CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The following day, I was psyching myself up to face them as I took a swim in the pool, when I heard a car in the distance. I groaned. This was becoming a habit. But I really hoped it wasn’t Ada and Skye. What if Rori had told them she’d found where I’d been hiding?
Stubbornly, I stayed where I was, floating on my back. If it was them, they’d have to come and find me because I certainly wasn’t about to make an effort for them! But I felt sick and the fact that my heart was beating faster was nothing to do with the breaststroke.
Braced to hear them calling for me, when I saw a male figure striding through the trees, at first I thought it must be Saul. He must have come along with Skye.
I squinted. It didn’t look like Saul. This man was tall with dark hair.
A voice drifted over and my heart lurched with delight.
Billy!
I half-waded, half-swam to the edge and scrambled out, glad I was wearing a bikini that morning, unlike the day before when I’d decided rather daringly to skinny-dip, knowing there was no one else around.
I’d told Billy all about the natural pool in the woods and he’d somehow found me!
‘Hey, I almost didn’t recognise you.’ I smiled at him and he held out his hand to help me up the bank. ‘Don’t get too fit or you might fade away.’
He patted his now fairly flat stomach. ‘I’ve surprised myself. I actually like working out.’
‘You do?”
He grinned. ‘I despise it, of course, while I’m doing the lifting and pumping, but it’s the feeling I get afterwards that keeps me going back. I’ve got so much energy these days and I like feeling healthy. No one’s more surprised than I am, believe me.’
‘Well, keep it up. You’re looking great.’ I glanced at him, feeling strangely shy. His dark hair had been cropped short and it suited him. He was wearing black jeans and a fitted khaki green T-shirt with the slogan, ‘Made in 1983. All genuine parts’.
I smiled at him. ‘Glad your parts are genuine.’
‘Oh, they are, my dear. They really are.’
We laughed and his eyes twinkled at me as I wrapped myself in the towel I’d left on the bank.
I glanced furtively at Billy as we walked back through the woods. There was a strange sort of tension between us this morning. Were we flirting back there?
‘I hope you don’t mind me spoiling your alone-time,’ he said, as I hurried to keep up with his long stride. I’d always complained that Billy walked too slowly. He was definitely a new man!
‘Not at all. It’s great to see you.’
He smiled across at me and my heart did a weird little flip.
‘I wanted to come before now but I knew you needed your space to think. So... have you thought?’
I nodded. ‘I’ve thought a lot, trying to get it all straight in my head. And I made a breakthrough yesterday.’
‘A breakthrough?’
‘Yes. I woke up and the first thing I thought was, “I need to keep that newspaper to show Skye when I get back”.
He looked puzzled. ‘What newspaper?’
‘Oh, I bought some newspapers and magazines from the village shop, and there’s a story in one of them about an old theatre that’s being refurbished. And it mentions the last play performed there and Skye by name. Well, her stage name. Aiyanna Silver. She played the lead.’
‘Nice stage name. Why did she choose that?’
I shrugged. ‘No idea. But that’s not the point. The point is I thought about Skye with no feeling of anger or despair. So that’s a definite breakthrough as far as I’m concerned.’
He nodded in agreement.
‘Mind you, I’m still dreading facing her and Ada. I’m going to be so angry at them.’
‘My advice? Leave the deadly weapons at home.’
I groaned. ‘Stop it.’
‘You’ll be fine, you know,’ he said a little later, as we sat outside the cabin in the sun, side-by-side, drinking the posh bottles of ‘real lemonade’ Billy had brought, still cold from the fridge.
‘I suppose so. I’ll have to be.’ I took a slug of lemonade.
Billy sighed and reached for my hand. ‘If anyone can find it in their heart to forgive their deception, it’s you, Blossom.’ He rubbed his thumb over my palm and a funny little tingle shivered its way along my arm. ‘And deep down, you know that forgiveness is the only way. I’m sure they did what they thought was best. But whatever their motives, forgiving them will bring you some peace, and that’s all I care about.’
Tears sprang to my eyes at his gentle words of comfort. ‘When did you get to be so wise, Billy Thompson? Thank you for that.’ I leaned over, intending to give him a chummy peck on the cheek. But he turned at that moment to say something, and somehow, our faces collided.
I laughed, looking into his eyes, expecting him to crack a joke. But somehow it didn’t happen. His eyes up close were a lovely melting chocolate brown with a glimmer of gold around the iris and curiously, he wasn’t even smiling. He was just gazing right back into my eyes.
The earth had stopped turning, frozen in time.
And when we kissed, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
His lips were soft and he took the lead, shifting in his chair and slipping his arms around me. He trapped my upper lip gently in both of his for one achingly blissful moment. Then he pulled away and looked deep into my eyes again, before bringing his mouth down hard on mine. I was pressed against his muscled chest and my whole body was tingling with a depth of desire I’d never felt before. But...
‘Billy,’ I gasped, pulling away at last. ‘We can’t do this. We’re friends.’
His eyes were burning into mine and for a second, I thought he was going to kiss me again.
‘And what about Jenna?’ I said.
He drew away from me at that and sat back in his chair. It was like the verbal equivalent of a bucket of cold water, and I could have kicked myself for spoiling that heavenly moment. But it had to be said. As far as I knew, he and Jenna might be back together.
‘It’s over. Me and Jenna.’
‘Is it?’
‘Yes.’ He gave me a comically mournful look. ‘She had no idea what a full stop was actually for. She just used endless commas.’
I snorted. ‘Oh, well, that’s obviously potential jail-time right there!’
He grinned. ‘Want to know the real reason we broke up?’
‘Yes, please.’
He shrugged. ‘I missed seeing you, Blossom... I missed laughing with you. You get me, and any relationship where I have to choose between you and her is never, ever going to work.’
‘So you agree? Jenna hated me being your friend? She wanted you to choose?’
He nodded. ‘In the end, I realised that what I was feeling for her was pure infatuation. You did me a big favour challenging her and that guy on the high street.’
I winced at the memory. ‘I was so... shouty. I mean, I’ve never been that shouty in my life before. With anyone.’
He grinned. ‘I know. It’s really quite sexy, imagining you fighting my corner, and telling her what was what.’
‘Yeah?’ I felt myself blushing.
‘Definitely. I was hoping it meant that you... cared about me. A lot.’
‘I do.’
‘But just as friends?’ He was smiling but I saw the tension in his face.
‘I care about you a lot,’ I said carefully. ‘And judging by that kiss, I think it’s far more than friendship.’
He nodded, his whole body relaxing back into the chair. ‘That’s what I was hoping you’d say.’ He took my hand and squeezed it gently, and I smiled and nestled my head into his shoulder, and we sat there for a while saying nothing, just basking in the sun and this new understanding between us.
It had taken a long time to get there, I thought happily. But maybe that would make us even stronger in the long run. It felt so right being with Billyand there was no rush.
We had all the time in the world...
*****
‘I’ll see you when you get back,’ Billy murmured, his hands around my waist as we parted a little later.
I nodded. ‘I’ll come round tomorrow? I’d better stay at Skye’s tonight.’ I groaned. ‘She’s desperate to see me. Ada’s going to be there as well and Saul’s staying at a mate’s to give us space to talk.’
‘It’ll be good. You can get answers to all your questions.’
‘I suppose so. I wish you were coming with me, though.’
He chuckled softly. ‘You can do this. And I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?’
‘Okay.’
We kissed once more, hard and passionately, then reluctantly, we drew apart and he got in his car. Then he realised he’d left his jacket in the cabin so I ran back to get it.
I handed it in through the window and he smiled and said, ‘Hey, listen to this. I’ve just Googled Skye’s stage name. I was curious about why she chose it. And guess what Aiyanna means?’
‘What?’ I stared at him.
‘You’ll never believe it. It’s actually really touching. Aiyanna means... Blossom.’
‘Really?’
He nodded and read aloud from his phone, ‘Flower blossom. Aiyanna is a feminine name with African roots to help baby reach their full blooming potential.’
The idea of this left me momentarily speechless. Skye had been thinking of me when she chose her stage name...
‘She must have wanted to keep you close always,’ said Billy. ‘Even though you were separated by distance. That’s what it suggests to me, anyway.’
I nodded, feeling choked up at this new revelation.
‘Anyway, I’ll speak to you later.’ Billy leaned towards me for another kiss, then he drove off with a wave and a big beam on his face.
I followed him a few hours later, after I’d cleaned and tidied the cabin, leaving everything exactly as it was when I arrived. And as I headed back to Guildford, I couldn’t stop thinking about Skye using the name Aiyanna because of me. Why had we never asked her before why she’d chosen it? Trust Billy to stumble upon the truth. He really was my knight in shining armour, I thought happily.
Thinking of Billy, I called him on the hands-free, and he answered straight away.
‘Hey, you. On your way back?’
‘Yes. Listen, Billy, are you back home yet?’
‘I am. Just parked.’
‘Could you do me a favour?’
‘Of course. As long as it involves you, me and a spa bath,’ he joked.
I laughed, noting the traffic lights up ahead. ‘You Googled Aiyanna. Now can you Google her stage surname, “Silver”?’
‘Okay.’
I waited, my heart beating a little faster. It was probably nothing...
‘Right,’ he said at last. ‘Silver. The meaning. So it says...’ He read through the fairly lengthy definition.
In the silence that followed, my heart was racing.
‘Blossom?’
I was thinking rapidly, my mind in a chaos of confusion.
‘Blossom? Are you all right?’
‘Yes. Billy, I... I think I know who he is. I think I know who my father is!’
Too late, I realised the traffic lights were at red. As the blood roared in my veins, the rear of the car in front of me loomed large and I slammed on the brakes. But not soon enough to stop myself ploughing right into the back of it...