Page 39 of Dr. CEO (The Doctors)

“It’s farther than I thought.” She turns to see behind her. “I thought it would be directly behind the car park.”

“There’s a row of houses there already,” I say, then I wish I hadn’t because she must know there’s a line of buildings there. She’s lived in this place her entire life.

“There is?” she asks. “Oh yes. The vet and the dry cleaner are there.”

I don’t remember the stores in that strip of buildings. All I know is Beck’s development starts behind it.

“Here we are,” I say, pulling up in front of the site office.

She dips her head, trying to get a good view of outside rather than just getting out. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to see the estate from here.”

I don’t think she’s talking to me. It’s like she’s having a conversation with herself.

“Let’s go out and see.”

We get out of the car and she takes a few steps back toward where we’ve come from. “I don’t think I can see it,” she says again, an edge of panic in her voice. “Can you see it?” She whips her head around and looks at me, waiting for my answer.

“It’s beyond the trees,” I say. You can’t quite see any part of the estate apart from the wooded area toward the bottom of Crompton’s land. “I think some of those trees mark the edge of the estate.”

“Where?” She scurries across to me as if I’m carrying binoculars she wants to use.

I point. “Over there.”

“You think that’s the estate?”

Why’s she so concerned with seeing the estate? She knows it’s not far away. We were on the grounds less than five minutes ago.

“It’s too far to walk,” she says. “Is there a pathway so we don’t have to follow the road? Perhaps you could build one. Or get a shuttle bus between the estate and these houses. People don’t drive. I don’t drive. We need to be able to reach Crompton easily.”

Her speech picks up pace with each word she speaks, like she knows she’s running out of words and has to get them all out as quickly as she can.

I reach for her arm—it’s an instinct, like rocking a crying baby or patting a friendly dog. My instinct says she’s panicking and needs soothing. Or distraction. “Why don’t we tour the finished house?”

She nods a little frantically and begins to twist and pull at her fingers. What happened to the confident, ballsy woman I first met at the tea shop? It’s like she’s totally disappeared.

The site manager comes out of the office as we approach.

“Hi, I’m Ziad. Kate and Vincent, I assume?”

A chill runs down my spine at the way he says our names together, like we’re linked or something.

“I’ve brought one of our valued staff members to look at one of the houses,” I say. “Beck said you’ve got one complete.”

“We absolutely do. It’s not furnished or anything, but we just put the kitchen in last week and yesterday we did a mist coat on the walls. Let me show you.”

He heads off up a slight incline and I turn to Kate. “Ready?”

She glances between me, the car, the trees up in the distance and then nods.

As we follow Ziad, Kate falls behind. At one point she lifts her hand to her face and might be wiping tears away with the sleeve of her sweater.

“You okay?” I ask. It’s a stupid question because she’s clearly not okay, but I want to know what’s wrong and I want to fix it.

“Fine. How many houses are there on the development?” she calls after Ziad.

Ziad stops and turns. “Twenty-eight. It’s a mixture of one-bed maisonettes, and two- and three-bedroom houses.” He points his thumb over his shoulder. “This is a two-bedroom house. We have eleven of these. Let’s go in.”

It’s a big step up to the first house and Ziad goes in first, then turns and takes Kate’s hand to help her up.

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