Chapter 10
‘Childish sense of humour or hardened criminal on the run?’ Reece holds out his hand to pull me up, and I slot my fingers around his and push myself to my feet, entirely lost on how to play this.
I was so worried about being caught by walkers that I didn’t for one second foresee that I might be caught by him. ‘What are you doing down here?’
‘You told me to come down so you can check my leg, remember? I’ve just had a shower so it seemed like the opportune time. I apologise for interrupting your criminal activities.’
‘They’re not criminal activities,’ I mutter, even though they most definitely are. ‘Criminal activities makes it sound so calculated. I was just…’ I trail off, unsure of how to get out of this without telling him all of it.
‘Look, everyone knows that toilet puns are the pinnacle of sophistication. I love a good one as much as the next bloke, but modifying a numberplate is a criminal offence and that seems a tad extreme, no matter how funny a numberplate that says “WEE” is.’
His words sound gentle and understanding, but I can’t bring myself to look at him because, if I do, he’s going to see everything.
‘You know you can tell me, right? No judgement here.’ He ducks his head until he can catch my eyes, and when I can’t avoid it any longer, he gives me a soft, encouraging smile.
‘Your taste in pyjama bottoms strikes again,’ I say to deflect attention from myself, but also because his trousers can’t be ignored. This time they’re orange and covered in cartoon dinosaurs wearing Hawaiian shirts and drinking cocktails.
‘I assume that’s a compliment, so thank you.’ He crosses an arm over his chest and bows to me.
I can’t help laughing, even though I envy his easy-going nature.
If I’d just caught someone illegally altering a numberplate, I’d be demanding an explanation, sharpish.
‘So why only the trousers?’ I ask, because his long-sleeved T-shirt is plain black.
‘Why not go the whole hog and wear the matching top too?’
He gives it some serious thought and then answers with an undeserving gravitas.
‘I think the top is the difference between “charmingly quirky” and “complete barmpot”. If you saw me dressed head-to-toe in bright orange pyjamas covered in cartoon dinosaurs, you’d run a mile, whereas with the plain top, you just think, “he’s a bit of a weirdo, but he’s alright”. ’
‘That is… very accurate.’ I laugh at his self-awareness, because nothing has ever summed up my feelings on Reece more succinctly.
‘Also, I haven’t got the heating in the pub working yet, so thermal tops come in handy when it’s colder, and for camping, obviously.’
It makes me wonder again about what he’s doing up there. So far he’s got no water to half the building, no heating, and he’s partially ceilingless after today’s antics. He doesn’t seem like someone who would slack off from work, and yet he doesn’t seem to be getting much fixed either.
We hold each other’s gaze and I realise there is no spin I can put on this that would make it sound any better, and that sense of wanting to be honest with him takes over again.
‘You’d better come in.’ I gesture towards the van’s door, trying to ignore the ever-rising panic inside me. ‘Let’s get that leg sorted.’
Reece ducks to avoid hitting his head as he climbs in the door, and then stands up straight and reaches an arm up into the extra space that the pop-up roof gives us now it can actually be popped up. ‘I like this. Nicer in here when you don’t get a concussion on entry.’
I climb in behind him and tell myself I’m admiring the cartoon dinosaurs and not ogling his strong thighs in those pyjama trousers.
His hair is still damp from the shower, and he smells like shower gel and something warm that makes my stomach do a little flip, which it really has no business in doing, especially so soon after things ended with Jared.
‘Sit,’ I order, pointing to the bench seat where he’s sat the other times he’s let me re-dress his leg injury. ‘And don’t give me any of that nonsense about it being fine. I saw you limping earlier, I see you limping now.’
When he sits, I lean over to slide the table out and wait for him to roll his trouser leg up and lift his leg so it rests on the flat surface, and he tries to hide a grimace behind his perpetually cheerful expression.
It’s a routine we’ve done a few times now, and I sit on my knees with the first aid kit, but this time, I’m trying to work out how to even begin explaining.
I carefully peel away the old bandage, trying not to notice how the muscles in his leg tense at my touch, and the way he’s watching my every move tonight, rather than looking away like he has before.
The bruising is really coming out now and his leg is an impressive array of shades of blue and purple, and I can see the skin tightening as the wound starts to dry up.
His blue eyes are burning into me, waiting for me to say something, and I think he understands that I don’t know where to begin because he says, ‘So, am I harbouring a criminal?’
‘You’re in my van! I’m harbouring you!’
He snorts at that, but quickly turns serious again. ‘Is it your van? Because, to be fair, I’ve met cardboard boxes with better reversing skills than you. It would make a lot of sense if it was stolen…’
It’s my turn to snort when he unexpectedly makes me laugh, and I appreciate that his sense of humour is ever-present, even in the face of vehicle theft. ‘Define stolen?’
He raises an eyebrow. ‘Is it yours?’
‘No.’
‘Does the owner know you have it?’
‘Er… yes, he does, actually. He saw me drive off. He does know that I’m currently in possession of his campervan… but he might not know where it is, exactly.’
Reece watches me like he’s trying to read between the lines and hear what isn’t being said. ‘Did he give you express permission to take it?’
‘Ah. Well, that’s where the lines blur just a little…’ And somehow, as I clean his wound and apply more antiseptic and a new wound pad, the whole sorry story comes tumbling out.
At the end of my tale, I expect Reece to be horrified, but instead, he’s looking at me with that same endearing smile. ‘Well, someone’s a silly sausage.’
I don’t intend to laugh, but it’s such an unexpected childlike term that it catches me off-guard. ‘Yes, I am. I am, indeed, a silly sausage. The silliest of all sausages, some might say.’
I didn’t expect him to still be grinning at me, and I’m suddenly acutely aware of how small the van feels with both of us in it. It’s not just the physical space, but the way he fills every inch of it with relentless good cheer that I’m increasingly certain is covering something much deeper.
‘I noticed that had gone walkabouts after you left earlier.’ Instead of the angry outburst I expected, he reaches a long arm out and his fingers stretch towards the roll of tape where I’ve left it beside the door. ‘You didn’t have to steal my electrical tape. I would happily have let you have it.’
‘How could you possibly notice—’ I stop myself from asking how he could know it was missing in the chaos of tools everywhere. He is not the one who’s done something wrong here. ‘I was going to put it back. I… Ugh!’
I make a noise of frustration and hide my face behind my hands. ‘You’re right. I’ve become a monster. I’m so sorry. If I’d asked, you’d have wanted to know why, and I didn’t want to lie to you. Please don’t call the police.’
‘About a borrowed roll of electrical tape? I’ll try to contain myself. They’ve probably got more pressing things to deal with.’ His cheeky smile suggests he’s deliberately winding me up.
‘No, I mean… about everything. I just need time to figure out what I’m going to do. Without the campervan, I have nowhere to live. I have no job. I don’t know where to go or what to—’
He interrupts gently, like he can tell I’m about to go down a panic spiral and knows it won’t do any good.
‘I’m not going to call the police. God, Dolly, this is brilliant.
You are brilliant. This is the best kind of revenge.
It fulfils that vindictive “you deserve something horrible to happen to you” feeling, but no one actually gets hurt. ’
I make an indignant noise and gesture towards his leg, and he rolls his eyes.
‘Oh, not in that way. I just mean… I’ve been cheated on, and it’s a special kind of pain.
The kind that gets inside your veins and tears you apart from the inside out and makes you question everything you thought you knew.
This victimless revenge is the perfect antidote. ’
He meets my eyes and I feel my cheeks going red for no reason.
‘I’m sorry you’ve been cheated on too.’ I wrap a bandage around his leg with more care than is strictly necessary, but it’s the first time he’s shared anything remotely personal, and maybe it’s a part of where his kindness and understanding comes from, and I can’t help wanting to know more.
‘Oh, think nothing of it. The circumstances were different and… complicated. But at least it was with a stranger. I can’t imagine how much the hurt is amplified when the other person involved is a friend too.’
‘Yeah, it’s, er, not fun.’ I’ve been trying not to think about it because I don’t want to go down the emotional rabbit hole of questions about when it began and how I didn’t notice, and how I let myself get so lost in the daydreams of our future business that I missed what was happening right in front of my eyes and how, if I really think about it, it’s Vickie that hurts the most. Things with Jared hadn’t been great, I know that, but Vickie was the best friend I’d ever had and I trusted her with every secret, including my fears about the distance between me and Jared, and how lonely I felt sometimes, and now I can’t work out if she took advantage of that or if it was because of her in the first place.
‘Maybe you did exactly what you needed to do,’ Reece says softly, like he can tell exactly where my mind has gone.