“Did you manage to pay them off?” Somehow I thought it might make me feel better if there was at least one positive outcome to all of this mess.
“Yes, I did. Please, that's all I want to say about it.”
“Fine.” I sat back in my seat, watching the winding streets of London pass by for a while. “So, just how far up my backside are you going to be over the next month?”
Maia allowed her stern expression to soften into a grin and her familiar brown eyes met mine in the mirror. “You won't even know I'm there, Miss.”
A nostalgic smile met my lips as we arrived back in my hometown. I’d missed the rolling fields, the cobbled streets. It was all a world away from my London life.
Being so close to my old home had me eager to go to Natalie and Ryan, to be back in my old house surrounded by my gran’s afghans and my mother's books. To my old bedroom where I had studied for school and mourned the losses of my family and made love to the man I would marry one day. But that would wait till later, till tonight when I would be going there for dinner.
For now, Maia drove us on to Harrington. I saw it in the distance as we passed the stretch of road where I had crashed into Alfie's car. I thought about that day, the day when the predictable pathway of my life had been changed forever.
Harrington was just as beautiful now, though less foreboding. In a way, this also felt like a homecoming. This place had an eternal piece of my heart. I met the love of my life here. Here we had fought and fucked and built the basic, if slightly broken brickwork that lay the foundations of our relationship.
We pulled up to the main gates, no longer chained up like they had been when Riley had brought me here a year ago. Now they were open, ready for our arrival.
We drove up the long driveway that led us through the extensive gardens of the property. The water feature that had laid unfinished last year was now properly erected. The wiring no longer spooled out of it like snakes, now they fitted into the ground. Water sprung from the mouth of the statuesque woman etched into stone.
Harrington House was impressive up close, even more so now that it was fully repaired. The scaffolding had gone. There was no massive team of workmen milling about anymore. Only a few work vans remained, no doubt belonging to whomever was putting the finishing touches to the interior. I remembered it as almost haunting, the kind of place where ghosts wandered in hidden rooms.
The exterior was what I was most desperate to get to. Through the car window I caught glimpses of the newly and nearly finished gardens. My hands fidgeted in my lap, eager to explore.
I stepped out of the car, not waiting for Maia to get my door first.
“Lola! You're early!” a bright, Irish accent greeted me. Riley was unchanged. His thick-rimmed glasses sat on the bridge of his nose, the sleeves of his flannel shirt were pushed up and there was dirt under his fingernails and on the knees of his jeans. I allowed him to sweep me up into a hug.
Once, I had been intimidated to meet a man whose work I had fangirled over so many times, but now Riley Fitzpatrick was family.
Riley didn't acknowledge Maia, he was used to being around Alfie's security and treating them like they were invisible. Should I be doing that too? Would Alfie expect me to behave like that once I was his wife?
Riley gave my arm a squeeze. “Do you want to get settled in your rooms first or should I show you around the grounds?”
“What do you think?” We shared a grin and set off. Maia followed like an ever watchful ghost.
For the next few hours, we explored the gardens together. I gasped at the Rose Garden filled with hybrid tea roses and white phlox that would flower later in the year. I got lost in the maze and walked in awe through the serpentine hedges and kitchen gardens. I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. Everywhere I looked there was so much beauty. My hand went to my necklace, to rub my thumb over the bleeding heart encased in glass. My mother would have loved this place.
Eventually, we arrived at the entrance to my Evergarden.
“It’s not completely ready,” Riley said, hesitating. “It won’t be perfect until next summer but you should see it now. It’s beautiful.”
“Will Alfie like it? Have you sent him pictures?”
“No, no pictures. You can see for yourself if you think he’ll like it or not.”
He let me enter alone. My heart beat a little faster as I kicked off my shoes, the sun-warmed grass caressing the soles of my feet. Years I’d been waiting to see this garden come to life and now it was finally happening.
The giant flower wheels had been installed on the grass-covered stairway and they were bright with honeysuckle andjasmine. I stepped through them, walking down into the haven I'd created for the man I loved so much.
I’d told him about this garden while we were in the jacuzzi together, while he lay against my chest and I held him close. I’d told him about the honeysuckle grass, about the waves of forget-me-nots and pansies. I’d told him about the cherry tree overlooking the koi carp pond, and about the plinth that would sit in the centre adorned by bleeding hearts, the plant of my mother, the plant of my heart. My heart had bled for him so many times.
The last time I'd been here, an obsidian statue of a bleeding heart had sat in the centre of the garden, the garden that Alfie had left to rot and die after we separated. But now it was gone and in its place was the beginning of my garden.
My flowers and plants had been introduced and most were in full bloom. The cherry tree had taken root but it would be years before it reached the height of its beauty. The pond, big enough to swim in, had been built and filled with water lilies. The fish I knew would come later when all the work was done and there was nothing left to disturb them.
I wrapped my arms around myself and stood there in the dappled sunlight, basking in the beauty, in the deep love that had created this place.
I knew then, as surely as I knew my own name, that I would marry Alfie here. Not in a church, or a courthouse, or some expensive private club, but here, where our love had begun.
