Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
LUCY
I’m so happy I could burst. But I won’t, however goth that might be. Let’s face it, I’m about as far from that as it’s possible to be.
We reach the bottom, and Bram tugs me left, down the old cobbled street that leads to the harbour.
‘Just a quick detour,’ he says, a smile working its way onto his face, and his fingers, wound between mine, leading me along.
I almost don’t recognise the street, as empty as it is today.
It feels strange without all the black lace and bustles, with hardly a vampire in sight.
Just the one beside me. The only reason I recognise the bookshop as we pass it is because I notice the doorway beside it, the one recessed from the street, where Bram comforted me that first time.
But this time there’s something else, too: a small sign in the window.
Bookseller Wanted – Enquire Inside.
‘I might apply,’ I say, pointing to the sign. ‘Since I’m in need of a job. I can’t think of anything better than selling books in a little shop by the sea.’
He turns to me, brows furrowed in a question. ‘In need of … what?’
I can’t help but laugh. It shouldn’t even be funny. ‘Oh yeah, I quit my job.’
Those green eyes widen.
‘Jon told me my Goth Weekend piece was too bland to publish, and instead he wanted me to put my name to a trashy piece he’d knocked up about you.’
He stops dead. ‘He did what?’
‘So I told him he could stick his job, and if he ever dared to credit me with a single word I hadn’t written, I’d set my lawyers on him.
’ The more I tell this story, the more impressed with myself I am.
I like this new version of me. I hope she’s here to stay.
‘I don’t actually have lawyers, but it seemed to do the trick. ’
When I look back at him, he’s looking at me strangely.
‘What?’ I ask, a little concerned that I said something wrong.
But then his face breaks into a smile so wide that the dimple pops in his cheek.
‘Two things,’ he says, in that perfect low rumble of a voice.
‘Firstly, you’re an absolute badass, Lucy Partridge.
’ One hand goes to my cheek as he says it, his fingertips gently grazing the curve of my jaw.
‘And secondly, you might not have had lawyers before, but you do now. If you think for a second that Sammi or Sean or both wouldn’t leap at the chance to grind that bastard into dust, you’re crazy. ’
Emotion tightens my throat. I’m so used to it just being me and Mina against the world that the idea of having more people in my corner feels a little overwhelming. But good overwhelming.
Everything-I’ve-always-wanted overwhelming.
‘Really?’ I manage to croak, and his smile changes to something softer, more earnest.
‘Of course,’ he says slowly, like every word matters. ‘You’re part of the family now.’
And at that, my heart feels like it doubles in my chest – like I physically grow to accommodate all this new feeling. I was always a sucker for happy endings, I just could never picture my own. And here it was, all along, in the very last place I would ever have thought to look.
‘So,’ Bram says as we start to walk again. ‘What’s the plan for work?’
A laugh bubbles up my throat. ‘No plan. Just vibes.’
It’s a little crazy now that I think about it. But I’ve done things the right way my entire life, and nothing has ever worked out the way I planned. Not until I threw my rule book into the North Sea.
‘I’m a writer,’ I say, with a shrug. ‘I should be able to freelance for a bit until I find something.’ I look back to the bookshop, to the stack of brightly coloured books in the window. ‘Maybe I’ll write a book of my own. I am a Partridge, after all.’
He looks across at me as we walk, his smile so wide that it catches on the top of those prominent canines. ‘I can’t wait to come in here and buy it one day,’ he says, casually, like he hasn’t just shot a direct line to my heart with the effortless way he said it.
One day.
Like there’ll be a one day for us – sometime in the distant future when we look back to this crazy weekend and the strange way we met.
Like there’ll be a day, years from now, when we sit on that bench in the graveyard and look back at a life spent together, waiting together to see where the rest of it takes us.
Waiting to see if real love really does last forever.
But there’s too much to say, so I say nothing. I just smile, tightening my fingers around his as we reach the bridge and cross the harbour.
He finally stops outside the little shop with the duck-egg-blue door, pausing to grin at me before he reaches for the handle.
‘What’s happening?’ I ask. I can just about see the twinkle in his eye past the glare of sunlight off his glasses.
‘We’re here for rock,’ he says simply, before leaning towards me and lowering his voice. ‘To commemorate me rocking your world.’
I level him with a look. ‘I’m just going to pretend you didn’t say that.’
This time, when he laughs, it’s with abandon, rough and genuine. ‘I’m kidding. It’s for Gilly.’ One shoulder lifts in a shrug. ‘The taste of rock helps her remember this.’ He gestures vaguely out, around the harbour.
I almost burst into tears where I stand. It’s just so beautiful – the way he thinks of her, the way he remembers for her when she can’t, the sacrifices he’s made for her. If I weren’t already sold on him, I think that would have sealed the deal.
‘I’m assuming you’ll need a lift home at some point, so I was thinking we could pop in and see her on the way,’ he says, sweeping his hair away from his face. ‘But we don’t have to. I know it’s a lot.’
My heart clenches. I remember the way it felt, sitting on that little stool next to Gilly while she told me in great detail about the little nuthatch.
It felt like family, like all the facets of it – the good and the bad.
It felt like hope and like despair all mixed together – like a reminder from the universe that, no matter what the future holds, I’m here now.
And I want to have memories worth remembering.
‘Are you kidding?’ I ask, not even bothering to hide the shake in my voice. ‘I love bird talk.’
I see his reaction on his face first, in the tiny pull of his smile, the way his lips part with the catch of his breath.
‘You,’ he says, not for the first time, ‘are everything.’ And he pulls me into a kiss so soft and sweet that it catches me totally off guard when he breaks off and mutters into my ear. ‘Just wait until I get you home.’
Heat radiates through my whole body, but it’s not just from the gravel of his voice in my ear or the promise of his kiss. It was the word on his lips, a single syllable that made my heart quicken and skip. It repeats itself over and over as he opens the door and pulls me into the shop.
Home.
I could get used to that.
Once again I find myself face to face with that godforsaken stone vampire.
We nipped up to the cottage so I could see Peggy and W?adek and thank them for letting me stay in the annexe. I skipped out so quickly on Monday morning that I didn’t get the chance, and I’ve felt bad about it ever since.
But I needn’t have worried. They greeted me like family, just like Bram said – not at all bothered by my hasty exit, merely delighted to see me back again so soon.
I feel like a completely different Lucy from the one who arrived here on Thursday night, but it feels familiar at the same time, comfortable, like this is the version of myself I was always supposed to be.
Ok, this version of myself is a little less financially stable, but I can figure that out.
Mina’s already hooked me up with a couple of contacts, and I’ve got a few ideas of my own that I’m going to run past her when I get back to the city.
I’m going to stay here for a little while first, though.
I’m not quite ready to leave again so soon.
So I might not have any immediate plans, beyond spending as long as I can getting my fill of Bram, but I’ve got a huge tin full of strawberry tarts that I could probably live on for the foreseeable future.
Peggy pressed it into my arms as we left the cottage just now, pulling me into a tight hug and making me promise that I’ll visit again before I go home.
‘You’re just what that boy needs,’ she said quietly into my ear. ‘I knew it the first time I laid eyes on you.’
I hugged her back extra tightly, my whispered thanks catching in my throat.
W?adek, whom I almost didn’t recognise in his maroon cable-knit jumper and faded black jeans, just chuckled, smoothing his greying hair back from his face.
‘Just imagine,’ he said, ‘if we had found a spare room somewhere in town. Gerard’s place, perhaps.
I’m sure you wouldn’t have been quite so taken with our Bram if he’d smelt like a fishmonger. ’
And when Peggy slapped his arm and the two had dissolved into good-natured bickering, that felt comfortable too.
I remember standing outside this cottage on that first night and thinking that it was the exact opposite of my happy place, but that turned out not to be true at all. I found myself here, in a place where I objectively should not have fitted in but have actually never felt more at home.
Mina once told me that this cottage by the sea is her very favourite place in the whole world, and I think it might be mine too – the place where the story started.
The place where I literally ran into someone who changed my life in a single weekend.
I barely even flinch when a rogue wet leaf plops off the stone vampire as I pass it and splats onto my face.
It feels almost like a parting gift. I mean, that statue is still the ugliest thing I think I’ve ever seen, but I can’t deny that I’ve grown a little fond of the damn thing now. It’ll always remind me of that night.
The first of many vampires, just like Mina promised.
I turn and take it all in: the now-familiar shape of the cottage, cut into the cliff that looms behind; the endless churn of the sea, stretching out beyond the horizon; and, most importantly of all, the man waiting by his car, one foot propped against the door like he’s got all the time in the world. And, let’s face it, he has.
Maybe we have, the two of us.
Maybe we have the kind of love to last a lifetime.