Cheska shook her head. ‘I don’t know yet. We’ve done everything we can, so now we just have to wait and see what happens.’
Noah listened in as Tress, with the phone on loudspeaker, called Nancy, and filled her in on where they were, quickly assured her that Noah was fine, and told her that she was going to stick around until he was released.
‘Oh sweet Jesus, I think I just aged ten years. Are you sure he’s okay? What can I do? Do you need me? Val is still with me here, so one of us can stay with Buddy and the other one can come over…’
Noah spoke up to reassure her. ‘Nancy, I love you for offering, but I’m okay. Honestly. It’s just a bang on the head. I had much worse that time I fell off your roof when I was a kid.’
‘Aye, well, you shouldn’t have been up there in the first place, you daft bugger. Putting a flashing Santa on my chimney. What the devil were you thinking? It was March!’
Noah didn’t feel this was the right time to point out that, as always, it had been Max’s idea and he’d just gone along with it. Besides, he was laughing too hard and it was making his head ache.
Tress took over the call again. ‘Are you sure you’re okay to stay over? I can come home if not. You’ve done enough for me today already.’
‘Nonsense. And don’t be coming home. Me and Val are on season 7 ofOutlanderand we’re doing a bint watch.’
‘You mean “binge”?’
‘Nope, I mean “bint” – it’s much more fun. Right, well, I tell you what then, if I don’t hear from you beforehand, me or Val will come and pick you up from the hospital in the morning since I take it your car is totalled, Noah?’
‘It definitely is,’ he winced. He hadn’t even thought that through. He loved that car. And being in it while it spun out of control had been bloody terrifying. But he wasn’t going to relive that moment or consider the other potential outcomes if he could help it. He was fine. He was relatively uninjured. Tress was with him. He was just going to stay in the moment and stay focused on the present, not the past. ‘But we can get a taxi…’
‘I’ll not hear of it,’ Nancy demanded, and Noah knew better than to argue.
‘Nancy, there’s something else I need to tell you,’ Tress jumped in. ‘Have you pausedOutlanderbecause this is going to take a minute?’
‘Val, hit that button, and come listen to this,’ Nancy bellowed. They then had to wait five minutes while Nancy filled Val in on everything Tress had just told her about Noah’s accident, eliciting almost identical responses of horror, relief, concern and offers of visiting.
‘Okay, Tress, we’re ready,’ Nancy informed her.
‘Well, remember we saw that big car in the street earlier, when Rex was collecting me? It was over next to your house. We thought it was someone visiting the neighbours.’
‘Aye… oh, you know who it was! Was it Rod Stewart? I said to Val, I had such a feeling that’s who it was. Didn’t I, Val?’
‘You did, Nancy. Go on, Tress, who was it?’
‘It was Odette Devine.’
Silence on the other end of the phone. Noah wondered if someone had broken in and gagged them, because he’d never heard both of them fall silent at the same time. He caught Tress’s gaze and they both shrugged in confusion. Or at least, he thought Tress was confused, until she went on…
‘It’s okay, Nancy, I know you’re not her biggest fan and I know you were friends when she was younger.’
Noah’s forehead wrinkled in surprise, then he took a sharp breath as the movement hurt his head.
‘Aye, until she ditched us all when she got famous,’ Nancy chirped, and Noah could tell it was through pursed, disapproving lips. Nancy couldn’t hide her emotions if her life depended on it.
‘Well, she was looking for you tonight, and wait until I tell you why…’
Noah rested his head back on the bed and listened as Tress recounted everything. She told them about the documentary,about the phone calls forty years ago that had landed Odette the part, about how she’d lived all these years with regret, how she’d tried to find Nancy tonight because she was finally ready to try to right her wrongs.
For once, Nancy listened until the end of a story and then there was a pause, before she gave her verdict. ‘Blow me sideways, that’s unbelievable. Well, I’ll never be happy that she ditched us all and swanned off in her swanky cars and fancy house… But jings, it just shows you. She’s been miserable all these years and there was us thinking she was living the high life. I was just saying to Noah earlier, you never know what’s really going on with folks, do you?’
Perhaps he was overthinking it, but Noah heard an implication in her voice that he chose to ignore for now. This wasn’t the time or place.
‘I guess you don’t,’ Tress agreed. Before going on to tell them about Odette taking unwell at the restaurant.
‘Thank God Keli was there. She’s a marvel, that one. How is Olive now?’
‘I’m not sure, but Keli is going to let us know.’
