commotion. She wasn’t sure what they were to each other any more, but she felt sorely in need of a friend.
‘What happened?’ he asked, coming straight into the lounge, Sherry close behind him.
‘Daddy fell off the ladder,’ Ollie answered, climbing off the sofa, where he’d been practically glued to Steve’s side, and going over to Joe. ‘He broke his head.’
Steve laughed, then winced. ‘It’s not broken, Ollie,’ he assured him. ‘Just a bit dented.’
‘It was bleeding.’ His voice a worried whisper, Ollie slid his hand into Joe’s.
Joe gave it a squeeze. ‘I’m sure he’ll be fine,’ he said, smiling down at the little boy. ‘Your mother’s looking after him.’ Glancing at Sarah, who was trying to persuade Steve to keep the cold compress pressed to his head, he smiled tentatively.
Sarah smiled back and pulled herself up from where she was crouching in front of her stubborn ex. He’d flatly refused to allow them to take him to hospital. She hadn’t been surprised. He’d always tended to brush things off as ‘just a scratch’ or ‘a little bump’ whenever he’d injured himself at work. This was one almighty bump, though. Sarah’s heart had stopped beating when she’d seen him lying so still on the patio.
‘Did you lose consciousness?’ Joe asked, his forehead furrowed in concern as he walked across to him.
Steve glanced up, his expression wary, Sarah noted, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to think about Joe. He wasn’t the only one. Sarah had been confident she knew him, that he wasn’t the kind of man who would mess her around. Now, she wasn’t sure she knew him at all. ‘I don’t know.’ Steve shrugged. ‘If I did, it was only—’
‘Yes, he did,’ she confirmed forcefully. ‘I’ve told him he should go to hospital, but he’s being pig-headed, as usual.’
Steve laughed wryly at that. ‘Don’t change much, do you, Sarah?’ He glanced at her amusedly and then back to Joe. ‘She always was a worrier.’
Joe’s mouth twitched up at the corners, indicating that he concurred with Steve’s view of her, which Sarah might have been peeved about but for the seriousness of the situation. ‘Actually, I think she’s probably right on this occasion,’ he said. ‘You could have concussion. Might be worth getting it checked out.’
‘Not much they can do, though, is there?’ Steve replied, with another casual shrug. ‘I’ve got plenty of paracetamol. I’ll keep an eye on it and get myself there if I need to.’
‘Fair enough.’ Joe nodded, eyeing him thoughtfully. ‘You might do well to get your ladder checked out, though.’
Steve didn’t look too impressed at that. ‘I’m a builder, mate,’ he pointed out. ‘I check my equipment regularly, including anything I use at home.’
Sarah knew that to be true. Running his own building company, Steve was always meticulous about health and safety. He’d climbed ladders half his life. She really couldn’t understand how it was he’d come to fall, or why he was up a ladder in the first place. Something to do with bunting coming loose and hanging dangerously, Sherry had told her.
‘The slabs must be uneven or something,’ Steve said, as if reading her mind.
‘Grant tried to steady him,’ Sherry interjected. ‘He saw him wobbling and flew across to him. He was too late to save him, unfortunately.’
‘Grant?’ Joe enquired.
‘My husband. Laura’s stepfather,’ Sherry provided.
Joe nodded. ‘And Laura? Is she okay?’
‘As much as she ever is,’ Sherry said with a despairing sigh. ‘She’s hiding away upstairs, for reasons I’ll never understand.’
‘She’s actually not feeling well, Mrs Caldwell,’ Sarah reminded her. Laura had been trembling like a leaf. Even when she knew Steve wasn’t badly injured, she couldn’t stop shaking. It was Sarah who’d suggested she go up and have a lie-down. Privately, she’d thought she would be far better off away from Sherry; it clearly hadn’t occurred to the woman to leave and allow Steve and Laura some privacy.
‘I can’t say I’m surprised after all the melodramatics,’ Sherry commented unsympathetically. ‘Right, well, I’d better go and see how Grant’s getting on. He’s hosing the patio down. He tries to be helpful wherever he can. He’s a good man,’ she obviously felt compelled to point out. ‘I do wish Laura would leave the past where it belongs and stop all this childishness.’
Sighing again, most definitely melodramatically, she turned to stride off in the direction of the kitchen.
‘And I wish she’d just bloody well go,’ Steve muttered once she was out of earshot. ‘I’d never have had the woman here if I’d known what