The realisation should’ve sent him running, but it didn’t. Who was Marc to judge when he’d spent all weekend fighting the urge to drink himself into oblivion? That he possessed the ability to resist was a gift, and he’d known plenty of men who didn’t have it.
He ventured a little closer to Jamie and took in pale skin and shadowed eyes that mirrored his own soul. “Where do you live?”
“Matlock Bath. Just about the high street.”
What are the fucking chances?“That’s not far from me. My car is over there.” Marc inclined his head towards the staff car park. “Wanna lift?”
“In the car that should’ve been mine?”
Marc snorted. “You’ll be glad it’s not when you see it. Seriously, though. It’s fucking freezing out here, and I don’t want to be pedantic, but you’ve missed the bus.”
Jamie looked around as the bus he’d obviously been waiting for pulled away, but he didn’t seem perturbed. “I wasn’t that keen on getting on it anyway. Empty house syndrome, you know?”
Don’t I just?Marc slid an arm free of his crutches and held it out. “Come on, then. I’ll take the scenic route and buy you breakfast.”
Jamie tentatively took Marc’s arm, and relieved him of the spare crutch, though he seemed more dubious about Marc’s balance than the fact that he was walking arm in arm with a man he’d met briefly on a plane three days ago. “I’m not really hungry,” he said. “But I wouldn’t mind a drive, if that’s okay. I haven’t seen much around here except the chippies and the hospital.”
“That was my life for a while.”
“Yeah? What did you do to fix it?”
“I got on a plane.”
Jamie chuckled, though it held no humour. “Tried that. I went all the way to California and still ended up here.”
“Doesn’t matter where you go, mate. And it isn’t so bad around these parts.”
“Thought you said it was a shithole?”
“I meant the hospital, and I only said it because I work here. Weekends in A & E will do that to any man.”
They reached the car park. Jamie let go of Marc’s arm while he fished his keys from his pocket, and then took it again with little apparent conscious thought. “You’re a doctor, aren’t you?”
“What makes you say that?”
Jamie shrugged. “You’ve got that vibe about you. If you hadn’t said you worked in A & E, I’d have plumped for social worker.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
Jamie’s dark-blue gaze flickered with something that set Marc’s teeth on edge. “Put it this way: I’m glad you’re a doctor.”
There were days when Marc was glad of it too. He unlocked his car, waiting for Jamie to see which one it was, and got his reward in the form of a grin that made Jamie’s face fleetingly boyish.
“You drive a yellow Fiat Punto?”
“Only because it was the first automatic I came across. I can’t drive a manual anymore.”
Jamie glanced at Marc’s crutches. “And you thought this was a decent alternative?”
“Lord no. I sent my mate Wedge out to get me a car, which is like sending a chimp to a tea party. I’m lucky it isn’t pink. Are you getting in or what?”
Jamie watched Marc hobble to the driver’s-side door and lower himself gingerly behind the wheel. For a long moment, it seemed that the bright-yellow car truly was giving Jamie pause for thought, but then he opened the passenger door and slid into the car with a grace that Marc could only dream of. The car’s blue interior apparently amused him as much as the yellow paint job, but he said nothing, only pursed his lips as Marc gunned the engine and backed out of the parking space.
“So...” Marc said when they’d left the hospital behind. “What brings you to this part of the world? You sound like a London boy.”
Jamie tore his gaze from the window. “I am a London boy. Least I used to be. I grew up in Holland Park.”
“Nice.”