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‘Promise me, you won’t say anything about this to Dad.’ She knew how thick as thieves the two of them were.
‘Of course, I won’t.’
She looked at him a long moment, satisfied he was being earnest. She put a hand on his shoulder, leaned in and gave him a kiss. ‘Goodbye, Theo.’
‘God that sounds a bit final,’ he joked, smiling at her.
She frowned.It did, didn’t it?she thought. ‘Thanks for letting me do this on my own.’
‘I understand completely.’
Unfortunately, he didn’t. Freya took a deep breath. ‘We must talk when I get back from my trip,’ she said.
Theo’s smile faded. ‘What about?’ he quizzed her as she walked towards the door.
She stopped in the doorway and turned around. ‘Us.’
He didn’t appear surprised. In fact, the look on his face suggested to Freya that he already knew something was up. Perhaps it hadn’t escaped his notice how she had changed towards him, especially since Tarek had arrived.
Freya averted her gaze. She felt another guilty pang at the thought that before starting on the two-hour journey to the Suffolk Coast, she was making a detour to pick up Tarek without telling Theo her plans. It crossed her mind that perhaps she should forget the detour and go on her own.
Chapter 42
‘For goodness’ sake, why does this have to happen now?’ Freya rubbed her hands together and stamped her feet, trying to keep warm. She stared angrily at her car, which was at a standstill with the bonnet up. ‘She’s normally so reliable. I’ve never broken down once!’
‘Perhaps your little car doesn’t like long distances?’
‘You think?’ Freya shot back, annoyed. She knew it wasn’t Tarek’s fault, but they would be there by now if it wasn’t for this. An hour into their journey along the A14, and her car had suddenly shuddered and started to lose power. Fortunately, they’d managed to make it to the layby a hundred yards down the road, where her car had spluttered to a halt.
Freya stared at her phone. She’d called the AA, so they were on their way. She really hoped that whatever the problem was, it could be fixed it at the roadside and they’d be on their way. She didn’t know what they were going to do if her car had to be towed to a garage.
‘God!’ Freya kicked the tyre with her boot. It wasn’t like she could ring her dad or Theo and ask them to come and pick her up. She eyed Tarek. This was her own fault. This was karma for not telling her boyfriend who she was making the trip with.
‘Karma,’ said Freya, nodding her head.
Tarek’s head popped up from under the bonnet. ‘Pardon?’
‘Nothing!’ She glared at him. ‘And what are you doing anyway – are you a mechanic?’
‘No. I was just having a look.’
‘Well – don’t! It’s annoying me.’
Tarek walked over and stood beside her. They both stared in the direction of the oncoming traffic, looking for the yellow AA truck.
‘What are we going to do if they can’t fix it roadside?’
‘Then it gets towed to the nearest garage and we hire a car for a day and carry on with our journey.’
‘Oh, right. Of course.’ Freya hadn’t thought of that. The AA man would take them to the garage, where there would be hire cars.’ She brightened. ‘Then we can still stay over for one night and pick the car up on the journey home.’
The AA had turned up in good time, but as she suspected, her car couldn’t be fixed at the roadside. Then they’d arrived at the nearest garage to find a grumpy, unhelpful young man on his tea break who told Freya that all the hire cars were booked out.
‘What? Now what are we supposed to do?’
‘Get a taxi to your destination?’
‘But that’s at least an hour and a half up the road. It will cost a small fortune. Then we’d have to take a taxi back.’
