“He’ll know my address.”
Yaz crossed her arms over her chest. “He won’t care about your address.”
“Mavis at the day centre had her identity stolen by some chancer what told her he were from the bank. Sharp lady Mavis. If it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone. I’ll not risk some cabbie bastard knowing my address.”
“Can’t be too careful,” I agreed with Bryn, and Yaz narrowed her eyes at me.
We made our way out of the department at Bryn’s speed, which gave my colleagues and those orthopaedic tosspots plenty of time to give me knowing smirks and not-so-subtle thumbs ups. I even caught a low muttered “Jesus Christ” from Chris the radiographer as we passed. I waved my hand to cut off his eye line to Yaz’s chest and then gave him a one-finger salute, to which he suppressed a laugh.
“Bloody ’ell, lad,” Bryn said as I pulled up to the entrance in the Porsche. “Iknewyou were a gadabout. If this car isn’t designed to get you into lasses’ knickers, then I’m a monkey’s uncle.”
“Bryn!” Yaz admonished as she helped him into the front seat.
“I’m only telling it how I see it, love,” Bryn said. “Anyway, we all know this kind of nonsense won’t work on you, mind. Will it?” He turned to me as Yaz climbed into the back. “Yaz doesn’t like cars.” He chuckled. “You’re going to have to sort something else out to impress her, I’m afraid.”
“This is his second car,” Yaz muttered darkly as if owning more than one serviceable vehicle was akin to mass murder. “He’s clearly compensating for something.” I shot her an annoyed look in the mirror but she ignored me. “And anyway Heath has no interest in impressing me, you old devil,” Yaz said, slapping his shoulder lightly from the back seat.
“What kind of manareyou?” Bryn asked in surprise. “If I was seventy years younger, I’d make sure I was impressing a young lady like my Yazmin.”
“How about we go back to the portion of the day when you were so shaken up that you shut your trap for once, hey?” Yaz said and Bryn snorted.
“Take more than tripping over the cat to shut me up, young lady.”
The five minutes of uncomfortable silence that followed as I drove them both home were excruciating. I’d never known Yaz so quiet. I rubbed my aching chest as we pulled up in front of their building. Before I had fully come to a stop, Yaz opened the back door and leapt out onto the road. She’d yanked open Bryn’s door and started helping him out of the car before I even had my seatbelt off. As I came around to the other side to help Yaz extract Bryn, I was beginning to see the drawbacks of a low-slung sports car – not exactly conducive to a smooth exit when you’re ninety-one years old. Once Bryn was up and had his stick, he swatted us away.
“Don’t fuss over me. I fought in three wars – I can make it to my own bastard front door.” I ignored Yaz’s frown and gestures that I should leave, and followed them into the building. We settled Bryn in his ground-floor flat with a cup of tea and a biscuit. Apparently he had carers coming at seven to get him his supper. Bryn shooed her away several times, but it was obvious he enjoyed Yaz fussing over him. Eventually he grabbed the remote to turn up the volume of his television to an antisocial level before falling asleep in his chair with a biscuit halfway to his mouth. Yaz took the biscuit away, put a blanket over his legs, smoothed his crazy hair back and gave him a kiss on his forehead before we left the flat and locked up with a key that she put in a small key safe next to his door. Once that was done, I opened my mouth to speak, but Yaz was already jogging away toward her flat.
“What are you doing?” Yaz turned to me on the stairs as I followed her up.
“We need to talk.”
“No, we don’t. That’s thelastthing we need to do. In fact, I think you and I should avoid conversation whenever possible.”
“Please, Yaz, let’s just clear the air. It’s not like we can avoid each other forever. My sister and your brother – my best friend – own a business together. Can we… can we be grown-ups about this?”
“You’ve made your opinion about my capacity for adulting pretty clear in recent years, Heath. I don’t see why I shouldn’t livedownto your expectations again.” She unlocked the door and was about to slam it in my face when I reached out my hand to stop her.
“I’ve said I’m sorry for that. Listen, I can help with Bryn. I’ve got the contact details for the community team with physios and OTs to come out and help him.” Truth was that I had already tasked Josh with contacting the multidisciplinary team about Bryn before I left the hospital. But, ruthless bastard that I was, I decided Yaz didn’t need to know that at this stage.
She sighed. “Five minutes.”
I nodded and followed her into the flat.
Chapter 9
That’s it, isn’t it?
Heath
I was struck again by the smell – lavender and other essential oils lightly fragranced the air. It was like a dose of concentrated Yaz and I found it a little difficult to think. Her coffee table was still covered in crystals, herbs and other various nick-nacks. My house was all about order – clean lines, uniform colour. I had a housekeeper who made sure everything was in its proper place. My shirts were always perfectly ironed, my kitchen surfaces were completely free of any stuff – even the toaster was cleverly hidden. The meagre kitchen surfaces Yaz had available were bursting with appliances, old-fashioned weighing scales, colourful cake stands. It wasn’t a mess as such – more a bright, colourful, cluttered, too-small environment with more than a hint of chaos.
Even the walls were covered withstuff– mostly a mishmash of frames with photos of family and friends. Bodhi had his arm around Yaz in one of them – they were standing barefoot on the beach in front of their windsurfing equipment.Yaz was staring straight at the camera, smiling that huge, radiant grin which always seemed to light up any setting, but Bodhi was staring at Yaz with a self-satisfied grin on his face as if he’d already managed to get into her knickers. I had the irrational urge to rip it off the wall and stamp on it like a three-year-old.
“Well?” Yaz said as she put the kettle on and got two cups down from her extensive collection on the wall.
I cleared my throat and tore my eyes away from that bloody photo.
“Okay, I’ve behaved like a complete bastard. I don’t know what’s come over me lately. Penny gave me a right bollocking after you left that night. And then when I tried to apologise at your studio, I ballsed that up as well and I was…” I shifted my feet and looked to the side. “I was completely inappropriate with you. That was unforgivable. But I haven’t been sleeping recently and I think my judgement isn’t quite right, which is no excuse. I’m not making an excuse. I just–”
