‘Yes, we did.’ Surely he was allowed this one little lie, to reassure Sam?
‘He had lots of blood on him.’
‘Yes, I know. Were you frightened?’
‘Yes.’ Sam suddenly sounded subdued.
‘I’ll bet you were. It was a frightening thing to happen to you, and you were very brave to come and find us the way you did.’
‘Did he have some blood left?’
‘Yes, he had plenty of blood left. We gave him some extra as well. He’s all right now.’
‘Okay...’
Sam chattered on to him, and Ethan sat in the doctor’s rest room, letting the tightly coiled spring in his chest loosen a little. Reminding himself that he’d made sure that Sam was well looked after.
He promised Sam that he’d be back soon, and then spoken briefly to his father. Then he called Kate.
‘Ethan.’ She sounded pleased that he’d called.
‘Hi. I just wanted you to know that...he’s made it into surgery.’
A puffed-out breath of relief. ‘Thank you. That’s really great. I suppose you don’t know anything else yet?’
‘No, but he’s a fighter. That helps.’ Kate would understand that. She was a fighter too.
‘Well, that’s good to know. Where are you?’
‘At the hospital still. My dad’s coming to pick me up and I’ll fetch my car and then go and get Sam.’
‘I’d better let you go. Thanks so much for taking the time to call.’ She seemed about to hang up, now.
‘Wait.’ There was something more he had to say. And even if there hadn’t been he could still spare these few moments, just to talk to her. ‘I wanted to say that I’m sorry. For rushing off like that.’
He heard her expel a sharp breath. ‘Right. Because there was nowhere you needed to go. Don’t be crazy, Ethan.’
‘How about, sorry that I left you to find him.’
‘No, that one doesn’t wash either. You were making sure that Sam wasn’t hurt. That’s your first priority, Ethan.’
He’d been clinging to Sam, blinded to everything other than the fact that he needed his son to be all right. Kate had jerked him back out of that, and made him see what he needed to do.
‘I’m glad you think that I thought about it so rationally.’
‘You’re allowed to be irrational. Goes with the territory.’
Ethan chuckled. Just the sound of her voice was making him feel that somehow he’d managed to cover all the bases. Look after Sam, be a doctor... Maybe even look after Kate a little.
‘Sam tells me he wants to be a mountain rescue volunteer when he grows up.’
‘Does he? That’s nice.’
‘Yeah. And he wants to train his dog to shake hands.’
‘That can be arranged. I’m an expert at getting dogs to shake hands.’ She caught her breath suddenly, as if she’d said something she shouldn’t. ‘If you can’t find anyone else, that is...’
The thought that maybe he should find someone else, someone who Sam wouldn’t be tempted to accept as a mother figure, had occurred to Ethan. But right now he just wanted to feel life pumping in his veins, and Kate made him feel alive.