Page 10 of Together Again at the Cornish Country Hospital

‘Yes, it’s bleeding, but thankfully I’m in the right place, with just the right person to help me out.’ Lijah locked eyes with Amy.

‘You are.’ As she spoke, a small crowd began to gather around them. Chantelle finally ended her phone call, having realised who Lijah was and clearly not wanting to miss out.

‘It’s my turn next and no special treatment here.’ Chantelle nudged Lijah with her hip in a far too intimate gesture between strangers. ‘But I’m more than happy to share my cubicle with you.’

‘No need.’ Aidan had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, his eyes widening as they met Amy’s and he silently mouthed the words, ‘Your hot ex.’

She knew he’d have plenty of questions for her later, but for now she was trying not to give away just how much Lijah’s presence was affecting her. Amy forced herself to maintain a neutral expression, as Aidan turned towards Chantelle. ‘You can come with me, we’ll soon have that septic ear sorted out.’

‘For Christ’s sake!’ Chantelle looked outraged that her very unattractive ailment had been shared within earshot of Lijah Byrne. ‘Don’t you have to take some kind of oath to keep things confidential? It’s no wonder the NHS is in such a state with nurses like you two.’

‘Don’t worry we’d already spotted your ear from across the room.’ Nick gave her a cool look.

‘Not to mention overhearing your phone call about just how much oozing there was. I think we all forget how lucky we are that there are people selfless enough to deal with that kind of stuff, don’t we?’ Lijah shrugged, but there was a twinkle in his eye that Amy would have recognised anywhere. He was always the sort of person who stood up for others and it seemed that was one thing fame hadn’t changed.

‘Right, I think we ought to get that hand sorted out.’ Amy desperately tried to suppress a smile, but she didn’t quite manage it. Lijah and Nick had always made her laugh, and she had a feeling that would help them overcome any awkwardness there might be at seeing each other again after so long. She was always happy to find a reason to smile on a long shift, but she had no idea how hard that was about to become.

* * *

Nick had gone off in what he alleged was a search for a decent cup of coffee, but Amy couldn’t help noticing it had coincided with her starting to clean Lijah’s wound.

‘How did you manage to get yourself into this?’ She kept her attention on Lijah’s hand as she spoke.

‘Trying to do a good deed and separate fighting dogs. You know me, I always was one to act before I thought it through.’ Lijah’s tone was light, but she had to disagree. He’d always been thoughtful, the type of deep thinker who felt things so deeply they hurt. Lijah had known the pain of rejection from a very young age. Amy understood the pressure he felt not to let his mother see how much his father’s behaviour had bothered him at times, lessening her pain by burying his own. He’d learnt to deal with it, but now he’d lost his beloved mother it was obvious there was a deep vein of sadness just below the happy-go-lucky exterior. He’d told Amy once that music was the only therapy he needed and his ability to translate that pain into something other people could connect with was almost certainly at the root of his success. Although the things she’d read lately worried her: rumours about him unravelling and planning to give up on music. It was like breathing in and out for him, and she couldn’t imagine a version of Lijah without music in his life.

‘I wouldn’t say that, and whether you think things through or not, it’s clearly paid off. I know how proud your mum was of everything you’ve achieved. She was such a lovely lady and I can only imagine how hard it’s been for you since she died. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to talk to you at her funeral and to tell you how much she meant to me.’ Amy might have stepped out of Lijah’s life, but she’d remained a part of his mother’s right up until the end, and she knew Maria had valued that as much as she had.

‘Sometimes I feel like I’ve lost my son, but I’m so glad I haven’t lost you too.’ Maria had made the admission to Amy once, her eyes filling with tears. Lijah had another life, a world away from Port Kara, one that didn’t involve sitting on the sofa listening to hits from the eighties any more. She’d told Maria she felt the same and had made her and Claire promise not to tell Lijah they still met up on a regular basis. Amy had even driven Maria to appointments when she’d broken her wrist two summers before. She’d done it out of genuine affection, but she hadn’t wanted it to make things awkward when Maria saw Lijah. On the day of her funeral, Amy had been desperate to talk to Lijah, to tell him just how much his mum had meant to her, but there had been journalists everywhere and he’d been surrounded by a wall of security all day, so she’d had to put it all in a letter instead.

‘Thank you, your letter meant a lot to me. Mum was very fond of you too.’ Lijah hesitated, forcing her to look up. ‘I found quite a few photos of the two of you together.’

‘That’s nice, although all the photographs of that haircut I had in the second year of sixth form should probably be destroyed.’ She laughed, but he shook his head.

‘No, I mean much more recent photos than that.’ He reached out briefly with his uninjured hand, her skin tingling where his fingers had touched the back of her hand, long after he’d removed them. ‘Thank you for taking the time out to spend time with her, from what my aunt said it was always the highlight of her week when it happened.’

Of all the things she’d anticipated him saying, this wasn’t one of them. She’d expected him to ask why they were still in touch, but he didn’t. She wanted to explain anyway. ‘It was the highlight of my week too. I missed your mum after you left and when I bumped into her in town a few months after, she told me she’d bought some more vinyl records she wanted me to listen to.’

‘She probably bought them as an excuse to see you. I know she missed you too, because she told me.’ He smiled and it took every ounce of self-restraint not to tell him how much she’d missed him after he’d left. She’d been determined not to be that person at nineteen, so she sure as hell wasn’t going to be that person now she was thirty. Suddenly his face changed, the smile turning into something she couldn’t quite define. It wasn’t a frown, there was more torment to it than that. It was a kind of melancholy that was obvious even before his voice caught on his next words. ‘I just wish I’d taken more time out to spend with her, now I’ll never get the chance.’

‘She knew how much you loved her, and she was so incredibly proud of you.’ It was Amy’s turn to reach out and, when she did, Lijah clasped her hand with his uninjured one, his fingers closing around hers. It was a gesture that felt so familiar and yet so alien, all at the same time.

‘I found a whole photo album she put together from my sixteenth birthday party, do you remember that night?’ His face was so open, but she wanted to ask him how he could even question it. That night had changed everything between them, it had changed her whole life, even the person she was now, but all she could do was nod.

‘Of course I remember. It’s still one of the best parties I’ve ever been to.’

‘Me too.’ She furrowed her brow. It was stillthebest party she’d ever been to, not one of them, but Lijah must have been to thousands of swanky parties. There was no way he felt the same about an eighties-themed disco in the village hall, but when she looked into his eyes she suddenly wasn’t so sure.

‘The album wasn’t just photos either.’ Lijah’s eyes locked with hers as he spoke. ‘She’d kept one of the invitations and even the card the DJ had used to advertise. It was such a great night, but it would never have happened without you.’

‘I didn’t do much.’ She attempted a shrug, but he was already shaking his head.

‘Yes, you did. You got me and Mum to be honest with each other for the first time in a long time.’

It had been a simple enough question when Amy had asked Lijah what he was doing for his birthday, as they’d sat side by side on the sofa about a month before he was due to turn sixteen.

‘Not a lot, I never make a big fuss about it.’ Lijah had attempted to sound nonchalant, but an expression had flitted across his face which Amy didn’t miss.

‘Why not? Sixteen is a big milestone, it’s when you’re…’ She’d caught his eye then and her face had flushed red, because she’d been about to mention the fact that Lijah would have been legally allowed to have sex. But she didn’t want him knowing that she thought about him in that way, when he only saw her as a friend. In her desperation to come up with an alternative ending to her sentence, she’d blurted out something that had made him laugh. ‘You’re allowed to buy cigarettes.’

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