CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
I didn’t want to phone for news – they wouldn’t need the interruption – but after an hour or so of waiting back at Bogg House, I was desperate to know what was happening with Ellie.
Was she losing the baby?
I couldn’t show how worried I was, though. Not when I had to keep cheerful for Maisie’s sake and look as if I was really enjoying our game of Monopoly...
Finally, I heard a car driving up the lane and I hurried to the window.
Caleb was back.
Then just as I was opening the front door for him, my mobile rang and it was Ellie.
‘Hi. What’s happening? Are you okay?’
‘I think so. I mean, I had a scan and the baby seems fine.’
‘Oh, that’s such a relief!’
‘I know. But they want to keep me in for a few days to monitor me and the baby. Bed rest, they call it. And I’m what’s known as an elderly primigravida – an ancient first-time mother, in other words, so the risks are greater.’
‘You’re hardly elderly.’
‘Oh, I don’t know, Katja. I really feel it today.’
‘Poor you. But you’re in the very best place, so just relax and let everyone fuss over you.’
She groaned. ‘I’ll try. Zak’s still here with me, so I was wondering if you could possibly look after Maisie until he gets back?’
‘Of course I can. Don’t worry about Maisie. We’re having a great time, playing Monopoly.’ I smiled across at her. ‘No cheating while I’m talking to your mum!’
Ellie sighed. ‘Thanks, Katja. Caleb says he’ll give you both a lift back to your place and Zak will pick Maisie up from yours. Is Caleb back yet?’
I opened the front door and he was walking up the path. ‘Yes, he’s just arrived.’
We exchanged a smile and I immediately slipped into the awkward, galumphing version of me. It always seemed to happen, this weird transformation whenever Caleb was in touching distance – from perfectly sensible to gawky and clumsy...
Smile fixed on my face, I opened the door so wide for him, I managed to simultaneously collide with a wooden shelf that was propped against the wall. It fell to the ceramic-tiled hall floor with an ear-shattering clatter.
‘Oops. No, everything’s fine, Ellie.’ Mortified, I watched Caleb from behind as he bent to rescue the shelf situation.
‘Are you sure?’ she asked.
‘Sorry?’ I was miles away, admiring Caleb’s muscular frame... his big workman hands.
‘I said is everything all right there? That was a big clatter I heard?’
Caleb grinned at me and sauntered off to the kitchen, and I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, trying to get myself together.
What the hell was happening to me?
I’d never felt this kind of strong physical reaction to a man before – not even to Richard.
Realising Ellie was requiring an answer, I said, ‘Yes. Everything’s fine. It was just that shelf in the hall falling down.’
‘Right.’
‘Maisie can stay at mine overnight if you like.’ I smiled over at Maisie who was nodding gleefully. ‘But please do what the doctors tell you and look after yourself, okay?’
‘Can I speak to Mum?’ asked Maisie, running over.
‘Of course.’ I passed the phone to her and as I went through to the kitchen to tidy up and fetch my bag, I could hear Maisie asking if the baby was all right and pleading with her mum to let her have a sleepover at mine.
‘I’ll give you a lift whenever you’re ready,’ said Caleb, collecting his jacket from where he’d left it before the emergency dash to the hospital.
‘Okay. Thanks so much for this.’
‘No problem at all.’ Shrugging on his jacket, he gave me one of his crinkle-eyed smiles and those irritating flappy butterflies inside me picked up the pace.
‘I’ll... just go and help Maisie get her things together. Upstairs.’ I backed towards the stairs, finding myself helpfully pointing at them, just in case he didn’t know what a staircase was.
‘Fine. No hurry. I’ll make sure everything’s switched off in the kitchen.’
He went off and I escaped upstairs.
‘Caleb’s nice, isn’t he?’ said Maisie as we chose some clothes and games. ‘I can’t wait to see the hedgehog house he’s building for me.’
I nodded. ‘It’s very nice of him to help you.’
‘Is Caleb your boyfriend?’ she asked, as we went back downstairs.
The question was so startling, laughter burst out of me.
Where on earth did that come from?
‘My boyfriend? No! Absolutely not.’
‘You’ve gone red, Auntie Katja.’
‘Have I? Well, you took me by surprise, I suppose. No, Maisie, Caleb’s very nice but I’ll be steering well clear of romance for a very long time. Boys can be nothing but trouble sometimes.’
Maisie nodded cheerfully. ‘They’re nasty, aren’t they?’ She ran down the last few steps and I suddenly realised Caleb had finished in the kitchen and was standing there in the hallway, looking up at us. With a knowing grin at me, he took Maisie’s backpack and ushered her outside to the car.
I groaned inwardly.
How much of that conversation had he heard?
All of it, probably, judging by the smirk on his face!