‘Anyway, I’d better go. Grace is just finishing off her homework and then she’ll want to tell me all about what’s happening to Harry and the gang, no doubt.’
‘Okay. Give her a hug from me. Night night.’
‘Aye, will do. Night, Jules.’
Juliette checked the clock. It was only six thirty. Much too early to go to bed, even though it was worryingly tempting. She wouldn’t let herself fall back into old patterns again. She stood at the kitchen sink and gazed out of the window at the little cottage garden. Birds were picking at the seeds on the hanging feeders and there was a pale Titian glow created by the setting sun. As she waited for the kettle to boil, she replayed her conversation with Caitlin. ‘…maybe that’s your subconscious telling you it’s time for a change…’ Was she right? The more she mulled it over, the more she let her mind wander to thoughts of Reid. His smile, his voice, the way she’d felt in his arms. Perhaps she had pushed him away by being too reticent to say how she really felt? It was too late to change things now though, wasn’t it?
She picked up her phone and flicked through the photos she had taken of Glentorrin until her eyes stung with tears and her heart ached with regret. Maybe it wasn’t too late? Maybe Reid had been right that night when they had been listening to Lewis Capaldi, and chances were sometimes worth taking.
She lifted her head again and gasped. A little robin sat on the window ledge. Was it another sign from Laurie? Tears overspilled from her eyes and she smiled as the tiny creature paused to watch her before he took flight and became a silhouette against the sky.
That was it. That was all she needed. Tomorrow she would look into revisiting Skye and finding out where Reid was living. She had to at least find out if his feelings for her matched her own for him.
With a sense of relief, Juliette flopped on to the sofa, picked up her book and thumbed the pages to find the last one she read and stared at the words. Nothing was registering. She read the same page over and over again, and was about to give up when the doorbell chimed.
Dex must have decided to come back down south.
She placed down her book and walked to the front door. It would be good to have him around again. Maybe he could drag her up from the doldrums and tell her if she was being ridiculous in considering going all the way back to Skye on a whim.
With a smile and arms open to welcome her brother, she yanked the door open.
‘H-hi, Jules.’
‘Reid!’ He stood before her in jeans and a leather jacket over a fitted pale blue T-shirt. The beginnings of a beard graced his angular jawline and his blue eyes looked unencumbered, sparkling in the light of the porch lantern. Her heart tried to escape through her ratty old sweater top, which no amount of smoothing down would help to unwrinkle. ‘What on earth are you doing here?’ She hadn’t heard from him after leaving the voicemail about Evin and the painting, and had spent so much time since trying to convince herself she would be fine and that she’d move on, that she hadn’t considered the possibility he might simply turn up on her doorstep.
He cleared his throat. ‘I think… I mean, IknowI owe you an explanation.’
‘You’d better come in,’ she said.
He followed her into the living room, glancing around at her home as he walked. ‘Wow, you looked absolutely stunning on your wedding day,’ he told her with a warm smile as he pointed at the black and white shot of her and Laurie’s special day.
‘Thank you. Please, have a seat.’ She sounded incredibly formal even to her own ears. Like he was some market researcher that she’d never met before. The truth was that she didn’t know how to act. The urge to run into his arms had been almost overwhelming and she’d dug her nails into her palms to keep herself grounded.
He sat awkwardly and shook his head as if he was having an internal conversation. He glanced at the painting above the fireplace and his cheeks coloured red. ‘You’ve hung it. I wasn’t sure if you would.’
She looked over at it too and her heart skipped. ‘I left you a message to say I had. And it’s beautiful, why wouldn’t I hang it?’ she whispered, but it was a rhetorical question.
‘I’ve missed you.’ And then his brow crumpled. ‘My phone, it got damaged and I lost some messages, contacts and things like that… I didn’t get yours, I’m so sorry.’
As he hadn’t immediately taken her into his arms, she wasn’t sure what to make of his arrival. She closed her eyes and sighed. ‘Why are you here, Reid?’ she asked as she gingerly lowered herself to the opposite sofa; keeping a little distance was vital for self-preservation.
He huffed and widened his eyes briefly. ‘Where to start. So much has happened. But… first, I want to say how sorry I am. At around two in the morning on the night we… the night that—’
‘We hadsex. You can say it out loud, Reid. We’re adults.’ She was aware that her reply was out of character and a little blunt, almost to the point of childishness.
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Okay… okay… so, on that night, at around two in the morning, I received a call from Kate. My phone was on silent, so I missed it, but I got up to go to the bathroom and there was a text message. Evin had run away.’
Her heart pounded and she panicked momentarily. Was this the reason for his visit? Was something wrong with Evin? ‘Yes, you said so in your voice message, but you said he’s okay…’
‘Y-yes… Thankfully, he’s fine now. But… erm… So, they’d stopped at a service station on the way back to Manchester, that’s where she lives with thatbloke, and Evin had got out of the car and just disappeared. He’d been gone for hours and I’d been blissfully unaware. The guilt I felt was immense, Jules. I grabbed my clothes and left as quick as I could. I grabbed Chewie because I knew Evin would be desperate to see him, got in my car and set off. All the time, I was thinking, what if something happened to him and I was too busy enjoying myself to be there. I hated myself so much.’
‘But you didn’t think to leave me a note or… or wake me? I would’ve understood, Reid.’
‘In all honesty, I couldn’t focus on anything else. I was frantic. I just wanted to find him.’
She did understand and inwardly chastised herself for being selfish. ‘How long did it take?’
‘All bloody night. The police were involved. It was horrendous. I’ve never been so scared. When we did find him, he’d fallen down an embankment and landed in some bushes. He’d broken his ankle. He’d been stuck there, terrified, cold and in agony.’ He rubbed his hands over his face. ‘It broke my heart.’ His voice trembled, the memory too recent and raw.
