run them by you before I try them out on her.â
âOK.â She paused. âThanks for making me come here and eat cake, Nate. I try to keep my personal life separate from work, but sometimes a case brings back the early days with Mikey and it gets to me,â she admitted. âJudyâs worried about her husband leaving her if she canât walkâand thatâs exactly what happened to Mikey. His girlfriend said she couldnât cope with his disability and she left him.â
Nate winced. âIâm assuming his girlfriend was around the same age that he was when the accident happenedâshe was in her second year of uni?â
âYes.â
âThen she still had a lot of growing up to do.â He paused. âJames Watson seemed pretty supportive when I saw them together. I think Judyâs worrying over nothing.â
âMe, too, and Iâve told her that,â she said. âBut thanks. Youâve made me feel a bit better.â
âAny time. Youâve made me feel better, too.â
For a moment, their gazes met; again, Erin felt that funny little flip in the region of her heart. But nothing was going to happen. Nate had too much going on in his life to offer her anything more than friendship. Even if his circumstances had been different, she had too much baggage for a relationship to work between them.
If only sheâd made some different choices, all those years ago. If only she hadnât gone to that party with Andrew. If only sheâd left when he started pushing her. If only she hadnât called Mikey to come and get her and had called her best friendâs mum instead...
But you couldnât change the past. You could only learn from it.
âIâd better finish writing up my notes,â she said. She scribbled her mobile phone number down on a scrap of paper and handed it to him. âText me later and Iâll send you some ideas.â And maybe thinking up things to do to help Nate bond with Caitlin would help her to smother her guilt again.
* * *
âWe could go on the London Eye on Saturday,â Nate suggested. âOr the cable car over the Thames.â
Caitlin remained impassive. Obviously neither of those suggestions appealed to her.
âOr shopping. Apparently there are good shops on Oxford Street.â He named the clothing stores Erin had mentioned as being popular with teenage girls.
âI used to go shopping with my friends,â she said.
Meaning that she didnât want to go shopping with him? OK. He could see that it wouldnât be cool, hanging round clothes shops with your dad. âHow about a speedboat ride on the Thames?â
Her expression clearly said, Really? , with only the scorn a teen could muster.
âIâm very happy to hear your ideas,â he said.
She shrugged. âWhatever.â
He knew she was hurting, so he wasnât going to make it worse for her by yelling at her. He wanted to get closer to her, not push her away. But how?
She hates all the ideas I suggested, he texted to Erin later.
OK. How about this? Itâs an escape game. Youâre locked in a room and you have sixty minutes to get freeâyou have to work as a team to solve the clues and puzzles. Thereâs a countdown clock.
She sent him a link to the companyâs website. The more Nate read, the more he liked the sound of it.
That looks like fun, he texted back. But you have to book in advance. I just checked and theyâre not free on Saturday. Can we do that another time?
Or was he presuming too much, hoping that Erin would spend more time with them?
*Definitely* do it some other time, Â was her immediate response. Then his phone pinged with another text.
What about food? We could do Camden Lockâthe street market there has something for everyone and we could see who can find the most unusual food stall. Or go and spot movie locations, if you find out what her favourite movies
Sophia Johnson
Kimberly Claire
Payge Galvin, Meg Chance
Greg Gutfeld
Richard Newsome
T. Michael Martin
Stephanie Laurens, Victoria Alexander, Rachel Gibson
Patricia Wentworth
Terry Deary
John Julius Norwich