‘The air ambulance is on its way,’ she told Cameron, ‘but it will be a couple of hours before they get here. Then it will be another while before they get him to hospital.’ She looked at Cameron. ‘I don’t think we should wait.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Cameron.
‘Look, ‘Meagan said, ‘the longer we wait the more likely it is that he’ll have complications. It’s a pretty straightforward op. If we do it now.’
Cameron sighed. He looked shaken. ‘OK. Let’s do it.’ He turned to Meagan and grasped her by the shoulders. She could feel his fingers biting into her through the thin fabric of her blouse.
‘I’ve got to trust you. You can’t let me down. If anything happens to Ian, I…’ He tailed off, unable to complete the sentence.
‘I won’t let anything happen. I promise. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t know I could. Now, you stay with Ian while I get changed and scrub up.’
‘I’m coming in too,’ he said.
‘Do you think that’s wise? You’d be better waiting. I’ll let you know when I’m finished.’
Cameron looked at her, his mouth set in a grim line. ‘I am going to be in theatre with my son. Please, don’t argue with me about this.’
‘OK, then. But you have to promise to stay out of the way.’
* * *
In the end the operation was straightforward. While she was operating she could feel Cameron’s eyes on her every move. She knew he was prepared to take over should she show the slightest hesitation or uncertainty. She pushed away the thought that she was operating on the son of the man she loved to the back of her mind. Once she started operating, everything else around her disappeared as she concentrated.
Finally the inflamed appendix was out. Looking at it, Meagan knew they had made the right decision not to delay. Even an hour more and the appendix could have ruptured. As it was, Ian should make a good recovery.
Cameron held Ian’s hand throughout the procedure. Over his mask she could see the relief in his eyes as she began to close.
When she had finished, Ian was wheeled into the recovery area. He was beginning to come round, although Meagan knew it would be a little while before he was fully conscious. Once he had come round he would need a couple of days in hospital.
One of the nurses came through. ‘Dr Stuart, we have your wife on the phone. I’ve brought her up to speed, but she still wants to speak to you.’
Reluctantly Cameron stood up, releasing his son’s hand. ‘Tell her I’ll be there in a minute.’
He turned to Meagan. The lines of worry were still there, but she could see that he knew the worst was over.
‘Thank you,’ he said, his voice gruff with emotion. ‘I should never have doubted you. You did a fine job.’
‘All in a day’s work.’ Meagan smiled at him, although now that the operation was over she felt her knees shake.
Cameron leaned over Ian and kissed him. ‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ he promised the sleeping child. He was back in minutes. Ian was beginning to open his eyes.
‘Daddy?’ he said as he saw his father. ‘Am I fixed?’
‘You are going to be fine,’ Cameron said. ‘A few days in bed and then you’ll be up and about.’
‘Mummy?’ Ian asked, his eyes searching the room.
‘She’s on her way. She’ll be here before you know it. And she won’t leave you again. I promise.’
‘Will you and Dr Galbraith stay with me until Mummy comes?’
Over the top of Ian’s head Cameron looked at Meagan. She didn’t need to see the message there.
‘I’ll stay as long as you and your daddy need me to, Ian,’ Meagan promised. ‘Now, try and get some sleep.
During the next few days Meagan saw little of Cameron. When he wasn’t at work he was spending his spare time with Ian. Meagan knew that Rachel had returned, but didn’t see her either. Jessie had rung her one evening, suggesting they go for a bar supper, and had told her that Rachel was back and also spending time with her son.
‘Ian asks for you all the time,’ Jessie told Meagan. ‘He seems to have taken quite a shine to you.’
Meagan hadn’t seen Ian since he’d been discharged from hospital. It was his mother he needed by his side. Not her.
The day after Ian had left hospital Cameron had come to see her. She had just finished her evening meal, although she hadn’t had much of an appetite, and had been lighting the fire in the sitting room when a knock had come on the door.
When she’d opened it to find Cameron standing there, her heart had thumped. He’d looked divine in a crisp white shirt open at the neck and pale chinos.
‘Hi, there,’ she said softly, not even attempting to hide the pleasure she felt at seeing him.
‘Can I come in?’ he asked.
As she moved aside to let him come in she caught a whiff of his aftershave that sent her pulse racing with the memories of the last time she had been close to him.
‘I can’t stay long,’ he said. ‘They’re expecting me back at the house.’ Meagan felt a stab of disappointment. She couldn’t help it, but she wanted more than a few minutes alone with him. Still, even a short time together was better than nothing.
But as he refused her offer of a seat and coffee, she could see that something was wrong. He looked uncomfortable, almost as if being with her was the last place he wanted to be.
‘Is everything all right?’ she asked.
‘I need to speak to you.’
‘Well, then,’ she said, trying to ignore the tendrils of dread that were beginning to wrap themselves around her heart. ‘Don’t you think you’d better sit down?’
He sat in her chair near the fire, his large frame almost dwarfing the sitting room. He clasped his hands together and rested them on his knees.
‘Rachel and I have decided to marry again,’ he blurted suddenly.
Meagan felt her blood run cold.
‘Oh?’ was all she could manage.
‘She’s been offered a modelling contract in New York. It’s very lucrative and is likely to lead to a higher profile in the modelling world. It’s her big break.’ Cameron’s mouth twisted.
‘She is going to take it, but wants Ian to go too. And me. That is… Oh, hell.’ He pulled a hand through his hair.
It needs a trim, Meagan thought incongruously.
‘She wants us to be a family again.’
‘And what do you want?’ Meagan asked through frozen lips.
‘I want to be with my son. I want my son to have two loving parents who are with him all the time. Apart from that, it doesn’t matter what else I want.’ He stood up and started pacing around the room. It only took a couple of strides before he was forced to turn around and go the other way.
‘And us, Cameron? What about us?’
‘There can be no us,’ he said flatly.
‘I see,’ Meagan said, although she didn’t—not really.
‘For God’s sake, Meagan. I need you to understand. I don’t love Rachel, not the way I—’ He broke off. ‘Not the way she wants. But seeing my son ill, needing his mother and her not being there, was more than I could bear. I don’t think adults have the right