“I don’t want to talk about it. I’m trying to put the whole thing behind me.”
“Okay. But is it all right if I drone on about my horrible break-up?”
“I suppose I can endure that … if there’s enough cake.”
“We might need to order a whole cake!” She laughed, then looked at him excitedly. “Did you get a message from Rebecca about her birthday party?”
“Yes.”
“It’ll be the old gang from school and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go, but it’ll be fun if you’re there.”
“I didn’t say I was going.” He’d dismissed the message as soon as he’d read it, partly because he wasn’t overly keen to hang out with the people he’d gone to school with, and partly because Rebecca was Felix’s sister and he’d no doubt be hanging around the party too.
Holly squeezed his elbow. “You’re going.”
“Really?”
“Yep. Protest all you want, but I’ve got two weeks to wear you down. You may as well just say you’re going now and skip the part where I badger you about it.”
“I thought we’d agreed to be friends only. You sound like a nagging girlfriend.”
“Just say you’ll go to the party!”
“Fine. I’ll go.” He had two weeks. Plenty of time to come up with an excuse to get out of it.
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
Once she recovered from her hangover, Seren was left with a deep sense of self-pity. Her head felt fuzzy for the entire week and all she really wanted to do was hide away in her flat. The only person she wanted to see was Kit, but that wasn’t an option. While he was happily getting over her and moving on with his life, she felt completely stuck.
Whenever she worked with Noah she put on a show of cheerfulness. It was exhausting, but better than having to deal with sympathetic looks and questions about what was going on with her. She had enough of that from Felix, who’d taken to messaging and calling her frequently. Mostly she ignored him, but a few times she’d engaged in some mundane message exchanges. She shouldn’t encourage him, but with nothing else to occupy her mind she’d got drawn into it.
On Saturday, she had the whole day off and nothing to do until she went over to Mirren’s place for Terry’s birthday dinner. By late morning she was sick of her own company. For once, her thoughts weren’t purely on Kit – she couldn’t stop thinking about his dad. Her mind wove elaborate stories about how the day would be if Terry was still with them. Lowen would no doubt have joined them for dinner too. The day would’ve been joyful and filled with laughter.
With tear-soaked eyes she typed out a message to Kit, asking how he was doing. She added another, saying she was missing Terry. If she felt bad, she imagined he’d be feeling a hundred times worse.
When he didn’t reply she checked her watch. He’d be out giving a tour on the train. It should be over soon and she kept an eye on her phone, waiting for the ticks to turn blue to indicate he’d read the messages. No matter what was going on between them, she was certain he’d reply to her message as soon as he saw it. Except the ticks didn’t change colour. An hour after she sent the message, she tried calling him but got no answer. Maybe he’d left his phone at home.
With nothing else to do and a niggling worry in the pit of her stomach, she set off down to the beach when it was almost time for his next train tour. Seeing the train parked in its usual spot eased her anxiety.
“Where’s Kit?” she asked Keira, who was collecting money from the passengers.
Keira moved away from the train before replying. “He wanted the day off. I’m going it alone for the first time.”
“That’s great,” Seren said, registering Keira’s nervous excitement. “Is Kit okay?”
“He called this morning and asked me to take over for the day. I think his dad’s birthday was getting him down. Noah wanted to keep busy, that’s why he made sure he was working.” She smiled gently and tipped her head towards the train. “I need to get on.”
“Yeah. Of course. Did Kit say what he was doing?”
“No. I guess he’s at home.” She went back to the customers and Seren wandered away. As she walked in the direction of Kit’s place she tried calling him again but wasn’t surprised to get no reply. When he didn’t answer the door either, her niggling worry increased to a knot of anxiety.
Instinctively, she set off to the Mermaid Inn. Most of the tables were occupied, and there was a hum of voices in the air. Noah was pulling a pint while chatting to one of the regulars who was sitting at the bar. When he saw her, he set the pint in front of Jim and moved along to her.
“How are you doing?” she asked, with a slight tilt of her head.
His chest expanded as he drew in a breath. “Okay.”
“You haven’t seen Kit, have you?”