Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

I could hear my father’s exclamation. ‘Praise the Lord. She’s found her dream
career.’
I sent a text message to Patrick, telling him that I had been asked to stay at
work and I would ring him later. The message came back within seconds.
Going cross-country snow running tonight.
Good practice for Norway! X P.
I wondered how it was possible for someone to get so excited at the thought of
jogging through sub-zero temperatures in a vest and pants.
Will slept. I cooked myself some food, and defrosted some soup in case he
wanted some later. I got the log fire going in case he felt well enough to go into
the living room. I read another of the short stories and wondered how long it was
since I had bought myself a book. I had loved reading as a child, but I couldn’t
remember reading anything except magazines since. Treen was the reader. It was
almost as if by picking up a book I felt like I was invading her patch. I thought
about her and Thomas disappearing to university and realized I still didn’t know
whether it made me feel happy or sad – or something a bit complicated in
between.
Nathan rang at seven. He seemed relieved that I was staying over.
‘I couldn’t raise Mr Traynor. I even rang their landline number, but it went
straight through to answerphone.’
‘Yeah. Well. He’ll be gone.’
‘Gone?’
I felt a sudden instinctive panic at the idea that it would be just Will and me in
the house all night. I was afraid of getting something fundamental wrong again,
of jeopardizing Will’s health. ‘Should I call Mrs Traynor, then?’
There was a short silence on the other end of the phone. ‘No. Best not.’
‘But –’
‘Look, Lou, he often … he often goes somewhere else when Mrs T stays over
in town.’
It took me a minute or two to grasp what he was saying.
‘Oh.’
‘It’s just good that you’re there, that’s all. If you’re sure Will’s looking better,
I’ll be back first thing in the morning.’