Page 30 of Flowers Go Flying in Crumbleton

‘You,’ he agreed. ‘I knew you were doing the flowers, and I knew you’d been invited. I wanted to see you… again. After… well… I don’t know if you remember but… again.’

He was making a real pig’s ear out of this, wasn’t he?

Murray paused and cleared his throat. Poor woman. She was going to leg it off the trawler before she’d even drunk her coffee if he wasn’t careful. Mud be damned!

‘Anyway,’ he said, ‘it didn’t work out quite the way I’d planned.’

‘What did you have planned?’ she said quietly.

‘I was hoping we might at least get to dance,’ he said, feeling his face grow hot as he met her eyes. ‘Instead, I got to ride in the back of an ambulance… and I don’t even remember it. If only I’d stayed inside and gone over my speech, none of it would have happened. Maybe we’d have…’

Murray trailed off. He’d said way too much already. Milly was now fidgeting in her chair and picking at the handle of her coffee cup.

Great, he’d made her feel uncomfortable.

This was why he’d left it so ridiculously long to talk to her again. Why he’d never summoned the courage to do something about his monumental crush. To say he wasn’t good at small talk was an understatement.

Letting out a sigh of defeat, Murray hauled himself out of the chair again and headed back to the coffee machine. He didn’t really want another drink… but it was better than sitting in awkward silence across from Milly while he waited for her look of mild confusion to morph into one of horror.

‘You are kidding me… right?’

Milly’s voice made him turn in surprise. She had a strange look on her face. Quizzical… but definitely not horrified. In fact, she looked like she was caught somewhere between surprise… laughter and… hope?

‘Kidding about what?’ he said, wondering if maybe those flowers had done more damage than the scans had revealed. What if this was one of the side effects they’d told him to look out for – a hallucination, perhaps? Maybe the girl of his dreams – sitting in his kitchen, wearing his clothes after taking a shower in his bathroom – was just a figment of his imagination. A symptom of a good thrashing by a bunch of daisies.

It certainly seemed a lot more plausible than Milly rowing all the way out to the trawler to check he was okay. Of course, if she was just a phantom who was about to disappear in a puff of smoke, it would be safe to tell her. After just one kiss, he’d fallen in love with her - a perfect stranger.

‘Earth to Murray!’ said the phantom gently.

‘Huh?’’ he mumbled, swaying on the spot.

‘Murray?’ the phantom got to her feet, looking a bit freaked out. ‘I think you’d better sit down!’

CHAPTER 13

MILLY

Milly grabbed Murray’s arm as he wobbled precariously.

‘Come on,’ she said, worry lacing her voice. ‘You need to sit down!’

Wrapping one arm around his waist, she held on tightly as she guided him back towards his chair. She watched in concern as he sank down onto it.

Was his head bothering him?

He’d been perfectly fine… until suddenly, he wasn’t. The colour had drained from his face, and for a moment she’d been convinced he was about to faint.

Milly’s guilt about turning up at Murray’s place unannounced promptly disappeared. There was no way he should be all the way out here on his own right now. Even if the hospital had booted him out, something clearly wasn’t quite right.

Staring down at him as he swayed gently on the chair, Milly wondered what she could do to help. Should she call the doctor or something?

Other than wincing slightly when he’d run his fingers through his hair earlier, Murray had seemed to be well enough. Now, though? He definitely wasn’t well. In fact, he looked a bit like she did when she forgot to take a lunch break.

Ah!

‘Murray?’ she said gently, watching as he tried to prop his head up with both hands.

‘Mmm?’

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