Chapter 17
17
Jade was beginning to wish she hadn’t suggested coming to the Red Lion. She was tired and tense, and the couple of glasses of wine she’d drunk too quickly, in an effort to relax her, were making her light-headed. Finn and Ben were talking about painting, their heads close together.
Aiden was sitting beside her. He’d hardly said a word since they’d arrived. Deciding she’d better make an effort to be sociable, she glanced at him. ‘Are you OK? You seem a bit quiet.’
‘I’m fine,’ he said, not sounding it.
‘So, what have you been up to today? Anything exciting?’
‘I had to euthanise a cat. Belonged to an old lady who only lost her husband three months ago.’
‘Oh, Aiden, that’s awful. No wonder you look so fed up.’ Instinctively she reached for his hand. ‘Was she all right, poor soul?’
‘Yes, she was gracious and dignified and a great deal braver than I’d have been.’
‘Euthanasia’s one of the worst parts of the job – even when you know it’s for the best.’ She squeezed his fingers .
She’d witnessed it enough times at the vets in Bristol where she’d done a placement, and it had never got any easier. Trying to console someone who’d just lost a much-loved pet was heartbreaking.
‘Thanks, Jade.’ His eyes lightened a fraction and she was glad she’d said something.
‘Anyone fancy another drink?’ Finn asked.
Jade withdrew her hand from Aiden’s, aware that Finn had registered the movement. ‘I’m all right, thanks.’
‘Oh, go on, have another one,’ Aiden pressed, shifting his chair a little closer so that his knee brushed hers. ‘You hardly ever get the chance to let your hair down and you’re not driving.’
Suddenly Jade felt reckless. ‘Yes, why not.’
Another glass of wine wasn’t going to make much difference. It was still early and poor Aiden wouldn’t want to go back to his empty house just yet. Not after the day he’d had.
She watched Finn go up to the bar, feeling a pang of emotion she couldn’t identify.
‘You don’t find the cottage too cramped with him there?’ Aiden asked, and she saw he’d followed her gaze and there were frown lines crinkling his forehead.
‘No, I don’t.’ She was relieved to see Finn on his way back with the drinks because Aiden wouldn’t be able to pursue this conversation in front of him.
‘One for the boss.’ Finn leaned across to put the glass in front of her.
‘Thanks.’ She looked up at him and felt a little jolt. Then, aware of Aiden’s scrutiny, she hastily looked away.
Finn sat beside Ben again, and Aiden said in a voice only loud enough for Jade to hear, ‘They get on well, don’t they? Got kids of his own, has he?’
‘No, I don’ t think he has.’
‘Bit of a dark horse, really.’
‘It’s his business,’ Jade said, and then, anxious to change the subject, she said the first thing that came into her mind.
‘Did we ever get the blood test results for Ashley? To check whether he’s got an undescended testicle or not – I’d be interested to know.’
She wasn’t aware her voice had been rising, but both Finn and Ben glanced across with identical expressions of surprise and she found herself thinking they were very alike. They could be mistaken for father and son. They had the same colouring, the same grey eyes too.
‘I think the blood test came back negative, Jade. Sorry, I should have updated you. My Uncle Seth said that’s a good result, although it doesn’t help your problem. He seemed to think it could be more of a behavioural issue, possibly due to a late castration.’
‘Thanks.’ Jade took another sip of wine, wishing she hadn’t started this.
‘Can we go in a minute?’ Ben asked when she was halfway through it.
‘Of course we can, darling.’ Jade’s head ached from trying to work out if the atmosphere around the table was real or imagined. Going home suddenly seemed like a very good idea. She gulped back the rest of her wine.
‘I’ll give you a lift, Jade,’ Aiden offered.
‘What?’ She stared at him.
‘A lift… home…’ He left spaces between the words as if they were speaking a different language.
‘It would make more sense if I took them,’ Finn interrupted. ‘It’d save you going out of your way, Aiden.’
He stretched, seemingly oblivious to the annoyance in Aiden’s eyes .
For a moment, there was a tight, awkward silence between them and then Jade rushed on. ‘It’s nice of you, Aiden, but Finn’s right, it would make more sense…’ She let her words hang in the air like a question.
‘Right,’ Aiden said.
He really didn’t have any choice, Jade thought as he turned back to her, blocking the others out with his body.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ Then, with a nod at Finn, he called good night to Mike, who was serving, and left. He looked defeated and Jade felt guilty. Aiden was a nice guy. So was Finn, and yet when the two of them were together, the tension was palpable.
‘Ready then?’ Finn said, and Jade nodded. His face was blank, but she had no doubt he was aware of what had just gone on.
As they got into his car, Ben said, ‘Aiden wasn’t in a very good mood, was he? What was the matter with him, Auntie Jade?’
‘He’d had a bad day, love, I think.’ She avoided Finn’s eyes and climbed into the front seat of the car. They drove back in silence. Jade rested her head against the coolness of the glass window and wished she didn’t feel so dizzy.
Finn pulled up outside the cottage and Jade got out of the car, swaying a little as the chill evening air hit her, amplifying the effects of the wine. He stood next to her as she fumbled with her key in the front door, his proximity making her even more nervous.
‘Shall I do that?’ he said at last, not waiting for a reply, but taking the key from her. The brush of his fingers sent electricity sweeping through her and she snatched away her hand. He opened the door and she stumbled through it.
‘Are you OK, Jade?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said, realising with sudden, intense embarrassment, that she wasn’t fine at all. She was drunk and she was going to be sick. She made a dash for the bathroom and got there just in time. Afterwards, she sat on the edge of the bath, mortified.
About ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. ‘Er, Jade, are you going to be much longer? Only I’m crossing my legs out here and Ben wants to clean his teeth.’
When she went out, feeling deeply ashamed of herself, Finn was standing with one hand on the banisters.
Beside him, Ben looked interested. ‘You’re a bit white, Auntie Jade. Have you been sick?’
‘No, of course not.’ She lurched past them, feeling weak and dizzy. ‘I’m just going to get a glass of water.’
‘Make it a pint. And have a painkiller with it,’ Finn called after her. ‘That always does the trick for me.’
‘I’m fine now,’ she called back, ignoring the amusement in his voice. ‘I’m just not used to drinking.’
All the same, once she’d tucked Ben up in bed, she did go back downstairs to get a pint of water. At least she didn’t feel sick any more.
She switched off the light and lay in the darkness and a few minutes later she heard Finn’s footsteps go past her door and up the top stairs to his room.
She lay thinking about him in the tiny bed upstairs, until eventually she fell into a restless sleep filled with dreams of Finn McTaggart leaning over her and saying, ‘The best thing for hangovers is to take off all your clothes. Trust me, I used to be a vet, you know.’ Then his grey eyes slowly changed into Antonio’s mocking dark ones and Jade woke up, bathed from head to foot in sweat.
Rather to her surprise, she didn’t have a hangover the next day, although whether this was due to Finn’s hangover cure or the fact she’d thrown up last night, Jade wasn’t sure.
It was a surprise, however, to find out about Aiden’s thwarted plans to take her to the Italian, which Mike took great delight in telling her about when she dropped off his order of free-range eggs.
‘Poor chap was quite put out,’ Mike said, leaning on the bar and grinning. ‘He doesn’t like Finn much, does he?’
‘What’s it got to do with Finn? He didn’t know Aiden was planning to take me out. Neither did I, come to that. Why on earth didn’t he say?’
‘Oh, you know what Aiden’s like. He might be a good vet, but he’s a dead loss where women are concerned.’ Mike frowned. ‘Now let me see, I think Aiden’s exact words were, “If it wasn’t for that bloody bloke, Jade and I could have been having a nice meal.”’ He straightened the beer towel on the bar and looked pleased with himself. ‘Da Vinci’s, apparently. That trendy new place in Salisbury. He’d got it all set up. Taxis there and back, so you wouldn’t have to drive.’
Jade stared at him in shock. ‘But he knows I’m looking after Ben. What did he think I was going to do with him?’
‘Ask Finn to babysit, I expect,’ Mike went on slyly. ‘Would you have gone then? If you’d known.’
‘I don’t know,’ Jade said, aware that whatever she told him would be swiftly relayed to the entire village, with one or two embellishments of his own.
‘He’s quite a catch,’ Mike said. ‘Good looking. Bit of money. Be handy too, wouldn’t it? Having a vet about the place. That’s one of your biggest bills.’
‘Oh, stop it, Mike. That’s no reason to go out with someone.’
‘The answer would have been no, then, would it? Poor Aiden.’
‘The answer is none of your business,’ Jade said, softening her words with a smile. ‘And don’t you dare tell him you’ve told me. He’d be mortified.’
‘Mum’s the word.’ Mike tapped his nose. Then he leaned forward and picked a bit of straw off her coat. ‘What about your new employee, then, Jade? What would you say if Finn asked you out to a posh Italian?’
Completely unprepared for the question, Jade could feel heat rising in her face.
‘Thought so,’ Mike said, banging his hand on the bar in triumph so that several beer mats jumped an inch into the air. ‘Strikes me that Aiden wasn’t so wrong about Finn mucking up his plans, after all.’