.
He wondered what Nerissa was doing for the evening. Was she curled up on the sofa in her little sitting room upstairs, or pottering around in the kitchen preparing things for breakfast the next morning? Whatever she was doing, it was none of his damn business, Tom reminded himself.
He tapped into the phone:
Thanks. Won’t be long.
* * *
Take your time.
Clearly, she wasn’t bothered about him staying out – and why on earth should she be? Irritated with himself for feeling irritated about her apparent lack of interest, he slung his phone down on the bar. Glancing up, he found Tony watching him with an expectant look. ‘What?’
‘Just wondered if you fancied another?’ Tony pointed at his empty beer bottle.
Tom hesitated, though there seemed little point. It wasn’t like anyone at home was missing him. He was enjoying the other man’s company and it would be good for people to see him out and about around the Point, get to know him a bit outside the surgery. He knew it would take a long time for people to become as comfortable with him as they were with Malcolm. He glanced over to where his predecessor was taking his leave of his companions. ‘I will have another,’ he said to Tony. ‘My shout, though. Just give me a minute.’
He caught up with Malcolm as the older man was struggling with the sleeve of his coat. Reaching out, Tom tugged the tucked-in end free, then stepped back while Malcolm finished putting it on.
‘Thank you. How’s things?’ He gave Tom the once-over. ‘You seem to be surviving.’
Tom laughed. ‘Just about. Not sure I’m winning everyone over with my bedside manner.’
Malcolm chuckled. ‘Ah, yes. I heard as much from Donald when he was in here earlier.’
‘Checking back in with you, was he?’
When the older man flushed, Tom felt a twinge of guilt.
‘Look, I don’t want to fall out with you, but I can’t have you contradicting my treatment of patients.’
‘But it’s all right for you to override every decision I’ve made?’ Malcolm scowled as he reached for a hat hanging on one of the pegs. ‘My body might’ve slowed down, but my mind is still sharp enough, I’ll have you know.’
Tom raised his hands, palms out. ‘I didn’t mean to cast any kind of aspersions on your treatment of your patients, Malcolm. From what I’ve seen so far, you’ve done a remarkable job managing a patient list that size on your own. All I’m saying is we need this transition to go as smoothly as possible – for all our sakes.’
The older man bristled before lowering his shoulders and nodding in agreement. ‘You’re right. It’s just…’
‘Hard.’ Tom finished for him. ‘And if I was in your shoes, I’m sure I’d feel exactly the same way.’ A thought occurred to him. ‘Look, I’ll understand if you say no, but I’m thinking about doing a bit of a push around men’s health, but I’m not sure how well that would be received, particularly with the older generation.’
Malcolm turned the brim of his hat through his fingers. ‘I’m listening.’
‘When Donald came to see me today, it was obvious he’s of that mindset where you don’t bother the doctor unless it’s something dire. Too many men leave things too late because they don’t want to talk about stuff, or don’t want to make a fuss. I’d really like that to change and I’m hoping it’s something you might help me with.’
Malcolm stopped fiddling with his hat, a gleam of interest in his eyes. ‘What did you have in mind?’
Tom shrugged. ‘I haven’t worked it all out in my head, exactly, but something along the lines of a well man clinic. Something you could take the lead on if you’d like to still be involved with things. It wouldn’t take more than one or two sessions a month – maybe a couple of chats here in the pub just to float the idea, and then you could host drop-in days at the surgery – or booked appointments if you’d prefer, or a mixture of the two.’
‘Hmmm. Not sure there’d be much take-up.’
It wasn’t an outright refusal though, and Tom would take it. The more he thought about it, the more excited he was by the idea. He was already making progress with better preventative support for the female population of the Point, so why not the men? ‘Even if one or two dropped in and we caught something early, that’d be a win in my book.’
‘And this isn’t just something you’ve made up on the fly to stop me interfering?’ The look on Malcolm’s face said he knew that’s exactly what it was.
‘Doesn’t make it a bad idea, does it?’ Tom countered, deciding honesty was the only way to win him over. ‘Have a think about it, and if you’re interested then come by the surgery and we can talk it through properly. I’d value your input because no one knows better than you what this community needs.’
‘All right.’ Malcolm set his hat upon his head, then turned up his collar. ‘I’d better get back before Barbara comes and drags me away. Confounded woman wants to know where I am twenty-four hours in the day.’ There was enough affection in that grumble to say he didn’t really mind having someone keeping tabs on him.
Tom offered his hand, and they shook. ‘I’ll hear from you soon, hopefully.’
‘We’ll see.’ Malcolm turned and tugged open the door, muttering to himself as he did. ‘Well man clinic indeed! Who comes up with these things?’
As the door shut on the cold blast of air, Tom couldn’t help smiling to himself. For all Malcolm’s bluster, he’d bet it wouldn’t be too long before he heard from him.
20
‘I won’t be long,’ Nerissa called towards the open door leading from the kitchen to the lounge as she removed Toby’s lead from one of the hooks on the wall. She couldn’t help smiling at the full key rack as she bent to clip the lead on the retriever’s collar. When it had just been her and Doc, there’d only ever been a couple of sets of keys hanging there – the spare one for his car, her backdoor key. Now it was a busy jumble of things – much like the rest of the house. Emily’s keys took up the most space, thanks to the myriad keyrings hooked onto them, including a teddy bear and dangling chain festooned with stars, moons and a piece of pink quartz. Nerissa recognised it from the rack of similar trinkets her brother sold in his shop.
Next to it Max had hung both the lanyard holding the swipe card he used to pay for his lunches and his school jumper. Sighing at the hole the sharp hook had poked through the grey wool, she carefully took it down. Folding it up, she set it on the kitchen table so she’d remember to pick it up on her return and catch the damage with a couple of stitches before it got any worse. The boy was a menace. A sweet-faced, smiling menace she found it impossible to be cross with even when he did silly things like put a hole in something he’d only had for a few weeks.
She did a mental count of how many it’d been since he started school. Six weeks – that’s all it had been since the Nelsons had arrived and turned everything upside down. Some days it was hard to remember what it was like before they’d arrived.
Her gaze strayed to the detritus of breakfast plates and bowls stacked on the worktop directly above the dishwasher and she tried to ignore the itch in her fingers to sort it out. Loading and unloading it was one of the chores Tom had assigned to the children. While she applauded his attempts at getting them to accept a level of responsibility for things around the house, she really, really wished he’d given them tasks outside of her beloved kitchen.
She’d just pushed to her feet when Max bounced into the room, hair sticking up every which way as though he’d rolled out of bed and headed straight for the sofa. She eyed the T-shirt and stretchy pyjama bottoms he was wearing; come to think of it he probably had. ‘Are you taking Toby for a walk in this weather?’ he asked with an incredulous look on his face.
‘Yes, of course I am.’ The glorious sunshine they’d been blessed with for most of the summer had been swept away by an endless parade of autumn storms – the kind that seemed to blow in from nowhere. The rain which had been lashing the windows since the previous evening had eased to a fine drizzle, so she was making the most of it. The thunderheads looming on the horizon promised the storm wasn’t over by a long shot. ‘He needs lots of exercise every day.’
‘Oh.’ Max seemed to think about that for a moment before nodding as though he saw the sense in it. ‘Can I come?’
‘I thought you had chores to do.’ Nerissa cast a pointed look at the pile of dirty dishes.
‘Oh, I’ll do them when I get back. Just let me go and get changed.’ Max turned around and all but bumped into Tom who’d followed him into the kitchen. His hair didn’t look much neater than Max’s, but that was down to a callout in the early hours to attend a sick baby with a high temperature. The dark circles under his eyes said he hadn’t managed to get any more sleep since he’d got back.
‘You’ll do them now,’ Tom said, taking Max firmly by the shoulders and turning his son to face the mess on the worktop. ‘What have I told you about being considerate of the spaces we all have to share. Nerissa doesn’t want to live in a pigsty any more than I do.’
‘But she said I could go for a walk with her and Toby,’ Max protested, being more than a little economical with the truth.
The rude noise Tom made said what he thought in a succinct if not exactly elegant way. ‘Rubbish. She was probably hoping to escape for a bit of peace and quiet, not have you pestering her.’
‘I don’t mind,’ Nerissa said, because she really didn’t. Max might leave a little too much chaos in his wake, but she was growing increasingly fond of his boundless curiosity and the way he kept finding ways to join in with whatever she was doing. She wondered if he was subconsciously missing his mother – and the kind of things he might have done with her – so she made a point of letting him help whenever he showed an interest in things. The crust on the steak and mushroom pie they’d made for Sunday lunch the other week might have been a bit thick in places, but the laughter filling the kitchen as she’d taught him how to make the pastry had been worth it. The fairy cakes they’d baked had been more successful, and when Laurie had taken another batch to sell in the café and given him a couple of pounds in profit back, he’d been over the moon. So, no, she didn’t mind gaining a little shadow at all.
She made a show of checking her watch. ‘I’ll give you ten minutes. That should be more than enough time to tidy up in here and get changed.’ She bent to unhook Toby’s lead, rubbing his head and laughing at the mournful look he gave her. ‘Just a few minutes,’ she promised him, as she wound the lead into a tight loop and tucked it in the voluminous pocket of her wax jacket. The dog gave her a look which on a human would be described as abject disgust and slunk over to his basket to curl up.
Max all but hurled the dishes into the machine and Nerissa forced herself to turn away from him before the urge to tell him he was putting things in the wrong place overtook her.
‘How’s Molly’s little lad?’ she asked Tom in a soft voice which wouldn’t be heard over the enthusiastic crash of pans in the sink.
‘Okay.’ Tom heaved a tired-sounding sigh. ‘I rang the hospital a few minutes ago and it looks like he picked up a nasty tummy bug. They’re going to keep him in for observation and to make sure he’s properly hydrated, but they don’t think it’s anything more serious than that, thank goodness.’
Nerissa’s relief was an echo of his own. Though she tried hard to remain detached, it was always hard with the little ones, especially when she’d followed them through from the initial excited, fear-tinged moments of confirmation of the pregnancy and the prenatal appointments, to their first visits to the surgery for their checks and inoculations. Little baby Samuel was Molly’s first child and Nerissa had been delighted to see their family starting to grow. She’d known Molly and her husband, Dan, since they were tiny tots themselves. A bittersweet wave swept through her as she thought about all the lives that had passed through the surgery door, each one leaving a little mark on her own life.
Perhaps something of what she was feeling had shown on her face because Tom stepped closer and touched a gentle hand to her arm. ‘He’s going to be fine.’
She forced a smile. Of course he would think she was worrying about Samuel. He couldn’t possibly know that it was the ghosts of her own never-would-be children that haunted her in moments like this. How could he, when he had two wonderful children of his own? ‘I know.’ She hesitated, then confessed a tiny part of what she’d been thinking about. ‘I was just remembering when Molly’s mum first came in to find out she was pregnant with her. I must’ve been eighteen or nineteen. I was the office junior then – doing a bit of filing and typing for Doc under the eagle eye of Miss Kennett.’ Gosh, she hadn’t thought about Isobel Kennett in years, talk about a trip down memory lane. She might have been an old dragon at times, but she’d been nothing but kindness and compassion as Nerissa had stumbled through those first terrible months after losing Gareth.
‘You’ve worked at the surgery for that long?’
She nodded. ‘I hadn’t planned on making it my life’s work.’ She’d taken the job as a means to earn a bit extra while Gareth was on deployment, but then he’d never come home, and somehow she’d never left. ‘But my circumstances changed and…’ The imprint of Gareth’s ring pressed deeper into her fingers where she’d unconsciously reached for it and she let it go, but not before she caught Tom’s gaze on it. She clammed up, not knowing how to explain without sharing more than she wanted to.
‘Finished!’ Max declared, and, grateful for the interruption, she turned her attention from father to son.
‘Well done,’ she said, ignoring the patch of crumbs he’d missed during his haphazard attempt to wipe off the table. ‘Go and get changed, then.’ She watched him race from the room before ducking her head to check the horizon through the window. ‘Looks like we might get wet.’
Tom leaned forward next to her. ‘I don’t like the look of that sky at all. I was thinking of joining you, but I’ve just remembered there’s a documentary I’ve been meaning to catch up on.’
‘Chicken.’
He laughed. ‘Damn right. Enjoy your walk, though! I’ll think of you while I’m cosy and warm inside with a nice hot cup of coffee.’ He strolled across to the kettle and flipped it on, making no attempt to hide his smug grin.
‘I could go off some people, you know,’ Nerissa muttered, making him laugh harder, and she smiled to see the way it took years off him. He’d gone from looking haggard and stressed to relaxed and cheerful, and a little piece of her glowed inside knowing she’d helped lift his mood.
Max was back a few minutes later, hair even more impossibly mussed from the thick jumper he’d put on. They’d both look an absolute fright once the wind got hold of them, so Nerissa just smoothed the worst of it down with a quick trace of her fingers.
She glanced down at his trainers – the same ones that he’d soaked in the sea on their first unexpected walk together. ‘Have you got some wellies?’
When he shook his head, she glanced at Tom.
‘It’s on the list!’ he declared, and she couldn’t help but laugh. It’d become one of his regular sayings, usually when he thought she was going to tell him off for not doing something. Not that she would dream of telling him off, but she’d found he had a tendency to let things slide without at least one or two pointed reminders. She’d have to go over her own mental list and make sure it tallied with his. Both the children would need some sturdy footwear to see them through the coming months, and Max was already growing out of his winter coat, if the two inches of bare wrist she’d seen sticking out the end of his sleeves was any indication.
Speaking of which. ‘Get your coat,’ she prompted Max. ‘And a hat if you’ve got one to hand.’
She followed him back into the hallway to retrieve a wide-brimmed, olive green waterproof hat from one of the pegs. It wouldn’t win her any style prizes, but it kept her warm and dry, and the toggle beneath the chin was a godsend on windy days.
‘I’ve got a hood.’ Max popped it up and down to demonstrate.
‘Looks like we’re all set then.’ She pulled the lead from her pocket and handed it to him. ‘Do you want to do the honours?’
Tom followed them to the back door. ‘Make sure you do what Nerissa tells you, okay?’ he said to Max.
‘I will!’ He plunged out into the drizzling rain with a re-energised Toby barking excitedly at his heels.
‘You’re sure you don’t mind him tagging along?’ Tom said in a voice low enough not to carry.
‘He’s not a bother.’ When Tom still looked a little unsure, Nerissa reached out and touched his arm. ‘Really.’
She realised her mistake the moment she touched him. It was too intimate, and too damn easy to do because it was all she thought about when she was around him – this need she had to comfort him, to ease his troubles and make him laugh the way he had just a few moments ago.
She pulled her fingers away and stepped out into the rain. It might not be a cold shower, but hopefully the storm would blow these foolish thoughts out of her head because it had to stop. She had to stop wishing for something she couldn’t have. She felt like she was at a crossroads: the past still called to her, but not with the same power it once had. The future thrust upon her by circumstances would just as likely lead to more heartbreak if she didn’t learn to guard her emotions better.
