Free Their Very Special Marriage by Kate Hardy Page B

he’d talked about her to another woman, sharing their private concerns with someone else—and he couldn’t blame her. He knew he should be talking to his wife about their problems, not Caroline, but what else could he do? Rachel was so touchy nowadays. And he went wayback with Caroline—she was the only one he could trust with something like this.
    â€˜I thought you were going to phone from the hospital?’ Rachel asked.
    â€˜I meant to. I just...’ He sighed, and handed her the flowers. ‘Sorry. I got it wrong.’ Just like he got everything wrong these days. Rachel didn’t seem that pleased with the flowers. What would it take to make her happy? ‘Alf had chest pains, fell downstairs and blacked out. I thought it was probably angina, but I didn’t want to risk him having a full-blown MI—’ a myocardial infarction, or heart attack ‘—and if it was unstable angina, he’d be in trouble. It took me a hell of a long time to persuade him even to go to hospital—the only way I could do it was to drive him in myself.’
    â€˜His brother died in hospital last year,’ Rachel reminded him.
    â€˜I’d forgotten about that. No wonder he’s leery of the place.’ Oliver sighed. ‘This isn’t how I meant Sunday to be.’ His ‘day off’. Except he was on call. Maybe Rachel was right and they should put weekend and evening calls out to a locum service. But that wasn’t how the Bedingfield Surgery worked. They’d always done the calls themselves. A village doctor giving a proper village service. Personal. Changing all that would be—well, like throwing it all back in his father’s face, scorning everything that his father had worked for. He couldn’t do it.
    â€˜I’ve given the kids their tea. I’ll cook the chicken tomorrow—pasta all right with you for tonight?’
    â€˜I’m not really that hungry,’ Oliver said, and immediately wished he hadn’t when that edgy look appeared in Rachel’s eyes. He backtracked fast. ‘Want me to make it?’
    â€˜No. You’ve been out all afternoon. I’ll do it.’
    Oliver was too tired to argue. ‘OK.’
    Just tell her , Caroline had said. He wanted to. How he wanted to. But now wasn’t the right time.
    â€˜Mum rang,’ Rachel added. ‘She’s coming down for a few days to help me look after Sophie. I’m picking her up from Maidstone station tomorrow afternoon—can you pick Rob up from school?’
    â€˜Uh, yes. Sure.’ Actually, it wasn’t convenient, but he’d call in some favours.
    â€˜That means I’ll be able to do a couple of my shifts this week—you won’t need your locum all the time.’
    Where was this leading? Rachel definitely had a funny look on her face, but he couldn’t read it. ‘Rach, it’s all set up now. Leave it. You might as well enjoy the break and spend some time with your mum. You don’t get to see her that much.’
    â€˜Maybe I’ll pop in to the surgery and have a chat with—Caroline, isn’t it? About some of my patients.’
    Oliver panicked. Oh, hell. The last thing he wanted right now was Caroline meeting Rachel. Because Caroline and Rachel would get on extremely well. A cup of coffee later and they’d be swapping secrets—and the last thing he wanted was for Rachel to know that he’d been talking to Caroline about their marriage problems. She’d be so hurt that he’d discussed it with someone else instead of her, even though the point was that he couldn’t talk to her at the moment. ‘Don’t do that!’ he said.
    Rachel’s eyes narrowed. ‘Is there something I should know about?’
    â€˜What are you talking about?’
    â€˜What are you talking about?’ she countered.
    He didn’t know. All he felt was the roaring tide of panic through his veins.