Runaway Bride: A laugh out loud funny and feel good rom com. Mary Baker Jayne

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       Chapter 6

      A week after I’d come to, the throbbing in my temples had subsided to a dull ache and I was eating again, although I was still weak. One afternoon, I decided I was ready.

      Jack was at the hob, cooking us pasta for lunch. He’d got me on meals heavy in carbs till my strength was up again. I could just imagine my mum’s expression if she could see my calorific staple diet right now. The thought of it created a half-guilty, half-exciting fizz of rebellion.

      ‘Jack, can I borrow your phone?’ I asked.

      ‘Why, who do you need to ring?’

      ‘Couple of people at home.’ I flinched. ‘I mean, where I used to live.’

      ‘Oh. Okay. Yeah, it’s somewhere here…’

      He started rooting through the overhead compartments, pulling out bits and pieces and throwing them down on the passenger seat as he hunted out his mobile.

      I smiled. ‘I’m thinking you don’t make too many calls?’

      ‘No, I keep it switched off mostly. The only people I ever need to ring are my agent, my parents and the odd friend. There’s no one else I want to talk to.’

      ‘Thanks.’ I caught the little old-fashioned Nokia he chucked me with one hand. ‘Um, could you… you know?’

      ‘You want some privacy?’

      ‘If that’s okay.’

      ‘No problem.’ He turned off his pasta and whistled to Sandy. ‘Come on, girl. Let’s take you for a waddle and a widdle while Aunty Kitty makes her calls.’

      When they’d gone, I tapped in the number for directory enquiries. I could just about remember Nan’s landline, but without my own mobile, I had no access to anyone else’s contact details.

      ‘Hello?’ Laurel said when she answered. ‘If this is another sales call, then no, I haven’t had an accident at work and you can sod off.’

      ‘Hiya.’

      ‘Jesus, Kitty, is it you?’ she gasped. ‘Oh my God, oh my… where the hell are you? I’ve been scared out of my wits about you!’

      I trusted Laurel – she was the closest friend I had – but she was still family. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I didn’t dare confide where I was to her. No matter how much she tried to keep it secret, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t get back to my mum. Or to Ethan via her husband Andy, who was a mate of his.

      ‘I can’t say,’ I told her. ‘I’m safe though, promise.’

      ‘But where have you been? Your mum and Ethan have been scouring the globe! Everyone’s been worried sick you’d turn up on the news dead in a ditch or something.’

      ‘Sorry, Laur. I would’ve rung sooner but I’ve been ill. I was barely conscious for a couple of days.’

      ‘Shit! Have you been in hospital?’

      ‘Briefly. I’m staying with someone now, a friend. He’s looking after me.’

      ‘He?’ She sounded suspicious. ‘Who is he? Someone I know?’

      I didn’t want to mention his name. Laurel’s boys loved Jack’s books, and once I told her who my mystery rescuer was, it’d be an easy way for them to track me down.

      ‘No, someone I met hitch-hiking. He’s been very kind to me.’

      ‘You’re kidding! You’re staying with a stranger you met hitch-hiking?’

      ‘I didn’t have any choice. I had nowhere else to go.’

      ‘Christ, Kitty! What the hell are you playing at, putting yourself in danger like that?’ she exploded. ‘He could be a sex offender for all you know.’

      ‘He isn’t. Just a nice lad who wants to help.’

      ‘Yeah? And what’s in it for him? Did he try it on with you?’

      ‘Course not.’

      ‘He will. No one does anything unless they expect to get a return somewhere down the line.’ She sounded like my mum.

      ‘Not this guy,’ I said firmly. ‘He isn’t like that.’

      ‘Why did you run off, Kit?’

      ‘I couldn’t stay, after… it’s Ethan.’ I steeled myself. I was going to have to say it sooner or later. ‘He… he cheated on me, Laur. At the reception. Maybe not for the first time, I don’t know.’

      ‘No! He wouldn’t do that,’ she said, her voice all amazement. ‘Not Ethan, surely. He loves you to pieces, everybody knows it.’

      ‘He would because he bloody did. I saw him at it.’ The image rose up again in my mind; even more vivid, more painful in my memory than it had been to watch. ‘If I hadn’t, I never would’ve believed it.’

      ‘Shit, I mean… what, like a drunken snog or – you know, the full works?’

      ‘What’s the difference? He did it. After ten years, on our fucking wedding day, he…’ I could barely hold back a sob. ‘I never want to see that bastard again. Never.’

      ‘When are you coming home?’

      I took a deep breath. This was going to be the hard bit.

      ‘I’m not. I haven’t got a home there, not now.’

      ‘Course you have,’ she said, gentling her voice. ‘You don’t have to go back to Ethan. There’s your mum. Or I can make space for you. Come home, Kit, to your family.’

      ‘I can’t. I just… can’t. I’m not strong enough right now. Physically or emotionally.’

      ‘Strong СКАЧАТЬ