My foot hit the brake, my body braced itself. I tried to drive into the skid but the road was icing over too quickly and I was in part of the country where the roads hadn’t been prepped.
I felt the impact as my rental hit the side of the lorry, the screech of metal like a needle through my teeth. For a second I felt nothing.
Then everything went black.
21
Sophie
Ihad managed to get an aisle seat. I had managed to get on board the plane without freaking out, having a panic attack or murdering the woman in front of me while boarding who was talking about a plane that had nearly crashed after the pilot had a sneezing fit. Logic told me she was embellishing a story that probably wasn’t true anyway, but logic wasn’t my friend right now, because she also told me that someone else – someone in England – could sort out the issue of the small fire next door to the Mayfair spa that meant we had to close, and that I was looking for an excuse.
I hadn’t slept.
Liam had fallen asleep holding me, nuzzled into my hair, his expression so peaceful, and for what felt like hours I’d just watched him, which I wondered if it made me some extra special stalker-type. He would buy the hotel and then we could have a place of our own or more space.
This wasn’t a short term plan. This wedding wasn’t a nod to get a contract signed. This had become more for him. So much more because he hadn’t had it before.
A home. A family. That safe place that was yours and you controlled who was allowed in it.
And he wanted that with me.
He’d sang about his heart, pretty words that stung. The two men who had been my exes had never given me anything so valuable, and this man, who could’ve had pretty much anyone, saw something in me that even my mother hadn’t.
I clutched the arm rests as the plane took off, closing my eyes and remembering Liam singing last night, remembering after. I tried not to think about how I was running away, because that was the truth. I was hotfooting it out of there because I needed air. I needed to know that whatever decision I made was the right one to make right now and I couldn’t make it when I was with him, because then there was only one choice to make.
“Are you okay, dear?” The woman next to me patted my arm.
I forced open my eyes and tried to give her a smile. “Just a bit scared of flying.”
She nodded. “I used to be. It’s a bit like falling in love. Sometimes you’ve just got to go with it and trust that it’ll take you where you need to be. You got a young man, lovely?”
This wasn’t the conversation I needed to be having right now.
“Kind of.”
She smiled again, her hand still on my arm. “It’s always complicated. What do you do for a living that has you on a flight at this time of day?”
“I’m a beautician.” It was easier than explaining what that actually meant.
“Oooh, lovely. Maybe you can help me. I need some face cream that doesn’t make me feel like I’ve washed it in lard.”
Thank goodness for little old ladies who needed moisturising advice and how they knew just what to say to distract.
Edie, as she turned out to be called, gripped my hand as we landed. I pulled her suitcases off the luggage wheel and pushed them with mine to where her son was waiting to greet her.
Life was carrying on.
But it pretty much stopped when I saw Seph, standing there with his arms folded, looking like he’d just gone ten verbal rounds with Max and meant it.
“Why are you here?”
“Because you’re a fucking idiot.” He picked up my case from the trolley I’d acquired, more for Edie than me.
Liam. Liam had told him. I pulled my phone out of my bag and checked it for messages from him. There were a dozen from work, all telling me I wasn’t needed, false alarm and the spa would reopen this afternoon as the fire brigade were signing everything off as safe right now.
“I know.”
“Why couldn’t you have just gone for a walk or a fucking swim like everyone else? Why did you have to fly back home? Couldn’t you have done something less drastic, because in about an hour’s time you’re going to want to be back over there.” He dragged my luggage to the parking.
