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He raises his eyebrows playfully, and I prod him in the ribs.
“I can!” I insist. “I mean, I’ve already seen the two of you filming that scene, and I survived, didn’t I? It didn’t change the way I felt about you. So I think I can cope. I will cope. Because I don’t want to lose you again. I don’t ever want to lose you.”
He pulls me towards me and kisses me hard.
“You’re not going to, Lady M,” he says. “You’re kinda stuck with me now.”
“That’s the best news I’ve heard in weeks,” I assure him. “Maybe in my entire life, actually.”
This time, the kiss lasts until the rain finds its way into the collar of my jacket, and starts running down my back.
“So, what now,” I say, as Jett brushes the wet hair gently out of my eyes. “What happens next?”
Jett takes my hand in his and smiles — a smile that somehow manages to erase the entirety of the last six months, and take us right back to that beach on Mexico, as if we never even left it.
“Anything you like, Lady M.,” he says, kissing me softly. “We can do absolutely anything you like.”
I think about this. I need to find a job and sell my car. I need to pay the electricity bill and phone Mum back; and I really should try and get my roots done at some point, before Jakob completely disowns me. I need to do all of these things, but somehow none of them seems nearly as important as they did a couple of hours ago. All of them can wait. (Well, maybe with the exception of the electricity bill, but even that can wait until tomorrow.)
I look up at Jett, hardly able to believe he’s actually here with me.
“I think I want to go home,” I tell him. “We can figure out the rest later.”
“Home it is,” he agrees, offering me his arm with a flourish. I loop mine through it and lean into him as we turn and start to walk back up the beach, to where the lights of my little cottage are just visible, blinking away at the top of the road, not far from where we left — or abandoned — the car. As we walk, I’m suddenly surprised by a memory; another beach, another night, but the same two people, and the same feeling of fizzing happiness, like bubbles in a champagne glass.
“Jett,” I say delightedly, stopping in my tracks. “Jett, I think we did it. We finally did it?”
“We did?”??He smiles down at me, confused.
“We beat Mexico,” I explain, throwing my arms around his neck. “Becausethisis definitely the happiest moment of my life.”
I stand there for a moment, feeling the cold rain seep a little further into my skin, and knowing beyond doubt that it’s true; that this is my happiest moment, but that it’s only the happiestso far — because as long as Jett’s with me, there will be plenty more to come.
As if to prove it, he sweeps me up into his arms, and starts walking again, this time with me held tightly against his chest, like when he carried me out of the woods that day.
“I have a feeling we can do better that that, Lady M,” he says, his lips brushing my ear. “Let’s go home and find out…”
Epilogue
FOUR MONTHS LATER
“Okay, I think we’re good to go.”
I take a last look around the empty living room of the little cottage, which looks shabbier than ever without the furniture that’s sat here for as long as I can remember. There are faded patches on the carpet where the sofa used to sit, and some more on the walls, which look sad and empty without the framed pictures that used to hang there.
“It’s not like you’ll never see it again,” says Jett gently, putting his arms around me and hugging me to him. “You’re just renting it out, not selling it.”
“I know,” I replying, burying my face in his chest and breathing in the familiar scent of him. “And I love the new house; I really do. It just feels weird to be leaving, is all.”
“Do you want a few minutes?” he asks. “To say goodbye?”
“No,” I say firmly, pulling myself together. “It’s not ‘goodbye’. It’s just a new chapter, that’s all. Which is good, as well as weird.”
Jett gives me a quick squeeze, and I take his hand and follow him out of the house, locking the door carefully behind me, and trying not to think too much about how, next time I open it, it’ll be to let the new tenants in. On the driveway, Jett’s SUV sits sleekly next to my old MG, which looks tiny in comparison.
“You decided what to do with it, yet?” Jett asks, seeing me frown as I look at the car. “We could always have it towed to the new place, if you want? It’s not far?”
I think of the house outside town; the one Jett bought a few months ago, so we’d have somewhere to stay when we were in Scotland. It’s large and glossy, and absolutely not the kind of place you’d expect to find a clapped out old convertible sitting on the drive.
