23. Chapter Twenty-Three
A few hours later, rested from sleeping in her own bed and after collecting a drive thru coffee and a sandwich, Evie hit the road once again. She was used to James’ car now and enjoyed the drive down, even with the slow traffic marching its' way towards the West Country.
She wasn’t sure what to expect when she returned to the grand manor house, but enormous eight foot high mesh fencing around the entire perimeter, pairs of security guards on every corner of the estate and, on reaching the driveway around one hundred teenage girls all camped out along the road who started screaming and hitting her car, trying to see in, was not what she had in mind.
Evie was beginning to worry as to how she was going to get in if she had to stop the car to talk to anyone, whilst the Cyan fans banged and hollered at her through the glass windows. But fortunately the metal security gates she’d been stuck outside of with James barely three weeks ago opened smoothly and allowed her through, whilst two security guards prevented the girls from gaining access.
Slowly making her way down the path and noting the hundreds of unlit lanterns that had been placed in the ground, flanking the driveway, Evie pulled to the right to park by the cottage and took a deep breath.
‘You’re here,’ Mick knocked on her window making Evie jump, and she unplugged her seatbelt, swinging her legs out of the car.
‘I’m here, just trying to get the heartrate down, that was scary out there. Girls were flinging themselves across the bonnet of the car,’ she said, shaking her head in surprise. ‘How long have they been here?’
‘They began arriving yesterday afternoon, first it was just a couple. Then we had ten or so – I even popped out to give them some ice-lollies, they all looked quite hot. By nine last night we had about hundred, and this morning, well. You’ve seen it. They’re intense.’
Evie pulled her bag out of the boot. ‘That’s one word for it. Very intense.’
‘They even managed to set fire to some of the shrubs around the perimeter, one of them had a camping stove and it got knocked over. Dry grass and fire doesn’t mix,’ he rolled his eyes. ‘All so they can hopefully get a glimpse of Cyan at some point. Madness.’
Shutting the boot, Evie glanced over to the cottage and smiled when she saw James coming out of the front door, holding onto Lou Lou. Mick looked between the two with a grin of satisfaction and made as though he needed to check his watch.
‘Well, look at the time. Think I better be making a move. Big day tomorrow – hope you’re ready for the craziness to be turned up to eleven,’ he said laughing, as Evie shook her head at such a bad joke. Her dad always said that.
It occurred to her she hadn’t been in touch with her dad since their abrupt chat, but knew she’d have a lot to fill him in with when she returned home.
‘Hey,’ James’ voice startled her a little out of her reverie. ‘Lou Lou and I have a little surprise for you.’ He took her weekend bag out of her hand whilst giving her the little dog to cuddle. Lou Lou covered Evie’s face with licks.
‘She’s missed you, can you tell?’ James said as he pushed the front door open and placed Evie’s bag near to the staircase.
Placing the Chihuahua on the floor, who promptly ran towards the kitchen, her tail wagging in hope of a treat, Evie breathed in a deep sigh of contentment. Even if they were playing house, and Lou Lou wasn’t hers, it felt real enough in that moment to believe they could have something like this in the future.
As if he could read her thoughts, James turned around to face Evie and it was then she noticed the dark splotches of exhaustion under his eyes. They matched hers. He took half a step closer to her and leaned in, ‘I missed you too,’ he whispered, before lightly kissing her on the lips. Evie realised then what home was, it wasn’t gorgeously decorated walls. It was having your person. The one who’d be there on the end of a phone when you were tired and sad, the one who would worry about you all night. The one who’d be there to give you a kiss when you came home. James was home to her and whatever she and he had gone through these past few weeks, she would forgive him. Because he was what her soul had been missing this past decade, and now he was returned to her, she couldn’t let a James type hole take up residence again.
‘Lovely as this is, I thought you might need a proper dinner this evening after your stressful twenty four hours, so I have something out on the patio,’ James said, guiding her out onto the patio where more of the lanterns that she’d seen lining the main driveway were, but these were lit. On the table was a bottle of something sparkly in an ice bucket and two boxes.
Evie laughed. ‘Pizza?’
James pulled a mock frown. ‘Hey, some of us have been working you know. Whilst you’ve been off bringing life into the world, I’ve been overseeing the installation of what will eventually be a six foot chocolate fountain. I couldn’t cook a three course dinner.’
Sitting down at the table and gratefully accepting the glass of bubbles James presented her with, Evie opened the box and her mouth watered at the sight of the pepperoni pizza inside. ‘Pizza is perfect, thank you.’
For a moment they both ate in companionable silence, with only the early evening birdsong to keep them company.
‘Better?’ James asked, looking over at her with such kindness in his eyes, Evie wondered why she’d ever doubted him. Except, she had for good reason and she was still waiting to find out his excuse.
Despite wanting to know the answer, she wasn’t sure she could face the truth.
‘Everything okay?’ James covered her hand with his. Evie noticed spots of paint on his hand where he’d missed removing it.
‘I don’t know if I want to say, this is all so lovely. You’re so lovely,’ she added, squeezing his hand and looking at him.
‘But…’
Looking up to the sky in the hope that the stunningly beautiful sunset was going to help her, Evie asked the question that had been eating away at her. ‘Why did you stay at Chloe’s? Did something happen between you? She said that it did.’
For a moment there was an unpleasant silence and Evie realised she was holding her breath. Then James, to her surprise, laughed.
‘I’m sorry. It’s not funny but Chloe? Really? No of course nothing happened with her, I don’t know what she told you but nothing happened between us. She was just doing me a favour. That’s all.’
‘But I thought maybe you saw me kiss Bryn on the cheek?’ Evie admitted, worried. James smiled again, a little sadly this time.
‘I did, I admit, see him and you together and I thought maybe you’d gone off me and wanted to date him. I couldn’t fault you, he’s a decent guy.’
‘And engaged.’
James shifted a little to look at her properly. ‘I know that now. I didn’t before. But that’s beside the point. I did see you, and I did walk off in a bit of a mood. I was trying to figure out how to sweep you off your feet, whilst trying not to let all that prom stuff get in the way.’
Evie gripped his hand. ‘Prom stuff, like when you stood me up you mean?
James was aghast, his mouth kept opening and closing like a fish. ‘Me? I didn’t stand you up. I rang your house and told your dad I couldn’t come. He said he wasn’t surprised, and that I didn’t deserve you. Told me I wasn’t to come by ever again, otherwise he’d report me to the police. I didn’t want to get into trouble, and I didn’t realise then what I know now. That he was just full of bluster and wouldn’t have acted on it.’
Her head was reeling. ‘Dad knew? He knew you couldn’t come and yet he lied to me?’
James nodded.
‘But that still leaves me with why you couldn’t come.’
Looking away for a moment, James collected himself before speaking. ‘I don’t think you ever really knew what was going on in my house,' he took a breath, readying himself for what he was about to say. ‘My dad would hit my mum,’ he explained and Evie held his hand tighter, some of their stranger moments when they were teens beginning to make more sense.
‘Is that why we could never hang out at yours? You always came to mine? Why I never met them?’
James nodded. ‘Up until then, he’d only hit mum. He hadn’t touched me. But on the night of our prom, I’d mislaid my bowtie. I was looking everywhere for it. I knew mum and him had spent a lot of money renting my tux and I couldn’t bear the idea I’d lost something. Dad must have sensed I was on the way to trouble and he came into my room with a face like thunder. He asked me why I was dressed the way I was, and that I didn’t deserve a nice girl like you to go to prom with. That’s when he said he’d make my mum pay for hiring the tux. I cracked. I was the same height and build as him by then, so I grabbed one of my tennis trophies and hit him on the head with it. Knocked him right out.’
‘James, that’s so brave,’ Evie said, wondering how she’d ever missed the pain in his eyes that sat so clearly there now.
He shrugged. ‘Mum ran into the room, saw what had happened and she made a split second decision to get us out of there. She couldn’t face what could happen if he began hitting me, or worse, I turned into him. So we grabbed a few things and then we escaped, my call to your dad was the last one I could make before throwing my phone away. Mum’s friend let us stay with her in Scotland and we never contacted anyone from our old life. That way he wouldn’t be able to find us.’
Evie blew out the breath she’d been holding. ‘I can’t believe everything you’ve gone through. But why did you come back? Won’t he find out?’
James shook his head. ‘No, we found out he died about a year ago. Mum’s safe to come back if she ever wants to, though she’s made a life for herself in Edinburgh.’ He kissed her gently on the cheek. ‘I decided I’d try and track you down to make a go of things again. I couldn’t believe we’d ended up in the same industry, it felt kind of perfect,’ he paused, ‘I never stopped loving you, you know.’
He cupped her face in his hand and kissed the tears that had fallen on her cheek. ‘It’s okay, we’re back together now. We can be however we want to be.’
Evie shook her head. ‘It’s not that. I’m so sorry James. For you and your mum. All this time I just thought you’d gone off me. How stupid. How selfish.’
Holding her back a little to admire her from arm’s length, James shook his head. ‘I would never go off you.’
They hugged for a moment and a thought occurred to Evie. ‘So how does Chloe fit into the picture?’
‘Ah. Remember when Cyan came for her surprise visit? Well there was a bit more to it than that.’