Independent Jenny (8 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Hayley was up and raring to go early the next morning. Now she knew that Guy was definitely still living here, there was no stopping her. She had a little moan about the mud on her clothes from the day before, but otherwise was her upbeat cheery self. She made me a sausage sandwich while I was in the shower and then told me to eat it as fast as possible.

“We can’t get there too early,” I told her. It wasn’t even 9am yet. “He might be in bed.”

“Farmers get up early.”

“Well, I don’t want to be rushed, I’m on holiday.”

“Okay. Well just don’t take too long, I’m going crazy with anticipation.”

“Have you called Kieran since we’ve been here?”

“I texted him.”

“Don’t you want to speak to him?”

“We haven’t really had much phone signal.”

Convenient. I didn’t want to sound like the preachy parent anymore so I let it drop. She went to get her things together and I thought about retrieving my phone but wasn’t sure I wanted to read any more texts from the men back home. I’d turned it off last night before I went to sleep and I didn’t fancy turning it on again this morning.

I looked out of the window at the sea. It wasn’t as clear today. There were low clouds and you could only just see the outline of the mountains on the islands across the water. I could just about see a ferry coming over and wondered again what it’d be like to live somewhere really remote; so far from any large groups of people. I liked the thought. I could see myself living here, but couldn’t imagine there’d be much work, even for a wedding photographer. I’d just have to win the lottery. First, I just needed to start buying tickets.

Maybe if I did end up with Aiden, we could move somewhere like this and not have to see Ross too often. I allowed myself to think of Aiden’s kiss. I was going to go mad. My head was no clearer and I was still conflicted and unsure how I felt about anything.

“You okay?” Hayley reappeared.

“Yep. How’s your beloved, did you text him again?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Well you are engaged to him.”

“I know that. He’s fine. So can we go now?”

This time Hayley drove and I looked out of the window at the view. It was kind of atmospheric with the low clouds clinging to the hills. I hopped out and opened the gate and I could just about make out the house. There was a Land Rover in front of it, and another car I couldn’t make out. Maybe an Audi. I got back in the car and told Hayley it looked as if he was home.

“Oh god, what am I going to say?”

“How about ‘Hello, how are you? Remember me?’”

“Thanks, I hadn’t thought of that.”

“I’m not sure you’ve thought about any of this, Hayley.”

She stopped the car.

“Listen, I know you’re feeling crappy about Ross, and Aiden, and I know you think Kieran is amazing and that I shouldn’t be doing this. But I have to, okay? And you agreed to come with me so could you stop being so damn judgemental and just help me through this?”

I put my arm on hers. “I’m sorry, Hayley. I’m with you. Let’s do this.”

“Thank you.” She sighed and started up the car again. Thirty seconds later, we were outside the house. Two dogs came running out; a golden retriever who looked just like Wentworth but a little smaller, and a border collie. We both greeted them fondly and were licked in return. I let Wentworth out of the back of the car and he wagged his tail and chased around with them both while Hayley and I looked at each other.

“Well, are you going to knock?” I asked her, hoping she wasn’t going to make me do the talking again and tell Guy why we were here.

Then Will appeared in the doorway and I felt my mouth drop open a little. There, wearing jeans and a v-neck jumper, with scruffy hair, deep brown eyes, and an incredibly cute smile, was the first man, or, let’s be honest, boy, I’d slept with. He wasn’t this cute back then, was he? He looked the same, yet more masculine, more defined … more grown up, which of course he was.

“Oh wow. Jenny Finch? Is that you?”

He had developed a slight Scottish accent, which surprised me.

“Yes it is. Hello Will!”

He came towards me and I grinned at him. I noticed he had a wedding ring on and I hoped he didn’t think we’d come all this way because I needed to see him again. Although, as he put his arms around me, I was pretty glad I had.

“How have you been?”

Gosh, the Lynx effect was really powerful. I steadied myself as I pulled away.

“I’m not bad,” he said, with a distant look in his eyes. “And Hayley, right?”

“Yes,” she nodded enthusiastically. “Yep, yep, I’m Hayley.”

I mouthed the words ‘calm down’ at her as she looked at me over his shoulder while they shared a brief hug. Not as long as mine. But then she’d never slept with him. I had. I’d slept with that gorgeous man, back when he was just a scrawny, spotty teen. I felt quite proud. Had he told his wife about me? Surely they’d had the awkward conversation about the time they each lost their virginity. I wondered what he’d said about me.

As Hayley pulled away, I noticed her engagement ring wasn’t on her finger. Not a coincidence, of course. I wanted to be supportive but it was hard when she was being completely unreasonable. I pushed my disapproving thoughts to one side as Will turned back to smile at me.

“So what brings you ladies all the way to Skye?”

“A holiday,” Hayley said too quickly. “Just a holiday, right Jenny?”

I gave her my calm down look again.

“Yes, we just wanted a break, and then when we were planning the trip Hayley remembered she still had your address from way back when. She and Guy used to write to each other.”

“Oh yeah, of course. You two were mad for each other.”

Hayley smiled and blushed.

“They sure were,” I said, giving a nervous giggle. Hayley’s anxiety was rubbing off on me.

“Guy was devastated when we moved up here. Talked about you all the time for months. Moped around he did, drove us all crazy.”

“Really?” Hayley asked, smiling from ear to ear.

“Yeah. He should be back in a minute, just walked down to chat to the lad who works for him. I don’t live here anymore, but I’m staying with him for a while.”

I nodded. Troubles at home? Maybe we had something in common. I could see us bitching about our partners while re-igniting our past. I bet he was better in bed now than he was back then.

Holy cow, what was the matter with me? The prospect of being single seemed to mean I had an infatuation for every handsome man I met. Even a married one. I felt myself blush.

“It’d be great to see him, if you don’t mind us waiting?” Hayley asked.

“Sure. Want to come in for a cuppa?”

He led the way into the house, which was very obviously lacking a female touch. Old flowery wallpaper was peeling away in the corners, surrounding battered furniture, newspapers, letters, and all manner of other clutter on every surface.

“Excuse the mess. Guy doesn’t have much time for housework, I guess.”

He led us through to the kitchen and gestured for us to sit at a big oak dining table while he made some tea.

“So you like Skye?”

“I love it,” I said as Hayley went into frozen nervous shock. I kicked her under the table.

“Yeah, it’s lovely,” Hayley said. I watched her take a deep breath.

“So where do you live these days?”

“Bath. We both live in Bath. How about you?”

“Glasgow. Just moved there recently, I’ve been in Edinburgh since uni.”

“What do you do? For a living, I mean?” Hayley suddenly came back to life, thankfully.

“I’m a vet.”

“Just like you planned. Congratulations,” I said, smiling. He gave me a warm smile back.

“Thank you. Glad you remember. What do you do, Jenny?”

“I’m a photographer.”

“You were always good at taking photos, if I remember,” he said and I felt myself blush again.

“She’s awesome,” Hayley said proudly. “She’s even had some photos in magazines.”

“Wow, that’s fantastic,” Will smiled at me.

“Thanks, Hayley,” I said, glad she was relaxing a bit.

“And what do you do, Hayley?”

She answered him and I wondered how much small talk we could get through before an awkward silence descended. Surely not much.

“How’re you’re parents? Are they around?” Hayley asked.

“Dad died a few years back,” Will told us.

“Sorry to hear that,” I said, accepting my cup of tea.

“I always liked your dad,” Hayley said, taking hers. What a lie. She called him all the names under the sun when he announced he was moving his family, and the love of her young life, so far away.

“Thanks, that’s nice.”

“Where’s your mum?” she asked. She’d got on well with her, I remember.

“She lives with my Aunt these days, back down south.”

Just as Will was pouring out his own tea, we heard the front door open and Hayley sat bolt upright.

Guy hadn’t changed as much as his brother. He was a bit broader, a bit more manly, but he still looked like just a slightly older version of the same person that Hayley had been in love with. Darn it.

I looked from his face to hers and watched her fall in love with him again within the space of a millisecond, and knew we shouldn’t have come. Poor Kieran.

“Hayley?”

He sounded even more Scottish than Will.

“Hello!” Hayley stood up and went over to him. They stood for a minute, a few inches apart, looking at each other. I glanced at Will. He watched them, frowning. He glanced at me and smiled. I raised my eyebrows and smiled back. Man, he was gorgeous. I bet he never cheated on his wife, lucky lady.

Hayley threw her arms around Guy and he hugged her back with his eyes closed. I took that as a bad sign.

“What’re you doing here?” he asked as they finally broke apart.

“I had to find you,” she admitted. “I’ve wondered about you, all this time, and I just wanted to see you again.”

“I’ve wondered about you, too.”

“Hi, Guy,” I said, getting up and shaking his hand. “Jenny, remember me?”

“Yeah, of course. How’re you?”

“Good thanks, you?”

“Yeah, great. Doing well.”

I went over to where Will was standing and sipped my tea.

“I’ve thought about you a lot, lately,” Hayley admitted.

“Really?”

“Yes. Are you married?”

“No, live here alone. Single. You?”

“I’m not married,” she said. Well, that wasn’t a lie technically, but I still gave her my look of disapproval. It went unnoticed. She only had eyes for him.

“I wondered where you were, what you were doing, for years,” he told her. Oh crap, this was the opposite of what I’d been hoping for.

“Me too. We’ve got so much to catch up on!”

“Do you want to go for a walk or something? Let them catch up?” Will asked me.

I wasn’t sure leaving them alone was a good idea but then again, I was feeling pretty awkward standing there watching, like some sort of voyeur.

“Sure.” I put my tea down on the kitchen counter. “I’ll see you in a while, Hayley.”

“Oh, okay, yeah,” she said, giving me a brief smile before returning to look at Guy.

Will and I set off out of the house with the dogs running ahead. We went through a gate and then up into a field. I asked him about the farm and life here and he told me about his parents, about the chickens and sheep they kept, about Guy running the place.

“Guy talks about selling it now and then. I don’t know if he will, he enjoys the remoteness and quite likes to be a hermit really.”

Well that had to be a good thing, I couldn’t imagine Hayley being attracted to that; it wasn’t her sort of thing at all.

“So, what’s Bath like?”

I told him about the Abbey and the river, the history and the honey-coloured buildings I loved.

“I’d like to visit, sounds nice.”

“It is. Edinburgh’s lovely, been there a few times.”

“Yeah, I was happy there.”

“But not now, in Glasgow?”

“Nah, not so much.” He smiled sadly.

“Do you remember that time we went to the Tower of London together?” I asked him, remembering for the first time in a while a day out we’d had during our previous time together.

“Of course! We had fun that day didn’t we?”

“Yep. Then you bought me a McDonalds for dinner.”

“Oh yeah, your memory’s good. What a charmer I was. How romantic.”

I laughed. “I always felt we were more friends than boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Yeah, I remember that too. I was so much more into you than you were into me.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He smiled. “It’s okay, I’m over it now.”

I laughed again. For the first time in a while, I felt relaxed in a man’s company, well a straight man, at least. We’d reached the top of a hill and could see for miles. Every direction was beautiful.

“Wow! I just love it here,” I told him. “So, so beautiful.”

“Yeah, it’s quite something isn’t it? I didn’t like it much when I was eighteen. Couldn’t wait to get away to uni. But now, I appreciate it more.”

“Would you move back?”

“I wanted to, before we went to Glasgow, but my wife wasn’t interested. Wanted to live in a city.”

“So you moved to Glasgow for her?”

“Yes.” He had a sad look and I wondered if she’d hurt him. Was that why he was here? Or had he cheated on her? We sat on a fallen log in a comfortable silence, looking out at the view. I started picking at the grass and watched the dogs chasing each other around.

“What’re their names?”

“The golden retriever, she’s mine, and she’s called Fern.”

“She’s beautiful.”

“She sure is. Then the collie, that’s Bono. He’s Guy’s.”

“Mine is Wentworth,” I told him.

“After Captain Wentworth?”

“Yep, you’ve read
Persuasion
?” I was pretty surprised. He was quite studious as a teen but I couldn’t imagine him reading romantic classics.

“Yes, and I remember what a big Jane Austen fan you were. I can still picture you reading
Pride and Prejudice
, lying on your bed, telling me to be quiet while you found out what happened.”

“Huh, you remember that? That must’ve been the first time I ever read it.”