Page 24 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

She had received frequent updates from Eddie about Ryan, who apparently had managed to catch a last-minute flight from Rome and was racing across the country to get to the hospital.

She headed to the coffee shop on the ground floor to wait for him. She dreaded seeing Ryan, who would definitely be mad with her. After all, he had asked her to take care of his dad and look what had happened!

Time dragged until finally she looked up to see Ryan rush across the entrance hall of the hospital towards where she sat.

‘How is he?’ he asked, breathless, dumping his coat on the chair opposite hers and throwing an overstuffed bag onto the floor.

‘Three broken bones in his foot. He’s having the operation at the moment,’ she told him. ‘The breaks were clean thankfully, but two of them needed pinning, which is why the doctors needed to operate. Given his history of high blood pressure, I was told that he’ll probably be in hospital for a few days. They’ve said that you’ll be able to see him just as soon as the anaesthetic has worn off. He should be upstairs on a ward by this evening.’

Ryan sank down onto the chair next to her, looking exhausted. ‘Right. Well, thanks.’

‘There’s no need to thank me,’ she told him, with a grimace. ‘Especially as it’s all my fault.’

‘What are you talking about?’ he said, looking at her confused.

‘I was busy on my phone and not concentrating on your dad when he tripped over,’ she replied, dragging a hand through her hair. ‘I’m so sorry. It’s my fault. My responsibility.’ She stood up. ‘I’m sure Bob will be pleased to see you back here. And now that you’ve arrived, I shall head back to the station and pack. I think it’s best for everyone that I leave as quickly as possible.’

She had made the decision a short while ago and felt it was the right thing to do.

‘Wait a minute. I don’t understand,’ Ryan said, standing up opposite her.

‘I can’t stay here now,’ she told him, aghast. ‘Bob will hate me. I hate me.’

‘I don’t think my father’s capable of hating anyone,’ said Ryan. He suddenly looked tired. ‘Listen, I’ve just raced across two countries to get here. Let me get a coffee and something to eat and then we’ll talk. Okay?’

She didn’t want to stay. She just wanted to run away, which she had never felt like doing from a job before then. As Ryan headed towards the counter, she wondered why she felt like just leaving it all behind suddenly, despite the job not being anywhere near finished.

It was because the work in Cranfield felt personal, she decided. The other jobs had always been administrative, never involving things like feelings and family. This was all too personal, too close for comfort.

Katy watched as Ryan placed a couple of coffee cups as well as a mozzarella filled roll on the table and sat down with an exhausted sigh.

As he ate in silence, Katy looked at the people coming and going for visiting hours. After all, some things were more important than work. What had happened to her? When had she turned into someone so work-obsessed? She knew when, of course. After the bankruptcy, or rather her dad’s duplicity and lies. But rather than becoming self-sufficient, she had gone beyond that, becoming so wrapped up in her career and her desire not to be out of control that somewhere she had lost her feelings. She had lost the care that Ryan’s family seemed to have for each other.

When she had found her first job as a chambermaid, Katy knew she couldn’t fail as it would have dragged both her and her mum down and that wasn’t going to happen. But she was beginning to realise that she had continued in that fight mode ever since, despite being secure with a decent wage. She had carried on working and working, making sure that she wasn’t vulnerable because she knew what it was like when everything was insecure.

In fact, her only lapse of concentration had been when she had got drunk and answered that ridiculous job advert.

She slumped back in her chair. She should never have taken this job.

Ryan would dislike her even more. And then she wondered why she cared what he thought.

It was the Connolly family, she decided. Their closeness was something to be admired. How they got through everything together, whatever the problem.

She had never felt more lonely in that moment.

14

Katy stayed silent as Ryan finished eating his roll in the coffee shop of the hospital.

After a short while, he sat back in his chair with a sigh.

‘You can’t go,’ he said, wiping his mouth with a paper napkin.

Katy felt anxious that he listened to what she was trying to tell him. ‘Don’t you see? I can’t do this. This job isn’t what I do. I work in hospitality. I’m a hotel manager.’ She sighed heavily. ‘You want to know the truth? I only replied to the position because I had, er, too much to drink.’

He took a beat before nodding to himself. ‘Well, that makes sense.’ His brown eyes crinkled up at the edges in a smile.

She looked at him. Had she really been that bad at the job?