Page 99 of New Dreams for the Village Nurse
‘I’m getting there, Stacey – you don’t have to worry about me.’
‘I do. You’ve made this village bearable since you got here. You’ve been such a good friend and I worry that I’m not as good to you.’
Ottilie smiled and gave her a brief hug. ‘You’re brilliant. With a friend like you, who needs a man, eh?’
Pushing a smile across her face, Ottilie wanted to believe her own words, but even after all these weeks, she still found it hard. She missed Heath and she thought about him all the time, and she was beginning to wonder if she’d ever be able to stop.
The sun was still high as Ottilie arrived for the barbecue with a basket of potato salad, home-made coleslaw and guacamole dip, but Stacey’s garden was north-facing and so shaded by the back walls of her house. It was a welcome relief from the fierceness of the heat, and while Stacey complained that in the cloudier seasons it meant she got hardly any sun at the back, today it made the temperature bearable. It was a far neater, more manicured garden than Ottilie’s own, with a square lawn and a decked patio area, dotted with pots containing tidy shrubs. She’d scattered cushions and deckchairs about the newly mown grass for people to sit, and already almost every one of them was occupied.
Ottilie waved hello to Magnus and Geoff, Lavender and her husband, and Simon, who was talking to Chloe while she did her best to hold on to a wriggling Mackenzie. Ottilie smiled at that – it seemed Chloe was finally opening up. She’d been closed and moody when Ottilie had first met her, a teenager struggling to come to terms with the adult world and the huge responsibility she was about to have thrust upon her, but over the past few months since Mackenzie’s birth Ottilie had watched her grow and even thrive. Motherhood suited her, and the fact that shehad such amazing support and had now found what sounded like a lovely boy definitely must have helped.
‘Want me to take those to the kitchen until we’re ready?’ Stacey asked, holding out her hands for the basket. She peered inside. ‘I knew you’d go mad and make too much.’
‘What we don’t eat today I’m sure someone can finish tomorrow. Or I can take it into work for lunch on Monday. It won’t get wasted either way.’ Ottilie nodded at Chloe and Simon, and Stacey smiled.
‘She really likes him. I suppose it’s because he pays so much attention to Mackenzie.’
‘It’s good she likes him whatever the reason.’
Stacey turned to her with a puzzled look that wasn’t really puzzled at all. Ottilie could see through the innocent act and she nudged her with a grin. ‘Don’t tell me you and him still haven’t worked out how perfect a couple you’d be. And now you’ve more or less got Chloe’s seal of approval, I really don’t know what you’re waiting for.’
‘Him,’ Stacey said flatly.
Ottilie frowned. ‘This is the twenty-first century, right? You can make the first move, can’t you?’
‘I could, but with my track record I daren’t. What if I’ve got it wrong? What if he’s only being friendly?’
Ottilie raised her eyebrows. ‘Seriously? It’s obvious!’
‘Then why…’ Stacey lowered her voice and leaned in. ‘Why hasn’t he asked me? It’s like waiting for Godot! What’s he playing at?’
‘Maybe you should ask him.’
‘Are you nuts? I’m not going to do that!’
‘I’ll ask him then.’
‘Don’t you dare!’ Stacey hissed, and Ottilie had to laugh. ‘That would be mortifying. You might as well pass a note alongthe garden asking him to meet me behind the bike sheds at break.’
‘Well, if that’s what it takes…’
‘That’s it – you’re leaving. Out!’
Ottilie’s laughter grew. ‘All right, all right. I won’t say a word to him, but I think it’s about time you did. I know he likes you.’
‘How?’
‘He practically told me so.’
‘Are you sure? The “practically” bit has me worried. Categorically is what I want to hear, not practically.’
‘I’m as sure as I can be, but there’s only one way to find out, and you know that.’
Stacey was thoughtful for a moment but then shook her head. ‘No. I’m not doing it. I couldn’t look at him again if he said no to me. Imagine having piles or whatever and having to go and see him at the surgery knowing what had happened? As if piles wasn’t bad enough on its own…’
Ottilie’s laughter was so loud at this that everyone in the garden halted their conversation and turned to look.
‘Sorry,’ she snorted. ‘The mental image. I just can’t…’
