‘Fine. You’ve got yourself a deal.’ Jared holds his hand out and they shake on it. ‘I hope she’s worth it.’
‘Deal,’ Reece repeats. ‘And she’s worth very muchmorethan it.’
I go warm all over, even though I can’t work out what’s going on. There’s an instant sense of relief, a feeling of being able to breathe again after having an elephant sitting on my chest since that knock this morning and, if I’m honest, all summer. The threat of Jared finding me is instantly gone. Somehow, Reece has negotiated a deal, even though I have no idea how I’m going to afford that deal.
‘Stay put while I go and get my laptop to write up that contract.’ Reece waves a hand towards the van. ‘Perhaps my client can make you a cup of tea while you wait.’
‘Yeah, of course,’ I say distractedly. Is it me who’s missing something here or is this some kind of delaying tactic to outwit Jared?
Reece goes to walk back up to the pub, but I dash after him and grab hold of his wrist. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Don’t worry about it. Won’t be a tick.’ It’s purposefully vague. He could easily whisper something to me now without Jared overhearing, but he keeps me in the dark about whatever he’s up to.
I stand back and watch him walk up the steps in those avocado-covered pyjama bottoms, and by the time he reaches the top, I realise.
I realise what he means. I realise what he’s doing and where he got that figure from.
‘Reece, don’t you dare!’ I dive up the steps after him and pull him to a halt at the top. ‘That’s the money you’ve got set aside to fix the roof! The pub won’t survive without it. You can’t use?—’
‘Doll, don’t worry about it,’ he repeats firmly, and turns back to take my hands. ‘It’s fine, okay? It’s a solution to this problem. Go and make the problem a cuppa while I get my laptop so we can set it in motion before he gets any other ideas.’
‘Reece!’ I shout after him as he disappears inside the pub and closes the door behind him with a firm click, making sure I hear the lock turn so I can’t follow.
I let out a groan of frustration. I’m beyond touched that he would evenconsiderit, but this is my mess, and I don’t need him sweeping in like a chivalrous knight and rescuing me.
I look up at the pub with its closed door and boarded-up windows. I have no idea how to make him hear that, but I’m not going to let him go through with this.
* * *
When I get back down, Jared is inside the van again, mooching around. ‘You and the new boyfriend having a domestic already?’
My hands are shaking as I make him a cup of tea. Iwantto pour it over his head, but what would that achieve other than making a mess in the campervan?
‘He’s not a new boyfriend. He’s… not anything we’ve defined yet,’ I say as he takes the tea and sits down again.
‘Vickie really is sorry, you know,’ he says after we’ve been staring at each other in heavy silence for far too long. ‘So am I, for what it’s worth. We didn’t mean for it to happen, but it was love. Pure, unexpected, inconvenient love.’
I secretly wonder if he knows the meaning of the word, and I have a strong suspicion that, one day, Vickie will find out exactly what it feels like to be in my position. Well, the cheating on her part, not the stealing a campervan and driving to Yorkshire part. I doubt anyone will be doingthatagain anytime soon.
‘She tried to call you hundreds of times afterwards, but you’d disappeared. She’s still trying to call you every day. She’s been worried sick.’
I’m surprised by this revelation. It doesn’t quite fit with the image I’d had in my mind of Vickie gleefully planning her new life with Jared once I was out of the way, and it makes me feel better somehow. My friendship with Vickie not being what I thought it was has been the hardest part of this, and as much as I hate to admit it, I’vemissedher. It’s nice to think that maybe our friendship did mean something to her after all, even though I have no desire to ever speak to her again.
‘It wasn’t supposed to happen like that,’ Jared continues. ‘We never meant for you to find out the way you did.’
‘How was I supposed to find out? Is there agoodway to discover that your boyfriend is having it off with your best friend?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe. Probably not.’ He drums his fingers on the cup. ‘We were both too cowardly to have the conversation, so we just… let it happen. Which was… not the right thing to do.’
‘No, it wasn’t. And you’re so overcome with remorse that now you’re determined to ruin the life I’ve built up in the aftermath.’
From the softer, almost apologetic tone, he bristles again instantly. ‘You know how much I loved this van and how much work I put into her. If I hadn’t done all this work on the van, your Marzipan Campervan wouldn’t exist. Why shouldn’t you pay for what you took from me?’
‘Iwillpay. We can set up a payme?—’
‘The deal’s already been agreed with your newfriend. Take it up with him.’
‘I’m determined to.’
