Chapter 26
‘Eek!’ Laura rubbed her hands together before pulling the menu choices for the wedding that Ruby had emailed over. ‘It’s all starting to feel real now. Finding my dress, choosing the flowers and now the food we’ll actually be eating on our big day.’
‘Hey, what did you say?’ Letting the menu sample he was holding drift to the table, Jackson looked at Laura. ‘Did you just say you’d chosen your dress? As in your wedding dress?’
Ellie grinned as she watched Laura slap her hand over her mouth. She’d been adamant they all pretend to Jackson that she’d decided to wear her jeans and a T-shirt.
‘Umm… maybe.’ Laura squirmed under Jackson’s stare before erupting into laughter and holding her hands up. ‘Okay, okay, I’ve found my dress. I bought it. I have a wedding dress.’
A huge grin flooded Jackson’s face, and he pushed his chair back and stood up, walking towards the kitchen door.
‘Hey, where are you going?’ Laura frowned.
‘Nowhere. I just need to…’ Letting his voice trail off, he picked up his pace.
‘Oh no you don’t!’ Pushing her chair back with such a force that it toppled and fell against the tiles, Laura widened her eyes at Ellie. ‘He’s gone to try to find it!’
Shaking her head, Ellie laughed. She could just imagine Jackson doing something like that.
‘Don’t you even dare, Jackson! If you find it, I swear I’ll turn up in my PJs. I…’ Laura’s voice disappeared as she raced out of the room after him.
Collecting the menu samples from where they’d been abandoned on the table, Ellie stacked them up next to her notebook before pushing her own chair back and walking towards the French doors at the back of the kitchen.
She could see Murray busy fitting the new decking board, a look of concentration etched on his face.
Crossing her arms, she smiled as she watched him work. They’d spoken so much last night, and she hadn’t left his workshop until the early hours, but it had been good. They’d needed to talk, they’d needed to learn about each other again. And she felt closer to him than she ever had before.
She watched as he glanced up towards her and held his hand up in acknowledgement before she stepped forward and opened the door. ‘Hey.’
‘Hey, yourself.’ Standing up, he brushed the knees of his work trousers before stepping towards her and tucking his finger beneath her chin, tilting her head before lowering his lips to hers. ‘I’ve missed you.’
She laughed as she kissed him back before whispering, ‘What? Since ten minutes ago when I last brought you out coffee?’
‘Yes.’ Taking a step back, he chuckled and went to lean on the rail of the decking, looking out across the garden brimming with flowers, colour and wildlife. ‘We’ll have this. One day, we’ll have a place like this.’
Joining him, she rested her elbows on the wooden railing. ‘What, an inn?’
Chuckling, he shook his head. ‘Not an inn, but a place like this. Smaller, of course, but a place of our own. Here in Meadowfield.’
‘Just like we’d always talked about.’ She grinned.
‘Exactly.’ Nodding, he reached out and took her hand before bringing it to his lips.
She giggled as his stubble tickled the back of her hand before he lowered it again and their fingers naturally interlaced.
‘Why did you move here? To Meadowfield? I know you said it was because you needed a new start and you’d been here before so felt as though it would be easier to settle, but was that the truth? ’
Murray inched closer to her and lowered his head so that when he spoke his breath tickled her ear. ‘I knew you’d moved here and that you still lived here. My mum had spoken to your dad a few months ago and she’d mentioned it to me.’
Pulling away, she turned to look at him and frowned. ‘You knew I lived here? Is that why you came?’
He nodded. ‘If you’d been happily settled still, I wouldn’t have stayed.
My plan was to rent the workshop for a bit, get some work outside of the village so that we wouldn’t run into each other.
And then, when I’d found out if you were happy or not, I would have decided whether to leave or to come and see you. ’
‘But then you caught me changing my tyre in your gateway?’
‘And it was too late. You knew I was here, so I took the job here at Pennycress without realising you’d begun working for Laura and Jackson too.’ He shrugged.
‘So, let me get this straight, if you’d seen I was settled and happy you would have just left?’ She frowned.
‘That’s right. My intention was never to make things difficult for you, or to shoehorn myself into your life.’
She ran her forefinger along the wooden railing, following the patterns of the wood grain. ‘But when you saw me, you realised my life was a mess, so you, what? Decided to swoop in and save me?’
‘Haha, no. Nothing of the sort.’ He lifted his hand and began ticking off his fingers.
‘One, the only thing I knew about you when we ran into one another was that you had a flat tyre. Yes, that might constitute a rubbish day but certainly wouldn’t give the impression your life was a mess.
Two, you had boxes, so many boxes, crammed into your car, you were either moving home or work.
Both can be a good thing, so again, it didn’t tell me anything.
Three, from the little you’ve said about your ex, I’d argue that him being out of your life probably means it’s better now than when you were with him.
And four, you never needed saving, and I very much doubt you do now.
You were always the fixer, the one who others turned to for help. ’
‘Umm…’ She wasn’t sure what to say to that.
Yes, she’d always been the problem solver in their friendship group.
Right up until Murray had left, anyway. And the other points he’d made, had he really not realised quite how much her life was falling apart when he’d arrived.
‘So how did we get to this point?’ She waved her hand between them both.
‘If you’d decided not to interfere in my life if it was going great and you didn’t get the impression it wasn’t, then how come we’ve got ourselves into this? ’
Reaching out, he traced his finger across her jaw. ‘Because once I’d laid eyes on you again, I knew there was no going back. Not again.’
Taking his hand in hers, she kissed the tips of his fingers one by one. ‘Well, I’m glad.’