She managed a small smile. “You’ve brought me to a petrol station to drink hot chocolate?”
“No.” He laughed. “This is just the first stop on the mystery tour.”
After another few minutes he stopped the car again, this time in an empty car park. The sea air hit Keira as soon as she stepped out of the car.
Noah took his drink from her, then slipped his free hand into hers. “Whenever I’m feeling stressed or missing home, I come here and sit on the beach. The sea air and the sound of the waves soothes me.”
“Where are we?” she asked, following him through the dimly lit car park.
“Portishead Beach. The first thing I did when I moved to Bristol was find the nearest beach. Sometimes I feel as though I need the sea to recharge me from time to time.”
They crunched along the pebble beach for a few minutes before stopping to sit down.
“It’s peaceful,” Keira said.
Noah bent his legs up and slung his arms loosely around his knees. “Obviously it’s nothing like the beaches I’m used to, and it’s an estuary not the open sea … but it’s good enough.”
They sat in silence for a while, Keira waiting for Noah to comment on the horrendous dinner with her parents before realising that he wasn’t going to bring it up.
“Sorry about dinner,” she finally said, feeling the need to say something about it.
He gave her a sidelong glance. “I enjoyed meeting your parents.”
“They’re not horrible people,” she said.
“I didn’t think they were.”
She scooped up a handful of pebbles, letting them fall straight back through her fingers. “I know how they come across. Mel goes mad at me for lending them money. She doesn’t really understand the situation.”
From his silence she assumed that he also didn’t get it.
Since he clearly wasn’t going to speak, her filter slipped, letting out a pent-up rant. “What really annoys me is I told them today that I’d go over on Sunday. There was no need for them to turn up on the doorstep. Dad denied all knowledge of my message and claimed they were worried because I hadn’t been in touch. That was a lie. The only reason they wanted to see me was because they’re short on money. Maybe they wouldn’t bother with me at all if they didn’t get money out of me.” Tears trickled down her face, and she didn’t get any comfort from Noah’s arm around her.
“Sometimes I can’t understand how I’m related to them,” she sniffed. “We’re so different that sometimes I wonder if there was a mix-up in the hospital and I went home with the wrong parents. Then I feel terrible because they’re not bad people … they’re really not.”
She tensed against Noah and cut him off when he tried to speak.
“You can’t say anything bad about them,” she snapped. “I can say stuff, but you can’t. When Mel badmouths them I want to scratch her eyes out and she’s my best friend in the world. They might not be the greatest parents, but they’re all I’ve got. I can’t stand to hear anyone say anything bad about them, so can you please not?”
Gently, he rubbed circles in the centre of her back. “I wasn’t going to.”
“Good.” Relaxing into him, she rested her head on his shoulder. “At least now you know why I didn’t want you to meet them. It was nothing to do with you. I just didn’t want you to run a mile.”
“I’m not running.”
“Really?” More tears spilled down her cheeks and she discreetly brushed them away.
“Of course not.” He tightened his arms around her and settled his chin on top of her head.
It wasn’t as reassuring as it should have been. Mostly because in the back of her mind, Keira couldn’t shake Mel’s comments about Noah leaving in a couple of weeks. She should ask him, because surely hewouldhave needed to decide by now. The fact that he hadn’t mentioned it could mean he planned to leave her in a couple of weeks.
Drawing a little away from him, she looked deep into his eyes. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“You’re not going to.” His soft lips brushed over hers. “I promise.”
The evening had been too stressful for Keira to question him further. Instead, she let him kiss her and put all thoughts of the future aside.
Chapter Twenty-Four