Page 65 of Safe Hands

“You let him sleep on the bed?”

“Let is a strong word. We entered negotiations. I lost.”

“Poor leadership.”

They set off along the path, the dogs nosing ahead through frosted leaves. For a few minutes, the walk did the work: the crunch of gravel, the jingle of tags, the occasional correction when Berkeley decided a squirrel needed military attention.

Lauren kept glancing at Carly and telling herself to stop.

This was fine. Better than fine. They were walking dogs and making jokes that mostly worked, and nobody had mentioned City, or the apology Lauren still hadn’t made.

Maybe this was how adults did it. You just carried on until the past went blunt.

Except it hadn’t gone blunt. It was walking along the path between them, waiting.

They passed the café, still shuttered, and headed for the quieter stretch by the playing fields.

“I’ve actually liked having something to look after,” Lauren said, surprising herself.

Carly glanced over.

“I mean, Reggie mostly looks after himself. And me, probably. But the house feels better with a dog in it again. Less echoey.”

“Every home needs a dog.”

“Yeah.”

Lauren tightened her grip on the lead, because if she didn’t hold onto something, she’d start waving her hands around.

“I never thought we’d end up friends,” she said.

She regretted it the moment it was out.

Carly’s face closed. Not dramatically. Just a shutter sliding down.

“Is that what we are?”

Of course it had gone down badly. Friends asked for more than Carly had agreed to give, and how could they be friends with City sitting between them? With Lauren still circling the apology she’d never properly made?

Maybe now was the time. Not because she wanted anything. Because Carly was owed it.

Lauren stopped walking. Reggie hit the end of his lead and looked back, confused. Berkeley stopped too and turned his head towards Carly.

Carly noticed a pace later. “What?”

Lauren’s mouth had gone dry. “I need to say something, and I don’t want you to make it easier for me.”

That got Carly’s full attention.

Lauren could feel her pulse in her throat and the backs of her knees. A joke was rising, fast. Dramatic pause. Pull a face. Duck out before it got serious.

She didn’t.

“What I did to you at City was awful. The kit. The clothes. Every invite you were left out of.”

Carly didn’t move.

Lauren made herself keep going.