‘Och, you never know the minute. That’s why we have to snatch every second of happiness. Talking of which, did all those goings on ruin your date?’ Nancy asked, and this time Noah could hear the cagey optimism.
‘Nope, Rex ruined the date before that even happened. Val, the things you suspected about him the other day – you were right. He was a complete dickhead.’
‘I don’t know why you doubted me, love,’ Val said, chuckling. ‘Reading people is my superpower.’
Nancy backed her pal up with, ‘Aye, you knew that bloke in the bakers was the one stealing knickers off the washing lines before the police caught him.’
Noah shook his head, laughing, until he was reminded once again how much it hurt.
‘So it’s all off then?’ Nancy asked, with unmistakable hope.
‘It’s all off.’
‘And what do you think of that, Noah?’ Val asked, this time the hint so obvious it was flashing like the Santa they’d put on Nancy’s roof. In March.
‘I think that I need to go, because they’ll be back in to check on me soon.’
The two at the other end of the phone seemed to find this amusing, and this time, Tress gave him a questioning gaze.
‘Okay, son – we’ll see you in the morning. Tress, we’re here if you need us, doesn’t matter what time.’
‘Thank you. I love you both so much.’
‘Aye, same here, pet. But just one thing… Ask Noah why he was driving up to Glasgow tonight. Cheerio.’
Tress took a minute to absorb that one.
‘Why do I feel like there are powers at play that I don’t know about here?’ she asked Noah. ‘Did they send you to wreck my date because Val didn’t trust him? Or were you coming to check on me? Because, Noah Clark, I don’t need to remind you that I’m a grown woman who is perfectly capable of making her own colossal fuck-ups.’
She was trying not to be annoyed, but embarrassment was tipping her close to the edge. Embarrassment and all sorts of other emotions that she didn’t even want to contemplate right now. When she thought she’d lost him…
Nope, not thinking about it. Not tonight. Tonight she was just going to be grateful he was still here.
‘I was coming to wreck your date,’ he said, the admission making him very clearly uncomfortable.
‘Noah! Why would you do that? You’re usually the voice of reason and the only one that can talk sense into Val and Nancy…’ They both knew that was true. ‘Oh no. They’ve sucked you over to the dark side. You’re going to wake up tomorrow morning with a Zumba habit and an opinion on everything.’
She was probably letting him off the hook too easy, but again, she didn’t care. He was here. That was all that mattered. Because if she’d lost him…
Damn, why couldn’t she stop her mind wandering there?
Enough. Back to the present. Back to everything being okay.
Or was it?
She still hadn’t asked him about what had happened with Anya and she wasn’t sure that she wanted to right now because she wasn’t ready for him to tell her something she didn’t want to hear.
‘I didn’t do it for them,’ he said, really quietly.
His head must be hurting again. No wonder. That was some injury. If it had been worse, he could have been so badly injured or even…
BLOODY HELL! Why couldn’t she stop this? It was like her brain was trying to torture her by throwing up the worst possible scenario at every turn. By making her feel what it would be like if anything took him away from her. Any more of this, and she was going to climb in there beside him and bang her own head until a concussion made these thoughts stop.
‘So why? Oh, wait, I get it. You found out that Keli used to date him and he was awful to her. Thank you. If the roles were reversed, I’d probably come charging up to see you to give you that kind of information.’
‘Nope, I didn’t know that either.’
‘Then why?’ And why was her heart thudding? The panic was over. He was okay. He was here. She was here.
