Free How To Save a Marriage in a Million by Leonie Knight Page B

stirring his fresh one.
    Joanna was silent. Uncomfortable maybe?
    ‘I wanted to have a word with the Simses as well. And Taylor Bryant’s mum seemed…’ He stopped to think for a moment.
    ‘Depressed?’
    Not only was Joanna insightful but she really cared.
    ‘That’s what I thought too.’
    ‘She told me she’d had postnatal depression after Taylor was born, and recovered. She’d been doing really well until…’ She was much more comfortable talking about work.
    ‘The books tell us that parents experience a process of grieving when their child is diagnosed with a chronic illness, and cancer is the worst scenario. But in the real world no case is the same.’ Richard suddenly realised he was talking to someone who had gone through it all. And he’d been there with her. He’d shared the shock and denial, the anger and finally acceptance long after the diagnosis had been made. The knowledge he’d had as a paediatrician in training hadn’t made it any easier. In fact, it had probably made it worse.And then they’d experienced it all again when Sam had died. He wished he’d kept his big mouth shut.
    ‘Sorry,’ he added.
    She looked at him for a long moment, the pupils of her striking black-brown eyes dilating a fraction before she spoke.
    ‘Don’t be,’ she finally said. ‘I’m okay with it.’ Her eyes moved to focus on a place in the distance before they returned to fix on his. ‘I’ll never get over it. I don’t think any parent who has to cope with what I… we …did does. But we all heal in different ways. I’m sorry I made it so hard for you. I know you tried to be there for me but I just couldn’t believe anyone, not even you, could understand. I needed to work through the whole process on my own.’
    She’d been fiddling with her spoon, rotating it on the table, but she stopped and surprised him by reaching over and laying her hand on his.
    ‘Like you said, people cope in different ways. And that was my way. Alone.’ She paused to take a sighing breath. ‘I’ve got a good but very different life now. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.’She gave him the same sort of soothing smile she bestowed on grieving parents and confused kids.
    ‘Look I didn’t mean to—’
    ‘We had to talk about it. I thought there might be problems with you worrying how I would deal with Danny. It needed to come out in the open. I’ll cope.’ Her hand went up to her head again. ‘And you don’t have to worry about my personal history interfering with my work. I make sure it doesn’t.’
    Richard wanted to talk some more on a different level, to reassure her and tell her how brave she was and that there was no one in the world like her, but he knew anything he said would be a clichéd pat on the back and he wasn’t sure how to open his heart without hurting her even more.
    ‘I don’t doubt it for a moment,’ he finally said. ‘I’ve been back long enough to see how you work and I’ve no complaints.’
    Joanna sipped her coffee.
    ‘I’m a bit of a cappuccino junkie. This is good, but I really must go.’
    She stood, leaving half her drink.
    ‘You’re going to Maltilda?’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘To see Danny and his dad?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Mind if I come with you?’
    She smiled again and the warmth of it enveloped him like a curative hug. It was like the old days but he knew he’d have to work hard at keeping Joanna on his side.
    ‘Of course not. We’re playing on the same team after all.’
    She was right. And for once in his life he believed winning was important, not just how you played the game.

CHAPTER FIVE
    T HEY visited Danny together and Richard learned a lot about his young patient and a little more about the new, independent Joanna. And what he discovered, he liked…a lot.
    She seemed to have a natural rapport with teenagers by somehow tapping into that unique kind of humour that allowed them to stick a finger up at authority but at the same time laugh at themselves.