‘And how do you know Nora?’ asked Gareth, pulling up a chair, which Nora quickly intercepted and added to the table behind them, making Gareth falter as he almost sat down on thin air.
‘We dated…’ she said.
At the same time as Liam said, ‘We’re old friends.’
‘Ouch,’ said Jay, from halfway up the climbing wall.
‘I know, right?’ Nora was pleased she had Jay’s support as she had just divulged all the details of her coffee non-date with Liam.
‘Sorry. That was a real burn calling your relationship “old friends”.’ He winced as he said the word, which Nora felt was a little dramatic. ‘I think I might have niggled my groin injury when I tripped over at Skeggy. I’m coming down,’ he said.
They’d had a good climbing session but Nora was feeling a little low after her catch-up with Liam.
‘Do you need a hug?’ asked Jay when he’d reached the bottom. ‘Because I think I do.’
‘Why, what’s up with you?’
He got his phone out of his bag and scrolled to what he wanted to show her. ‘What do you make of that?’
Nora read a series of messages sent over a couple of days. The first couple were someone saying hi, and Jay asking who it was. When Jay stopped replying the messages changed:
Hey answer me or I’ll get cross
Stop faffing about Mr P
I’m watching you Jay Pandey
Still watching U Mr P
You don’t want to end up at the corned beef factory
‘Shit, that escalated quickly. Who is it?’
‘No idea,’ said Jay. ‘Some weirdo. Same one who sent me the cardboard effigy, I guess. I keep blocking them but they pop up with a new burner phone. I’m not worrying about it.’
‘That’s good,’ she said, feeling that she would be cacking herself if they’d been sent to her.
‘Does that warrant a hug?’ asked Jay.
Nora nodded and Jay wrapped her in a cuddle. It waslovely to be held and feel the warmth of his body against hers. He wasn’t some great brute of a man but she felt safe in his arms. ‘I think I might give up on the 37 per cent rule,’ she mumbled into his shoulder. ‘Maybe the past is best left alone.’
‘Don’t be daft.’ Jay held her at arm’s length. ‘You need to finish this. Then you can move on and look for new possibilities. Don’t you only have one more left to check out anyway?’
‘Yep, Tyler.’
‘Do you want me to come with you?’ he asked.
‘No, that’s a little bit weird.’ She paused as she mulled over the offer. It wouldn’t be much fun going alone, especially if it was another hopeless mission. ‘But I could do with the support if you didn’t mind tagging along. I’ve found where he’s working but there’s no personal contact details and I don’t like to message the company. Maybe we could go over there and see if we can casually bump into him. It’d look less stalkerish if we both went. Sorry, that was insensitive. What with you having an actual stalker and threats and creepy cut-outs and… I’ll shut up now.’
‘It’s OK. What does Tyler do?’ asked Jay, getting out of his climbing equipment.
‘He’s a farrier.’
Jay’s head shot up and, as he had one leg in the air getting out of his harness, he toppled over and landed with a thud. He lay still for a moment. Nora bent down to him. ‘I’m OK,’ he said in a small voice.
Nora helped him up and out of the harness, then together they sat down on the bench.
‘Did you say farrier as in blacksmith?’
