The Right Time (49 page)

Emma sat there, silent. She hadn't expected any of this, she didn't know what she was supposed to think.

‘I asked Liz to let me know before you get the next round of results,' Blake went on, ‘so I can be here for you, whatever happens.'

There was a knock on the door and a nurse stepped in wheeling a trolley.

‘Excuse me, Ms Beckett,' she said. ‘You have to take your meds.'

‘Can we do this later?' said Emma. ‘It's not a good time right now.'

‘Well, sorry, but it's the right time.'

‘Okay, just leave them here.'

‘I'm supposed to stay to watch you take them.'

Emma groaned.

Blake turned to the nurse. ‘What if you give them to me?' he said. ‘I'll make sure she takes them.'

‘Well, we're not supposed to . . .' she hesitated.

Liz raised her hand. ‘I'm Dr Beckett. I'll supervise.'

The nurse nodded then. ‘Okay, I guess that will be all right.' She made a tick on her clipboard and then handed the little paper cup to Blake and left the room. He turned back and picked up the jug on Emma's bedside cabinet, pouring her a glass of water. ‘Here, you should take these now.'

She ignored that. ‘Look Blake, I don't know where we're supposed to go to from here.'

He held the little cup out to her.

‘The wedding's been cancelled. The whole thing's off, you got your way.'

‘Take your meds, Emma.'

‘Are we supposed to go back to the way it was?' she demanded. ‘Because I don't see how that's going to work.'

‘Just take your meds,' he persisted, holding the cup out.

‘Oh for crying out loud,' she said, snatching the cup from him and tossing it back into her mouth. She gagged. What was that? It wasn't a pill. She held her hand out in front of her and let it drop
from her mouth into her palm. Emma's heart stopped. It was a ring. A simple platinum ring. She stared at it as tears sprang into her eyes.

‘Remember?' Blake said quietly. ‘It was my job to organise the wedding rings. I went to pick them up the other day. I want to marry you, Em. More than ever. We can have any kind of wedding you want, I don't care what it costs . . . just please say you'll still marry me.'

Emma looked up at him then, and the tears fell over her lashes and rolled down her cheeks. He brought his hand to her face and wiped a tear away with his thumb. ‘Don't you know by now I couldn't live without you?' he said. ‘I just wanted to make sure I didn't have to.'

Liz gave her sisters a pointed look, and all three of them stood up and quietly filed out of the room. She glanced back when she got to the door, Blake was leaning over Emma, and they were kissing.

‘Oh my God!' Evie said once they were outside, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘That was so beautiful.'

Ellen brushed a tear away herself, and then gave Liz a gentle thump on the arm. ‘Why didn't you tell us?'

‘I couldn't,' said Liz. ‘He actually made me swear on Emma's life. The poor guy was beside himself.'

‘Well, what do you know?' said Ellen, shaking her head. ‘He really does love her, doesn't he?'

Evie let out a sob.

‘He really does,' Liz agreed.

‘Girls!'

They turned to see their mother marching up the corridor towards them, their dad following in her wake.

‘What are you all doing out here?' She stopped when she saw their tear-streaked faces. ‘Oh my God, what's happened?' she said, aghast. ‘There hasn't been bad news, has there?'

Liz took her arm. ‘No, Mum, don't worry. No bad news, it's all good,' she assured her. ‘In fact, it couldn't be better.'

Evie knew she had been avoiding dealing with Craig and the whole sorry mess of their marriage. But, like going to the dentist, she suspected the treatment was going to be almost as bad as the pain she was already experiencing. She really didn't want to dredge it all up, but she knew she had to: it was not going to go away. Of course Emma's plight had taken precedence over everything else, but when Blake had walked into that hospital room yesterday, and said those things to Emma, Evie had realised that she had a right to expect more for herself, even to demand it.

Emma had left the hospital today, and she and Blake were going home to wait for the results. She had someone to look after her now, and besides, the two of them needed time together alone. So Evie had no further excuse, she could not put off the inevitable any longer. She gave Craig notice when he got home that they were going to talk tonight, and she bathed and fed the kids early and put them to bed. He was sitting dutifully at the kitchen table when she came back downstairs, a beer in front of him.

‘Did you want anything to drink, love?' he said when she walked around to sit on the chair opposite him.

Evie shook her head. ‘So Craig, I suppose you realise that things can't keep going the way they are,' she began.

He shrugged. ‘I get you don't want to go to the place any more. I'm okay with that.'

She sighed inwardly. ‘Well, that's big of you, but it's not enough.' She took a breath. ‘You didn't value me, Craig. I'm the best thing in your life, and you didn't value me. And worse than that, I stopped valuing myself.'

He frowned, listening to her.

‘I don't mean to blame it all on you,' she said. ‘See, I thought my primary role in the family was to keep everyone else happy. But it turns out I wasn't even doing that right. Tayla's the unhappiest little girl I know, and I don't know why. Maybe she sees her future in me and that's what makes her so angry with me.'

‘I think you might be reading a bit much into that, hun,' said
Craig. ‘She seems pretty typical to me. My sister was a real little bitch at that age.'

‘I'm not so sure her behaviour is typical,' said Evie. ‘And if it is, then I'm not so sure it's okay.'

‘What's this got to do with us?' he asked.

‘What I'm trying to say is that things aren't right in this family, Craig,' said Evie. ‘And I do partly blame myself. Maybe I can even understand on some level why you were craving for something more, but it wasn't the solution to look outside for it.'

He was staring gloomily at his beer bottle. ‘Okay, I said we didn't have to go there again. Can't we drop it now, just move on?'

‘No, Craig, we can't move on that easily. We won't move on, we'll go back to all the same old habits, not really talking to each other, the television on all the time, while I run around doing everything.'

‘So you want me to help out more? Fine, just tell me what I have to do.'

‘It's not that simple, Craig.'

‘Ah jeez, Ev, why do you have to make a federal case out of this? It's over, it's not going to happen again. And I'll give you a hand with the kids . . . What else do you want?'

So much more than this, but it was no use trying to discuss it any further. It wasn't up for discussion anyway.

‘I think we need some time apart,' said Evie.

‘And how are we going to manage that?' he retorted. ‘I know, I'll go down to the Grand Prix next month, if you like,' he said with a chuckle. ‘That'll give us some time apart.'

Evie glared at him. ‘I was thinking of something longer term, Craig.'

He looked at her. ‘What do you mean?'

‘Well, you could go to a hotel,' said Evie, ‘but that wouldn't be very nice for the kids when they stay, and it would get too expensive anyway. There's always caravan parks, but there aren't any around here, and again, I don't think that's the best environment for the kids. Realistically, I don't see how we could afford two places right now. But I am planning to go back to work, so once I'm established, and depending on how things go between
us, well, we can look at our options then. So the only alternative at the moment is for you to go and stay at your mother's.'

While she spoke, Craig's face morphed from confused to perplexed to stunned. ‘You're kidding me, aren't you?'

‘I realise it's going to cramp your style, Craig, you won't be able to spend nights looking at porn, for one thing.'

Stunned didn't even begin to describe the expression on his face now.

‘I don't look at porn,' he said.

‘Don't lie, Craig. I saw it on the history on the computer.'

‘You've been spying on me?'

‘No,' Evie insisted. ‘I looked up “swingers' clubs” when you first brought it up, and when I went to clear the history, that's when I found it.'

‘So now you think I'm some kind of pervert?' said Craig. ‘Okay, I admit it, I've looked, I was curious, but I'm not addicted or anything. The guys at work are always on it, I'm not like that.'

Evie was relieved to hear that, but it didn't change anything. It was not really the issue at heart here.

‘What's this about anyway?' said Craig. ‘It's got to do with that bloke, Steve, hasn't it? I know you've been in touch with him.'

‘Yeah, I have,' she said. ‘He was someone to talk to when I didn't have anyone else. But he's a friend, and that's all he is.'

‘And you expect me to believe that?'

‘It's the truth; whether you choose to believe it or not is your problem.' Evie was surprised at how confident she felt. ‘Steve was interested in taking things further, but unfortunately I couldn't muster up any feeling for him more than friendship. I don't know why. He's kind and courteous, able to express his feelings; he's not like you at all.'

Craig looked sullen.

‘Needing time apart has nothing to do with hooking up with other people,' said Evie. ‘It's so that we can work on our relationship.'

‘And how are we supposed to do that if we're not even living in the same house? It doesn't make sense.'

‘Craig, we've lived in the same house since we were barely more than kids, and I've just become another piece of the furniture to
you. I don't believe we're going to have any chance of a future unless we really confront this. I think we need to be apart for a while, and that we should get counselling to help us through this.'

‘This is bullshit.' He pushed his chair back and stood up. ‘I don't need some crazy shrink with hairy armpits to tell me what's wrong with my marriage or, more likely, what's wrong with me. And I'm not moving out of my own house. Why the fuck should I?'

‘Okay Craig, if that's the way you feel,' Evie said calmly. She'd prepared herself for this, because she knew this was more than likely the way he'd react. ‘But the fact is, I can't stay in the same house as you right now. So, if you won't go, that forces me to move out with the kids, and if you put me in that position, everyone is going to know why. Your mother, and your father, the rest of your family, our friends. I will tell everyone all the gory details, you can count on that.'

He looked crestfallen. ‘Why are you doing this, Ev? Do you really hate me that much?'

She shook her head. ‘If I hated you I could walk away. Or I could have taken up with Steve. But I didn't, so what does that tell you?'

He just shrugged in response. He really did look miserable.

‘I want to work on our marriage and our family, Craig, but I can't do it on my own. I hope you'll decide to do your part.'

Liz burst through the double swing doors of the hospital's pathology lab clutching a piece of paper, and started down the corridor, virtually at a run. She glanced at the lift bay as she shot past, but the stairs would be quicker, it was only the next floor down anyway. She leapt down the stairs, taking two at a time, and darted around the corner and into the waiting room where she'd left Emma and Blake barely ten minutes ago.

They were sitting close together on a couch, their arms entwined and their hands clasped. They both looked up as Liz rushed in, catching her breath. She beamed at them.

Emma sat forward. ‘All clear?' she said, her voice barely making it out of her throat.

‘Clear as a bell,' said Liz. ‘There is no evidence of cancer in the lymph nodes.
No further treatment is required
,' she added, quoting from the report.

Emma turned to Blake with tears in her eyes. They didn't speak. He took her face in his hands and kissed her soundly, and then folded his arms around her as they held each other close.

‘Hey,' said Liz as she came over to them, still catching her breath, ‘don't I get a bit of loving?'

Emma broke away from Blake and jumped to her feet with a broad smile, throwing her arms around her sister.

‘So the lymph nodes are all clear,' she said over Liz's shoulder.

Liz nodded.

‘The cancer hasn't spread at all?'

Liz shook her head, and then she couldn't contain it any more, she burst into tears.

‘Liz, Lizzie,' Emma consoled her, patting her back, ‘it's okay, everything's going to be okay now.'