21. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
E vie couldn’t stop grinning. Little baby Ella was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Ten perfect fingers, ten gorgeous toes and the sweetest of faces. Solemn one moment, soulful the next.
‘I made her,’ Grace’s voice cracked as she spoke, a result of the gas and air and screaming, she’d explained to Evie. ‘I keep looking at her thinking, just a few hours ago she was in here,’ she said pointing towards her now deflated stomach.
‘You’re amazing,’ Evie said for what had to be the hundredth time that day. Since the moment she walked into the delivery room to find Grace sat up in bed cradling Ella, Bellamy looking on at the two of them.
‘So are you, I can’t believe you drove all that way for me,’ Grace said, laughing then wincing.
‘You asked, I came. That’s what friends do,’ Evie replied, handing back Ella. ‘What do you need? Painkillers? Tea?’
Grace looked exhausted. ‘Yes, to all things. But Evie, wait, you drove hours back here, I didn’t think you had a car?’
‘That’s what’s concerning you?’
‘I thought maybe James had driven?’ her friend asked carefully, concentrating on putting her daughter to her chest.
‘He lent me his car, I’ve left him behind. Lots to do,’ Evie replied quickly.
Grace looked up. ‘There’s a heavy tone – what are you not saying?’
Evie sat back on the plastic chair next to Grace’s hospital bed, trying to ignore how uncomfortable it was. ‘He was going to say something to me and I walked away,’ she admitted.
‘Say something? Like what? How?’
Evie explained about the moment in the orangery and how she’d walked off before he asked her whatever it was he had in mind.
‘He was going to ask you to marry him,’ Grace said, ‘and you disappeared, for me. Oh no, I stopped the proposal.’
‘Hardly. I’d already begun walking away. And it wasn’t a proposal. Plus he’d acted like an idiot. He’d disappeared, no messages to anyone about where he was, other than Chloe telling me of course - then reappears and I have to be fine with it?’ Evie looked down at the tissue she’d been slowly shredding. ‘He makes me so confused. And angry,’ she admitted.
Grace smiled. ‘Sounds like you’re in love.’
Evie shook her head. ‘No, love is what you and Bellamy have. That’s proper relationship level love, we don’t have that. We have a few days based on the people we were ten years ago. A time which, in case you’d forgotten, he dumped me and didn’t explain why.’ She resumed shredding the tissue, looking away from Grace’s gaze.
Shifting a little so she could see her friend a bit better, Grace reached a hand out to hold Evie’s. ‘Bellamy and I haven’t always had the love you see now. That’s the one which comes when you’ve known each other for some time. It’s built on trust, a deep sense of wanting to be together and – in case you’ve forgotten – me pushing out his baby. If he doesn’t love me when I’m giving birth to his child, he wouldn’t be allowed back in here.’
Nodding a little in agreement, Evie pondered on Grace’s words. ‘I think we fail at all of those. I don’t think I trust him for a start.’
‘But you both have a deep sense of being drawn together, I’m sure of it. I’ve been in the same room as you two, the glances between you both is enough to convince me. That’s not even including the way he responds to you, when you walk into or out of a room. He loves you, I’m sure of it,’ Grace said, yawning. ‘I’m fairly certain if you let yourself you might find you love him too.’
Bellamy came into the room. ‘The nurse says we can go home this afternoon, even though Ella's early they say she's healthy as a horse and they need the bed. But you need to get up and walk around to prove you can manage it,’ he smiled at Evie. ‘That is if you two are finished catching up. It’s only been a fortnight since you last saw each other.’
‘She drove hours to be by my bedside,’ Grace said, grinning. ‘She at least deserves a gossip before heading back.’
‘Why did you need me?’ Evie hadn’t thought to ask before. ‘We never discussed me being your birthing partner. Bellamy seems to have a good handle on things,’ she said nodding in his direction as he smiled bashfully.
Grace looked down at Ella before speaking. ‘Don’t laugh, but I was hallucinating a bit on the gas and I hadn’t remembered where you were, even though Bellamy kept saying you were working away I was insistent on having you at my bedside. I think I got it in my head I needed my best friend with me, and I wouldn’t allow anyone to tell me otherwise.’
Leaning carefully over Ella to hug her friend and kiss her on the cheek, Evie could feel the tears welling up. ‘I think you had your best person there all along,’ she whispered into Grace’s ear.
‘Think you both might need one of these,’ Bellamy said, offering both the women a tissue.
Grace sniffed. ‘You’re very insightful when you want to be. Just think about what you want. If it’s James, don’t hold a fall out against him.’
‘It was more than a fall out, he disappeared and went to someone else. I don’t know if can trust him,’ Evie explained. She watched as Grace lightly caressed Ella’s head and made a decision. ‘But you don’t need any of this now. You need your time as a family. I’m so proud of you – of all three of you,’ she added in Bellamy’s direction.
Evie gathered up her things and gave Grace and Ella one more kiss. ‘Okay, I’m going but I’ll be back as soon as this wedding is done. Don’t let her grow up too fast without me around.’ As she walked away Evie turned back to watch as Bellamy came to Grace’s bedside and leant in to kiss her. Their solidity and assuredness of one another made Evie’s heart swell. She wanted that too.
As she left the hospital she checked her phone for the first time in hours, the reception being awful in the maternity ward and realised she had more than ten missed calls and countless messages from James all of which were along the same line. ‘Are you there, are you okay?’.
Evie pressed dial and watched as a gull swooped overhead. She hadn’t slept in almost twenty-four hours and would need a nap before she drove back to Cyan’s house and the wedding.
‘Evie?’ James’ voice sounded distant but harassed.
‘Hi, everything alright?’ she asked, yawning.
‘Fine now I can hear your voice – I was worried about you. You didn’t send a message that you’d arrived…not that I expect a blow by blow account of where you are but…I was concerned. Driving late at night…tired…on your own…someone else’s car…the mind races.’
Evie sank heavily on the wooden bench outside of the minor injuries department. ‘I’m sorry. You’re right, I should have let you know, but it was a busy few hours. She’s had the baby, they’re both doing brilliantly.’ She watched as an old man walked with his arm around a similarly aged woman and smiled at their bent frames, leaning into each other, moulded to one another over the years.
‘I’m so pleased, what a relief. Are you okay?’ in the background Evie could hear banging wherever James was answering the phone.
‘I’m alright. Where are you? What’s going on?’
‘Don’t worry, last minute changes. Cyan’s people have brought in a security team who are setting up an enormous marquee to cover everything outside in case of drone shots. Bryn is enjoying himself as he’s bossing them all around.’
‘James,’ a thought occurred to Evie, ‘about Bryn.’
‘I know, I met his fiancée Maisie. I’m sorry.’
‘So you know nothing happened between us,’ Evie spoke quietly.
‘I know.’
There was a pause between the two of them as Evie tried to form the words she wanted to say.
‘What were you going to ask me?’ she managed, just as he said, ‘I’m going to have to go, there’s a small fire needing putting out.’
‘James.’
‘Let’s talk when you get back. Have a sleep and don’t drive until you’re rested…I erm…need my car back in one piece,’ he added, before hanging up.
Evie stared at the phone thoughtfully, then wearily stood up. Sleep called.