AllFreeNovel
Share Us
At least she could finally step off the roller coaster and step away from the emotional burdens of her past. Unfortunately, that didn’t help much with handling the emotional burdens of her present.
‘So you did love him once?’ Lizzie said, sounding awestruck.
‘Yes, I did. I loved him very much.’ She’d questioned that so many times in the years since, even in the past twelve days. Maybe it hadn’t been the forever type of love. Neither of them had been ready for that then; they’d been far too young. But still it felt good not to have to hate her romantic, optimistic sixteen-year-old self any more for falling so fast and so thoroughly for that troubled, traumatised seventeen-year-old boy. What disturbed her now, though, was the realization that mature, sensible, pragmatic Halle may well have done the same damn thing all over again.
‘So what happens now?’ Lizzie asked.
‘Well …’ Halle brushed her hands down her jeans. ‘I’d like to have a shower and change my clothes, and then I think we should head over to Trey’s place and make sure he’s really OK.’ It was something they’d already agreed to do when his text had come through.
Lizzie sent her a sideways look. ‘I meant what happens to you and Dad.’
‘Nothing happens to me and your dad,’ she said nonchalantly, determined to ignore the great gaping hole opening up in her chest. ‘Except that we get to start over as your parents and get on your case as a united front.’
One thing they must not do, she decided, was let their latest bust-up close the lines of communication again. But somehow she didn’t think that would be a problem. Luke had seemed resigned, not bitter, when he’d left. Unfortunately, that observation only made the hollow ache more painful.
‘Really, Mum? Is that all you want? Because when you were talking about Dad just now, it sounded like there might be more.’
Halle shook her head, determined not to put any of this stuff on her daughter. Lizzie was their child, she was still a teenager, she wasn’t Halle’s confidante. She couldn’t put her in the middle of all this and expect her to understand. But as she opened her mouth to deny it, to stick to her conviction that whatever had been developing with Luke, it would never have worked, the breaker rose up and crashed over inside her.
‘Bloody hell.’ Her shoulders began to shake, her vision blurred, the swell breaking like a tsunami and sweeping away everything in its path.
Lizzie’s arm came round her shoulders. ‘Why are you crying, Mum?’
‘I think I’ve done something really idiotic.’ She scrubbed the tears away with an impatient hand, but more tears just kept coming, the sadness overwhelming her again as her daughter’s arm tightened.
‘Which is?’ Lizzie asked.
‘I’ve fallen in love with him again.’ She sighed, the breath backing up in her lungs.
Good God, don’t you dare start sobbing now.
‘Ignore that,’ she said. ‘I’m being ridiculous. It’s just the pressure, that’s all. It can’t be true. I can’t possibly be in love with him. Not after twelve days.’
Any more than he could possibly be in love with me.
‘Why are you trying to argue yourself out of it? Being in love’s not a bad thing, you know.’
She looked round to find Lizzie smiling at her, the grin on her face so sweet and so pleased and so sure.
Oh, baby, it’s so much simpler when you’re young.
‘I know he can be a total idiot at times,’ Lizzie continued. ‘But he’s a guy, so you’ve got to make allowances for that,’ she added, the hope and encouragement in her expression not doing much to calm the churning waves still buffeting Halle. ‘But he’s mostly a pretty terrific dad. And I bet he’d make a pretty terrific boyfriend if you gave him half a chance.’
Halle sniffed and coughed out a half laugh, unsure whether to be mortified or just impossibly touched that she was now getting dating advice from her daughter.
And not really having a clue where she was going to go from here.
Well, whatever happens next, one thing’s for sure. Luke Best has managed to turn me into a complete basket case again.
Chapter 24
‘OK, guys, we’re here. According to his CV, Trey lives at number 6A.’
Lizzie’s stomach bounced at her mum’s overly bright tone as they parked in front of the narrow Victorian terrace. Lizzie noted the peeling paint on the plasterwork, the rusted bike buried in the long grass of the communal front garden and the broken gate that led down to the basement flat, which had burglar bars on the front window.
She’d never given any thought to where Trey might live, but it was hard not to notice the massive gulf between the immaculate grandeur of her family’s six-million-pound Georgian house in Notting Hill and this run-down building located in the un-gentifried end of Kensal Rise, which had probably been split into council flats a generation ago, and hadn’t seen much work done on it since.
Her guilt over initiating their kiss that morning multiplied a few thousand times.
