Just Keep Breathing, GS Rhodes [best book club books for discussion TXT] 📗

She hopped up from her chair and walked towards the door, making suggestive faces at Kidd as she left. They were enough to bring some colour to his cheeks, colour that he hoped John wouldn’t notice being surrounded by all the cuts and bruises.

John put the flowers down on the end of the bed and sat down in the chair Zoe had been sitting in. He didn’t take his eyes off Kidd once he sat down.

“You’re out of your mind in this job, you know that?” John said.

“Oh, I know,” he replied. “This is an occupational hazard.”

“Christ, the worst that could happen to me is getting a fucking paper cut, you had someone punching you,” John said. “I’ve not taken a punch since high school.”

“Count yourself lucky,” Kidd said. “I don’t recommend it.”

John reached over and took hold of Ben’s hand as it rested on top of the blanket. Kidd flinched at first. He wasn’t used to it, the affection, at least not so publicly. He looked at the other beds, wondering if anyone was watching, but they weren’t. They were focused on their own lives. So he relaxed into it, squeezing John’s hand a little tighter and let out a heavy breath.

“You must be exhausted,” John said. “I can go if you want. I don’t want to disturb you.”

“You’re not disturbing me,” Kidd said with a lazy smile. “I don’t want you to go anywhere at all.”

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Once the Doctors had established that Kidd hadn’t suffered any major head trauma—something that Zoe disputed, albeit jokingly—he was discharged and sent home with strict orders from DCI Weaver not to come to work until he was a hundred percent better. He’d barely set foot in the door of his house before Zoe texted him to say there was a pool on how long it would take for him to come back, and she had six days, so if he could wait that long, she could really use the money.

John stayed over for a couple of days, making sure that Kidd was alright and not overexerting himself. On the second day, he’d tried to go for a run, and John had all but barricaded the door to stop him from going.

“If you hurt yourself, it’s on my watch, and I don’t think Zoe will be all that forgiving,” he had said as he put his body between Kidd and the door. It was sweet that he was looking after him like that, not that it was really needed. He’d suffered worse in his life. It was some cuts and bruises to his face, and they were fading pretty quickly.

His arm still ached a little from where Alexandra Kaye had whacked him with that wooden board, and if he moved wrong the bruise on his stomach where Chris Harper had hit him sent a shock of pain through him, but he was getting better, steadily. As the days passed, he felt more like himself and looked less like Quasimodo when he looked in the mirror.

He was going to head back into work tomorrow, making it a full six days since he’d last been in the office, earning Zoe her sweepstakes money and possibly him a pint, if he played his cards right. John had spent a lot of time at Kidd’s house over the past few days, working from his kitchen table or heading home in the afternoons to have zoom meetings, but it wasn’t necessary.

“You can go home,” Kidd said on Wednesday morning. “I know you have work to do, I won’t be offended. All I’m going to be doing is watching TV and reading.”

“You’re not going to go running?”

“I’m not going to go running,” he said with a laugh. “I might take a walk, but it will be a slow walk, glacial. So slow the old guy from next door could beat me.”

John smiled and left Kidd to his own devices for the day.

He sat down with some scrambled eggs on toast and switched on some morning TV. He’d gotten into something of a routine, one he really hoped he’d easily lose once it came time to go back to work. It was surprisingly addictive once you got used to the fact that everything after BBC Breakfast was pretty much garbage.

But he hadn’t been expecting the next guest. He stopped eating mid-mouthful.

Laura Harper walked out onto the set, all smiles, her hair freshly coiffed, her smile as pearly white as it had been in all of those Instagram and Facebook videos he’d been subjected to. She took a seat with the hosts and Kidd could hardly believe what he was hearing.

“It’s been a tough time, yeah,” she said, brushing her hair out of her face. “But I’m starting afresh, starting anew without my husband. My followers know I’ve been on such a journey through all this. It has changed me. I lost my…I lost my daughter,” she wiped her eyes, her voice cracking a little, but Kidd could see there wasn’t a tear in sight. “And I thought it would break me. But I galvanised myself. I got myself back out there, I used my following to help find her, and even though it ended tragically, with my fans by my side, I know I’ll be okay.”

The hosts praised her, talking about what an inspiration she was and taking it all in like she really truly believed it. Kidd felt sick as he watched Laura smiling away on morning television. He was sure that she was only smiling because she’d gotten away with it.

She started talking about how her followers had helped her reach new heights and she was working on a book about her life and freeing herself from the toxicity of her soon-to-be ex-husband, which was enough to make Kidd change the channel.

He picked up his phone with the intention of messaging Zoe about what he’d seen but saw there was already a message there waiting for him. From Andrea Peyton.

His