Chapter 15 #2
So he really should have known better when he walked into his kitchen and saw a pair of black-clad legs and nurse’s tunic sticking out of the corner cupboard that was buried underneath the staircase.
And he probably really shouldn’t have run his hand up one of them for a quick, cheeky pinch on the bum. ‘Hello, Princess.’
The blur of movement rushed towards his cheek and hesitated less than an inch from his face.
He stared, shocked, into the dark brown eyes glaring at him.
‘This is your one warning. There’d better not be a next time, because if there is I won’t stop.’ She patted his cheek twice, a little too firmly to be friendly – not that he could blame her – then turned back to the cupboard.
‘I am so, so, so sorry. I would never… I mean, I obviously just did, but I wouldn’t deliberately…’ He stopped, took a breath, and tried again. ‘I mistook you for someone else, and I really am very sorry and I promise it will never happen again.’
‘I should hope not.’ Her voice was muffled, but he thought – or hoped – he heard amusement. ‘Princess, huh?’
‘Um.’
‘Been a long time since someone called me anything like that. A-ha!’ She wriggled out, brushing dark hair that had escaped its braid back from her eyes and holding up an old football pump. ‘Got it. I’m assuming you’re Aiden.’
‘Yes?’
‘You don’t sound very sure about that.’ She laughed.
‘No, I am. I’m just trying to remember if I know you?’
‘Not yet, you don’t.’ She laughed again. ‘But with a bit of luck, you will.’
‘A bit of luck?’ He was feeling more and more confused by the second.
‘Did you find it?’ Mia’s voice called from the living room. ‘Sylvie said if it’s not there… Hi, Aiden.’ She gave him a quick kiss and grabbed his hand. ‘Come on through, we’re having a cuppa in the living room. Are you OK? You look odd.’
He did as he was told, a little bamboozled. What did a football pump have to do with tea? He leaned down and kissed his ma’s cheek – saving her from getting up – before sitting opposite her.
‘Hello, love. I’m glad you’re home. This is Amrita. She’s interviewing to be part of my ongoing home care team.’
‘What?’
‘She specialises in helping people with conditions like mine.’
‘You don’t need carers, you’ve got me.’
‘I know, love, and I couldn’t ask for a better son, but after this fall I need help getting back on my feet – and staying on them. And there’s things I need help with sometimes that I don’t want you to have to deal with.’
‘But Ma, I don’t mind.’
‘No, but I do. And I mind how much of your life you’re giving up. This isn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision, I’ve been thinking about this – and talking about it – for a while.’
‘You’ve not said a word about this,’ Aiden argued.
‘Not to you.’
Aiden wheeled on Mia. ‘Seriously? You’ve been plotting this with her?’
‘I wouldn’t say plotting, exactly.’
‘But you have been talking about this and not telling me about it,’ he snapped, then immediately regretted his tone – but damn it, he hated that this had been done behind his back. ‘Can we talk in the kitchen please?’
‘Aiden, love, don’t be sore with Mia. This is my choice and how I want things to be.’
‘Now please, Mia.’
She followed him to the kitchen, and quietly closed the door.
‘Mia…’ he started.
‘Don’t you take that tone of voice with me, Aiden Griffiths!
’ she warned him. ‘I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of things that we disagree over – and even fight about – in the future, but this is not going to be one of them.
I helped Sylvie because she asked for my advice, and then help.
And I didn’t tell you about any of this because she asked me not to. ’
‘She’s my ma,’ Aiden complained.
‘Yes, and she called me when I was at work, and asked me for my help with a clinical issue. It’s patient confidentiality. And she asked me not to tell you anyway, because she was worried you’d be a bit… silly about things.’
‘I’m not silly!’
‘So I imagined you trying to break up with me in the middle of an acute care ward?’
Aiden sagged against the kitchen table, feeling well and truly beaten. ‘Are you going to hold that against me for long?’
‘Only when you’re being silly.’ Mia stepped closer to him and placed a soft kiss against the edge of his lips.
‘I can look after her, you know. She doesn’t need a team of strangers to do it.’
‘I know that, and so does she. But it’s not what she wants – so much so that she asked for my help in arranging funding and setting up interviews with candidates all before she told you. Before I could tell you. So please don’t make her fight you for this.’
‘But she’s my ma.’
‘That’s kinda the point.’ She slid her arm round his waist. ‘There are some things you don’t want your loved ones to have to do – like physiotherapy for a healing hip.
Aiden, you have to try and see this from her point of view.
She’s losing parts of who she is, and there are days when she can’t trust or control her own body. ’
‘You think I don’t know that? That’s why I want to help her.’
‘But this is something she can choose, something she can control. Please let her have this.’
‘Oh bugger, I really am being an arse, aren’t I?’
‘Never.’ Mia pulled him down to kiss him again. ‘But maybe a little bit silly.’
‘Thank you, Princess.’
‘For what?’
‘For stopping me when I was “being silly”, and before I could reach full-on dumb-arse levels.’
‘You’re really too hard on yourself. Now, will you come and meet Amrita properly? I think Sylvie really likes her, but she’s not going to take her on unless you agree.’
‘Yeah, I probably should go and apologise to her. Again.’
‘Apologise?’
‘Umm…’ Aiden could feel his cheeks getting hotter. ‘She was half in the corner cupboard when I came in. I might have sort of mistaken her for you and… oh, this is going to sound awful, because it really is and I feel truly terrible… but I might have grabbed her butt a bit.’
‘Oh no! How did she react?’
‘Impressively fast. She stopped about an inch away from giving me the slap I really deserved.’
‘Oh!’ Mia clapped her hand over her mouth, trying to smother giggles. ‘It’s a good thing she has a great sense of humour.’
‘So you think she’ll forgive me?’
‘Probably.’
‘That’s a relief. I’ll have to bake her a nice apology cake. Why was she looking for the hand pump, by the way?’
‘Oh, one of the physio exercises involves squeezing a ball between your knees, and the ball needed pumping up. Obviously.’
‘Obviously.’ Aiden nodded. ‘But can my second round of apologies wait a minute or two more? I wanted to talk to you anyway. And I didn’t really want Ma knowing about it, and as everyone’s keeping secrets now, I don’t have to feel guilty about it…
Kev from the genetics team called this morning.
He’d had a last-minute cancellation, and Katie was in the store, so I did the counselling talk – such as it is – today.
A couple of hours ago, actually. I’m surprised at how quickly everything fell into place. ’
‘One of those Hudsbury things.’ Her eyes sparkled. ‘The magic lining things up for you.’
‘I guess.’
‘But no wonder you’re more on edge than usual. Can I ask how it went?’
Of course she could ask. She was part of the reason he was doing this – for her and the future he wanted to have with her.
But all of that seemed too much to say in the middle of his ma’s kitchen, minutes after he’d had his hands on another woman’s arse.
He winced slightly, still mortified at what he’d done.
‘It was OK. A lot quicker than I imagined. Kev agreed I understand the ramifications of being tested, and is happy to sign off on it. They’re going to post me out the forms, and then I just have to go and have the blood taken. I’ll know a month or so after that.’
‘So you still want to know?’
‘I still need to.’
‘OK.’ She twisted her fingers through his. ‘Still want me to hold your hand?’
‘Always.’