* * *
‘Ross!’
There was only one person who could lend that note of exasperation to Sam’s voice. An instinctive smile jumped to Ross’s lips and then he remembered, yet again, that Laurie had gone. It had been almost a month now, and that hollow feeling of loss never seemed to get any better.
He took a breath, waving Sam to a seat and leaning back in his own office chair. Sam and Laurie had been working together on the new initiative for teenagers, and he’d helped Sam as much as he could. It hurt when Sam talked about Laurie but this was his only remaining thread of contact and he held onto it greedily.
‘What’s on your mind, Sam?’
‘I so love that woman...’
Yeah. He could relate to that.
‘...and she’s driving me crazy.’
The chance would be a fine thing. Laurie could drive him crazy any time she liked, but Ross knew that she wouldn’t be back.
‘What’s up?’ He tried to focus on Sam.
‘You know the swimmer, Phil Jacques? Of course you do, everyone does. Laurie’s only gone and roped him in for a round-table discussion about sports training for teenagers.’
‘That’s good, isn’t it? It’s exactly what you need—a few household names on board.’
‘It’s fabulous. But you know when it is?’
‘I reckon you’re about to tell me.’
‘Two weeks’ time. At the conference in Birmingham that we were thinking of going to.’
‘Okay...’ Ross had been planning to spend a couple of days in Birmingham in two weeks to take in the conference and visit some prospective patients there. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about sharing a city with Laurie, but his heart knew how to react. It started to pump wildly.
‘They’re going to do it in front of an audience and it’ll be recorded for radio. Laurie’s asked some other guests and she’s going to use this as an opportunity to announce the new initiative. She’s done all this in less than a month.’
That’s my girl.
‘You know there’s no stopping her when she decides to do something. So...what’s the problem? Aren’t you pleased?’
‘I’m delighted. Only...she wants me to chair the discussion.’ Sam shot him an agonised look.
Sam was the best physiotherapist he knew, and she was great with her patients. She had more than enough knowledge to chair any discussion about the project that she and Laurie had been working on, and Ross guessed that this was Laurie’s way of giving Sam the credit she deserved for all the hard work she’d done. The only trouble was that Laurie had underestimated how shy Sam was when it came to public speaking.
‘I suppose...you couldn’t focus on the fact that you deserve this, could you? Or that you’re just the right person to do it, and you’d be great?’
‘No. Ross, I really couldn’t. In front of an auditorium full of people? Recorded for the radio?’ Sam pressed her lips together, obviously trying not to think about it. ‘You couldn’t do it, could you?’
‘You mean go along there and take all the credit for your work? I’m not entirely comfortable with that, no.’ Ross wasn’t comfortable with gatecrashing Laurie’s discussion either. He wasn’t sure which would be worse, finding himself in an argument with her or being on the receiving end of her blank, professional stare.
‘But you’ve really helped us. You gave me that long list of contacts and wrote introduction letters to all of them. You deserve a bit of credit for that.’
‘I’m just helping out. You and Laurie are the ones steering this.’
‘But Laurie can’t do it. This whole thing is a fantastic opportunity for her to be able to speak about her own experience of the pressures that can face teenagers in sport, and she can’t do that and chair the discussion at the same time. Please, Ross...’
He had to suggest something. ‘All right. Let’s break it down, Sam. What in particular are you most concerned about?’
Sam took a moment to think. ‘Well, for starters, there’s what to wear. Then what to say. When to say it, whether to ask questions or not, or whether I should just introduce people and let them get on with it...’ She took a breath, and Ross used the opportunity to jump in.
‘That’ll do for starters. Can Jamie help with the what-to-wear-part? Go through your wardrobe with you?’