Page 34 of Hearts Colliding
“What?”
Eva tutted and rapped her knuckles on the side of his head. “Is anybody home? We need to up our game, by adopting a different tactic. We need to be more subtle to really get through to him. Appeal to who he was, not who he is.”
“What do you mean? I don’t understand.”
“Perhaps a private meeting with him, with one or two from the war council? I don’t really know, I haven’t thought it through properly, but I think it’s worth trying to get under the skin of what’s really going on, because then we might have a better chance of stopping this foolishness before it escalates.”
“Nan, that’s not going to work. He’s determined to see the development through, believe me.”
“And why should I do that, Ryan?”
He quailed under his nan’s steady gaze. “Be—because he’s been clear he’s not going to back down. At the meeting—”
“You must have talked about it, last night. Impossible not to.”
“Yes, okay, but not much. He’s adamant about pushing this through. Look, the man was giving me shelter for the night, you know how bad the storm was, so we kind of agreed to avoid the subject.”
“You should have taken the chance to—”
“I didn’t, okay? By the time we got back we were soaking wet, hungry, and tired and were more interested in getting dried off, fed, and grabbing some sleep. Which is exactly what we did.” Ryan met his nan’s gaze, challenging her to find the chink in his armour.
“All right, don’t get so defensive.” She held up her palms. “But the war council are due to meet again, so we can talk next steps then.”
“Maybe I should stand down, let somebody take over who knows—”
“You’ll do no such thing. You’re the leader of the revolution.”
Ryan wilted under her hard glare. “But I hardly even knew he existed before he turned up. And I’m not the leader. Not really.”
“But it was you who set the ball rolling. You’ve also been the one who’s publicly confronted him, and that means you don’t stand down. You’re a big cog in this machine, driving everything forward.” She squeezed his bicep and gave him a smile. “Go and have a rest, because you look like you’ve been up all night. And don’t worry about coming on shift later because me and your mum can work the bar.”
* * *
Ryan tossed and turned, getting caught up in the bedding. He was edgy, twitchy, the events of the previous night had turned him upside down and inside out. Alex Love, with his destructive plans for the village, was the enemy, yet the only version of Alex Love he could think about was the man who’d ventured out into the storm to find him, who’d given him shelter — and who’d melted in his arms and had caused Ryan’s own heart to soar, before it’d crashed when that version of Alex had retreated behind the icy wall he’d rebuilt around himself.
He scrubbed at his arms, as if to scratch away Alex, but he couldn’t scratch away the memory of the man who’d gazed up at him with so much trust in his pale blue eyes.
There was no way he could sleep. Jumpy and agitated, he leapt up from the bed. He had to get out of his room, and out of the pub. Sunlight streamed through the window, last night’s storm no more than a memory, as he headed out into the village.
“Ry? Ryan!”
The shout stopped him in his tracks and he swung around. Joss waved at him from across the harbour front.
“Why aren’t you in the pub? Where are you going? High Top’ll be nothing more than a marshy bog after last night’s storm, so no point in going up there. At least they were able to open the roads again this morning, and the flooding in the high street wasn’t as bad as… Ry? Are you all right? You look like shit. Has something happened?”
Yes, Joss, you could say that…“I’m fine, just tired that’s all. I rescued Alex Love from the storm, and ended up staying over at the New House.” He blurted the words out, and it was too late to grab them back. Why? Why?Whyhad he said anything? Maybe he had some hitherto unknown self destruct button he was itching to push. Joss wasn’t going to let it go, not when his eyes were bugging in disbelief.
“Oh my god. I havegotto hear more.” Without another word, Joss grabbed his wrist and dragged him into Harbour Coffee.
Late in the afternoon, Love’s Harbour’s most popular café wasn’t too busy and, coffees in hand, they found a tucked away table for two.
“How come you’ve escaped from the surgery?”
“Oooh, nice delaying tactics. I was taking a break, if you must know. Beryl, from Baps ’n’ Buns, brought Fluffy in to have his ear sown back on. Honestly, that cat should be muzzled and kept on a leash in the attic. It’s the spawn of Satan. Look.” Joss rolled up the sleeves of his jumper, revealing deep, angry scratches.
“Can you muzzle a cat?”
“I could bloody well try,” Joss said darkly, pulling his sleeves down. “So, that’s the small talk done. Tell me everything.”
