“I thought you’d want to see him.”
“Of course I want to see him,” she snapped.
“Keep your knickers on.” Mel rolled her eyes. “I just don’t understand why you told him not to come.”
“I told you why.” Keira stood up and crossed the room. “I’m going to have an early night.”
Once she was curled up in bed, she contemplated calling Noah, then remembered he was working. It was probably a good job, since she’d more than likely be as short with him as she had been with Mel. Hopefully work would be quieter the following week and she could make plans to see Noah.
Missing him was no fun at all.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Despite the early night, Keira didn’t sleep well. She felt like a zombie on her way into work and spent most of the day in a similar state. Walking out of work was a relief. She just wished she could go home and crawl into bed. Dinner with her parents was about the last thing she felt like doing.
On the bus over there, she checked her phone, surprised that she hadn’t heard anything from Noah. She’d had a message from him in the morning telling her to have a good day and saying he’d talk to her soon, but usually he messaged multiple times throughout the day. Before she had time to message him, the bus pulled up at her stop.
Returning to her childhood home always felt slightly depressing. It should probably have brought a warm rush of nostalgia, but all Keira could manage was to grimace at the rotting wood around the kitchen window. On the sill was a glass jar with sodden cigarette ends in a few centimetres of dirty water.
She knocked and let herself in, shuddering at the damp, musty air as she walked into the kitchen.
“Happy birthday!” she said, pasting on a smile as she kissed her dad’s cheek.
“Thanks love. How are you?”
“Fine,” she said, moving to hug her mum.
“You look tired,” Sue said, placing a hand on Keira’s cheek. “You’re not coming down with something, are you?”
“No. I’m okay. What’s for dinner?”
“Sausages and mash.”
Keira took a seat opposite her dad and pulled an envelope from her bag for him.
“Thank you,” he said, wedging his thumb under the flap to tear the envelope.
“I thought a gift voucher would be better than a present … you can get pretty much anything in a department store.”
“Thank you.”
Her mum put a cup of tea in front of her before going back to shuffle the sausages in the pan.
They peppered her with questions about work until dinner was on the table. Keira had just pierced a piece of sausage when her mum asked about Noah.
“I thought you might have brought him over with you,” she remarked.
“He’s back on Scilly.” Keira’s appetite vanished at the thought of him. Her heart ached for him, and it suddenly seemed stupid that she’d put him off coming for the weekend.
“Gone home for a visit?” her dad asked.
She popped the sausage in her mouth and chewed slowly as she prepared herself to say the words. “He’s moved back there.”
“For good?” her mum asked in surprise.
“Yes.”
Her dad’s fork scraped on the plate. “I got the impression things were pretty serious between the two of you.”