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I grinned. “Go on, Josh. Let him stay up and have a glass of coke. He's too wound up to sleep yet.”
“And you think coke is the answer?”
“Please?” Jamie begged, fixing his father with puppy dog eyes.
“Okay,” Josh agreed. “One drink. Then bed.”
“Yay!”
The three of us went into the bar and I took Jamie to sit down while Josh bought the drinks. The bar wasn't too full, just a few people scattered here and there. The team hadn't yet returned from the stadium and I hoped that by the time they got back, Jamie would be in bed. I didn’t think he could take any more excitement.
When Josh returned, he was smiling.
“Do you always stay in hotels this expensive?” he asked, placing the drinks on the table.
I nodded. “Always. I don't know what I’d do in a hotel with less than five stars now!”
“Snob,” he teased. “When you come home I'll make you stay in a B&B, see how you like that!”
“I could do it,” I laughed. “But I’d rather not. You get used to all this expensive stuff.”
“I bet,” he said, glancing around at the plush décor of the hotel bar. “You've done well for yourself. I'm proud of you.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “I'm really happy here. The travelling is tiring sometimes, but I’m getting paid to travel around America which is amazing.”
Josh glanced at Jamie who was looking around with interest. “We were really worried about you, you know? When you left.”
“I know.”
My decision to leave England had been sudden, to my family, anyway. I didn't tell them what I was planning until it had all been arranged. I was two months from leaving when I sprung the news. They tried to talk me out of it, telling me America is a long way from home, that I’d be away from everyone I knew. They didn't understand that that was exactly the point.
My parents suggested I was suffering from some kind of depression or something. In some respects, they were probably right. I’d never fully dealt with the repercussions of my bad decisions. Whenever I returned to Cornwall, my guilt intensified. The memorie
s of all the mistakes I’d made, of the pain I’d suffered. I couldn't erase them. Even though so many years had passed, seeing the places I used to go to always reminded me.
Leaving the country had seemed like, and indeed had been, the solution.
“I think you did the right thing,” Josh said eventually. “I really do.”
“I know I did,” I answered. “Leaving you all behind broke my heart, but the alternative was being miserable for the rest of my life. I needed to get out.”
We hadn't ever had this conversation before, not even when I left. He hadn't wanted me to go but he never said a word. He told our parents to back off and let me go. He did that, when he really wanted me to stay close.
“We miss you,” he said, as he saw the tears forming in my eyes. “But you being happy is more important.”
“Thank you. I thought maybe Mum and Dad would never get over it.”
Josh laughed. “They still haven't. They miss their baby girl.”
“I miss them too but this is where I need to be right now.”
Jamie had almost finished his drink when the team began arriving in the bar. The sight of Jude Collinson perked Jamie up again.
Then it happened.
“Oh my God!” Jamie squeaked. “Radleigh McCoy!”
My eyes swivelled towards the door where Radleigh and Bryce were entering, followed closely by Cody Rivera.
