Page 59 of Safe Hands | AllFreeNovel

“It was meant to be.” Something like a smile came and went. “But you make it feel possible. You did it in the video. You did it in the WhatsApp group. And you do it with your clients, when you think nobody’s noticing.”

Lauren felt warmth climbing her neck, awkward and unwelcome, and had nowhere to put it.

“You realise I’ve spent years convincing people not to expect much from me,” she said.

“I know.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Maybe not in the same way.”

Something in how she said it made Lauren stop. Carly’s armour was different from hers: neat lines, clipped answers, competence you could cut yourself on. For the first time, Lauren saw it for what it was. Not proof that Carly found everything easy. Just another way of making sure nobody got close enough to see the wobble.

It would have been the moment, if she’d wanted one. Just the two of them, and nobody waiting outside. But Carly had come down the corridor to check on her, and an apology now would only hand her something else to deal with. Lauren let it pass.

She leaned back against the sink. “Is this the part where you tell me to just be myself?”

“No.”

“Good, because that usually makes me want to peel my skin off.”

“I was going to say stop deciding in advance that yourself won’t be enough.”

Lauren laughed, mostly because the alternative felt dangerous. “Bit rude.”

“Yes.”

“Accurate, though.”

“Yes.”

She shook her head, but a smile got through. Carly said things like that so seriously, as though being devastatingly perceptive were a normal conversational choice. It made her very hard to stay annoyed with, which was inconvenient, because Lauren had been enjoying it.

“Okay,” she said.

Carly frowned. “Okay?”

“I’ll stop.”