6. Chapter Six #3
“There. Now you have my number, too.”
Somehow, the moment has become a little more intimate than I was prepared for, but I prefer attraction over tears.
I bend and grab my bag. “I have to go. Please tell me I’m walking in the right direction.”
Aidan leans back and points. “Just head straight down the lane here and take a sharp turn next to the runes. Walk a little way up, and you’ll then see the gate behind the house. You can’t miss it.”
“Thank you.” I swipe my fringe back from my forehead and nod at him. “And thank you for listening, Aidan.”
“Sure. See you around.” He shifts but can’t move far because of the fence boxing us in. “You should come by Holly’s on Friday. I think it’s the monthly quiz night this week. Might be easier for you to meet people there.”
I smile softly at him, not committing to anything, and then move past him on the narrow lane.
I have to angle my body awkwardly to get past him.
Our height difference is even more significant now, and when our bodies brush against each other, hips bumping, I jump at the electricity shooting up my arm.
“Oh, sorry,” I murmur, startled. “Not a lot of room here.”
“No worries.”
His voice has turned down a notch, a little husky, and I shut my eyes briefly before I move out of his reach. My heart pounds against my chest in much the same way it did when he caged me against his fridge, and my belly flips.
This is not good.
My heart might be fluttering, but I know where that’s led me in the past, and it’s not a place I plan to revisit. My heart had better well listen to what my head’s telling me.
And, right now, it tells me that Aidan is in the friend-zone.
It’s best that he stays there.
I pull out my phone from my back pocket as I walk and check the screen to save his number. My stomach clenches when, just below his name, I see five missed calls from Nellie earlier today. I swipe the green button and raise the phone to my ear.
“Maeve?”
“Hiya, Nellie.”
“Oh, sweetie, it’s good to hear your voice. I’ve been so worried.”
“There’s no need for that.”
I raise my eyes and look at the grim clouds above me.
“Have you settled in at the cottage?”
“I’m getting there, slow and steady.”
“Are you doing your exercises?”
“Yes, and walking every day, following the doctor’s orders.” I know I need to be patient with her, and I soften my voice. “I’m fine, Nellie.”
“Good. I’m glad. I…” She hesitates, and I stop walking, needing to catch my breath. “I just worry. You know I do.”
I sniffle and wipe a hand across my stinging nose. “It’s nice that you worry.” I laugh. “But not too much, please. I’m fine.”
“Hmm. Fine.” She sighs. “Have you heard from Colin?”
I cringe. “No, but since we’re not together anymore, I don’t expect to hear from him.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“It is what it is. I have to be because there’s no alternative.” I stop next to the wooden bench that has Cloonmara etched into the back of it and lean my hip against it. “Besides, you don’t think I want to be with someone like him who’ll treat me worse than I deserve, do you?”
“No, of course not.”
I take a deep breath, my eyes searching the distance for something to take my mind off my least favourite topic of all time. I look back towards where I left Aidan, but he’s nowhere to be found anymore. I turn my focus back to Nellie.
“How’s Jack?”
“He hasn’t changed since we last talked, love. Now that the season’s changed, we’ve been getting out a bit more, and when I need to go somewhere on my own, Dot comes by and stays with him. Keeps him company.”
My skin itches, and I work my lips between my teeth, weighing my next words. “Is that a good idea, Nellie? Having Dot so close?”
“She’s my sister, Maeve. She’s all I’ve got.”
“I know.”
“Besides,” she sniffles, “since his accident, I need all the help I can get. I thought that you’d understand.”
Life can be so unfair. Just a few months before Jack was about to retire from his job as a site engineer, there was an accident, and he fell from the scaffold he was on. The fall was so serious that he’s lost the ability to walk, leaving him confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
I swallow the lump in my throat. “I do,” I reply thickly. “I wish I could help you, but...”
“I know, love, but you need to look after yourself first. We need you to get back to your old self again before you return to Dublin.”
“I’m…” The words get stuck in my throat, because what can I tell her? That I don’t know if I’ll stay or go back because I don’t know if that’s what I want anymore? That I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to who I was before?
That I don’t know if I want to?
“Are you still there?”
I tighten my hand on the phone. “Yes.”
“Jack needs me, so I have to go, but I’m glad you phoned. It means a lot to me.”
“So am I.”
“It’d be nice if you’d text me from time to time, let me know how you’re getting on.”
I know a gentle hint when I hear one. “I’ll try to do that. Please tell Jack I said hi, and that I miss him, too.”
“I will. Bye.”
“Goodbye.”
The line goes dead, and as my arm falls, so do my tears.