‘No. I’m not looking at that. There’s some mistake; it’s another Eddie. I’d know.’ And then, she felt something strange happen to her features. ‘He’d never do this to me.’ Her voice sounded a lot more confident than she felt. She turned away again, not willing to face either Pete or this terrible news. She closed her eyes, fixed her hair and then turned up the corners of her mouth into the nearest she could manage to a smile. Of course, she was smiling; it was an unreal contortion of her features, but she hoped it would be enough to make Pete stop with this thing he thought he was setting in motion. ‘We’re getting engaged, Pete. So, it can’t be real. You’ve gotten him confused with someone else – that’s all, a simple mistake.’ And she started to laugh, because, really, that’s all it was – crossed wires, something innocent that had become all mixed-up.

*

Even though Liv’s mind had been full of that kiss when she’d fallen asleep and when she’d woken in the morning, it was the engagement ring in Eddie’s workshop that filled her dreams. Now, as she picked her way back up the avenue to the hospital, she wondered if she had imagined coming across it that afternoon. But she was quite sure she had seen it. She could remember her surprise, a feeling that mixed up the idea of something she’d always wanted with a nagging doubt that she hadn’t been brave enough to face until now. Eddie had made that ring for someone – the question that she really wondered about now, was if he’d made it for her or for Anya. Of course, the truth was, he could have just made it as a commission, but it was the way he’d hidden it away in a drawer and he’d never once mentioned a commission with emeralds or that unique motif.

The hospital was a little busier today; filling up now with relatives popping in to see patients and no doubt the A&E would be busy with more seasonal-related incidents like ice skaters and new trampoline enthusiasts who had come a cropper over the last few days. Liv was early for her shift, so she decided to check in on Finn before she started. She had almost an hour to spare. Morgan told her he’d been moved to male surgical overnight; apparently, there weren’t enough beds in the general ward at present.

‘Hey,’ he said, smiling when she popped her head around the door. ‘You found me.’

‘It wasn’t that hard. You all but sent me a map and I do work here.’ They’d given him a bed in a room with three others.