Page 41 of One Perfect Day in Lovely Bay
Cally turned, taking control. ‘I’ll text your mum so she knows what we’re doing. I told her we’d go to the manor first and sort stuff out with Doreen. She didn’t seem to know what was what. Then I’ll drive us to the hospital. Actually, no, let’s just call her. She was, err, a bit, umm, hysterical and not making much sense.’
Cally pressed Logan's mum's number and put the phone on speaker. It rang three times. ‘Hello.’
'It's Cally, Logan’s here. We're at the station making our way to the car. I've just told Logan.'
‘Mum! What the hell? What happened?’
There was a shaky exhale on the other end of the line. 'Oh, thank goodness. Logan, darling, we need to get up there as soon as we can.’
'What happened? How bad is it?'
'It's not good, sweetheart,' Anne said, her voice breaking slightly. 'They were in a small private plane. Something went wrong during take-off. We don't know all the details yet.'
Logan made a choked sound. Cally wrapped an arm around his waist.
'Alastair's in surgery now,' Anne continued. 'He has multiple injuries. Internal bleeding, they said. Octavia's in better shape,thankfully. She's got a concussion and a broken arm, but she's conscious and stable.'
'Which hospital, Mum?' Logan asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
'St. Lucy's in London,' Cecilia replied. 'I’m driving Cecilia and Reg now. Cally said you’d do everything. You follow on behind when you’re done.’
Logan nodded. 'Right. We'll be there as soon as we can.'
'Drive safely, darling,' Anne urged.
'Okay,' Logan agreed. 'We'll see you soon.'
Logan’s face was ashen as they hurried through the train station and made their way to the car park. Of course, Logan’s car was parked about just as far away from the station as it could be.
'I'll drive,' Cally said firmly, holding out her hand for Logan's keys. He handed them over, climbed into the passenger seat, plugged his phone cable into his phone, and stared blankly out the windscreen.
As Cally started the engine and pulled out of the car park, Logan shook his head, his voice hollow. 'I can't believe this is happening. They were so excited about their trip. They’ve not even left the country yet.'
Cally squeezed his hand. 'I know. Try not to assume the worst. Alastair's tough.'
Logan nodded but didn't look convinced. 'Was anyone else hurt?'
Cally shook her head. 'She didn't mention anyone else. The call was very rushed. I left the chemist and came straight to the station. We can ask when we get there.'
Cally didn’t say anything else as she drove through Lovely. The tension in the air wasn’t pleasant as Logan jabbed at his phone and swore repeatedly. As Cally drove past Lovely lighthouse, she cringed. She’d been right all along. A feelinginside had told her there was something around the corner, and here it was, hitting her right between the eyes. There was no way she was going to say anything aloud, but she had a horrible sense of doom that wherever they were headed it was not going to end well. She tried to quell a sensation in her stomach that really bad news was coming their way.
24
The car was silent as Cally navigated through the traffic on the motorway. Her mind turned over and over as she silently went through a mental checklist about her work commitments and she realised as she’d thrown a few things in a bag that she’d forgotten to put in any clean tights. As they hit traffic and slowed to a crawl, Logan tapped his hand repeatedly on the centre console as if somehow him doing that might speed the traffic up. It was as if tension and stress streamed out of him. Cally had never seen him like it and never wanted to again. His phone buzzed with a text. He read it and frowned. 'It's from Mum. They've arrived at the hospital. No news yet. Alastair's still in surgery.'
Cally nodded, keeping her eyes on the road. She didn’t have much clue about surgery, but the little she did know told her that Alastair had been in for a while. 'I’m not sure what to think. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? That's good, isn't it?'
'I suppose. I just keep thinking, what if he doesn't make it, Cal? What if the last real time I saw him was at that stupid pub in Scotland, and I was annoyed because he was going on and on about his travel plans? Remember afterwards when I was moaning about how spoilt he was? I went on about it for ages,didn’t I? I was slagging off how entitled he was.' Logan swore and sighed.
Cally had had similar thoughts as they’d driven along. 'Don't think like that. He’ll be fine. Honestly, we don’t even know the full story yet.'
'I'm trying. I just can’t believe it. It was the sound of Mum’s voice. It’s serious.’
Cally had thought exactly the same. ‘Hmm. Let’s just wait and see.’
‘He's not just my cousin. I’ve like grown up with him.'
Cally felt her heart ache at Logan's voice. 'I know. I know.'
