‘Aye.’ Clyde’s expression clouded. ‘To say goodbye?’
The Knowe around them seesawed horribly at this. He was leaving?
‘Where is he right now?’ she demanded.
Clyde looked at his watch. ‘On his way home to Glasgow, probably. Me and him just said our goodbyes, and he went to collect his bags. Nothing I said would stop him, I’m afraid.’
She didn’t wait for more, but picked up her feet and broke into a sprint.
In moments, she’d made it down the recreation ground path and onto the main road turning towards the bungalows, scanning the street both ways, listening out for the sounds of a motorbike.
Nothing.
Had she missed him? If there was a chance she could catch him, she was going to take it. Her feet pounded the tarmac. Fireworks lifted into the night sky over the riverside as she made her way into the estate, passing dark house after dark house. Everyone was at her mum’s bonfire event. Everyone except the one person she wanted.
As she rounded the corner and came within sight of Clyde’s house she was greeted with a sight that swelled her heart. A lamp glowed from the front of a bike, dazzling in the twilight, accompanied by the rev of an engine, the snap of a kickstand, and the crunch of tyres as the bike rolled out into the road.
‘Stop!’ she screamed at the top of her lungs, throwing herself in its way.
The bike slammed to a stop, the front guard inches from her shins.
Euan snapped his visor up. ‘You near aboot got yourself killed!’
Ignoring this, she made her way to his side as he steadied the machine with both feet on the tarmac and turned off the engine.
‘Don’t go without saying goodbye!’ she yelled.
‘Eh?’ He pulled the helmet off and held it under the arm of his leather jacket.
‘You were leaving and you never said goodbye! That’s terrible, Euan!’
‘I came to the bonfires to see if it was true. I thought your mum might have been lying the other night, saying you were going to the bonfire with a date.’ He looked down, shaking his head. ‘I had to see for myself if you really did have a boyfriend. Turns out, she was telling the truth after all.’ A scowl spoiled his beautiful lips.
‘Boyfriend? When did Mum tell you this?’
‘It doesn’t matter now.’
‘God’s sake, Mum!’ she lamented to the dark sky.
He looked straight at her, a frightening aloofness in his eyes. ‘It’s not the boyfriend that’s the issue, even if he does look and act like a knob; that’s for you to worry about, not me. But it’s the fact you could spend Walpurgisnacht with me’ – he lowered his voice – ‘on the ski lift like that, when you were seeing someone else.’
‘I’m not, though! That was just Mum being delusional. He’s one of her old business cronies’ sons, and yes, he is a total knob!’
A beat passed while he processed this.
‘You’re not seeing him?’
‘No.’ She shook her head, delighted to confirm it. ‘And you can’t leave. Not now, anyway!’
He cocked his head. ‘Eh?’
‘For a start, my mum will be looking for you in the morning. And so will the fire officer!’
‘Hey! I never touched that PA system,’ he protested. ‘It was those feral kids, Jolyon and Shell! They unplugged the DJ set-up. Mind you, the disco was total garbage, so they did us all a favour.’
‘No.’ She couldn’t laugh at his mistaking her meaning. He’d taken the blame for too many things this spring, it was only natural he’d think he was in deeper trouble. ‘They’ll be looking for you to apologise. You didn’t cause the fire at the flat. Mum knows that now for sure. It was that dodgy keypad thingy. Totally not up to code. She should never have supplied you with it!’
Euan let this sink in. ‘She’ll want to apologise? To me?’
