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‘I was so sorry to hear about your mum. I know how close you were.’
She held back a wave of emotion. ‘Thanks. I know. I miss her and her death has made me rethinka lotof things over the past couple of years.’
‘It was very brave to go out there and make a life for yourself. But then you always grasped life with both hands. I always admire that side of you, Amy.’
‘Really?’ she said looking confused. ‘I wouldn’t ever say I was brave. I tended to go with the flow.’
He tipped his head to the side. ‘Mmm, you never did anything you didn’t want to though and you always seemed to follow your heart.’
Amy wasn’t quite sure what was happening to her, but she seemed unable to pull her eyes away from James’s. She needed to deflect. ‘You could say the same thing about you though. You followed your heart, too.’
‘Maybe we are quite alike after all,’ he said, shrugging.
Amy’s mind again drifted back to when they had decided to split up and go their separate ways. ‘We are too different,’ she told him at the time, his eyes pooling with tears when he realized she was breaking up with him. ‘We want different things and that’s okay. But we need to do what is best for us.’ Amy realized now that she needed to do what was best for her. That had always been the case and she felt a pang of guilt as she thought about Ross back in Vancouver.
‘Did you ever settle down?’ she asked.
‘As direct as ever,’ he said and smiled.
‘You know me,’ she said, realizing that he didn’t anymore. It had been about sixteen years since they had last seen each other. But Amy had always asked questions, sometimes very direct questions, thanks to her parents who had encouraged all the girls to be curious.
‘I did when I was in Australia,’ he now said.
‘I didn’t know you were there. What did you do there?’
‘Bar work, mainly. Surprising, eh? I loved it. I lived in Sydney for a while and there was a girl, but she wasn’t for me.’ He paused. ‘And you? Did you settle down?’
She shook her head. ‘A bit like you. Not really. There was someone in Vancouver. In fact, he was meant to come to the wedding. But it wasn’t right.’
‘So a relatively new break-up then? I am sorry.’
Amy reflected for a moment. She had barely given Ross a second thought since she’d left. She definitely wasn’t sad or heartbroken. ‘Don’t be. It just wasn’t meant to be.’
‘When do you head back there?’ He held her gaze.
‘I don’t quite know. Haven’t decided yet. Sometime after the wedding probably . . .’ Time to change the subject, she thought. ‘I’ve kept you long enough, James.’ She stood up. ‘Thanks for the tour and for the coffee.’
‘Anytime,’ he said. ‘Hopefully we can catch up again before you leave. Here’s my card,’ he said, pressing it into her hand. ‘Give me a call. Come on, I’ll walk you out.’
‘No need to,’ she said, panicking at the butterflies in her stomach. ‘I’ll make it to the door and anyway,’ she said, pointing at the reception, ‘looks like your next meeting is here.’ A striking woman stood by the desk, looking around.
James beamed when he saw her. ‘Amanda!’ he cried. ‘How are you? Good to see you.’
‘Oh, James. Isn’t this place just epic,’ she enthused, just a bittooloudly.
‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Amy said, scrambling to get away and annoyed at the stabs of jealousy she felt.
‘See you soon, Amy. Come down and see me any time.’ He bent down to kiss her cheek and then turned to the other woman.
‘I will do,’ she mumbled as she walked past Amanda who looked at her curiously. Amy smiled at her as much as she was able then breathed a sigh of relief when she got outside.
Who was that? And why was James so pleased to see her? Had Amy imagined the lingering gaze or the connection between her and James still there even after all these years? She shook her head. He had clearly moved on and was just being friendly. He had to be; he was hosting her sister’s wedding. She exhaled and then realized Steve’s car wasn’t in the car park. Glancing at her phone, she saw a message:
Thought we would leave you to it. See you at home xx
She shook her head and then started the walk up the hill to Meadowbank, her head spinning with thoughts of James.
Chapter Twenty-Four
