AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t know, maybe he needs a break. You said yourself he’s been stressed lately. Work is probably getting on top of him. Have you tried talking to him?”
“Yes, and every time I try, he does this thing where he…” I pause, wondering how much detail I should be giving away. “He distracts me.”
Bridget lets out a loud laugh and the typing stops. “Okay, listen. It sounds to me like you both need to go on this run. Let it clear your head and I’m sure by the end of the day, you’ll have your answers.”
“What does that mean?” I jump on her statement as though it’s fact. What does she mean I’ll have my answers? She knows something. “What do you know? You’d tell me if he’d had another wobble and was going to dump me, right?”
My greatest fear.
“I promise, I would tell you that. To be fair, I think it would be kind of obvious since Brooke threatened to castrate him and hang his balls from the Davy Lamp outside the stadium if he ever hurt you again.”
“Oh yeah.” I chuckle. “She really meant that, didn’t she.”
The door clicks open and Luke strides in using the key I gave him a few months ago. He leans down and kisses my cheek.
“Bridget, I’ve got to go, Luke just got here.”
“Okay, have fun!” she sings before hanging up.
“Ready?” he asks, flashing me a nervous smile that doesn’t quite light up his eyes as usual.
“Sure, let’s go.”
As soon as we start our run around the lake at Herrington Park, Luke is a different man.
The Luke I know and love. He’s relaxed for the first time all week, and those jittery nerves? Gone.
Maybe Bridget was right, maybe I was overreacting.
We run the usual route, three steady laps of the lake and back up the winding path to Penshaw Monument. Having learned our lesson the first time we did this trail together, when we reach the bottom of the gravel staircase that leads up the hill, he takes my hand and we walk to the top together.
When we finally hit the top, instead of picking our usual spot between the centre pillars on the north side of the monument, we head to the back right corner which faces south.
“Luke?” A woman I don’t recognise asks as we approach her.
“Yes. Hi.” He reaches out to shake the woman’s extended hand. Whoever she is, she mustn’t know him well. “Thanks for meeting us here.”
I nudge him, reminding him of my presence.
“Oh, sorry, this is my girlfriend, Natasha.”
“I’m Anna, from the National Trust.”
She holds her hand out to me too and I shake it, even more confused.
What is going on here?
Anna turns to the metal grate in the pillar, opening the hidden door with a large metal key.
In the summer the National Trust arrange tours where you can climb to the top of the stone monument, but they’ve been closed for weeks now the weather has turned. Although today is bright and sunny, there’s a hint of autumn in the air evidenced by the red and brown leaves of the woods that surround Penshaw Hill.
“When you’re ready, you can go up. I’ll be right here if you need anything.”
“Seriously?” I let out an excited breath as understanding washes over me. We’re climbing to the top.
“I called in a favour with Bridget who called in a favour with someone else,” Luke explains. “Every time we come up here you comment that it’s on your bucket list. I wanted to make at least one of your dreams come true.”
“My dreams come true every morning when I wake up next to you.” I reach on my tiptoes and kiss him.
