Chapter 39
She imagined she could hear Sophie’s complaints about her heavy foot on the accelerator the following morning, even though her friend wasn’t there to actually say anything.
Today, she was inclined to think she’d been a stunt driver in another life, more suited to avoiding dramatic accidents on the motorway than driving in stop-start traffic over the River Severn.
When she deemed the hour no longer antisocial, she dialled Reshma’s number. ‘Morning!’ she said brightly when her boss answered. ‘Sorry to bother you, but—’
‘You don’t sound sorry,’ Reshma grouched.
‘Okay, I’m not really sorry, but I do need your help. Do you have an address for Rhys? I think his mother lives somewhere near Cardiff.’
There was murmuring over the line and Ginny’s eyebrows lifted when she heard Willard’s voice in the background.
‘Give me a minute and we’ll text it to you,’ Reshma replied. ‘And I hope I go back to sleep, otherwise you can forget your bonus for this year.’
‘Reshma, you’re going to start paying bonuses?’
‘No, I’m joking. Bye, Ginny.’
As she followed the signs for Cardiff, she mused on Reshma’s ‘situationship’, quite approving of her boss’s determination to keep her independence. Relationships, it seemed, came in all shades and marriage, while a beautiful symbol and something to celebrate, didn’t need to be a part of everyone’s.
In fact, Ginny wasn’t even thinking about one day marrying Rhys. Right now, she’d be content just to clap eyes on him.
She pulled over to programme the directions into her phone and followed the instructions to the seaside town of Barry, thinking about the moments when Rhys’s lilt grew a little stronger, when he’d spoken about his mam and told her about gathering chestnuts in Pontypool Park, although she had no idea where that was.
Parking in front of the tiny house with lace curtains and a fussy garden, she smiled as she climbed out of the car and rushed up the path to ring the doorbell. The woman who answered had curly grey hair and a crochet cardigan – and a broad, knowing smile.
‘Hello, cariad,’ she said as soon as she opened the door. ‘I was hoping I’d get to meet you. Come in for a cup of tea. I don’t have any of that fancy herbal stuff Rhys likes, but if you don’t mind a good Yorkshire brew—’
‘Um, thank you, Mrs—’
‘It’s Lesley, lovey.’
‘Thank you, Lesley, but I was really hoping to catch Rhys before…’
The way Lesley turned slowly, her brow sinking, shot panic to Ginny’s toes. ‘But he’s gone. He left yesterday.’
‘What? I thought his flight was today.’ Had he dropped in on her dad on his way to the airport?
‘Oh yes, his flight’s today – this evening from Bristol. But he went to say goodbye to his friends in Weymouth. I thought he might have gone to see you, if I’m honest. I didn’t think he’d have it in him to leave without saying goodbye to you, not with everything you mean to him.’
She wanted to grasp Lesley’s shoulders and ask, ‘What? What do I mean to him?’ but more important right now was to find him.
‘I think you need to sit down. Come in, have a cuppa and I’ll call him now in a minute.’
‘Yes,’ Ginny said, trying to slow her thoughts down. She couldn’t quite picture calling him herself. What she had to say was so delicate, and trying to explain why she wanted to see him would be equally difficult. But if Lesley called, she could find out where he was and go from there.
She had to sit through an hour of stories and two albums of old family photos – the ones from Rhys’s early years were yellowed with age, which amused her – before she thought it wasn’t too impolite to say, ‘Do you think we could call him now? Find out where he is? I’d really hate to miss him.’
‘Oh, gosh, yes. I was supposed to call him. Let me get the phone. Better from the landline, see?’
Ginny didn’t really, but she just smiled politely when Lesley left the room and spent the few moments contemplating the pictures of a young Rhys, wild-haired and skinny, with a nose full of freckles.
When Lesley bustled back into the room, Ginny gathered it wasn’t good news. ‘He’s not answering.’
‘What time’s his flight?’ she asked. ‘This evening’ could be anything from five o’clock to eleven o’clock.
‘I’m not entirely sure. He told me not to come to see him off. I think it’s his way of coping with the goodbye. He probably wants to be alone. Was it very important that you see him?’
‘Of course!’ Ginny cried. ‘I’m trying to tell him I love him!’
Lesley’s entire face brightened. She approached on swift feet and patted Ginny’s cheek warmly. ‘Good,’ she said, her voice rough. ‘Very good. I had a feeling about you when I saw the photos.’
‘It won’t be good if I can’t find him!’
‘Oh, right. I see. There’s a point. Well, don’t worry. How about you call Andreas—? No, wait. He’s on his honeymoon right now, isn’t he? Hmmm.’
‘I’ll call Kira. Thank you so much, Lesley, but I’ve got to go. Maybe I’ll catch him in Weymouth.’
‘That’s a three-hour drive!’
Ginny just shrugged helplessly and escaped back to her car, dialling Kira and punching the button to put it on speaker.
‘Help!’
‘Ginny, you won’t believe this,’ Kira said at the same time.
‘Let me guess, ten seconds after I left the gym yesterday, Rhys turned up? You couldn’t have told me?’
‘I thought I’d already interfered enough,’ she said in an unusually small voice.
‘Interfered how?’
‘I might have… told him about the misunderstanding.’
Ginny braked so hard the car behind her nearly ran into her bumper. Waving an apology over her shoulder, she pulled into a parking space to process this information.
‘What did he say?’
‘Nothing much. He was kind of non-communicative. Nothing’s changed there. He insisted he didn’t want to go out for a drink and just left. I think I liked him best when you were there to make him more human.’
‘Do you know what time his flight is?’ she asked, no time to dwell on Kira’s statement.
‘Nope. He guarded that information like a state secret.’
‘But he stayed overnight in Weymouth?’
‘I think so. He’s flying out of Bristol some time tonight – that much I know.’
‘I’ve got that far too, but I don’t know if I’ll make it to Weymouth before he has to leave again. Damn it!’ She smacked the wheel with the balls of her hands. ‘I suppose this means I’m on my way to the airport. If I have to sit there for hours, I’ll do it.’
‘Wait, why?’
Ginny was already pulling out, narrowly avoiding a collision with another vehicle because she didn’t look over her shoulder. Ignoring the angry honk of the horn, she answered Kira’s question. ‘He can’t go before I tell him I love him!’
‘Oh, all right, then,’ Kira said in a dry tone. ‘I might meet you there. I want to see this.’
This stunt would cost her a fortune in airport parking fees, but Ginny was fiercely determined not to miss him. She arrived at Bristol airport a little after midday, her stomach rumbling.
She was going through the tills to buy a sandwich when her phone rang. She nearly dropped the device when she saw the name on her screen. By the time she’d pulled herself together and finished the purchase, she’d missed the call.
Staring at her phone as she wandered out of the shop, she reasoned with herself that this was the best news of the day so far, but she was still filled with trepidation when she tapped the screen to call back.
‘Sorry I missed your call,’ she said instead of a greeting. There was no answer for half a second – long enough for her to start panic babbling. ‘Maybe I should have called you, actually. Apparently I missed you in Weymouth last night.’
‘Yeah.’
She was glad of a bench to sit down on after the way her stomach dipped and soared just to hear that one word.
‘I was at my parents’ last night.’ Finally, the dread took over for long enough to still her tongue. ‘You… called me?’
‘Yeah,’ he said again. ‘I wanted to say goodbye. I’m leaving today.’
‘I know. I wanted to say goodbye too. I’m actually…’ She wasn’t sure whether to admit where she was, when he apparently wanted to say goodbye over the phone.
Then he blasted through her expectations. ‘Erm, I’m standing outside your flat in Glastonbury.’
‘Oh fuck!’ She’d rarely meant a profanity more, never experienced such a mix of happiness and despair. It was awful how accurate her wedding speech had been about love.
‘I’ve been here a little while,’ he continued. ‘It might be too late now.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry—’
‘I don’t have long. My flight’s at four.’
‘But that’s not the evening!’ Ginny protested. ‘Four o’clock does not count as evening.’
‘Er…’
‘That’s not important,’ she muttered.
‘You’re not… nearby? I need to get the bus or I’ll be late.’ His tone was flat, but there was a crack in his voice that she felt under her skin.
‘Okay,’ Ginny said, gathering herself with a deep breath. ‘Don’t go anywhere. I’ll come and pick you up and drive you to the airport, but it’ll take me about forty-five minutes.’
So much wasted time. He should have just answered his mam’s phone call – or she should have had the guts to call him herself.
‘Are you sure? That’s a long way. Where are you?’
‘Yes, I’m sure,’ she mumbled with a desperate laugh. ‘I’m at the airport, Rhys,’ she said, pausing to chew on her lip, ‘to make sure I catch you.’