Page 65

A few days later, Liv closed the door behind her and leaned against it with a sigh. She dragged her overly tight ponytail down, and massaged her scalp tiredly. Try as she might, she couldn’t keep tears of disappointment from prickling at her eyes. While Tom wasn’t officially back working, word of his return had spread through the village quicker than chicken pox through a playgroup, and the villagers who he’d been treating for years were eager to see him.

It wasn’t that she felt put out that “her” patients were choosing to wait for longer to see Tom instead — but it did serve a stark reminder of how temporary her role was. Broclington, and the surgery, had been a place for her to heal and take a break from the pressures of her former life while she figured out if she could still have a future in medicine. And it had given her exactly that. And now Tom was back, they didn’t need her. She needed to make plans, and she’d avoided them for too long.

Taking a deep breath, she opened up her laptop and tapped in the address for the site she had been avoiding. She told herself that she wasn’t making any commitments or decisions, that she was just having a look around. She fired off a couple of emails that she didn’t really want to send before shutting the laptop down.

That would have to be enough for now.

* * *

The next few weeks were swallowed up by a blur of meetings and organisation, and Liv watched in amazement as the local Women’s Institute swung into action to transform the village into a shimmering snow globe of possibility that glistened in the summer sun. A huge marquee sprung up, swooping out from the cricket pavilion and grazing the top of the bandstand as it cocooned part of the park, turning it into a magical venue that looked like it belonged on the pages of the most glamorous and glossy magazine. The trees edging the path that led away from the marquee sprouted tiny lights encased in what looked like snowy globes, and ribbons that twisted back and forth as if they’d been dropped there by over-excited fairies.

The decorations spiralled out from the park and spread across the village, with those fairies leaving their sparkling mark everywhere from shop fronts to lampposts, and even the hedgerows grew brightly coloured yarn baubles and snowflakes overnight. The tree in the village square stood proudly, topped off with a beautiful star. Around the tree, tables and stalls stood patiently, waiting for stallholders to arrive the next day and unload their wares.

The whole village looked amazing, and Liv was shocked and overwhelmed at the amount of attention attracted from reporters from local and regional news and papers. She couldn’t believe how many people were interested in what was happening with the little village surgery, and how many donations had already been made. Everything was falling into place as perfectly as anyone could have hoped — led by the local WI and Nick who marshalled, cajoled, pleaded and organised a team of volunteers from the village into a veritable army of decorators, organisers and planners. They were even supported by local businesses who, as part of their corporate social responsibility and in exchange for some positive media coverage, were donating phenomenal amounts of time and goods.

It seemed to Liv that half the county had fallen in love with Broclington and their surgery. And she couldn’t blame them. She was more than a little bit in love with the place herself.

The only downside, as far as Liv was concerned, was that the arrangements and organising had been so all-encompassing that she’d barely seen Callum outside of work or preparation meetings since his parents had returned from their sabbatical. So she struggled to keep from skipping as she headed up the path to knock at Callum’s front door. His bright smile matched her own as he leaned forward to brush a quick kiss against her lips, before reluctantly pulling away when small feet pounded down the stairs.

‘Hi Livvy!’

‘Hi Sarah!’ She was forced a step back under the weight of the little girl’s excited greeting. ‘Are you excited for tonight?’

‘Yeah!’ She bounced on the spot, propelled into the air by excitement.

‘I hope you’re ready for this, Liv. Sarah’s really excited about you being here. She’s been talking about it most of the week, and has planned the whole evening especially for you.’ He ruffled his daughter’s hair. ‘Haven’t you, munchkin? Are you going to let her in, Sarah?’

‘Yup.’ As usual, her smile was contagious to Liv. ‘First we’re going to make milkshakes like they have in America that Summer told me all about, and then we’re going to watch her and Uncle Jake and Grandpa on the TV. And maybe Evie too. I don’t know. But definitely Summer. It’s so exciting!’

‘Wow, it sounds it.’ She shot Callum a quizzical look. ‘You didn’t fancy being on the local news and being the face of the “Save our Surgery” campaign?’

‘No. We want to raise money, not scare people.’ He chuckled good-naturedly. ‘Jake and Dad make much better spokespeople than me, and Summer’s practically a celebrity round here.’

‘Yup. She’s got nearly a million likes.’ Sarah nodded solemnly.

‘Do you even know what that means?’ Callum looked horrified as he took Liv’s coat.

‘Yes. Obviously. It means lots of people are glad she’s better, and will come help us to save the surgery.’

‘Hopefully. And do you know how she got so many likes?’

‘She makes videos so people can see how much better she is. Tilly is in them too. She gets more likes for Tilly’s videos.’

‘You . . . don’t want to make videos like that, do you?’

Liv watched as Sarah tilted her head and pursed her lips in thought. ‘No.’

Liv let out a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding.

‘Cancer isn’t much fun,’ Sarah said. ‘Talking about it doesn’t sound fun either. And Summer said sometimes, if Tilly is naughty, they have to make the same video over and over and over again. That sounds boring.’

She could almost feel Callum’s relief as Sarah launched herself into the sofa cushions. ‘She’s growing up too fast as it is,’ he murmured. ‘I don’t think I could handle the idea of her being a social media starlet.’

‘I don’t think you’ve too much to worry about. She’s got her head screwed on straight and clearly knows her own mind.’ She grinned as Sarah glared at them both.

‘Come on, it’s nearly time for Summer to be on TV. Livvy, you can sit here next to me, and Daddy can sit on the other side. And Dr Cuddlington can sit on my lap. And after Summer’s been on TV and they start talking about boring stuff then we can have pizza for dinner.’

Liv pressed her lips together to keep from laughing when she caught Callum’s eye. ‘See what I mean?’