Текст книги "Calling Me Back "

Автор книги: Louise Bay

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Текущая страница: 1 (всего у книги 7 страниц)

Published by Louise Bay 2015

Copyright © 2015 Louise Bay. All rights reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owners.

ISBN – 978-1-910747-14-8

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Series Playlist

Acknowledgements

Other Books by Louise Bay

What the Lightning Sees

The Empire State Series

Hopeful

Faithful

Let’s Connect

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Luke

I wasn’t a fan of weddings, especially when the only people I knew had their names on the invitation. I’d only met the bride and groom once, maybe twice. They were Emma’s friends. Although Emma and I had been a couple for over three years, and even though we lived together, we still led quite separate social lives. I liked that independence from each other. I felt sorry for couples who couldn’t do anything apart. If it had been up to me, I wouldn’t have come to this wedding. Surely Emma wanted to spend the weekend catching up with old university friends. She didn’t need me here. And while she was doing what made her happy, I could be hanging out with my friends and doing what made me happy.

“Aren’t the flowers beautiful?” she whispered as the string quartet played a familiar tune to keep us occupied while the bride and groom disappeared to sign the register.

I glanced around the old stone church from our seats toward the back. Was anyone else cold? And what was that sweet, familiar scent lingering in the air? I hadn’t noticed the flowers. I nodded as Emma glanced up at me. Weren’t flowers always pretty? Did anyone go to a wedding and say the flowers were awful? I didn’t share the thought with Emma. She was normally the more cynical of the two of us—part of the reason we worked so well, so maybe I was being unfair. The flowers were pretty.

The bride and groom beamed at each other as they reappeared and started the march back down the aisle. We all followed them back into the sun for the beginning of the endless photographs.

“They’re using the same photographer as Julie and Tim,” Emma said. “Their photos were fantastic, weren’t they?”

I nodded and placed my hand on Emma’s lower back, guiding her toward the tray of champagne. I took two glasses and handed one to her.

This was the third wedding we’d been to this year. Hopefully, this was the last of them. All my mates seemed to be getting married, and each time another engagement was announced, I did my best to offer my congratulations, but hell if I could understand why they felt the urge to tie the knot. Marriage was such an outdated institution, and it didn’t seem to stop people splitting up. I really didn’t see the point.

My parents had died when my sister and I were teenagers. Perhaps that was why all this pomp seemed so irrelevant. Life had proven to me that all good things came to an end and there were no happy endings. If there was any hope of me believing in the fairy tale, it died along with my parents. To me it was couples like them who deserved to have happily ever after. It was clear to everyone they’d been crazy about each other. We hated it as kids, of course, but looking back, their love for each other was what made our home so happy when we were young. If it hadn’t worked out for them, what hope was there for the rest of us?

“To the last wedding of the season.” I clicked my glass to Emma’s.

“Try and be a bit more enthusiastic,” she said with a frown.

“You can talk. You can’t tell me you’re enjoying this.”

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be? Everyone’s happy and in love. It’s beautiful.”

Emma handed me her champagne, opened her bag, pulled out a tissue and began to dab at the corners of her eyes. Was she upset? She was one of the toughest girls I knew. I’d seen her cry three times since I’d known her.

I bent my head to her ear. “Are you okay?”

She looked up at me. “It was just such a beautiful ceremony, and they seem so happy.”

I rubbed her lower back, and she leaned her head on my arm. I’d never have described Emma as sentimental, but apparently she was at weddings. I slipped my hand around her waist. It wasn’t a move I was particularly familiar with. We weren’t the kind of couple who needed to be touching all the time. Surprisingly, her arm slid under my suit jacket, but her tears didn’t stop.

“Hey, babe, what’s the matter?” I guided us to the side of the throng of people that were gathered to listen to the instructions of the photographer. I was sure she wouldn’t want anyone to see her upset. When my sister got like this, it was normally a hormonal thing. I decided not to bring that up. I wasn’t sure Emma’d take the suggestion well.

“It’s just such a nice wedding,” she said as we wandered toward a tree at the far edge of the lawn. “And I was just thinking that when we get married, ours should be just like this one.”

I had to work hard to keep my breathing even, my pace consistent, my hand on her back. When we get married? Where had that thought come from? That wasn’t who we were, and it certainly wasn’t anything I’d thought was meant for us. I’d always thought we were on the same page about this stuff. I had to fight off the feeling of my blood thickening in my veins and crawling through my body. I wanted to tense, to stop, but I kept breathing, kept walking. Luckily for me, we were interrupted by a squeal, and as I turned, I saw a tiny girl in a short red dress running toward us with her arms outstretched, clearly excited to see Emma.

I took the opportunity to excuse myself to the bathroom and made my way back to the church where I could consider the bomb that had just been dropped. I scrubbed my face with my hands. Had she made that comment because she was a glass of champagne in, or had she really been considering our wedding?

I had just turned thirty. The last thing I was thinking about was marriage. I wasn’t ready for that step, not now and maybe not ever. I didn’t believe in forever. My parent’s accident had proven there was no such thing. I didn’t want to think about until death do you part. It seemed so depressing.

Maybe I had conveniently assumed that because it had never come up between us, Emma and I were on the same page when it came to getting married. We’d never actually spoken about it, so I’d thought she was happy with how things were. She had been the one who suggested living together. Like she’d said, it made sense—we could save on bills and mortgage payments. It had been so logical. But marriage? That wasn’t logical—there was no sense to it. I had never been moving toward things being any different between us. Had she? The thought was like a short, sharp shock to my brain. My head began to throb in response.

In the bathroom, I let the tap run cold before I poured myself a drink of water. I watched my reflection in the mirror as I drank, my throat bobbing up and down as the liquid passed through my body. I set aside the glass, grasped the counter and took another deep breath. I needed my body to return to normal, but I could still feel the thickness in my veins and the panic in my shortened breaths.

Ashleigh

“I’m so glad you could make it,” Haven said as she opened the door to her and her husband’s apartment. “I’ve missed you at Sunday night dinner.”

Haven and I had been best friends since we were two, and Sunday night dinner was our thing. But I’d not been for a few weeks. I’d been dating and, well, that was complicated.

“Where’s Jake?” I didn’t hear the sound of her husband clattering about in the kitchen.

“Study. They’ve had a breakthrough, apparently.” She shrugged.

“So, how was your date with Richard?” Haven asked, wandering down the hall to the large, open-plan living space that boasted cityscape views like a huge piece of art dominating the room.

I took a deep breath in, winded by the sight of London, the home I’d refused to leave when my parents left for Hong Kong when I was eighteen. “Good,” I replied and took a seat at the breakfast bar while Haven busied herself preparing some wine.

“And? How was it?”

It was a loaded question. I’d been dating Richard a little less than three months, but last night was the first time I’d slept with him. Haven knew I’d planned to give it up last night.

“Yes, we had sex,” I said, jumping right to the part she was really asking about.

She turned from the fridge, waiting for me to expand on my revelation. “And?” she asked when I stayed silent.

I shrugged. “It was fine. It was just sex.”

“What was ‘just sex’?” I spun on my stool as Jake entered the room. He pulled me in for a hug and then looked at me as if he was expecting an answer.

“We need you to solve the world’s energy crisis for about twenty minutes longer and then you can come out and have wine,” Haven said to Jake.

“But I want to hear about the ‘just sex’,” Jake said.

“I know, but so do I, and Ash will pretend to be coy until you leave.” I laughed. “This is important girl stuff,” Haven continued. “Give us twenty minutes and I’ll make it up to you tonight.” She winked at him and he grabbed her round the waist and kissed her neck. They were so happy together. Jake brought out the best in Haven and vice versa. They were what love was meant to be about—the real deal, not two people making do, no “there’s nobody better so he’ll do.” I’d come to realize that love like theirs was more rare than the fairy tales had me believe.

“Enough,” I said, covering my ears and closing my eyes.

“Okay, twenty minutes,” Jake said, unwrapping himself from Haven and stalking back to the study.

Haven abandoned any pretense of dinner prep and brought over a bottle of wine and two glasses, placing them on the breakfast bar and then seating herself on the stool next to me.

Sunday night dinner was our family tradition. And family was what I considered Haven and her brother, Luke. Our close circle had expanded when Haven married Jake, bringing him and his sister, Beth, into the fold. Wine and gossip were essential components to the ritual.

“We have twenty minutes and we have a lot to talk about. So spill,” Haven said.

“There’s nothing much to say. I guess we’ve taken it to the next level.” Unfortunately, the experience had been decidedly un-notable, but Richard was such a nice guy and he was so kind, it felt wrong to say that, to feel that. I wanted to like him. I wanted sleeping together to be explosive…but it hadn’t been. It had been nice. But nice was good, right?

“But was it good? You said it was just sex. That doesn’t sound like good sex.” Haven’s gaze skirted all over me as if I were going to start talking from somewhere other than my mouth.

“It was fine,” I said, not quite knowing what to say. “I mean, I think it has potential.”

“Oh God, was it that bad?”

“I didn’t say it was bad,” I replied. It just hadn’t been amazing. “He’s a great guy. And he really cares about me. First time sex is never easy, especially if you’re not hammered.”

I envied Haven. She’d found the one. But most people didn’t, did they? They certainly didn’t find the love of their life twice—and I’d found mine a lifetime ago. Too bad the feeling had never been mutual. Still, I had no right to ask for the one twice. I needed to make peace with the fact that a nice guy was a good option—maybe the only option—for me.

The buzzer sounded and Haven slid off her chair to answer it. She answered the intercom and let Luke into the building then hovered at the entrance waiting for her brother to get to the door.

Luke.

I took a deep breath.

At any given moment, I could recall the exact second I fell in love with Luke. It was summer, and Haven, he and I were sitting under a magnolia tree in their parents’ garden, joshing and giggling. He’d turned to me and grinned, his smile wide—his perfectly white teeth made brighter by his golden skin—his hair floppy and in need of a cut. He’d raised his eyebrows at me and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. And that was it. A spell was cast. Even now, almost fifteen years later, my cheeks heated at the memory of that moment.

“Is Emma coming today?” I asked, changing the subject. I didn’t know if it was just me, but things always seemed easier when Luke’s girlfriend wasn’t here.

“I don’t think so,” Haven said as she turned to answer the door. “I guess we’ll find out.”

I let out a sigh of relief when I only heard Luke in the hallway.

Even after all these years of knowing him, I had to consciously remember to breathe when he walked into a room. Like some fantasy Viking, he was tall, blond and underneath his tight, golden skin, his muscles looked hard as wood. His sheer physical presence almost overwhelmed me for the first seconds I was around him. It was always as if he took up all the air, all the space in the room—he was all I could see. I grinned as he walked in my direction.

“Hey, stranger, where have you been?” he asked as he pulled me out of my seat as if I were a doll and hugged me, his body cocooning mine, squeezing me tight. “You smell good,” he said.

I ignored his question. If Richard and I were to have a fighting chance, I had to get some distance from Luke. I needed to see someone else in the room. I’d come to the conclusion that if I kept comparing every man I met to my long-time love, I’d die alone, surrounded by cats. So I’d stepped back from spending so much time with him, and hadn’t been coming to Sunday dinner as regularly.

“You look well,” he said. I smiled, giddy from his proximity, concentrating on not making my grin too wide.

“It’s all the ‘just sex’,” Jake bellowed from behind us. We both spun around. “Now Luke’s here, I can come out, right?” Jake asked.

Haven rolled her eyes as he grabbed two beers from the fridge and handed one to Luke.

“So what’s this about sex?” Luke asked, before taking a swig from his bottle.

“It’s Ash and Richard, I think,” Jake said, knocking his beer against Haven’s and my glasses.

“Right, that’s about as much as I want to know.” Luke grimaced and Haven looked at me and rolled her eyes. I had always been like a little sister as far as Luke was concerned. There had never been any ambiguity for him.

Richard had asked me out a few times before I said yes. He was a doctor at the hospital where I was a nurse. Wasn’t that the stuff of romance novels?

It was just that when Richard was close by, I didn’t get the thudding in my chest that I had at the moment because Luke was less than a meter away from me.

“Can’t you two go and catch up on the rugby or something?” Haven suggested.

I watched Luke’s neck as his beer slid down his throat, my eyes following the invisible liquid down to the triangle of bare skin exposed by the open collar of his shirt. I forced myself to look away. How did he still have this effect on me after all these years?

Jake clasped Haven’s face between his hands and pulled her toward him, kissing her passionately, while she waved her arms about as if she was protesting. As if. He released her after a couple of seconds and wandered over to the other side of the room with Luke to watch the television, leaving Haven looking dazed and confused.

She grinned and rolled her eyes. “He’s incorrigible.”

I was delighted that she’d found such a great guy in Jake; she’d been unhappy for so long before him. I smiled and let out a steady breath as Luke’s absence gave me more space for my mind and body.

“Anyway, back to sex with Richard. What’s the deal?” she asked, turning to me and pulling me further away from my thoughts of Luke. Haven and I rarely talked about my feelings for Luke directly. As teenagers, we’d discussed it, but as adults, we skirted around it, aware of the volatility of the subject. I loved our world together—our bond, our shared experience—and I didn’t want to destroy our family. I wanted to find someone special, someone who thought I was more than sister material. Haven had done it, and it had given me inspiration that I could, too.

There was no way Haven was going to give up on the subject of Richard. She wanted me to be happy even more than I did. “It was okay. It wasn’t earth shattering. It wasn’t awful.” Richard was such a nice guy that I wanted it to be better, and with a little work, I was sure it could be.

She twisted her mouth as she considered my confession. “I think sex can improve as a couple gets to know each other, and you held off a long time. Maybe it was too much pressure.”

I nodded enthusiastically. “Exactly. So, we’ll see.” I desperately wanted her to be right, but I was worried Richard was too nice a guy. I wanted to be fucked properly. I needed a guy who knew what he wanted—what I wanted—and made it all happen. Richard had been . . . careful.

“And he’s so nice to you,” Haven said.

“Exactly. He totally is.” I was determined not to reject Richard just because he wasn’t Luke. I’d been doing that for too many years.

I was ready for my happily ever after.

Luke

I stayed at Haven’s until she kicked me out at just gone midnight. Earlier in the evening, I’d offered to take Ash home, but she’d refused. I’d not seen much of her lately, and I could have done with a talk. I couldn’t remember the last time it had just been her and me. We used to meet for lunch or after work sometimes, but it had been ages. When I’d hugged her hello earlier, I’d realized that it was her I could smell in the church the previous day. I’d never noticed the perfume that surrounded her, probably because she was just Ash scented to me.

I quietly opened the front door of the house Emma and I shared, trying to turn my key as slowly as possible in the lock, to avoid the overly loud clunk it made. It was late, and she had an early shift the next morning at the hospital.

I didn’t switch on any lights and quietly got undressed to my boxers and slid under the blankets.

“Hey,” she said.

I’d been sure she would be asleep.

“Having trouble sleeping?” I asked.

She turned over to her side, facing me. “Yeah, a little. How was Sunday dinner?”

“Good. Everyone asked after you.” It wasn’t entirely true, or even slightly true, but I was sure they had meant to ask after her.

“That’s nice,” she replied.

I sighed and slid my hand behind my head, my eyes drawn to the light of the streetlamps bleeding into the room from the edges of our window blind. The atmosphere was thick with the unspoken words of a conversation we were about to have.

“Did you enjoy the wedding?” she asked.

“Yeah, sure.” I’d deliberately avoided the subject since her tears during the photographs on Saturday. “Haven cooked duck for dinner. We should try it sometime. It was good. She’s turning into quite the chef.”

“Sounds like marriage suits her. You ever think about whether it would suit you, too?” she asked.

My skin started to itch, and I needed some water. I pulled the bedcovers off me to go and get a drink. “Why would I? We’re happy as we are,” I said as I wandered into the bathroom, willing her to drop the subject.

“Marriage is the next step for two people who are happy and in love, isn’t it?” she asked, raising her voice slightly so I could still hear her clearly, despite the rush of the faucet. I felt as if I’d just stepped in quicksand. There was pressure all over my body, as if I were being squeezed between two concrete walls—like the garbage compactor scene in Star Wars. I could do with a couple of Jedi mind tricks right at this moment.

“I don’t see why.” I hoped that would be the end of it, but knew it wouldn’t be. This conversation felt as though it was taking us down a one-way street. I brushed my teeth again, wanting to give Emma time to fall asleep. Why had she brought this up? Things were just fine.

I stuck the toothbrush back in the jar, rinsed my mouth and went back into the bedroom. She was staring at me.

“You’ve never thought about us getting married?” she asked again, more directly this time.

“I said that I didn’t. I don’t lie to you, Emma.” I slipped back under the blankets and lay on my back, staring at the ceiling, willing the conversation to be over.

“You don’t want to be married before we have children?”

Jesus, now kids were part of the equation? “Now we’re talking about children?”

“We need to talk about this stuff, Luke. I don’t want to be just your roommate. Haven’s married now. And she and Jake were together no time at all before he proposed.”

“And it works for them.”

“But you don’t think it would work for us?” she asked.

I scrubbed my hands over my face. “It’s late. I don’t want to talk about this now. I need to get to sleep. And you have an early start. Let’s discuss it another time, if you think it’s important.”

“If I think it’s important? Of course it’s important. We can’t stay like we are,” she said. “You can be a real prick at times.”

“You’re the one bringing this up out of nowhere in the middle of the night.”

“Out of nowhere? Are you fucking kidding me? We’ve been living together for nearly three years. Look around, Luke. Everyone’s getting married. People live together, they get married and then they have kids. Why do you think you’re the exception?”

“So you want to get married because everyone else does? Sounds like excellent reasoning.” The litigator in me instinctively wanted to win the argument, regardless of the merits and demerits of what was being said.

“I want to get married because I love you, you fucking idiot. I want to have kids with you because I want to have your children. Maybe not today, but one day. Jesus, Luke, why is this a shock?”

I couldn’t argue with someone who was telling me they loved me, even if they spat the words out. I kept scanning through memories of conversations we’d had over the years, trying to find one where we’d talked about marriage. I couldn’t think of a single one. I’d always assumed she was as unbothered by it as I was. Had I been wrong? Had I led her on? I lowered my voice and asked, “But why are you bringing this up now?”

She took a breath. “I want us to move on, take the next step of our lives together. I don’t understand why you are so keen for everything to stay the same.”

“I’m not sure what to say. This isn’t something . . .” I didn’t know how to end my sentence. Something I ever want. Something I think I want. Something I have thought about? I didn’t want to hurt Emma, but I didn’t see that in my future.

I needed to talk to someone other than her about this. I wanted to speak to Haven or Ash.

“Do you love me?” she asked when I didn’t finish my sentence.

“Of course I do. I mean, we’ve been together for—”

“This is it, babe. This is what people do. They get married. I know that guys don’t like to think they’re getting older, but we are. All of us. We’re not kids playing house anymore.”

Had my parents thought like this? Had one of them wanted to get married and suggested it to the other and then they’d decided, rationally, that it was the right step? I just couldn’t see it. I’d always felt that they were on a different path. I’d never seen my relationship with Emma as comparable with theirs. Something between them had meant they had to get married. If Emma and I didn’t feel that we had to get married, then why should we? It didn’t mean I didn’t love her. Just that we were different from other couples.

“Think about it. This is what I want, Luke. A future together.”

The next morning, I got up as soon as Emma left. I felt like a shit for pretending to be sleeping while she got ready so we didn’t have another difficult conversation. By mid-morning, I was still jittery from lack of sleep and I couldn’t concentrate on anything but trying to control the panic still flushing through my body. I headed toward the front staircase of our building and began to scroll through my contacts. I hit dial when I got to Ash. I needed something, someone that was mine, who knew me. Someone who wanted me to be happy, but would kick my ass if it needed kicking. Someone who would call me a douche if I deserved it, but ultimately wouldn’t judge me. Ash was that person. Haven and I were close, but she was my sister and didn’t have the same perspective Ash did. Haven didn’t have the sweetness about her that Ash did that made what came out of her mouth, however harsh, somehow more bearable.

“Fucking hell, I’m going to get into massive trouble, you phoning me on the ward. I hope your penis is falling off,” Ash answered the phone in a loud whisper. Despite my mood, I couldn’t help but chuckle. Maybe not everything she said was so sweet.

“How’s the business of curing the sick and the dying?”

“I work in palliative care, you douche. No one gets cured, that’s the point.”

“Stop making excuses for being a shitty nurse.”

I didn’t know how Ash did her job and managed to stay so happy all the time. All I did was move money about between clients. She saw people at their most vulnerable, in their last few weeks and months in this world, and she seemed to take it all in her stride.

“I wanted to know if you could meet for lunch, or maybe for drinks after work?” I thought I had lost reception for a second, because she didn’t answer straight away. “Ash?” I checked to see if she could hear me.

“Yeah . . . I don’t know. I’m busy tonight, and I go on lunch in ten minutes—”

Fuck, I’d have to leg it up to Hackney if I wanted to see her. I started to speed up my descent of the stairs. “I’ll come to you. I can be there in ten minutes—as long as we don’t have to eat in the hospital cafeteria,” I offered. I found a cab straight away. “Hommerton Hospital,” I said to the cabbie, holding the phone away so Ash couldn’t hear and change her mind. I really wanted to see her. I needed her consistency, her familiarity, her reason. She would know what I should do about Emma. There seemed to be more hesitation from her side. “Come on. We’ve not had lunch for a while.”

“Okay, but I only have an hour.” She hung up.

I grinned. My day was improving. Seeing Ash was what I needed.

Less than ten minutes later, I was still panting from running up the street where the cab had dropped me. When I looked up from my phone to find Ash standing right in front of me. I felt myself relax immediately and the corners of my mouth turned up. “Hey,” I said.

“Hey yourself,” Ash replied. She smiled at me and everything seemed better with the world. The panic that had threatened to engulf me earlier ebbed away.

Ashleigh

I shouldn’t have agreed to meet Luke for lunch. We hadn’t met on our own, just him and me, for months, not since I’d started dating Richard. There was a reason for that—I should have remembered that before I gave in and agreed to meet him.

My heart squeezed as soon as I caught sight of him. Breathe, Ash. He looked so big and handsome, so familiar. As if he belonged to me, because in my head he always had.

“What are you wearing?” he asked and raised his eyebrows at me. No wonder he never saw me as anything other than a friend. If I was dressed in a tablecloth, I would have been more attractive.

“I know, scrubs. I had an accident. Actually, someone else had an accident and my uniform got literally covered in shit.” Luke grimaced. “Am I going to embarrass you dressed like this?”

“You look good in everything and you know it.” He grinned at me as we made our way to the sandwich bar at the end of the street.

I rolled my eyes, trying to make out that I was annoyed with him giving me a compliment. “So, what brings you to Hackney, Mr. City Lawyer?” I asked. “Slumming it?”

“No. Can’t a friend ask you to lunch without a reason other than wanting to see you?”

I wished he wouldn’t be so nice to me, that he could just be a real asshole. Then I could hate him and have a chance of getting over him. But really, I had no desire to hate him. I wanted him in my life, even if it was as friends. I’d managed this far, and I’d just have to readjust and make sure our relationship worked, even when I was dating. “You saw me yesterday.”

“Yeah, but you and I didn’t get a chance to talk much. And I wanted to speak to you about something.”

I led the way into the sandwich shop. Because we had known each other for as long as we had, we had shortcuts where he knew what I was thinking without any exchange of words. Did Richard and I need time to get to that point, or was it something more than just the number of years Luke and I had spent together that made us that way?

“Ham salad?” I asked him as he arrived at our table with a tray full of drinks and sandwiches wrapped in wax paper.

“Nope, try again.” He grinned. It was a usual routine. I had to guess what he’d ordered me before I was allowed to see it.

“Roast beef and rocket?” I scrunched my face up exaggeratedly, waiting for the verdict.

“You hate beef,” he said, his brows pulled together, looking at me as if I were nuts.

I laughed. “I know. I thought you might have forgotten. Ham and egg?”

“Nope,” he said, unwrapping his sandwich then taking a bite. He was grinning at me as if he’d just won the lottery.

“Are you kidding? Coronation chicken?” It was my favorite and they only had it on special here every now and then. Our ritual distracted me from thinking about how I shouldn’t be here with him and reminded me that when it came down to it, we were just Luke and Ash. Childhood friends.

He slid my sandwich across the table at me. I unwrapped it—I was right. “Thank you.” I was glad to see him. Pleased to have him to myself, it had been a long time.

“So, what’s going on? You’ve not woken up with a hangover in my spare room with my sister for ages now. Are you on the wagon?”

He’d not said anything before about the fact I’d not been around as much. I half wondered if Haven had mentioned something to him, even though she’d promised me she wouldn’t. “Ha. Ha,” I said. “Just busy, I guess. I’ve taken a few extra shifts, and Richard and I have been hanging out.” That was all true but it wouldn’t normally keep me away from him.