Page 64 of Love Me Ever After
“Ems, darling! I haven’t heard from you in ages. How are you?”
“Are you busy the next couple of days?”
In the background, I could hear her flicking through the pages of a diary—or at least pretending to—ready to make her excuses.
“It’s really important. I want to come and see you.”
There was a beat of silence before she replied. “Is there something wrong?”
This wasn’t the sort of thing I wanted to tell her over the phone. “Mum, can I come and see you?” I persisted.
“It’s not convenient for you to stay. I have a, um, a friend here right now.”
That appeared to be code for ‘I’m seeing someone and I don’t want him to know I have a twenty-eight-year-old daughter’.
“I’ll stay in a hotel. Are you free tonight?”
I heard the pages shuffling again. “Tell me where you’re staying and we can have dinner out.”
The thought of sharing my news in front of a restaurant full of strangers filled me with dread. But if that’s what it took to get her onside, I’d do it. “I’ll message you later. I haven’t booked anything yet.”
“All a bit last minute, darling. Are you sure everything’s okay?”
I wasn’t sure at all. Not one little bit. A tear slid down my cheek and I swiped it away before the dam could break further. “It’s fine,” I managed. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Once I’d ended the call, I fired up my travel app and booked a seat on the train to London, then found a cheap hotel near my mum’s place. Finally, I called Sonya and left her a message telling her I wouldn’t be in tomorrow, I needed another day off to recover.
By the time I came back to Ealynn Sands, I’d know exactly what the future held.
29
Mason
Travel delays irritatedthe fuck out of me.
Particularly today, when all I wanted to do was get back home and see Ems.
But we’d had to circle Heathrow to wait for a landing space to become available. That subsequently meant I’d missed the bus I should have been on in order to catch the train I’d booked.
Now, I had an hour’s wait at the station having forked out another train fare, because the stupid booking system wouldn’t let me change it. I sat outside Starbucks, mainlining espresso, not knowing what time it was because my body clock had been fucked by jet lag already. I needed to stay awake to make sure I didn’t miss this train.
While I waited, I called Ems, only to get her voicemail. I guessed that she was busy with work and had either put her phone on silent or switched it off. Instead, I fired off a message telling her I was on my way home.
There had been a lot of thinking time on the flight to mull over everything that had happened this week. I think I’d done okay during the assessment days, at least enough to make me a strong contender.
But ultimately, I wasn’t sure if it was what I wanted.
Being away from Ems, even for this short time, made me miss her. I knew her thoughts about moving to New York weren’t favourable. If I were to be offered the job, I’d lose her.
And losing Emswasn’tan option this time.
I knew I couldn’t leave her again.
I knew I saw my future with her.
I knew I loved her.
Swallowing down a third coffee, my heart started racing.
