Chapter Seven
“How can you be a doctor and eat that rubbish?” asked Jessica incredulously the following morning, gesturing at the packet of Coco Pops Nathan was pouring himself a large serving from.
“It’s my Sunday morning treat.” He added milk to his cereal. “And it’s fortified with vitamins and minerals. It says so on the box.”
Jessica shook her head in mock exasperation. She sat at the kitchen table wearing her pyjamas and eating a bowl of skyr yoghurt with honey and raspberries. The radio was chattering away in the background and the back door was open, allowing in a gentle breeze. The dogs were already sunning themselves on the patio.
Jessica was loading her bowl into the dishwasher when the doorbell rang. Both dogs ran out into the hall barking crazily.
Nathan looked at Jessica and shrugged — he seemed to have no idea who might be visiting on a Sunday morning either. He went to see who it was. Jessica frowned, realising she resented this intrusion into her time with Nathan. She’d been enjoying just being the two of them.
“I tried to call yesterday, but you didn’t answer, and then I attempted again this morning,” said a female voice.
“Sorry, Mum. My mobile must be out of battery.”
“I was passing close by, and I had a couple more boxes of your childhood stuff to drop off. I hope it’s OK for me to pop in.” The woman’s voice rose as she spotted Monty, “Who are you then? Did you get another dog?”
Before Jessica could think of somewhere to hide her pyjama-clad self, Nathan’s mum appeared in the kitchen doorway. “Oh, hello,” she said. “I’m sorry, Nathan, I didn’t realise you had company. You should have said.” His mother didn’t look best pleased with what she saw.
“You didn’t give me much of a chance,” muttered Nathan. “This is Jessica, Mum, Jessica Stone. We went to primary school together.”
“Jessica Stone? My daughter was sick at your birthday party, wasn’t she?”
“She certainly was,” said Jessica, shaking Nathan’s mum’s hand.
“How are your parents? What do you do now?”
“My parents are good, thank you. They’re away on holiday at the moment with my brother and his family. I’m usually a ballet dancer. I dance with a company in New York, but I’m a bit laid up at the moment.” She lifted up her plastered foot to illustrate her point.
“That is unfortunate.”
“Your son has very kindly been taking care of me and Monty while my parents are away. I broke my foot the first day they were gone,” Jessica explained. As the realisation dawned on Nathan’s mum that Jessica and Nathan weren’t an item, she seemed to relax a little.
“Would you like to stay for a cup of tea, Mum?”
“If you’re sure I’m not disturbing anything,” she said, looking at them both in turn.
“You’re honestly not,” said Jessica, quickly. “In fact, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have a shower and get dressed.”
“Of course. It was lovely to see you again, Jessica.”
“You too, Mrs Townsend.”
“Oh, call me Annie, please.”
Jessica scurried to her room as quickly as she could with a broken foot. That was embarrassing. Nathan’s mum had clearly thought there was something going on between Jessica and Nathan, and for whatever reason, she hadn’t been happy about it. Though what business it was of his mother’s who her 32-year-old son chose to date, Jessica didn’t know. And why wouldn’t his mother approve of Jessica? She was a catch! Any mother should be thrilled if her son was lucky enough to date her!
She guessed she could at least see where his mother’s confusion lay: the whole scene had looked pretty cosy. But as handsome as Nathan was, the last thing Jessica needed was to complicate her life with thoughts of romance. She was going to be back to New York soon. Though how she was going to manage going up and down the stairs to her apartment, she had no idea.
She took her time showering and getting dressed so that Nathan could have some time with his mum. She was done and preparing to go and be sociable again when she heard them coming back down the hallway and opening the front door.
“Does Claire know about your house guest?” Jessica heard Annie ask.
Who on earth was Claire? Jessica pressed her ear against the bedroom door to better hear the reply, but the pair had gone out of the house, and she couldn’t make out anything. She went over to the window, which looked out onto the street at the front of the house, and peeked around the edge of the blinds. Nathan and his mum were chatting by what was presumably her car. After a minute, Annie opened the boot and Nathan lifted out a large cardboard box. Jessica moved away from the window as he began walking towards the house.
It would look strange if she didn’t come out to say goodbye, so she forced herself to come out of her bedroom. Nathan was heading back in with a second box and smiled at her as he passed. His mum was closing up the boot of her car.
“Goodbye, Annie,” Jessica called out and received a stiff wave in return. It seemed Nathan’s mother wasn’t completely convinced of the platonic nature of her and Nathan’s relationship.
* * *
Nathan was back a couple of minutes later.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “One of the perils of having your mother live only a twenty-minute drive away.”
“Don’t be daft,” Jessica replied. “It’s your house — you should be able to have anyone you want to visit. It’s nothing to do with me. I just wish I hadn’t been in my pyjamas, but that was my fault.”
“You feel free to be in your pyjamas as much as you like. I’m quite fond of them.”
Was Nathan flirting with her? Jessica smiled awkwardly.
“Would you like to take the dogs out for a walk with me again today? We could drive somewhere nice.”
“Would you mind if I bowed out? My foot’s still hurting from yesterday,” Jessica said. Her foot was possibly aching a tiny bit more since yesterday’s walk, but only an hour ago she would have jumped at the chance of going out with Nathan again. Now she felt she needed some time to think.
“Not at all. You rest your foot, and I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
“OK, thank you.”
Jessica breathed a little sigh of relief when Nathan and the dogs left. What was happening here?
* * *
As Jessica wasn’t coming, Nathan decided not to bother taking the car. He was in the mood for walking rather than driving. He took a familiar route past the spot where Jessica had been injured. He couldn’t help glaring down at Dennis and Monty as they passed it. They’d caused a lot of trouble.
He was inordinately put out with his mum as well. Which was stupid, as it was his own fault she’d turned up out of the blue. He’d been having so much fun with Jessica, he hadn’t even thought to charge his phone or check it.
He understood that his mum worried about him being on his own. Usually, he would have been glad to see her, but she hadn’t exactly been subtle about not being happy to find Jessica there. She didn’t even seem completely mollified when she found out their relationship was purely platonic. And he got why. She’d seen what he’d been through and had been there to pick up the pieces. But surely she must realise there was no way he’d get involved in a relationship now, and especially not with someone like Jessica whose whole life was her dancing and who lived on the other side of an ocean.
That hadn’t stopped him from making that stupid comment about her pyjamas though, had it? He blushed just thinking about it. What an idiot. He hoped he hadn’t come across as creepy. Maybe that was the reason Jessica hadn’t wanted to come out. She’d hardly say she didn’t want to come because he was being strange, would she? Should he apologise, or would that be making too much of the situation? He’d just have to see what the atmosphere was like when he got home. And he really must charge his phone.
* * *
Jessica was on the floor of the sitting room doing sit-ups when Nathan returned. Exercising was always the way she let out her stress.
“Hey,” he said, putting his head around the door. Was it just her imagination, or was he looking at her strangely? As if guessing her thoughts, Nathan coughed and pulled his gaze away. “I’ll put the dogs in the garden so they don’t disturb you.”
“Thanks.”
Once the YouTube video she’d been doing came to an end, Jessica stood up. She knew she had to brave speaking to Nathan.
“How was your workout?” Nathan asked when she came into the kitchen.
“Good, thank you.” Jessica helped herself to a glass of water. “Did you enjoy your walk?”
“Yeah. Monty was really good on the lead, and his recall is improving as well, thanks to cheese rewards.”
“That’s brilliant. The power of cheese, eh?”
Nathan’s phone buzzed from where it was charging on the counter. He picked it up to check it.
“I had a message from my friend Stephen that I missed yesterday,” he said. “He’s another doctor at the surgery. He’s inviting me to a barbecue at his house tonight. Says to bring a bottle and a guest. Do you fancy coming?”
“Erm...” Jessica looked for an excuse. Should she ask him about Claire? But if he’d wanted to tell her about Claire then presumably, he would have already. Maybe it was private. But if he did have a girlfriend, she wouldn’t be too impressed with Jessica going to a barbecue with him.
“Look,” said Nathan, shuffling uncomfortably. “I’m really sorry if my stupid comment about your pyjamas made you feel in any way uncomfortable. It was a daft thing to say.”
“So, you don’t like my pyjamas?” Jessica teased. It was funny to see him embarrassed.
“No, well, yes. I mean... you must know you look good in them.”
Jessica arched an eyebrow.
“Well, you do... but I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“It’s fine, honestly,” said Jessica, laughing, glad that at least some of the tension between the two of them had gone. “Would you rather I didn’t wear them anymore?”
“I’m pretty sure I can control myself,” Nathan said drolly.
“Glad to hear it, because I don’t think your mother would be too thrilled if you couldn’t.”
“You noticed . . .”
“Kind of hard not to.”
“I’m sorry. She and I haven’t been getting along all that well recently, and... basically, it’s nothing to do with you.”
“OK,” said Jessica. If he had something he wanted to keep private, she needed to respect that. She supposed.
“Come to this barbecue with me, please? I really need to make some more friends around here, but I don’t want to go by myself.”
“I’m not sure I’m in the mood for loads of people...” Jessica was still feeling sorry for herself and the thought of having to explain to people why she was using crutches didn’t particularly appeal.
“It won’t be loads of people, and Stephen and his wife are really nice. Please?”
“All right, I’ll come,” she said. He was an adult and if he was in a relationship, it was his choice to invite her to come along, and it would probably do her good to go out for the evening. She couldn’t hide away the whole time her foot was in plaster. “What time does it start?”
“Six. I’ll message him that we’re coming, and then I’ll pop to the shops to get drinks for us to take with us.”
“I should probably rest my foot up quite a bit before we go...”
“Yes . . . we can play some Fable II .”
“Good. Hurry at the shops. I’ll get us all set up.”