AJ handed me a few tissues from the dispenser behind us. I cleaned up Noah’s face, and encouraged her to blow her nose like a parent would with their toddler. Then, like the click of my fingers, she was snoring.
I looked at my sister and saw her favouring the right side of her face.
“What’s wrong, baby?”
“Noah whacked me by mistake.” Bailey rubbed her red cheek. “She didn’t mean it, she was scared of the spiders she saw.”
“Lemme see.”
Bailey dropped her hand and let me tilt her head so I could inspect her cheek. I winced; it was red and starting to swell, and there was already a blue bruise forming around her eye. I leaned down and gave it a gentle kiss.
“She got ye good. I’ll get ye an icepack and AJ will bring ye home in me car before he goes back to work, okay?”
Bailey’s eyes widened, and her face went scarlet to match her cheek.
“I wanna stay with you.”
Laughing, I hugged her to me. “He won’t tease ye.”
“He will,” she grumbled. “He always does.”
“Are you two talking about me?” AJ questioned. “My ears are burning.”
I snorted. “Mind your business, nosey hole.”
Bailey giggled. “I guess a whack to the face serves me right for makin’ ye take salsa lessons and fracturin’ Noah’s leg.”
“Excuse me?”
I squeezed my eyes shut as AJ appeared at my side.
“Salsa lessons? You fractured Noah’s leg?”
“For God’s sake! It was a bastard of an accident!”
I launched into a retelling of how Bailey had tricked me and how I’d wound up paying for salsa lessons that Noah had never even asked for, then got to the part about how we tripped, fell and ended up in the hospital. AJ laughed so loud he woke Noah up.
“Shut it,” I warned him as I went to her side. “Hey, sasanach.”
Her face was contorted with pain. “My leg is burning, Elliot.”
“I know, love.” I brushed her hair back from her eyes. “D’ye remember what happened?”
“Vaguely.” She gulped. “Is it bad? My leg?”
“Ye need surgery.”
Noah’s eyes widened. “Oh, that’s not good.”
“No,” I agreed with a chuckle. “But the worst part is done.”
She wouldn’t look down at her leg.
“It’s reset,” I assured her. “Just really swollen and red.”
She nodded. “Did you ring my parents?”
I paused. “Shite. No. I was so focused on you.”
“I’ll ring them,” Bailey offered.
Noah looked at her with a grateful smile, then gasped.
“Your face, Bails, what happened?”
Bailey looked at me, and I cringed.
“Ye didn’t mean to . . . ye sort of knocked her in the face.”
“Oh, Bailey.” Noah’s lower lip stuck out ever so slightly. “Honey, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m fine,” Bailey assured her. “Doesn’t even hurt.”
She was lying. I could tell it hurt her, but AJ had got her an icepack from somewhere and that would help. She dipped out of the cubicle to phone Noah’s parents for me.
“Did she admit to anything worth listening to?” AJ quizzed, leaning against the wall. “I love when patients are out of it on gas and morphine.”
He wasn’t taking this seriously at all, but to humour him, I spilled one of the secrets Noah had let slip.
“She said that she’s a member of a secret society of women who knit throw-overs and sell them on the black market.”
“Oh God.” Noah looked at me with wide, bloodshot eyes. “Elliot, I’m a criminal!”
I tried not to laugh at her because she looked absolutely horrified, but when AJ cracked up, I lost it and laughed into my hand. She wasn’t as loopy as earlier, but I could see in her pupils that she was still feeling the effects of the morphine.
“Elliot?”
“Sasanach?”
“I wonder if we can get you a refund on those salsa lessons . . . they were fucking rubbish.”
My laughter mingled with hers as her hold on me tightened. She was okay, and that was all that mattered. I may have been two hundred pounds down . . . but it would always be an anniversary to remember.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ELLIOT
Present day . . .
The walk down the pathway through the cemetery was a long and lonely one even if you were surrounded by people. As I passed by row after row of tombstones, I felt a small sense of comfort in knowing that hundreds of people at some point were feeling pain like I currently was, all because of someone they had to lower into the ground on this very patch of dirt.
I wondered if their pain was still as fresh as mine or if it had faded with time.
I didn’t look up as I neared row twenty-three. I absent-mindedly counted each row I passed by, and when I reached the one I was looking for, I passed by eight graves before I came to a stop. I turned to face forward but kept my eyes on my shoes for a long time before I found my voice.