by Lisa Hobman
She reached his bedside and bent to gently kiss his forehead. His eyes were barely visible under all the swelling, his head was bandaged and his ribs were strapped up. She sat on the chair at the side of the bed and held his hand.
A nurse walked in to check on the machines that bleeped and flashed myriad numbers and letters.
She smiled at Mallory kindly. ‘Are you Mallory?’ she asked in a soft Scottish accent.
‘Yes,’ Mallory whispered.
The nurse nodded. ‘Good, he’s been asking for you repeatedly. He keeps drifting in and out of consciousness so you’ll have to bear with him. He’s heavily sedated due to his injuries and the tests we’ve had to do, but talk to him. He can hear you and it’ll help him very much to know that you came.’ She patted Mallory’s shoulder and left the room.
‘Greg, it’s me, Mallory.’ She let out a sob. ‘I want you to squeeze my hand so I know you’re okay. I… I just need to know you’re okay.’ She stroked his hand.
He didn’t respond.
She leaned closer. ‘Greg, I want you to know that I’m sorry for how I reacted when you told me about Alice. You said you don’t love her and I should’ve accepted that. It doesn’t matter that you’re still married if you don’t love her. It’s just a piece of paper that can be dealt with… You said you love me and I should’ve just been happy but now I’m scared I’m going to lose you, too. You need to get better, Greg. You need to come home.’
Still nothing.
She stroked his hair where it poked out of the top of the bandaging. ‘It’s strange how it’s taken something like this to kick me up the arse and make me realise exactly how I feel. I was intent on talking to you tonight to see if we could get past what happened between us. But when I found out that you had gone missing I thought over everything we’ve been through. The arguments, the kisses, the laughs. And it dawned on me. Nothing else matters.
‘The thing that matters most is that I love you, Greg.’ Her face was wet with tears. ‘Greg, can you hear me?’ She squeezed his hand. ‘Greg, I’m in love with you. Please don’t leave me. I’m stupid and I’m stubborn and self-righteous. I judged you and made assumptions about you and I was so, so wrong. You told me exactly how you felt and I threw it back in your face. And now I realise that I love you and don’t want to be without you. It doesn’t matter how soon this has happened. It’s no one’s fault. It doesn’t make it wrong. I know that now. Please just wake up and tell me you still love me.’ She sat holding his hand for a while and staring at his unresponsive face. Then she stared at the rain drizzling down the window mirroring her tears.
She rested her head on the bed beside him and drifted in and out of sleep as her emotional exhaustion kicked in. After what seemed like hours, she felt Greg squeeze her hand and she lifted her head to look at him. His eyes had opened a little and he squinted at her.
He lifted his free hand and removed the mask from his face. ‘Hey, Mally,’ he smiled, his words slurring as he spoke. ‘You came.’
She squeezed his hand in return and laughed through her tears. ‘Of course I came, Greg.’
‘It’s good to see you… Oh, no, please don’t cry. I’m always making you cry,’ he croaked.
She kissed his hand. ‘No Greg, I’m fine… I’m just relieved. It’s so good to see you.’
Greg’s eyes widened, filled with dread and fear. ‘The Carrick boys… Tom and James… are they okay? I tried to get to them. I tried but I—’
‘They’re fine, please don’t worry. Just shocked and a little bruised, that’s all.’
‘Oh thank God.’ He closed his eyes and puffed out a long breath as his bottom lip trembled and tears escaped the corners of his swollen eyes. After a pause in which confusion washed over his face, he squeezed her hand. ‘I had a dream earlier.’ He smiled. ‘It was such a good dream… but… I think you woke me from it.’ His brow furrowed again as he seemed to be trying to make sense of things.
‘Oh, I’m so sorry, Greg. I just wanted to hear your voice again.’
‘The dream was strange. You… you were in it, crying and stroking my hair… and you told me you were in love with me and it made me so happy.’ His frail voice broke as more tears escaped and trailed down his cheek, soaking into the bandages on his head, and he closed his eyes. ‘But then I woke up.’
As she listened, Mallory’s heart pounded. The hand that had pulled his mask off now covered his eyes as his raw emotions broke free. He shuddered and sobbed with a deep, deep sadness.
‘Greg, look at me, open your eyes, please,’ she begged him, fighting back her own tears.
He lifted his hand to halt her. ‘I’m sorry, I know all that’s gone now, I ruined it after Alice and Kate… I’m so sorry. I blew it. I always mess everything up.’ He struggled to form the words as he fought against his sedation.
‘Greg, look at me please.’ He opened his eyes again as best he could and turned his face towards her. ‘Greg it wasn’t a dream. I said and did those things. I stroked your hair and squeezed your hand. And… and I told you I’m in love with you and that I never want to be without you again.’ More tears cascaded down her already damp face.
His brow furrowed and his eyes closed briefly. When he opened them again his gaze was intense. ‘You did? You love me?’ His voice wavered as he searched her expression.
She stood and bent over him. ‘I love you. Greg, I want to be with you, always.’ She leaned down and kissed his cut lips gently. ‘But can you forgive me? And do you still want me?’
His lips curled upward. ‘Do you really need to ask me that?’
She blew out a long relieved breath. ‘That’s so good to hear.’ She stroked his hair. ‘Now please get well so we can get you out of here.’ She kissed him again.
His hand came up to touch her hair. ‘Mallory?’
‘Yes Greg?’
‘I love you. More than anything in this world.’
*
Somehow, Mallory managed to convince the nurses to ‘forget’ she was there and after thanking and hugging Colin, she told him to go home.
She slept in Greg’s room in a rather hard and unforgiving chair with a single blanket for warmth. She was as uncomfortable as hell, but she didn’t care.
In the night she was woken by Greg shouting out. ‘NO! No, please! No! Mallory?’
Mallory stood and went to his side immediately and took his hand. ‘Shhh, Greg, shhh, it’s okay, I’m here.’
His eyes fluttered open and he winced. His breathing was shallow and ragged. ‘Mallory? You’d gone. You left me.’ He grabbed onto her hand as tightly as he could.
She kissed his furrowed brow. ‘No, Greg, I’m not going anywhere, I’m here to stay.’
He calmed and drifted back off to sleep but kept his grip on her hand. She dragged the chair over to his bedside and rested her head on the bed near his hip.
When she awoke it was daylight. Greg was already awake and stroking her hair. When she lifted her head to look at him, the oxygen mask had been removed from his face and he looked a lot brighter. He was still attached to the machines but his whole demeanour was much more alert.
‘Hey. How are you feeling?’ she asked him softly.
‘Much better for seeing you beside me,’ he croaked. ‘I’m still terrified you’ll tell me it was the drugs or that I was dreaming.’ He looked at her with pleading eyes.
She reached up and stroked his face. ‘Well, that’s not going to happen. I’m not going anywhere this time.’
‘Do you promise? Because I’m in this for the long haul, Mallory.’
‘I promise. After what we’ve been through since we met I think we can deal with whatever gets thrown at us, don’t you?’
Greg squeezed her hand. ‘I hope so… but I’m scared.’
‘You have nothing to be scared of, Greg. When I thought I’d lost you last night I realised that some things are totally insignificant. You and I can work things through together. No more secrets, eh?’
‘Well… there’s on
e more I need to tell you…’
Mallory’s heart sank and she braced herself for what was to come. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. His grave expression was not instilling her with confidence for what he was about to impart.
She opened her eyes and looked directly into his as he said, ‘I… I… I’m a huge Bee Gees fan…’ He smiled and Mallory burst out laughing.
She kissed her funny, bruised and sore man gently on his poor swollen lips.
*
Mallory went home to freshen up and pick up some things for Greg. She bought him a couple of music mags and picked up her iPod. She called at Greg’s to collect some of his CDs to load onto it. Sure enough as she flicked through the discs on his old jukebox there it was, plain for all to see, ‘The Bee Gees Greatest Hits’. She chuckled, it was a far cry from the nineties heavy rock he loved so much but very sweet.
She carried on collecting a few more things that she guessed he would need in hospital and noticed a pile of official-looking documents on the coffee table. She knew they were private, but couldn’t help herself. Curiosity killed the bloody cat! But she ignored the voice in her head and picked them up to quickly examine them. Divorce papers. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realised that both Alice and Greg had put their signatures to the documents. She placed them back on the table as they were and left the house.
Stella was out and about as she drove back from Greg’s. She was walking Angus… well, if the truth be told, Angus was actually walking Stella. Mallory was laughing as she pulled to a stop beside them.
‘Hi, Mallory. How are you doing, hen? It’s good to see you smiling that’s for sure. How’s Greg?’
‘He’s doing much better now thank you and I’m just relieved that he’s okay. He’s bruised and sore, but not in any danger now. Thanks for taking Angus. I’m sure he’s getting spoiled rotten just like Ruby is with Ron,’ she giggled.
‘Oh, it’s nae bother. He’s eating me out of house and home, mind. Look Mallory… I wanted to say that… I hope you and Greg work things out… you’d make such a lovely couple.’ Stella waved and took off to finish her drag, as opposed to walk.
When Mallory arrived back at the hospital, armed with goodies for her new love, his bed was empty. She panicked. There was no one at the nurses’ station so she had to hang around tapping her foot and waiting. The thing she hated most in the world was waiting.
Eventually, a nurse came along and informed her that Greg had been moved onto a general ward. She breathed a huge sigh of relief and made her way to his new location.
He was sitting up when she got there. His chest still gloriously bare, apart from a few remaining disconnected electrode pads and bandages. The drips had been removed and the heart monitor had gone too. He looked a little like he’d had the proverbial altercation with Mike Tyson, but his eyes sparkled all the same.
She nearly ran to the bedside. ‘Oh, Greg, look at you. So much better.’ She leaned in to kiss him gently, but his hand came up to the back of her head, pulling her in for a deeper kiss. When she broke free she looked around to see if anyone had just witnessed the veraciously passionate exchange between them. Thankfully no one was taking the slightest bit of notice. She looked back to Greg who was smiling and shaking his head.
‘If being out there in that icy water, fearing for my life, has taught me anything, it’s that from now on I’m not going to hide my emotions any more. I love you and I want you and I don’t care who sees or who knows it.’ His low growl sent shivers down her spine.
Her cheeks heated and she returned his gaze with just as much passion. ‘Have they said when you can come home?’ she asked, hopeful that it would be soon.
‘Well, it turns out I have no internal bleeding, just bruised ribs and a bust-up face so they’re happy for me to go home at the end of the week. I’ve been so lucky, Mally.’ He looked pensive.
‘What happened to Little Blue?’ she asked cautiously, knowing how much he loved his boat.
‘Capsized. I got thrown overboard. There was quite a bit of damage, but they managed to tow her in. Hopefully I can repair her. But she’ll be out of action for a while. That’ll teach me for trying to be the hero, eh?’ He looked puzzled for a while until he spoke. ‘Mally… what happened with that couple I saw who viewed your house?’ Worry was once again etched on his features.
She bit her lip, feeling anxious at telling him everything now that he was fully conscious. ‘They made an offer.’
Greg gasped and stared for a moment, open-mouthed. ‘Oh god. What will you do? I mean… please be honest… do you want to go back to Yorkshire?’
She shook her head. ‘I thought I did. I mean I considered it but… Josie and Brad… oh and old lady on a train, they made me see sense. Although I don’t feel things have worked out since we… since I moved in there.’
Greg took her hand and tilted her chin up. ‘That’s all about to change. Please don’t sell up. I really think you’d regret it. Sealladh-mara Cottage has your fantastic workshop. I saw some of your stuff in Colin’s shop and was so impressed and I think you could sell loads more here. Don’t give that opportunity up.’
‘I rejected the offer, Greg, and have taken it off the market. I maybe should’ve led with that, eh?’
Despite the swelling and bruises, a wide, handsome grin spread across his face. ‘Yes that would’ve been good.’ He huffed. ‘You do love that place though. And… so do I.’
She nodded. ‘I do but it’s lonely sometimes. And sometimes it doesn’t feel like my home. I kind of feel like a guest there. That probably sounds silly.’
‘Look, there are things we can do to make it feel like home. I can help. I want to help, okay? We can keep Sam’s memory alive and make it your home too.’
Touched by his words, she nodded her acquiescence.
*
The next few days were filled with hospital visits for Mallory, but she managed to squeeze in a visit to Easdale to sign the lease on the second branch of Le Petit Cadeau and couldn’t wait to tell Greg. By the end of the week they had mentally redecorated and kitted out the shop and she was excited to put their plans into place for real. Greg felt the same although he said his main priority was to get home and begin his relationship with Mallory in more private, comfortable and intimate surroundings.
On the day Greg was due to come home, Mallory arrived at the hospital in the Landy, figuring it would be easier for him to get in and out of in his current bruised and battered state.
She helped him down to the car and he grinned, clearly surprised when he saw his hunk of a vehicle there waiting for him. ‘Bloody hell, Mallory, you brought my car?’ he laughed, impressed at her bravery in driving the old boneshaker.
‘Yes, and boy that was a fun experience. It put a smile on my face that’s for sure.’
‘See, I knew I could convert you. We’ll need to get you one instead of that pocket-sized, pretend car you drive around,’ he teased. ‘Winters around here are a sight to behold, but my oh my, will you know about it if you try to go out in your toy car.’ He chuckled and she shook her head at his audacity.
He was really happy to be going home. And Mallory was happy to be taking him. She had been around earlier in the week to clean his house and stock his food cupboards. She even placed fresh flowers around the place to make the basic and mismatched surroundings of his bachelor pad more conducive to a homecoming welcome.
When they arrived at Greg’s house, she manoeuvred the rather stiff and achy six foot tall, broad, muscular man inside and onto the sofa, with great difficulty. He grabbed her and pulled her to him, wincing in pain as he did so. His hand found her hair and he pulled her mouth to his. The kiss was deep and passionate and made Mallory’s insides turn to jelly.
‘God I’ve wanted to do that properly for so long,’ he gasped. ‘And I’m willing my ribs to get better quickly. I’m not sure where we are on the taking it slow thing, but I’d appreciate a heads-up ’cause I’m just about going to go crazy here.’ His eyes
flashed and her breath caught in her throat.
‘Please, just get well, Greg; quickly.’ Unable to get enough, she kissed him again. When she released his mouth she stared into his hot, melted chocolate gaze, smiling. ‘You have the most amazing eyes, Greg. I could fall right in and drown.’
‘Feel free,’ he whispered.
How had she managed to hold back from this? How had she nearly let him go?
Suddenly a worrying thought crossed her mind. ‘I… maybe I should call Renee?’
‘To tell her about us?’ Greg asked.
‘Yes. Or is it too soon? I mean we don’t know what will happen do we? Maybe I should wait?’
Greg’s brow furrowed and he pulled his lips into a line. ‘It worries me that you think something will break us up again. You can’t think like that or you’ll always be waiting. I have no intention of this ending.’ He tucked her hair behind her ear. ‘But if you still have doubts maybe we should go back to taking things slow until you can trust me again?’ He looked a little disappointed at the thought.
‘No… no, Greg it’s not that. This feels right.’ She gestured between the two of them. ‘We do feel right. I think I’m just scared because I was so in love with Renee’s son. What if the Buchanans decide they don’t want to know me anymore? That’d break my heart.’ Her eyes dropped to where her hand was entwined with Greg’s.
He tilted up her chin. ‘That won’t happen. You know they want you to be happy. I’m sure they’ll be fine. Just explain everything exactly as it happened.’
‘I may leave it a few days so I can figure out what to say. Is that okay with you?’
‘Mallory, you don’t need my permission. It’s entirely up to you.’ He squeezed her hand in reassurance.
‘Okay, well I’ll maybe ring after the weekend. Right, coffee?’ She jumped up off the sofa.
‘Oh no… are you making it?’ he chuckled.
She pursed her lips at him and placed her hands on her hips. ‘Oooh, Greg if you weren’t injured already…’
*
After an evening of talking and planning trips they might take when Greg was better he yawned and rubbed at his eyes. Knowing that his ordeal had taken its toll on him, Mallory decided to help him to bed, but he initially protested. She persevered, however, and with an eye roll reminiscent of a sulking teen, he eventually gave in and allowed her to lead him up the stairs.
