“You will.”
Jonny watched her walk away, waiting until she was back near the crowd and the street lights so he could tell himself that she was safe. Less than an hour and they’d be escaping, just the two of them, a weekend where they didn’t have to hide and he could hold her in public.
Letting everyone know she was his.
Chapter Fourteen
Packing had been an easy task. Rayah figured they’d be spending most of the weekend in bed, or at least she hoped that would be the case, so she’d only part filled the small suitcase.
The fire had shaken her. The explosion had brought most residents out of their houses and from the shops and the rumour had quickly spread that one of the firefighters had been injured.
She’d jumped to her worst possible conclusion: Jonny was dead, so she’d sped off towards the fire and had felt sick and feverish until Alex had confirmed that Jonny was indeed okay and about to finish his shift.
Now she was waiting in her living room, trying to read her current book, but finding it impossible to concentrate. She wanted Jonny to be here now and she wanted to tell him exactly what she wanted to try out this weekend, given they had no distractions.
Her phone rang, the tune telling her it was Keren. She fumbled in her bag for it, managing to answer just before the final note played out.
“Hey Key,” she said, happy to have a distraction while she was waiting for Jonny.
“Just a quickie. I know you’re heading off for your break away, weirdo.”
Rayah heard Scott in the background talking to his daughter. Her cousin had shown a side no one thought existed until Eden was born. He was hugely in love with his little girl and now thought Keren walked on water and could do no wrong, not that that stopped them from arguing.
“Just waiting for Jonny to pick me up.”
There was a pause at the other end. “Are you going away together? As in together together?”
“He’s heading for a couple of nights out at this remote place so he can do a couple of long runs for the Iron Man contest. He’s just dropping me off.”
“I feel like you’re crushing harder on him than before, Ray and it’s worrying me. You haven’t been on a date for months. I’m debating buying you a new vibrator because your collection must be on the way to burning themselves out.”
Rayah laughed. “It’s all fine.”
“Do you still like him? Stupid question. You’ve been in love with him for years. Why don’t you just tell him?”
Rayah sat down on the arm of her sofa. “I don’t think he sees me as something permanent.”
“What do you mean? Permanent?” Keren’s tone was sharp. “You’ve fucked him, haven’t you?” It had gone quiet, suggesting that Keren was well out of the way of Scott.
“I hope you watch your language in front of your daughter!” There was no point in denying it.
“Let’s see… You’ve danced the horizontal tango, bumped uglies, he’s cleaned the cobwebs with a womb broom, you’ve done squat thrusts in the cucumber patch…”
“And you can stop there.” Rayah tried not to laugh. Laughing would only encourage her.
“You’ve slept with Jonny.”
“I’m not sure what to say?”
“Now you know how I felt when I’d slept with Scott. Was he any good? Hang on, you’re still sleeping with him, aren’t you? That’s why you’ve been less tetchy.”
Rayah frowned. She wasn’t tetchy. “It’s complicated but not.”
“You make as much sense as Eden when she’s been fed, winded and changed. Or Scott when he grunts.”
“I take offence to the latter.”
“That’s not the point. Spill. Let’s start with how big it is.”
