bar opened near the hospital. There’s a band playing tonight, a good one apparently.”
“How do you know?” I asked, feeling a little disappointed it wasn’t salsa after all.
“They might be rubbish.”
“The scrub nurses were talking about it yesterday. One of them knows the drummer and they’ve just signed a record deal. Their songs are really good for dancing to. It’s not all that hip-hop stuff.”
“What’s given you the sudden urge to dance?” I asked, unable to suppress a smile.
36
Shared Too
Quinn couldn’t stand rap or hip-hop. If it ever came on the radio he flicked it straight off.
“I haven’t especially. But I thought you’d like it. The nurses go out dancing all the time and I realized I never take you.” He sighed. “I just thought since we don’t need babysitters we should make the most of it. Plus…” He grinned. “You needed a chance to wear those boots.”
I smiled up at him. “It’s a lovely thought. And I do want to dance.” I turned to Liam again. “Please change your mind. We won’t stay long and it will do you good to get out.”
“Yeah, come with us, we won’t be late,” Quinn added. “I’ve got early rounds tomorrow.”
Liam touched his fingers to his forehead and rubbed over his right eyebrow.
“You don’t have to get changed, jeans are fine if it’s just a bar,” I said, jutting out my hip. “And besides, you haven’t been off the farm for three weeks.” He dropped his hand to the table. “I have,” he said indignantly.
“When?”
“I came with you to the horse show in Pendine.”
“Oh yes,” I said. “Well, apart from that you haven’t been out for three weeks.
You’re turning into a recluse.”
“I like being a recluse,” he muttered, shut his newspaper and scraped back his chair. Betsy jumped from his lap with a disgruntled meow. “But if you want me to come, Ariane, I will.”
“Great,” Quinn said. “Let’s get going then.”
Liam stood and slipped his feet into faded black trainers, shoved a hand through his hair and sighed.
I shrugged into a fitted black jacket with a faux fur-lined collar and stepped out into the dark yard.
37
Lily Harlem
“I’m glad you’re coming,” I said to Liam as we waited for Quinn to lock the door.
“I’m sure you’ll have fun once we get there.”
“If I’m with you then it will be fun,” he whispered, wrapping an arm around my waist and urging me across the cobblestones.
I leaned into him, glad of his body warmth and the support as we hurried through the cold. Liam had been quiet all day. Quiet as if lost in thought, so I was doubly glad he wouldn’t be sitting on his own all evening.
“Are you missing the girls?” I asked, thinking back to Quinn’s preoccupied thoughtfulness the night before.
“Yeah,” he said, opening the back door of Quinn’s Mercedes for me. “Yeah, I miss them. It’s always strange when they go, isn’t it?” Quinn navigated through the narrow, winding lanes effortlessly and soon we reached the main ring road around the city and were plunged into the amber glow of streetlamps. The traffic was heavier, but we didn’t travel with it far before he turned off and negotiated the backstreets near the hospital. I gazed at the small town houses with their high front steps and thought how lucky we were to have so much space on the farm and what a wonderful environment we’d provided for the twins to grow up in. I’d always been a country girl at heart and although I enjoyed my time living on the bay with Liam and Quinn, relocating to the outskirts of the city had been a great move. The peace and quiet, the lack of neighbors, the fresh air and the animals all suited me very well. It certainly suited Liam, and Quinn was used to it now. His twenty-six-minute commute to the hospital was acceptable if he was called on an emergency―which he frequently was.
“Here it is,” Quinn said, slotting his car into a small space.
The building before us was
K.C. Falls, Torri D. Cooke