“Dunno,” the man said. “Sign here, please.” He pulled a tablet from inside his leather jacket and pulled up a screen, before holding it against the gate for her to see and handing her a stylus through the railings with which to write.
She signed and swapped the stylus for her package. In another moment, he was gone, leaving only a cloud of dust behind, which felt rather like a metaphor for her life.
“Any chance you could check for my phone?” Ryan asked, coming up behind her. “I need to get to work, and if I stay here much longer your aunts will have me rearranging all their furniture.”
“Yes. Sorry. It might be in the car.” She tucked the envelope under her arm and headed to where she’d parked.
Ryan walked with her. “I enjoyed last night. Catching up. It’s been a long time,” he said.
“It has,” Fred replied.
“It’s strange, isn’t it, how we’ve known each other forever, and yet we don’t really know each other at all. But at the same time, it kind of felt like we’d last seen each other only a few days ago. Do you know what I mean?”
“I do. I thought that too. I guess it was the familiar setting; you know, being chased by Krampus and all that totally normal stuff that happens around here.” She gave him a knowing smile.
“There’s no place like home,” he said, chuckling.
“That’s why I left it.” She heard the snide edge to her voice, and softened it by adding, “But it has its charms.” She didn’t want to sound shrewish, especially when she wasn’t sure she even believed her own rhetoric anymore. She had derided Pine Bluff for the same reasons that she had built barriers between her and her mum: to mask her homesickness and drown out its siren call.
“It does indeed. I wasn’t sure I wanted to come back here either, but now I’m here, I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather live.”
“You left Pine Bluff?”
Ryan laughed. “Don’t sound so surprised. You’re not the only person to have ever left town, you know.”
She flushed as she unlocked the car. Tossing the envelope on the passenger seat, she reached over to the back and pulled out the bag containing her jeans. “No, of course not,” she said, a little breathlessly, as she straightened back up. “You just always seemed so set on staying here.”
“Well, you know, I had this best mate who ditched me for a place at university and promised she’d come back andnever did…I’m kidding you.” He laughed. “But your departure did make me wonder what lay beyond the border. I traveled for a bit. Then took a job in Cardiff and, well…you know about the breakup and burnout. I was still in Cardiff until a couple of years ago, but when Dad got sick, I decided to relocate the business back here, so I’d be on hand.”
Her mum had told her all about Diggory’s heart attack; he’d made a full recovery, but it had been a lifestyle adjustment.
“Thebusiness?” she asked.
“Didn’t I mention that?”
“You did not.”
He grinned sheepishly and raked his hand through his hair. “Yeah, I kind of started my own business. It’s doing pretty well.”
“That’s so great! Get you being all entrepreneurial.” She nudged him.
“I’m not just a pretty face, you know.”
Don’t I know it!
“It must have been tough to relocate the business up here. Couldn’t your brothers have helped your parents?”
“They do. But they’ve also got their own lives. Benj can be out on the trawler for days at a time, and Rab’s head teacher at the primary school, but with all three of us in town, the chances are that one of us will be around if our folks need a hand.”
“That’s nice.”
Ryan shrugged. “I like being back. I was missing mynieces and nephews growing up, living so far away, and then when Dad had his heart attack I just thought, why am I living miles away from the people I love most?”
His words struck a chord within her that she didn’t want to hear. She fished around in the pockets of her jeans until she found Ryan’s phone and handed it back to him. “Sorry about that, stealing mobile phones isn’t usually my style.”
“Really? Youhavechanged,” he said, flashing her a smile.
“I hope you didn’t miss any important business calls.”
