Someone Like You (73 page)

‘What’s up with you?’ Angie enquired, as Leonie dumped her belongings and pulled on her nurse’s uniform.

‘Nothing,’ Leonie said, taking the clipboard with the day’s instructions on it. There were two dogs booked in for spaying that morning and Angie was doing exploratory surgery on a cat who was suspected of eating an entire reel of thread and a needle.

‘Is it the girls?’ Angie asked delicately.

‘No, they’re great. They had a lovely time but they’re happy to be home,’ Leonie answered. ‘Abby looks amazing and she’s so happy.’ Leonie’s voice trailed off. She didn’t want to talk about it. Hell, she didn’t know what was annoying her.

She inspected the surgery’s inhabitants. Three cats, one of whom was on a drip, four dogs who’d been operated on the day before and were due to go home, and Henry, a pigeon with a broken wing who glared at her from his cage, outraged to be confined in this way. To prove his point, he picked up his birdseed and threw it out of the cage on to the floor. Normally, this would have made Leonie laugh. Today, she glared back at him. ‘Bad boy, Henry,’ she said.

Angie answered a phone call from an owner concerned about their dog, while Leonie, Helen and Louise, the other nurses on duty, began bringing the dogs out for a constitutional in the back yard.

‘I know it hurts, you poor thing,’ Leonie crooned to a sweet nine-month-old boxer bitch who’d been spayed the day before and who was whimpering as she walked shakily out of her cage. The boxer leaned against Leonie, shivering and desperate for reassurance. Leonie hugged her until the frantic shaking stopped. ‘You’ll be going home today,’ she murmured, petting the dog’s soft ears.

When all the dogs had been let out and their cages cleaned, she and Louise started on the cats.

Finally, all the animals had been seen to and it was time for morning surgery. Because the receptionist was late, Leonie had to man the desk. She hated working on reception when it was busy and today the place was jammed. People and animals were crowded into the reception area, with dogs howling in misery and a lot of frightened mewing from cats in carriers. By the time the receptionist got there, apologizing profusely because she’d had a flat tyre, Leonie had processed ten people, taken four phone calls, and calmed a hysterical woman who arrived with a vomiting cat.

‘It’s OK,’ Leonie said woodenly.

Relieved of reception duty, she took over from Helen, who was assisting Angie in the operating room. Angie was removing impacted teeth from a poodle, a tricky job.

Silently, Leonie took up her position beside the poodle’s head, monitoring the dog’s breathing and colour. The dog’s tongue was a healthy shade of pink, meaning it was doing fine under the anaesthetic.

‘Jeez, Leonie, you look like you lost a shilling and found sixpence,’ Angie said, without looking up.

‘I’m fine.’

‘If you’re fine, I’m the Queen of Sheba,’ Angie announced. ‘Tell me what’s wrong, for God’s sake.’

‘Oh I don’t know. Something depressed me …’ Leonie said.

‘Hugh?’ Angie asked as she triumphantly dropped the extracted tooth into a little dish.

‘No. Something happened the other day when I went into town with Doug on the way to pick the twins up from the airport.’

‘Ah yes, the reclusive Doug. I saw him the other day,”

Angie said. ‘You wouldn’t kick him out of bed for eating crisps.’

‘Angie, you’re disgraceful! He’s been through so much.’

‘And you fancy comforting him?’ Angie remarked shrewdly.

‘No, I don’t. He’s a friend, that’s all.’

‘What was that Shakespeare said about people protesting too much?’ Angie went to work on another tooth.

‘He is,’ Leonie insisted.

‘And why didn’t you get an attack of the miseries when darling Hugh got the big E?’

There was no answer to that.

‘Tell me what happened,’ Angie ordered.

Leonie did.

‘And he hasn’t phoned since?’ Angie said in outrage.

Leonie shook her head.

‘You know what you have to do, don’t you?’ Angie added. ‘See him and tell him how you feel.’

‘Don’t be daft,’ Leonie began. Then backtracked: ‘Anyway, I don’t feel anything. I was just hurt he hadn’t rung to apologize. Well, he did ring, but I wasn’t there and he hasn’t rung back since.’

‘Delaney, don’t bullshit me,’ Angie barked. ‘I know damn well you’re crazy about him. You see him every second day, go for long walks with him, have endless cups of coffee in his studio … Now don’t tell me that’s not love, even if it’s only just occurred to you that it is. Hell, you saw ten times as much of Doug as you ever saw of bloody Hugh. Of course you’re in love with him.’

‘I didn’t know I was,’ Leonie said quietly. ‘It was when I saw him and Caitlin together that it hit me. I hated her for hurting him so much.’

‘Well, tell him!’

‘How can I tell him when he’s obviously with her?

What should I do - stomp up to the house and demand to be heard, with her standing in the background mocking me for even imagining I could go out with him? You should have seen her, Angie,’ she groaned. ‘She’s bloody perfect.’

‘Not if she dumped him as callously as you say she did.’

Angie gave the poodle an injection of antibiotic to help fight infection, then she picked him up to bring him back to his cage. ‘You’ve got to say something to Doug or you’ll kick yourself for the rest of your life.’

‘Guess I’ll just have to kick myself,’ Leonie muttered, cleaning up after the operation.

The following week, Danny came home from his trip with a rucksack full of filthy clothes and a million tales of his travels. The twins went back to school, buoyed up with their own tales of travels. Leonie was permanently busy, what with trying to get back into the early-morning routine, along with doing extra hours in work as one of the other nurses was sick and they all had to fill in. She shouldn’t have had a moment to think about Doug, but she managed it. She kept thinking of their walks in the mountains, the long talks they’d enjoyed sitting in Doug’s kitchen and that wonderful dinner in the Hungry Monk when they’d been so relaxed with each other. She’d never been that relaxed with Hugh, she realized. Even during lovemaking. Or perhaps especially during lovemaking.

Sometimes, she let herself think what it would be like to make love with Doug, to feel his beard brushing against her breasts as he kissed her … Stop it! Furious with herself for moping like a teenager, she took Penny on long, exhausting walks to burn off her nervous energy. She didn’t walk past Doug’s house: she went in completely the other direction so there was no chance of bumping into him and Caitlin, entwined besottedly with Jasper and Alfie gambolling at their feet. Penny, however, wanted to go their usual way and meet her canine pals, but Leonie dragged her away.

On Friday evening, she got home from her walk to find Doug’s Jeep parked on the drive.

‘Doug’s here!’ yelled Mel unnecessarily as Leonie arrived.

‘Great,’ lied Leonie. She hated facing him but there was no option. Fixing a bright smile on to her face, she went into the sitting room where Doug was watching television with Danny.

Doug immediately got up. ‘I need to talk to you,’ he said.

‘Sorry, can’t,’ Leonie trilled. ‘I’ve got a date with Hugh,’

she lied.

‘No you haven’t…’ began Danny.

Leonie silenced him with a killer look.

‘About last week, I’m so sorry, Leonie. Caitlin turned up and I had to talk to her…’

‘Fine,’ Leonie said brightly, backing out of the room.

‘Whatever. I have to go. Bye.’

She ran to her bedroom and slammed the door shut.

Then she fell on to the bed, mindless of the fact that she was still wearing her filthy walking clothes, and burst into tears.

He phoned on Saturday.

‘Say I’m out,’ Leonie whispered.

‘She says to tell you she’s out,’ Danny told Doug.

Leonie rolled her eyes. Tactful it wasn’t. Well, it might give him the message that their friendship was over, Leonie decided. If Doug was going to be superglued to the nauseous Caitlin for the rest of his life, Leonie didn’t want to have to witness it.

On Sunday, she was walking Penny when she spotted Doug’s Jeep coming down the road. Frantic to avoid him, she leapt into a nearby field, to Penny’s delight. The sheep in the field looked horrified. ‘We’ll only be here a moment,’

Leonie reassured them from her hiding place just inside the gate.

Life went on as usual. Abby enquired why Doug hadn’t been round to dinner since they’d got back from America.

‘I don’t know,’ Leonie lied. ‘He’s busy with a painting, I think.’

Abby gave her mother a knowing look. ‘And you expect me to believe that?’ she said.

Leonie groaned. ‘Not you, too. It’s like being on Oprah and being advised by the audience on what to do with your life.’

‘You’re not happy, Mom,’ Abby said. ‘Anybody can see that.’

‘I’m tired, Abby, that’s all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to put some washing in the machine.’

Another week limped by. Leonie was on auto pilot for most of it. It was her weekend on in the surgery and on Saturday, the place was jammed with clients and shivering animals. Leonie was monitoring a neutered rabbit when the phone rang for Angie.

‘Keep an eye on the rabbit, will you?’ Leonie asked Louise. ‘I have to get Angie.’

She went into the second surgery and stopped dead.

There, holding a quivering and howling Jasper on the examining table, was Doug. He looked harassed, his hair was windswept and he was wearing his walking clothes. He looked tired. Too much sex, she thought grimly.

‘What’s wrong with Jasper?’ she asked immediately.

Recognizing his old friend, Jasper wagged his plumy tail weakly.

‘Poor love,’ she said, stroking his head.

‘He’s hurt his paw. The dew claw has been ripped away from the flesh.’ Angie was preparing to numb the area.

Jasper howled with the pain and howled even louder when Angie approached him. She had that vet smell, Leonie knew, the smell all dogs hated.

‘There’s a phone call for you,’ Leonie told her. ‘Mrs McCarthy, about her cat. It’s urgent.’

‘Right. I’ll be back in a moment.’

Angie left the room.

‘Why have you been avoiding me?’ Doug asked quietly.

Leonie wouldn’t look at him. She kept her head facing Jasper, who had stopped howling but was pleading with her to let him get out of this horrible place.

‘I haven’t been avoiding you,’ Leonie said sharply. ‘I’ve been busy with my life, the way you’ve been busy with yours.’

‘I haven’t been busy,’ Doug replied. ‘I’ve been lonely and depressed. There’s been nobody dropping round at all hours making sure I take my vitamins or dragging me out of the studio to get some fresh air. Nobody to invite me to dinner and feed me home-made lasagne. Nobody to laugh with and talk to.’

Leonie found she’d been holding her breath. She exhaled slowly and shakily. ‘What about Caitlin?’ she asked. ‘The love of your life has come back, you don’t need boring old me to make you coffee or talk to. You’ve got Ms Wonderful to do that with you.’

Before he could reply, Angie swept back into the room.

Jasper whimpered again.

‘Sorry about that,’ she said, staring at Leonie, who was very pale around the mouth.

‘I must go,’ Leonie said and ran from the room.

She hid in the loo for a few minutes until she was sure she had overcome the desire to cry. Then she went back to look after the rabbit. They were short-staffed today and there were so many animals to keep an eye on; she couldn’t leave it all to Louise and Helen.

She’d just closed the rabbit’s cage a few minutes later when Angie appeared, followed by Doug and Jasper, who was panting happily and holding up his front paw which was now expertly bandaged.

‘You’re not allowed in here,’ Leonie yelped. ‘Jasper’s better now. You should go home.’

Angie took Jasper’s lead from Doug, who advanced until he was standing very close to her. She could smell the distinctive scent of oil paints and there was a smudge of yellow ochre on his shirt.

‘You can fix his paw,’ Doug said, ‘but you can’t fix my heart.’

Leonie stared tremulously up at him.

All the nurses were watching. Even the animals in the cages were interested. Watching humans having a heart melting drama was more fun than watching the nurses approach with injections and rectal thermometers.

‘Doug, what are you on about?’ Leonie said, desperately trying to control her emotions.

‘You - I’m on about you. You’ve been avoiding me for two weeks. You won’t go for walks with me and you never come to the studio for coffee any more.’

‘This is hardly the place to talk about it,’ she squeaked.

‘You won’t talk to me at home, so I had to come here.’

‘And you hurt poor Jasper to get me to talk to you?’

she enquired.

‘No, Jasper knew I was desperate and when he came home today limping, it was the ultimate sacrifice.’

Even at a moment like this, Doug could make her laugh.

‘I’ve never met anybody who can jump to conclusions like you do,’ he added.

‘That’s true,’ Louise interjected.

Leonie gasped at the injustice of it all.

‘You were convinced that German Shepherd’s leg was broken when it wasn’t,’ Louise pointed out.

‘That’s not jumping to conclusions, that’s imagining the worst-case scenario so you can make the correct decision.

I’d prefer to overreact than under-react,’ Leonie said.

‘You overreacted when you saw me with Caitlin,’ Doug said softly. ‘I couldn’t bring you to the airport because I had to comfort her. She was in bits because she wanted us to get back together and I told her it was out of the question, that I was in love with someone else.’

Leonie felt tears prickle behind her eyes.

Jasper, getting bored, howled.

‘Quiet, Jasper,’ warned Angie. ‘This is better than Coronation Street.’

Everyone laughed. Doug reached out and pulled Leonie towards him. ‘I love you, Leonie. If I have to tell you in front of an audience, I will, because I’m crazy about you and that’s the only way you’ll believe me.’ He raised his voice. ‘I, Doug Mansell, am madly in love with Leonie Delaney, mother-of-three, big softie and jumper-to conclusions.’