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Stacey laughed for the first time in days ‘She’ll be fine, promise’
‘Mummy, I want a story’
‘What’s the ic word?’
‘Please’
‘Noah, can you stay with Holly while I get a book?’ Deep breath ‘Holly, this is Noah, Mummy’s friend’ Talk about a cliché
Noah stepped forward ‘Hello, Holly I see you banged your head’
She raised her arm in front of him and knocked on the cast ‘It’s broken’
‘That’s not your head, silly billy’ Stacey tickled her under the chin A giggle erupted froirl, and Stacey relaxed some more ‘That’s a very normal sound’
Holly rubbed her forehead ‘Hurts, Mummy’
‘That’s because you banged it You’ve got to be careful’ She turned to Noah ‘Thanks for the offer of a lift but you don’t have a car seat suitable for Holly’
He pulled out his phone and brought up a picture of a car seat ‘There’s this one or’ he flicked the screen ‘this one Both seem suitable but you need to make sure for me’
She took the phone and studied the top-of-the-range seats ‘Either one will be ideal’
‘Good I’ll order it now and pick it up shortly I’d like to ain now that this is out in the open’
‘No problem They want to talk to you, too’ She didn’t like his controlled tone Now he’d had s not to his satisfaction?
‘Do they? Good’ He sounded as though he expected theive hiround rules to put in place
‘They want to clear the air and start over as they o on’ She’d never seen him in this o through everything, would’ve been churning things over and over Now she needed to brace herself for the battle, for more questions fuelled by his doubts
‘Tell me about your previous relationship’
Hadn’t she already done that? Stay calm They were in a ith staff, patients and parents This was not going to be the entertain the bed, she sat beside Holly and opened a book
‘Har-ree’ Holly pointed at the picture of the hairy monster
‘Sure is, sweetheart’ She began reading, ignoring Noah pacing over the small space between her and theOnce the story was finished she handed over the book to Holly to run her fingers over the pictures It would take a fewher time to deal with Noah’s question
‘Angus and I grew up two houses apart We were playe friends, then we fell in love and finally got engaged Then he met someone else’
‘How did you feel about that?’
‘I was gutted I loved him I believed ere meant for each other’
‘And now?’