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Shay looked over at Chloe and saw now the likeness, the thick chocolate-dark hair, the large hazel eyes that carried a smile in them.That’s what our daughter might have looked like,she thought. It was too much. It still hurt hearing about him, even all these years later. This hadn’t been her bestidea, coming to Millspring: what had she been thinking? She drained her cup as quickly as she could.
‘Thank you, that was lovely. I’m here for a week or so. I’ll call in again.’ It was a lie of course. She stood up.
‘Just a couple more minutes, Shay, please,’ said Terri, looking behind her yet once more.
‘I’d love to but—’
Shay froze. As much as the years had changed Theresa Briggs, they had only gently edited the man who appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. The man of the boy who was Jonah Wells.
Chapter 30
‘Thank crikey,’ said Terri, half under her breath. ‘I thought he’d never get here.’
Shay couldn’t move. And it appeared that Jonah Wells couldn’t move either because he stood stock-still staring at Shay.
‘You’re in the way,’ said Chloe, butting him with her hip. ‘Shift.’
He must have teleported over to her side because when Shay thought about it all later, she couldn’t remember him moving towards her, only that one minute he was at a distance and then next he had his arms tight around her, then he was holding her out in front of him, his hands warm cups on her shoulders.
‘Shay Corrigan,’ he said. ‘I cannot tell you how good it is to see you.’
He had aged, of course, but in the best way. His hair no longer a thick youthful flop of dark brown, but shorter, pushed back, still dark but greying above his ears. There were sunray wrinkles at the corner of his eyes which were every bit as bright as they once were, the colour of autumn.He was taller, stronger, his shoulders bigger, but his smile was still the smile of Jonah Wells, capable of knocking the beat of her heart from a steady to a syncopated rhythm.
‘I thought you’d got lost,’ said Terri, giving him a playful slap on the arm. She addressed Shay then. ‘I had to let him know you were here. He would never have forgiven me otherwise.’
Jonah looked mesmerised by her. Shay didn’t realise he was holding her hands until the grip became almost painful.
‘Sorry,’ he said, his voice deeper by degrees than she remembered it. She recalled laughing at the yodel he made sometimes as his young voice sought its adult tenor. ‘Oh, Shay, it’s so good to see you. How long are you here for? Are you staying in Millspring?’Where, when, how, why.Questions came missiling at her until Terri butted in.
‘Give her some space to answer, Jonah.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
‘Excuse me…’ Terri’s attention was pulled away by people sitting in the window table.
‘See you soon, Shay. Promise you’ll call back.’
‘Thank you, Terri.’ She didn’t promise.
‘I got here as fast as I could when Terri rang me. Are you around later today?’
‘I’m staying for a while, yes.’
‘Thank God. Look, I’m in the middle of something at work that needs me and I have to get straight back,’ said Jonah in a rush of words.
A sigh of disappointment inside her, covered up with a smile. ‘It’s fine, it was nice to see you, nice to… know you’re doing okay and—’
‘Oh, no, no, we’re not leaving it there. Not after all these years,’ said Jonah. ‘That’s absolutely not happening. Can wemeet up later – tonight? I’ll pick you up. We can have dinner and a chat and some wine. Are you here by yourself?’
‘Yes, there’s just me.’
Did she see an outward breath of relief or had she imagined it?
‘Six o’clock? Tell me where.’
‘Number one, Milk Lane, just at the back of—’
‘I know it,’ he said. ‘I’ll be there.’ He leaned forward and planted a long kiss on her cheek. ‘You really don’t know how good it is to see you. I won’t be late.’ His smile had turned into a beam and there was a wash of tears in his eyes, she was sure of it. As there was in hers.
