Page 20 of Welcome to the Cornish Country Hospital

‘I’m fine, but the pizza looks good.’

‘It isn’t, as these two will tell you, but you’re welcome to eat as much of it as you can stand.’

‘Thanks, I’m starving.’ Lucas grabbed a couple of slices of the long-cold pizza. ‘Should I ask why on earth the three of you have ended the night huddled around a laptop, instead of at Bar None, or am I better off not knowing?’

‘Probably better off not knowing.’ Aidan shrugged. ‘But I’m going to tell you anyway. We’re trying to get little-miss-single-and-oh-so-ready-to-mingle a date, by setting her profile up online.’

‘You’re online dating?’ Lucas made it sound akin to Danni deciding to drink her own urine.

‘I might, I just thought—’

‘No “might” about it – you are.’ It was Esther’s turn to cut someone off for a change, and she clearly wasn’t going to accept a debate. ‘We were just trying to fill in the section about how Danni’s friends would describe her. What would you say about her, Lucas?’

‘That she always puts other people’s feelings before her own.’ Lucas caught her eye for a split second and she was certain that everyone in the room must be able to hear her heart beating, because of how hard it was thundering in her chest. She had no idea what Lucas was playing at, but whatever it was, it was crossing the line she’d been so determined to draw between them. The idea of doing it had been so easy in theory, but now that he was standing in front of her, all her resolve seemed to evaporate. She didn’t even dare to look in Esther’s direction, but what her friend said next took her completely by surprise.

‘That’s exactly what I was saying, or at least trying to say. I don’t think I’m quite as coherent as I thought I was, after three of these.’ Esther raised her gin and tonic. With Aidan taking over the role of barman the moment they’d got in, and pouring very generous measures, it was surprising they’d managed to fill in any of the profile at all. At least the alcohol seemed to have softened his attitude towards Lucas, although that might also have been because he was relying on him for a lift home.

‘So, it’s agreed then?’ Aidan raised his eyebrows. ‘We’re going to put “funny, kind, hardworking and selfless” as the words we’d all use to describe her, and then maybe “seventies and eighties music nerd”, just to avoid making it sound like Danni has written all those things about herself. No one can be completely perfect. It’s no fun if someone’s too much of a goodie-goodie anyway, is it, Lucas?’

‘No fun at all.’ Lucas caught Danni’s eye again, and she might as well have been standing in the middle of the room naked given how exposed she felt. Thank God the other two were too drunk to notice. ‘But as entertaining as all of this is, if you want a lift with us, Aidan, I’m going to have to take you and Esther home in a bit. I’m on call early again tomorrow.’

‘I think Danni can finish the rest without us, but if you don’t show us a completed profile by the next time you’re on shift, we’re making our own one for you and there won’t be a thing you can do about it. Isn’t that right, Esther?’

‘Absolutely, but right now I need you to help me find my shoes and jacket, because I’ve got absolutely no idea where they are.’

‘Me neither.’ Aidan and Esther headed out of the living room and down the hallway in an attempt to find their missing footwear. They’d barely even left the room, when Lucas reached out and took hold of one of Danni’s hands.

‘Don’t start dating some guy you meet online, Dan. It isn’t you.’ He was staring at her so intently, she could feel goosepimples coming up all over her skin, but she forced herself to hold his gaze.

‘So, what should I do then? Spend my life with just my dog, watching my friends building their lives together for another four or five decades, and then die alone?’

‘It doesn’t have to be like that. We could—’

‘No! We couldn’t.’ Snatching her hand away, despite every fibre of her being screaming at her not to, she pushed him towards the door. ‘Go and help Esther find her stuff, and start counting your blessings about how bloody lucky you are to have found her.’

Danni pushed him again as they got out into the hallway, almost sending him cannoning into Aidan, who was bending down to put on his shoes.

‘Trainers found and unharmed apart from a liberal coating of slobber. Thank God.’ Aidan stood up to look at Danni. ‘Make sure you finish that profile and activate it, you hear, or there’ll be consequences you’ll come to regret.’

‘Oh, I know there will, and I promise it will be up and running by the time I’m next in work.’

As Danni saw them out, her goodbye to Lucas was much less effusive. Despite the amount of time she’d spent with him and Esther over the years, she’d always kept up her guard and made sure she was never too affectionate with him, which made the times he’d almost crossed the line even more inexcusable. But he seemed to take that risk more and more often. Danni’s treacherous body might not have caught up with her brain yet, because it was still responding to his physical proximity the way it always had, but something inside her was starting to shift.

11

Danni was as good as her word and her dating profile was live by the time she started her next shift. She still wasn’t convinced that it was the way to go and it was so hard to imagine meeting anyone. But she knew for certain she wasn’t imagining it any more. Lucas was aware of how she felt and he felt something too. It was time to throw everything at her plan to get over him. Moving to Cornwall hadn’t been enough. She’d also started looking for jobs overseas too and she was already partway through an application for a post in Sydney. Esther wouldn’t uproot the new life she and her family had just started in Cornwall, so there was no danger of her following Danni to the other side of the world. She’d be hurting her best friend by leaving, but not half as much as she’d be if Danni’s relationship with Lucas crossed the line even once.

The best-case scenario was that Danni would meet someone, fall head over heels in love and be over Lucas before she knew it. And at least if Danni ended up in Sydney, she’d be closer to her brother, Joe. She missed him more than she would allow herself to admit, and the far too infrequent trips to see one another only seemed to make that worse.

‘Any updates on matches?’ Aidan asked her the question at least once an hour when they were on shift together. But even if there had been someone who looked like a possibility, the last thing she would be doing was giving Aidan the opportunity to pass judgement on her preferences.

‘She’ll tell me before she tells you.’ Esther suddenly appeared from one of the cubicles, holding a stack of disposable kidney dishes. ‘If she doesn’t, I’ll be finding myself a new bridesmaid.’

‘I will tell you first, I promise. But, as I keep saying, there’s nothing to tell anyone yet.’ Danni gestured towards the dishes. ‘Dare I ask why you need so many of those?’

‘Someone’s put about forty of them in bay six. It’s no wonder the rest of the cubicles are empty.’ Esther shook her head. ‘I think the play specialist was using them to make hats when Gary and Dr Daniels were trying to get the piece of Lego out of that little boy’s nose.’

‘Kidney bowl hats can make a great distraction; you just need to ensure they’re empty first. I made that mistake once and discovered there are way worse things than having egg on your face!’ Aidan laughed, and Danni didn’t doubt for a moment that he could’ve distracted a child from an uncomfortable procedure if the need arose. But the department was sometimes lucky enough to be able to call on a play specialist, who was based in the children’s ward, and whose job it was to use play to help minimise children’s anxieties when they were going through treatment.

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