Authors: Cathy Kelly
Never Too Late (76 page)
around to the hack door. The security light had come on
when she had passed it, lighting up the graceful redbrick
building and casting malevolent shadows down the long
garden. It was freezing and dark, but Evie couldn’t face
going into the house just yet. She knew it’d be warm and
welcoming; the Aga roasting hot; something appetising on
the table; Vida and her father thrilled to sec her. Cara was
probably already there with the girls, all laughing and
chatting, happy in the joyous Christmas atmosphere. But Evie didn’t feel Christmassy. She felt like the horrible spirit of Christmas past - gloomy and ancient. She didn’t
know if she’d ever feel happy again. All she felt these days
was numb.
You couldn’t remain numb forever, could you? Then
again, maybe you could. She’d been numb for four months
already.
She opened the boot and looked wearily at the suitcase
and bags piled higgledypiggledy inside. She’d probably
forgotten loads of things. Imagine that! The once perfectly
organised Evie Fraser not having her Christmas presents
wrapped, labelled and indexed since November. She
looked at the boot grimly. That Evie was gone forever,
along with the naive, innocent woman who’d dreamed of
true love and kept herself insulated from real life with a
diet of romances.
The only thing she was sure she’d packed was her latest
serial killer novel. Cannibalism and mutilation weren’t the
best subjects to read about before going to sleep but at
least they kept the human ghosts out of her dreams.
Nightmares about killers were easier to handle than desolate
dreams of a man she’d loved and lost. She heard a
crunch on the gravel. A figure was coming from around the
back of house. Her father to help with the luggage.
Only it wasn’t her father. It was the last person she’d
expected to see: Max. Vida had said he’d be out of the
country, had been for months. Knowing he wasn’t going to
be there was the only reason Evie had agreed to go to
Ballymoreen for Christmas. She’d get back in the car and
drive straight home, she decided hysterically. She couldn’t
wait. He’d be here with Mia and she couldn’t cope with that.
Now he was advancing on her, still handsome even in an
old jumper with dog hairs on it and worn jeans. His face
was in shadow as his back was to the security light. The
shadows couldn’t hide the glittering of his eyes as he
looked at her. He seemed thinner than she remembered,
still a great big bear of a man but more big cat than grizzly.
Evie took a step backwards nearer her car.
‘What are you doing here?’ she snapped, nerves making
her sound harsh.
‘Waiting for you.’
‘Why?’ she hissed, feeling like a trapped fox.
Max was beside her now, his face tender as he towered
over her.
‘To tell you we’ve wasted too much time and we’re not
wasting any more,’ he said firmly.
Just the sound of his voice made Evie melt. She longed
to touch him, to run her fingers through that thick black
hair, to feel his mouth against hers. Then she blinked. What
had he said?
‘What did you say?’ she asked.
He repeated it. ‘I love you and I’m not letting you out of
my sight until you agree to spend the rest of your life with
me.’
Evie stared at him. ‘Why?’ she asked, knowing it
sounded stupid.
‘Because my mother phoned me up in South Africa
three days ago and told me to stop being such a bloody
idiot and come home. That you weren’t married and you
were wasting away after me and why hadn’t I done
anything about it?’
‘B-but why … how?’ Evie couldn’t get the words out.
This was so bewildering. She’d dreamed of him so often,
now he was here it felt very strange. This had to be some
hallucination, some after effect of several hours’ driving
down country roads in the dark.
‘How is a good one,’ Max said, a grin lighting up his face.
Trying to get a last-minute flight home in Christmas week
is damn’ near impossible. I’ve been flying on and off for the
past thirty-six hours to get here.’ His face darkened. ‘Why
is because I didn’t know you weren’t married. Why didn’t
you tell me, Evie?’ She could hear the anguish in his words.
‘If I’d known you’d called it off, I’d have thought there was
some hope for me, some hope you might love me.’
‘I did call,’ she breathed. ‘Mia answered the phone and
so I knew she was living with you.’
‘She was living in the company flat,’ Max said, stunned.
‘She’s never lived with me. I gave you my phone number
at the wedding, you never rang me. The company flat is a
different number. I stayed there for a couple of days when
we got back from Spain because the decorators were still
in my place …’
‘You gave that number to Rosie, didn’t you?’ Evie asked,
an excitingly heady sensation coming over her. ‘So she
could phone you about a job with the company.’
‘Yes.’
‘And I used that number to phone you.’
Max grabbed her shoulders. ‘Evie, what made you think
I was with Mia? I told you I loved you, didn’t you believe
?’
me
She closed her eyes at the pleasure of his touch and then
shivered from a mixture of cold and excitement.
‘You’re freezing, my love,’ he said, anxiously. ‘I shouldn’t
be keeping you out in this.’
My love … he’d called her ‘my love’. Evie reeled at the
thought of it. All those months of torture and he did love
her after all.
Taking one of her small, cold hands in his large, warm
one, he led her round to the back door. In the hall,
surrounded by Wellington boots and walking sticks, Max
Stewart pulled Evie Eraser into his arms and held her to
him as if they’d die if they were parted.
She clung to him, feeling his heart beating as wildly as
her own through his sweater. Then, he lowered his head to
hers and their lips met.
It was the sweetest kiss in the world. Gently, as if he was
kissing porcelain, Max’s mouth touched hers. Evie let
herself lean into him, feeling his taut body hard against
hers, his chest crushed against her breasts. She’d never
thought she’d experience this again, this wonderful, joyous
love. Her whole body felt alive next to his and her heart
was free as a kite soaring into a summer breeze. His mouth
became more insistent. Suddenly they were grinding their
lips together, as if to make up for all that wasted time
when they could have been clinging to each other, making
love and plans.
‘Evie, Evie, why did it take us so long to sort things out.?’
he muttered into the soft cloud of her hair. ‘Why didn’t
you believe me when I said I loved you? What made you
think I cared about Mia?’
‘It was so like what happened to me before, with my
husband. I thought I couldn’t trust you,’ she said, tears
suddenly appearing in her eyes as she stared at the cable
stitch on his jumper. ‘I couldn’t trust Tony, you see. He was
involved with another woman when he died. He’d only
married me because I was pregnant but this woman had
been with him for years. She was married to a friend of his.
I never knew anything about it until Rosie was born. He
told me then, told me he didn’t want me to think anything
was going to be different. He loved her and that was that.’
‘Jesus,’ Max said, eyes full of pity for what she’d gone
through. ‘You poor little love’
Now that she was telling him the whole awful story, it
was like a plug had been pulled and everything rushed out.
‘I never cried when he was hit by the car. It was a relief
after what he’d told me. Nobody knew but Olivia; Rosie
hasn’t a clue what he was like. That,’ she said passionately,
‘is why I never contacted you again. It was like history
repeating itself. You and Mia … you’d been with her
before me and you’d never give her up …’ Her voice
broke finally with the strain of saying all the terrible things she’d lived with for the past four months.
‘I saw you talking to her in Spain that last night. She’s so
beautiful and I was sure you wanted her. How could I
think differently?’
‘That night in Spain, Mia was telling me she wanted us
to get back together,’ Max explained earnestly. ‘She was
bored with her life, thought I’d liven it up.’ He stroked
Evie’s face tenderly as he spoke. ‘I told her I wasn’t
interested, that I was in love. With you. The next morning
you told me you were still marrying bloody Simon!’ He
spat the name out. ‘So I left you alone and left the country
before your wedding. I haven’t been back since. I couldn’t
bear to ask my mother about you. It’s been hell.’
Evie could imagine exactly what that was like: the same
hell she’d gone through. Pain and suffering, living like a
robot, doing everything automatically because of the ache
in her very soul.
‘I thought you were with Mia, that I’d been a one-night
stand or something,’ she whispered. ‘I kept looking at her picture in the papers, expecting to see an announcement that you two were engaged or having triplets or something.’
‘And I thought you were living in married bliss and that
I’d meant nothing to you.’ He laughed. ‘What stupid
morons we’ve been! If my mother hadn’t rung me …’
‘What have I done now?’ inquired Vida, sticking her
head round the hall door.
Max and Evie both jumped at the interruption. Then
they relaxed against each other, arms instinctively wrapping
around each other’s waist.
‘Given us one hell of a Christmas present,’ Max said.
Vida beamed at them.
‘Now, Mother, could you shut the door for another few
minutes? We’ve got some catching up to do,’ he asked
politely.
‘Charming,’ said Vida, sounding thrilled. She shut the
door softly.
‘Catching up?’ Evie asked, a twinkle in her eyes. ‘What
did you have in mind?’
Max’s eyes glittered. ‘We’ll think of something,’ he
murmured.
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