Either the drugs have brought on hallucinations on top of everything else, I’ve finally lost my mind or I’ve slipped off to heaven, she thought, staring at the man who, after pulling up his 4 x 4 on her drive, was now striding across the lawn towards her.
‘Hattie,’ he said, when close enough to speak without raising his voice.
‘Aidan,’ she whispered in reply, not even bothered that she was too frail that day to haul herself up into a dignified position, because this man, this angel, was looking at her with so much love in his eyes – and not a trace of pity – that nothing else mattered.
‘Can I sit down?’
She breathed something akin to a laugh. ‘Well, it’ll be far less onerous than me trying to stand up.’
Then he sat, smiled, and held her hands, and before they both knew it, he was pressing the soft, strong mouth she’d never forgotten against her papery forehead, before gently enfolding her against his chest. For a blissful, beautiful moment, she forgot that she was dying.
A while later, Gideon found them, and three lives flipped upside down all over again.
Riverbend’s curse is broken, was the last coherent thought before she sank into oblivion that night. I’m not alone any more. My love has come back to me.
And this time, a Riverbend man would stay.
34
Almost two weeks had passed since I’d met with Aidan. He’d messaged to thank me for getting in touch, and to say that he’d be spending some time with Hattie and Gideon over the next week or so. They were all very grateful for what I’d done.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief and was able to throw off another load of the guilt clinging to my shoulders.
When Hattie phoned, a couple of days later, I was too freaked out to answer, but she left a voicemail reiterating Aidan’s message, thanking me and asking me to call her, or even better to visit. I wept at the tremor in her voice. Cried that, despite me leaving in such a cowardly way, she was the one to reach out to me. Sobbed into my duvet at how much I missed her. Missed Riverbend. Missed everything, and one person more than all the rest put together.
I then dried my eyes, blew my nose and texted a bland reply about how I was still dealing with the (obviously fake) situation at Ezra’s, and I hoped the chemo wasn’t too awful, making it clear that I was a flaky, cold-hearted quitter who she was better off without.
I pounded the peaks with my unconditionally devoted dog, played with my honorary nieces and nephews, started creating a portfolio of floral designs while waiting to hear back about the wedding-flowers course and stuffed my emotions back down inside the depths of me where I could ignore them.
Until, one day when I arrived back from a particularly gruelling hike, I found Gideon sitting at the kitchen table, listening to Aaliyah explaining why she might actually, really truly be a Madagascan tomato frog.
‘Auntie Sophie, your ex-boyfriend is here,’ JoJo announced, in case I hadn’t noticed him. ‘I did try to say he should wait in the car, but Mum told me to stop being so rude and make him a drink.’
‘Mum also said that when Sophie got back, we’d probably want to give them some privacy,’ Naomi added, raising her eyebrows at me in unspoken question.
‘Well, of course we don’twantto give them privacy!’ JoJo huffed. ‘We all want to hear what the heartbreaker has to say for himself.’
‘JoJo,’ Naomi said, in that tone that was enough to send the girls scurrying out of the room.
‘Heartbreaker?’ Gideon asked, his face a careful mask.
‘Do you want another drink?’ I flicked on the kettle in a pointless attempt to give me time to calm down enough to think.
‘No, thanks.’
He waited patiently while I fumbled and faffed about, making brewing a pot of tea far more convoluted than it needed to be.
When I couldn’t put it off any longer, I took a seat opposite him at the table.
‘Hi. How are you?’ he asked, the sincerity in his voice reassuring me that he wasn’t here looking for trouble.
‘I can’t believe you’re here,’ I stammered in response. I wanted to sit and drink him in, it was so good to see him, but at the same time, my eyes couldn’t settle for more than a split second. ‘I can’t believe you found me.’
‘Your business is registered here. And I would have come sooner but didn’t want to leave Hattie.’
‘Is it bad?’ I asked, dreading the answer.
He nodded. ‘The side effects are pretty nasty, so physically, yes, it is bad. Mentally, she’s doing better. Thanks to you.’
