Falling for You (27 page)

Juliet listened to everything the consultant was telling her. When he'd finished, she burst into floods of tears.

“No need to cry, Miss Price. It's good news.” The consultant was smiling broadly.

Oliver, relieved and delighted, enthusiastically shook the consultant's hand. “Fantastic. Excellent news. We're so grateful.” Glancing at Juliet's tearstained face, he added in bafflement, “I'll never understand women. Not as long as I live.”

“Sometimes,” the consultant said happily as Juliet flung her arms around him and kissed him on both cheeks, “I don't mind not understanding them.”

“I can't believe it.” Juliet sobbed, all the pent-up emotions of the last week exploding out of her like a burst dam. “I was so scared. I thought he was going to—to… Oh, thank you so much. You don't know what this means to me…”

“No need to thank me,” the consultant assured her. “Tiff's the one who did the hard work. Children have the most astonishing powers of recovery. You never give up hope. It couldn't happen this fast with an adult, trust me. But these youngsters, one minute they're so ill you can't imagine they'll survive, and hours later they can be sitting up in bed demanding pizza and a Game Boy.”

Juliet wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve. Tiff hadn't reached the pizza and Game Boy stage yet, but he had regained consciousness and was still recognizably Tiff. The consultant, sweeping into the ICU, had informed them that the results of the latest blood test, lumbar puncture, and brain scan showed that Tiff was off the danger list. His body had escaped the devastation of rampant septicemia. He hadn't sustained brain damage. It was the miracle Juliet hadn't dared to hope for.

“Mum?”

Her face still wet with tears, Juliet swung around to find Tiff with his eyes open once more, huge and as dark as pansies against the pallor of his thin face.

“It's OK, darling.” Lovingly she stroked his cheek. “I'm crying because I'm happy. You've been a bit poorly, but you're getting better now.”

“Why's he here?” Tiff's gaze had settled on Oliver.

Juliet wavered. He had to be told now, that went without saying. But not right at this minute.

“He…um, came to see how you are, sweetheart. Everyone's been asking after you.”

Uninterested, Tiff looked away from Oliver.

“Where's Sophie and Jake?”

“They're at home. Look, here are some of the cards Sophie made you.” Eagerly Juliet held them up. Making cards had been Sophie's way of willing Tiff to recover. “How about this one, with a picture of Bean on the front and—”

“Jake was carrying me.” Tiff's forehead creased with the effort of remembering. “Carrying and carrying me. Will he be here soon with Sophie?”

“As soon as you're well enough for visitors.” Juliet gave his hand an encouraging squeeze.

“But they're the ones I want to see.” Tiff's dismissive glance over at Oliver was excruciating. Juliet winced on Oliver's behalf.

“I know, sweetheart. We'll have to ask the doctor. Sophie's missed you too.”

Tiff's eyelashes drooped with exhaustion. Still clutching Juliet's hand, he closed his eyes and drifted off again.

Oliver approached the bed.

“Look at him.” Juliet felt her heart expand with love. “He's going to be all right.” As a huge yawn overtook her she added, “I feel as if I could sleep for a month.”

“Right. Well, he's out of danger now. On the mend.” Oliver glanced at his watch. “Why don't you grab a rest while he's out for the count? If you don't need me anymore, I could shoot up to London. See what's been going on while I've been away.”

Juliet nodded. Not allowed to have his cell phone switched on in the hospital, Oliver had been reduced to hurrying outside every couple of hours to check out the ever-increasing number of messages and deal with the most urgent to the best of his ability over the phone. After six days, he must be desperate to get back to work. It was completely understandable.

It was also, if she was honest, something of a relief.

“That's fine.” Awkwardly, she offered her cheek up for the kiss Oliver seemed determined to plant there. “Well, thanks for…everything.”

“Ring me if you need to. I'll be in touch tomorrow anyway.” Feeling horribly guilty, Juliet said, “Any word yet from Estelle?”

Oliver briefly shook his head. “No.”

“Will you try to find her?”

“It's not my place to find Estelle, even if I could. I was the one who cheated on her. I let her down,” Oliver said wearily, “and she left me.”

“For someone else who let her down.” Juliet felt terrible. She'd always really liked Estelle.

“I know.” Checking his watch again, Oliver jangled his car keys. “Double betrayal. OK, I'm going to make a move. Will you tell Tiff?”

“That you've gone up to London?”

Oliver gave her a measured look. “That I'm his father.”

“Oh, right.” Inwardly shrinking away from the prospect, Juliet nodded. “If you want me to.”

“It's not a question of that. Everyone knows now. We don't have any choice.” After a last look at Tiff, Oliver left.

While Tiff was asleep, Juliet phoned Jake from the call box in the corridor outside the ward. Less than twenty minutes later, the doors of the ICU swung open and Jake burst in. Still exhausted but too elated to sleep herself, Juliet hastily rubbed her hands over her face and stumbled to her feet. The next moment she was wrapped in a rib-crushing embrace. Jake smelled deliciously of wood shavings and varnish and was wearing paint-smeared jeans.

Fresh paint, she discovered, gazing down at the streak of lilac on the front of her skirt.

As if it mattered.

Jake was grinning too. “Sorry, I just couldn't wait. I had to come straightaway. It's the best news in the world.”

“I know.” Letting him go, her eyes filling with tears of joy all over again, Juliet watched him pull up a chair next to Tiff's bed and gaze at the boy intently. Within seconds, as if by telepathy, Tiff's eyes opened.

“Jake! You're here!” Breaking into a broad smile of delight, he raised his thin arms a few inches from the bed. Careful not to dislodge the IV drips running into his arms, Jake gave him a hug. In return, Tiff's left hand curled around Jake's neck. The look on each of their faces said it all. Deeply moved, Juliet almost couldn't bear to watch.

“I'm here,” said Jake, “and so are you. Now, Sophie's desperate to see you, but when your mum asked the doctors, they said it wasn't a good idea. Not for another day or so, at least. But all you need to do is carry on getting better, then they'll move you to the children's ward. Once you're there, Sophie will be able to come see you as often as she wants.”

“Has she missed me?” Tiff looked pleased.

“Absolutely. We've all missed you.” Jake smoothed a lock of Tiff's hair back from his forehead. “Nuala and Maddy are looking after your mum's shop. When I went over to tell them you were getting better, they both cried.” Jake shook his head in disgust. “What a bunch of
girls
.”

“Mum did too.” Grinning, Tiff said, “Did you cry?”

“Watch your language. We're
men
,” said Jake. “We never cry.”

“It's because we have willies,” Tiff agreed, indicating Juliet with a knowing nod of his head. “And they don't.”

* * *

Jake stayed with Tiff while Juliet showered and changed into clean clothes. She put on the long turquoise dress and lilac cardigan Jake had brought along for her—not perfect, but it could have been a lot worse—and applied lipstick and mascara almost as if the nightmare of the last week had never happened.

“Now, are you
sure
this is OK?” Juliet asked Tiff for the hundredth time, ten minutes later.

“It's OK,” Tiff patiently repeated. “I'm tired. I'm going to sleep in a minute. When I'm asleep, you and Jake are going out for something to eat, so if I wake up you won't be here. But Mel will be here,” he went on, beaming at his favorite nurse, “so it doesn't matter. She'll be like my babysitter.”

Cheerily, Mel said, “Better still, I'm free!”

Juliet wondered if all the nurses regarded her as a selfish, hopelessly neglectful mother, waltzing off to a restaurant, leaving her fragile seven-year-old son all alone in his hospital bed.

“Oh, please,” Mel tut-tutted good-naturedly, catching her look of anguish. “Don't even think it. We're sick of the sight of you! Off you
go
.”

“And Mel's the boss,” said Jake, whose idea it had been. “Do as she says or she'll zap you with a defibrillator.”

“Jake will have his phone with him,” Juliet told Tiff. “If you want me, all they have to do is ring us. We can be back here in five minutes.”

“Night, Mum.”

“And we'll be back in two hours, whatever happens.”

“K,” mumbled Tiff.

Oh God, how could she do this to him? How could she heartlessly abandon him? “Look,” Juliet said in desperation. “If you'd rather we stayed—”

“Mum?”

“What, darling? What is it?”

“Could you not make so much noise?” Tiff murmured. “I'm
trying
to go to sleep.”

“I can't believe it. Posh plates,” Juliet marveled. “Wineglasses made out of real glass. Cutlery that isn't plastic.”

“And candles,” said Jake. “Major health and safety hazard if ever I saw one. It's playing with fire, having candles at a table.”

Juliet smiled. He'd brought her to Romano's, an Italian restaurant around the corner from Pulteney Bridge with a good reputation for food and an atmosphere lively and buzzy enough to allow them to talk without being overheard. She didn't know if Jake had chosen it for this reason, but she was glad to be here.

“Speaking of playing with fire,” Jake went on, “do you feel like telling me how it all happened?”

Juliet nodded. She owed him that much at least. If she was honest, she'd wanted to tell Jake for years.

“I met Oliver when I was twenty-five. I was working for a catering company, providing directors' lunches in the city. I thought he was wonderful,” Juliet said simply. “I also thought he was single. But he swept me off my feet, and by the time I found out he was married, I was already pregnant.”

“Carry on,” Jake prompted.

Juliet pulled a face. “Well, if this were a film, I'd be the plucky pregnant single woman telling Oliver to take a running jump and soldiering on without him. Except I wasn't that plucky. I'm not proud of this, but at the time I was scared witless. I had a threatened miscarriage at five months, which meant the catering company couldn't get rid of me fast enough. After Tiff was born, my landlord refused to renew the lease on my apartment. When Oliver came up with his plan, I honestly didn't feel I had any other choice. I was so grateful, I just went along with it.”

“So he brought you down to Ashcombe,” said Jake. “Bought the delicatessen and set you up, so that he'd have his mistress and his child living just down the road from his wife.”

“Ex-mistress,” Juliet said firmly. “Our relationship ended the day I found out he was married. We haven't been sneakily seeing each other, if that's what you think.”

Jake shrugged and broke open a warm bread roll. “I don't think anything. I'm just waiting for you to tell me.”

“OK.” Slowly Juliet exhaled. “Oliver didn't want Estelle to find out, but he really wanted to be able to see Tiff growing up. I was desperate for somewhere to live. It seemed like the perfect answer. I loved Ashcombe from the word go. As long as Oliver's family didn't know about Tiff, where was the harm in it? We were all happy.”

And put that way, it sounded perfectly reasonable. But Juliet sensed that something else was bothering Jake.

“And in seven years, there's never been anybody else,” he said evenly. “Seven years is a long time. So, all part of the agreement, was it?”

There was no point in trying to deny it. Facing him, Juliet said bluntly, “Yes, it was. Oliver didn't want to see some other bloke moving into the apartment he'd bought for me. Maybe it wasn't fair of him, but at the time I was more than happy to go along with it. The last thing I needed, or wanted, was to get involved with anyone else. My number one priority was Tiff.”

Jake was incredulous. “And in all that time, you've never met another man you'd be interested in getting together with? You've never even been tempted?”

“Never seriously.” Shaking her head, Juliet said, “Of course, there have been times when I've been…um, tempted. But not getting involved has always worked out for the best.”

“I get it. Now it all makes sense.” Jake paused as the waiter arrived to clear their plates away, and this time Juliet knew exactly what he was remembering. “That first Christmas after you arrived in Ashcombe. I walked you home on Boxing Night from one of Marcella's parties.”

Juliet nodded. How could she ever forget?

“I tried to kiss you good night,” Jake went on. “You were wearing a blue scarf with silver glittery bits woven into it. And it was really icy outside. Your nose was pink with cold. You wouldn't let me give you a kiss.”

“Wouldn't I?” asked Juliet, and Jake shot her a don't-try-to-bullshit-me look.

“Then I asked you out and you turned me down flat.”

Oh heck.
“Did I?”

“Now I know why. Because it was in the tenancy agreement. All part of the bargain you'd struck with Oliver. I really liked you,” said Jake.

Juliet realized that it was her own rapid breathing causing the candles to flicker madly on the table between them.

“I really liked you too,” she told Jake, busily pleating the crimson tablecloth between her fingers. “Which is why I'm extra glad I turned you down.”

Jake's eyes glittered. “Speak English.”

“Oh, come on, you know what you're like! Goldfish have a longer attention span than you. I've spent the last five years watching you go out with girls and dump them before they've had time to tell you their surnames—
Wha
t
?” Juliet demanded heatedly. “Why are you looking at me like that? You know there's no point in denying it, because it's
true
.”

Jake waved away the waiter, approaching with the dessert menus.

“Of course it's true. I'm not denying it. But has it occurred to you for one second to wonder
why
it's true?”

“That's like wondering why snow is cold. It just is. And you're the way you are because you're you.” Juliet prayed she was making sense. The intensity of Jake's gaze was making it hard to think straight.

“OK. Estelle's found out about you and Oliver.” Jake swiftly changed tack. “She's left him. So, what now?”

“What d'you mean?”

“I mean, is it happy families time? You, Oliver, and Tiff?”

Juliet shook her head. “Absolutely not. I'm completely over Oliver.”

“But you let him rule your whole life!” Jake exploded, causing the group of women at the next table to jump and nudge each other.

“You aren't listening to me,” Juliet shot back. “I haven't met anyone else I want to be
with
.”

“Haven't you?
Haven't you
?
” There was a dangerous glint in his eyes.

Defiantly Juliet said, “Nobody who'd make me happy.”

“But how do you
know
that?” Jake was becoming more and more exasperated. “How can you possibly know that when you've never even given anyone a chance?”

“Because I'm not stupid,” Juliet cried. “Because I've got eyes in my head. Because I know a heartbreaker when I see one, and I don't want my heart broken again. Plus there's Tiff to consider—oof, what are you
doing
?”

“Getting you out of here.” Having flung a handful of notes down on the table and grabbed Juliet by the arm, Jake hauled her to her feet.

“Oh, don't go,” protested one of the plump women at the next table. “It's just getting good.”

“So sorry.” Jake spoke through gritted teeth as he propelled Juliet toward the door.

“She might have wanted a dessert.” The woman, who was drunk, clutched the back of Jake's shirt and tried to pull him back. “You can't drag your girlfriend out of a restaurant before she's had her dessert!”

“She isn't my girlfriend.” Jake's tone was brusque as he wrenched his shirt free. “You're drunk. And if you didn't have so many desserts, maybe you wouldn't be so fat.”

“That was rude.” Juliet gasped when he'd bundled her outside, leaving the rest of the women at the table squawking with indignation.

“Do I look as if I care?” Jake, his green eyes glittering with intent, pushed Juliet up against the Bath-stone wall of the restaurant and kissed her.

Properly. Thrillingly. So completely thrillingly that Juliet quite forgot to put up a fight and push him away. Her body was too busy zinging with desire.

“I've waited five years for that,” Jake murmured, his breath warm on her temple.

Juliet's mouth was tingling. In fact,
all
of her was tingling. She wanted to hit him, because it was all so hopeless.

“I love you,” said Jake.

Tears sprang to her eyes. “And your point is?”

“You didn't answer my question earlier. I said
why
do I go from one girl to the next, never bothering to get to know them properly or settle down.” Jake raised her chin, forcing Juliet to look at him. “Do you still not see? It's because there's only been one girl I've wanted to settle down with, and she wasn't interested in me. She turned me down.” He paused. “So I did the next best thing and became her best friend instead. Well,
pretended
to be her best friend.”

“You're just saying that,” Juliet whispered. She was right, wasn't she? This was how Jake operated, how he seduced all the other girls in his life, by sweet-talking them into bed, telling them whatever they longed to hear. Of course she
wanted
to believe him, but what if all he was doing was spinning her a line?

“I love you,” Jake said again, “and I love Tiff as if he were mine. What would Oliver do if you told him we were a couple? Take the deli away from you and kick you out of the apartment?”

Flummoxed, Juliet said, “Well…I, um, maybe…”

“Fine.” Jake shrugged. “No problem. Leave it with me.”

Leaning back against the wall, Juliet felt the smooth stone against her shoulders. For five long years, she'd suppressed her feelings for this man and now they were refusing to stay suppressed a moment longer. Her mouth curving into an unstoppable smile, she pulled Jake back toward her until their bodies were pressed hard against each other, then cupped his face in her hands and—

“Whoa, not so fast.” Deftly sidestepping her, Jake tapped his watch. “It's gone eight.”

“We don't have to be back until half past.” Juliet smiled, feeling deliciously wanton, though what they could get up to in broad daylight in the center of Bath in twenty minutes flat, she couldn't imagine.

“I want to see Tiff.”

Struck afresh by the fear that she was being a neglectful mother, Juliet said, “To check he's all right?”

“To tell him everything and get him on my side.” Jake looked pleased with himself. “And to tell him that his mother has spent the last five years being a complete durr-brain.”

“Oh well,” said Juliet. “He's seven years old. He already knows that.”