My tears stopped. My sobs ended. Gully’s mouth found mine for a kiss that wasn’t really meant to be seen by anyone.
Freya coughed.
“I can go and sit somewhere else if you want to get fresh in here.”
Gully’s laugh vibrated through me. “Sorry. I need to get changed and have a hot drink. It’s really horrible out there.”
Freya nodded. “The kettle’s not long since boiled. I’ll get a brew on. Iris, why don’t you go and help him take those wet clothes off?” Her tone was full of laughter. “Is Roe with Mavis though?”
“He is. Finn’s ran to the Inn to get Grayson. She’s had a fall and needs to go to hospital, which isn’t going to happen any time soon.” His eyes changed, light leaving them. “She managed to phone me just before the phone masts went down. Her phone line’s gone down too so I was stuck.” He shook his head, droplets of water flying off it like a dog that’d just been swimming. “I couldn’t leave her to get help and I had no way of calling for any help either.”
“Go get changed.” Freya gestured us both away. “Do what you need to do.”
Gully didn’t stop touching me while we walked up the stairs to our bedroom. As soon as the door closed, he stripped off, throwing his clothes onto the floor of the adjoining bathroom, water dripping everywhere.
“You’re soaked to the bone.”
He nodded. “I think I left at the worst possible time, although Finn and Roe aren’t much better. I was so fucking worried about you driving in this and I couldn’t call you - ”
“It wasn’t the best journey, but I got here okay.” I sat on the bed, not able to take my eyes off him. “When you weren’t here, I panicked.”
He nodded, darkness shrouding his face. “I was worried you would. I almost left Mavis to let you know somehow, but I couldn’t. ‘Ris, she was bad. Like not moving and in and out of consciousness. She hit her head when she fell.”
“How did she fall?”
He shrugged, nipping into the bathroom to turn on the shower. “She’s tripped on the handle of her bag in her dining room and clattered down on a chair, her head’s hit the table, which has a marble top. She managed to get her phone out of her bag and called me. The mast must’ve been hit partway through the call.”
“Shit.” I went to him again, wrapping my arms around him. “Are you okay?”
He shrugged, taking hold of me. “I will be. Grayson will be there by now and he’ll know what to do. There are a couple of nurses nearby as well, so she’ll have people there who know more than me.” He glanced at the clock. “It was only an hour ago. That’s all.”
“It’s felt like forever.” I peeled off the sweater I had on, then lost my leggings. “I’m never going skydiving. Or bungee jumping. Or any form of extreme sports. Or driving in a storm.”
He was laughing now. “I’m enjoying the strip tease, by the way, but what are all these promises for?”
“Remember when we last talked about bungee jumping and you were like, no, that’s never going to happen?”
He nodded, still grinning. “Do you see my point now?”
“Totally.” I was crying again. “I just kept thinking about Romy and how she must’ve felt when someone told her that her husband wasn’t coming home after he’d been out on a rescue.” Romy had lived in Puffin Bay all her life, apart from when she went to university. Her husband, Heidi’s father, had been killed at sea when he went out as part of a lifeboat crew to rescue a teenage boy. The boy survived, but her husband was lost at sea, leaving Romy a widow and Heidi without her dad.
Romy was married to Cassian now, the head teacher of the local primary school, and they had two babies of their own, and were guardian’s to Heidi’s friend Mia. She was happy andcontent, but she’d told me about the days when she’d miss Heidi’s dad and wondered what if, which I guessed was to be expected.
“That’s not happened though. I’m fine, hopefully Mavis will be fine and my brothers will be more drenched than I am. I’m glad about the bungee jumping though. I wasn’t keen on that ever being a possibility – if you stopped being scared of heights.” He walked us over to the shower. “I take it you’re joining me?”
I nodded, moving away to lose the rest of my clothes. “Freya won’t mind if we’re another five minutes.”
“Just five minutes?” He pretended to look offended.
“Maybe six.”
It took ten. That was what happened after a few days away. Not much time needed at all.
Gully
After the storm, came the calm.
The following day brought a sunrise like I’d never seen before. Every colour of an artist’s palette was on display as dawn broke, and Iris and I watched it from the jetty at the bottom of the garden, wrapped in a blanket.
