Page 80 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
‘Okay?’ the nurse asked Patsy quietly while she checked his temperature and pulse, noting down the numbers on his chart.
Patsy nodded. ‘Can I stay?’
‘Only until the end of visiting time.’
Patsy wondered whether Nicole would be visiting him. They didn’t have the most amicable relationship from what Patsy had gathered and she wondered who would look after him? If Nicole was still his emergency contact, it suggested that he hadn’t had anyone else to take on that role. And it made sense because of the children. It was right that he and Nicole were still there for each other. But Patsy wanted to do that for him now.
‘Can I leave my number? In case he needs anything.’
‘You’re not his next of kin?’ It was a statement more than a question.
‘No, but I’m not sure he has anyone.’ Patsy whispered, and handed over her number, hastily written on the back of a receipt she’d found in her pocket. ‘Check with him when he wakes up, I think it’ll be okay.’
The nurse smiled and put the receipt in her pocket, then wrote some things down on the chart.
Patsy kissed his forehead and went off to find Oliver.
33
MATT WAS ALLOWED home after a couple of days. His ex-wife, Nicole, was adamant that the twins shouldn’t see him until his face had healed and he’d reluctantly gone along with her plan to tell them that he was away for work. It meant he was going home to an empty house and the doctor had said that he shouldn’t be by himself for a couple of days as a precaution since he’d been knocked out.
He’d wanted to get a taxi home but the hospital had insisted he needed someone to collect him so Oliver and Patsy had gone. They watched as Matt assured the nurse that he would be staying with a friend while Oliver and Patsy looked at each other, their facial expressions questioning each other as to whether he’d asked one of them if he could stay and soon realising that he was telling everyone what they wanted to hear.
Oliver helped him into the front seat of his Mini — not the easiest car to get into with bruised ribs — and Patsy leaned across and pulled the seatbelt around him since his one hand was too sore.
‘So Pats and I have decided that she’s going to come and stay with you for a couple of days.’
‘There’s no need—’ Matt began.
‘The options that I’ve already ruled out for you by the way are, you stay at Patsy’s which has three flights of stairs and a bathroom in the eaves so you’ll have to duck your head in the shower. No offence Pats,’ he added, grinning into the rear-view mirror at her. ‘The other option is staying at mine which I think we both know neither of us would enjoy.’
Matt raised an eyebrow, then winced. ‘Fine.’
‘It’s not like you don’t have the room and I’m sure you’d rather sleep in your own bed.’
‘I said fine,’ he snapped.
‘I’ll drop your stuff over later, Pats.’ Oliver had worked all of this out without a word to Patsy about whether she was happy with his plan but in fact she could think of nothing better than holing up at Matt’s for a couple of days. She could look after him while she carried on trawling through the crap on that laptop for whatever Dan was after.
‘Did you speak to the police, Matt?’ She couldn’t believe it had taken her until now to wonder about that.
‘Yep. There wasn’t much I could tell them. I don’t know where he lives or his full name. They asked me to let them know. Could you do that?’
‘Of course I can.’ It was the least she could do. ‘Will they charge him?’
‘I don’t know.’ Matt leaned his head back and closed his eyes, signalling an end to the conversation.
Matt’s house was incredible. It was at the end of the cul-de-sac, set back from the large turning circle at the end of the road. It was, as all the houses were, clad in wood to give the impression of them being log-cabins but the size of them was impressive and Patsy was quite excited to see what it was like inside.
Oliver pulled onto the driveway which was gravelled and had a path made of railway sleepers set into it that led to the front door. Matt took his keys out and opened the door while Oliver grabbed his bag from the boot.
The hallway was enormous with a double-height ceiling and stairs which led up to a balustraded landing.
‘Wow, this is amazing,’ Patsy said. It looked like something from Grand Designs, which was perhaps the point since Matt was an architect.
‘Thanks,’ he said, before heading into the kitchen and sitting down at the table. It was covered in blueprints, drawings and files.
‘I can see you are about as tidy as me,’ Oliver said. ‘Anything else I can do before I go?’
