Justin was in the kitchen when I got home. ‘How did lunch go?’
‘Not good.’ I dropped into the chair opposite him. ‘Lo and I had a huge fight.’
‘About what?’
I looked away, not wanting to reveal that we’d fought about him. ‘It started about something stupid and just … escalated. It was horrible, Justin. And before I knew it, I was telling her to stay out of my life, and she … Well, she agreed.’
Justin wrapped his arms around me. He was always so wise, so sensitive. He knew how to handle people. Even before he said anything,I could hear the advice in my head …Sleep on it, Angel. Call her in the morning when you’ve both had some breathing space.
But when he pulled away and kissed me, he said, ‘You can’t let her negativity infect you. You’re at a turning point, Angel. Maybe itisbetter if you take a break from each other while she adjusts to that.’
I nodded, hearing the logic in his words but also sensing a vague tearing in my heart. Lo and I would patch it up eventually, wouldn’t we?
‘You don’t need her in your life at the moment,’ he said, smoothing down my hair, stroking it rhythmically. ‘But don’t worry … I’ll look after you. I’ll be everything you need.’
Chapter Thirty
Now.
WHILE THE OTHER passengers were discussing the delay amongst themselves, Ben jumped up. ‘Keep an eye on our stuff, will you?’ he said, then strode off like a man on a mission. Alice turned and craned her neck, watching him until he reached the sliding door at the end of the carriage.
Ben Robertson,she thought as it opened automatically for him then swallowed him up.You are not who I thought you were.
She’d thought of him as a static kind of person – solid, dependable – hadn’t ever questioned he was anything but a guy who liked checked shirts and soft jeans, who knew how to tile a wall or fix a dripping tap. It was as if she’d been introduced to a whole new person with this information about his former job.
A couple of minutes later, he was back, striding down the carriage towards her, a look of intention about him that drew other people’s gaze. Alice ignored the little hiccup in her chest when he sat back down and his knee brushed against hers under the table.
Stop it,she told herself.
Yes, he was very easy on the eyes, with his warm brown eyes and his long legs. Yes, he’d been kind and helpful, her knight in shining armour, but she couldn’t let herself develop any sort of feelings because of that.
It was merely her sense of gratefulness because he was the first person she’d met since she’d been this new version of herself, and like a fluffy chick freshly hatched out of an egg, she’d imprinted on him, deciding he was her source of security. It was all completely explainable in terms of biology, this feeling that she knew him, that she belonged with him. She just needed to remind herself of that every time that little hiccup occurred.
‘I found the guard,’ he said, causing the two young women in the seating bank opposite to prick up their ears. ‘He thinks it’ll be at least half an hour before we get another update. Possibly more.’
‘Great!’ the girl with the gentle Irish accent said. ‘Stuck in the middle of nowhere for the night.’
Ben looked across at her. ‘Hopefully, they’ll get us moving, but this is the last train heading this way tonight, so if they don’t, the train company is obliged to provide overnight accommodation.’
‘What did you do?’ the other girl, the one with a Lancashire accent, said. ‘Memorise the timetable?’
‘Something like that,’ he said with a grin, and when the girls returned to their conversation, he turned to Alice. ‘Occupational habit, I’m afraid – checking out times, thinking of alternative routes. But it’s saved my hide more than a few times when I was away from home.’
She nodded, glad she was with someone who knew what to do,but she couldn’t just keep relying on Ben. Tomorrow he’d be gone. It was time she started doing it for herself.
‘I was just thinking I should do a video to add to my diary,’ she said to him. ‘To explain what’s going on. It won’t help at all if I just take a picture out the window – you can’t see a thing.’
Ben nodded. ‘Good idea.’
She lifted her phone up, facing the camera towards him. ‘Go on, then, Mr Travel Expert.’
‘You wantmeto do it?’ He couldn’t have looked any more shocked if he’d tried.
‘What? Don’t like being on the other side of the camera?’
His eyes were warm as he replied, ‘Not particularly.’
‘It was your clever idea.’ The hiccup happened again. Not because he’d accidentally bumped knees with her under the table. Not because she was about to film him, capture a little memory of him, but because she liked what was happening between them – the easy banter, as if they’d known each other for years, not days.
