Page 113 of A Helpin g Hand for the Village Nurse

‘No, I didn’t do anything.’

‘You were there when Chloe needed you. When I needed you. Heath, I was terrified up there. If not for you, I think I would have run away. But you were so strong and so calm it made me calm too.’

‘You didn’t look terrified.’

‘I was. But you were there, and it was better. When you’re there it’s always…’

She paused. The words she’d failed to say weren’t words she’d chosen; they’d come from nowhere, but she realised now that they might be the truest words she’d ever spoken. When she’d needed him he’d always been there. She might not have realised it or even welcomed it at times, but he had. That day she’d got stuck on the hillside with Flo, the day her house had been flooded and he’d driven straight over from Manchester with sandbags and a van, all the times he’d been to help fix her house, the time when he’d found her crying, tonight…and he’d never asked for anything in return. He’d simply been there.

Actually, that wasn’t quite right. He had asked for one thing, once. And she’d refused him. She didn’t even know now why she’d done that. She had feelings for him – she had since the day they’d first met. Complicated, yes, sometimes so muddled that she couldn’t recognise them, sometimes more negative than positive, but she had them. So why was she ignoring them? Why was she denying they existed? What was there to gain? Josh would have asked the same question of her and he’d have given her the answer – there was no point in being alone when she didn’t need to be, when there were feelings on both sides – at least, she hoped that Heath felt it too.

‘You’re cold?’ he asked, draping his jacket around her shoulders.

‘Thanks,’ she said.

‘I wonder if the party’s still going. Do you think anyone’s noticed we’ve gone?’

‘If Magnus and Geoff have they’re probably doing a victory lap, thinking they’ve finally succeeded.’

‘Probably,’ he said with a tired smile.

Come on, Ottilie, say it. You’ve been brave once tonight, just one more time.

‘You know that thing you asked me that night,’ she began slowly.

‘What thing?’

Ottilie pulled the jacket tighter. She could smell his cologne on it. Her legs were suddenly trembling, far worse than at any other point that night. But there was a lot riding on this. Was she about to ruin their friendship? He’d once told her how fed up he’d been with his ex-wife’s back and forth, wanting him and then not. Now Ottilie was doing the same thing.

‘I think I might like to watch Lady and the Tramp with you. If you still want to, that is.’

‘Oh,’ he said, and nothing else, and Ottilie held in a groan. She’d blown it. Just like that she’d blown everything.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘We should go back inside.’

‘Ottilie, no, wait…’

She turned to face him. He looked as uncertain as her.

‘I just don’t know what you mean by that and I don’t want to get the wrong idea. I like you. Does that mean you like me too?’

‘I always liked you.’

‘You could have fooled me,’ he said, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

‘OK that’s probably a fair assessment. I did think you were a miserable pain in the arse when I first met you. But I realised I’d got it wrong pretty quickly.’

‘I never thought that about you. I could always see you were special.’

‘Really?’ She raised her eyebrows, but he nodded, not laughing this time.

‘I didn’t want to admit it, so I found reasons to doubt you. You have to understand…’ He let out a sigh. ‘I’d been hurt before, I’d been messed about, I wasn’t looking for…’

‘For what?’

‘For this. For you. I wasn’t ready, and then there you were. I didn’t know how to deal with it, and I think I dealt with it badly.’

‘For what it’s worth, I think I did too.’

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