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Mat’s earshot before Lauren started. ‘You’ve got some nerve coming back here.’
    ‘Still predictable, I see,’ Ellie replied, before she thought better of it. Probably not a good idea to bait the wildcat.
    Lauren froze. Her eyes narrowed and her hands moved to her hips. ‘What’s that’s supposed to mean?’
    For a split second Ellie felt as if she were back in high school. ‘I thought you might have come up with something more original, but no, you said what I’m expecting everyone will say.’
    Ellie saw her opponent’s fists bunch. ‘Whatever. You think you’re so fabulous, don’t you? Well, not in Hope you’re not. Apart from Matilda, no one wants you here. Especially not Flynn.’
    Ellie’s ribcage tightened. She didn’t want to talk about Flynn, especially not with Lauren. With false calm, she tried to steer the conversation elsewhere. ‘I’m only here for Mat.’ Damn, even she could hear the crack in her voice. ‘So if you don’t mind telling me what I need to know about her painkillers and recovery, I’d like to take her home, please.’
    ‘Always about you,’ muttered Lauren. She turned and headed back towards the nurses’ station.
    Fifteen minutes later and not nearly quickly enough, Ellie and Sheila had Matilda settled as best they could be in the front seat of the golden Premier.
    ‘Are you sure you’re comfortable?’ Ellie asked as she reversed the beast out of the car park.
    Matilda shuffled slightly in her seat. ‘Don’t worry about me. Did she leave claw marks?’
    Ellie summoned a chuckle. Typical Matilda, worrying about everyone else when she needed all her energies for herself.
    ‘You mean Lauren? She didn’t bother me. I just can’t believe she’s a nurse.’
    ‘Stranger things have happened at sea,’ Mat surmised, quoting one of her favourite phrases. ‘Besides, everyone knows she only did it for the cute, wealthy doctors.’
    Ellie couldn’t help but laugh out loud. ‘Has she had any luck?’
    ‘None whatsoever!’ Matilda roared. ‘Oh, we’ve had plenty of eligible doctors pass through. All are more than happy to pamper her desires while in town. But much to her dismay, none of them ask her to go with them when they move on.’ Matilda paused, then added with a wicked tone, ‘Perhaps she should have become an actress instead.’
    Ellie’s laugh was drier this time. ‘Trust me, there’s no sure-fire success there either.’
    On screen and off, the best love she’d ever had was during her time in Hope Junction. Misfortune had played a hand in the demise of that relationship, and she’d been unlucky in love ever since.
    ‘Here we are,’ she announced.
    A fact about small town life: it didn’t take any time at all to get from one place to another, which wasn’t always a good thing. Travel time had its perks – opportunities to ponder, talk, read or just rest. But Matilda’s whole face lit up as she stared delightedly at her cottage.
    ‘Now we just have to work out how to unfold the wheelchair and get you inside.’
    An ‘Ugh’ escaped Matilda’s lips and the joy on her face softened. She gestured to her plastered limb. ‘If this is God’s idea of a joke, I’m crossing to the dark side.’
    Ellie smiled. She wasn’t sure she believed in God – some days she did, some she didn’t, and some it didn’t seem possible that there wasn’t a divine creator of some kind. More often than not she had her doubts. Matilda’s beliefs weren’t conventional either.
    ‘Perhaps God is just trying to tell you to slow down, rest a little.’
    Matilda aimed her middle finger skywards. ‘Bollocks to that.’

Chapter Three
    At the hammering on his front door, Flynn shook his head and stumbled from the couch. He’d been there for the last couple of hours, staring at a mark on the wall. His stomach groaned, alerting him to the fact it was probably way past lunch.
    ‘Flynn, what are you doing in there?!’ Lucy’s high-pitched shout shot through his head.