AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Because you’re always working,” I protest. “Especially since this whole Emerald View thing started. And then with Rose and your parents being here, I feel like I’ve barely seen you since we got engaged.”
“Emerald, do you think you could carry a shepherd’s crook?” says Rose earnestly, coming up to us. “Jenny has a lovely one that she can cover with heather, and your mum says she could make her dog look like a sheep?”
“Jude Paw already looks a bit like a sheep,” puts in Mum, appearing beside her. “Or I’m sure Jimmy would let ye borrow Edna for the day. She’ll want to be involved.”
Jack and I exchange horrified glances, relieved to finally be on the same page about something.
“You’re right,” he says, as Rose and Mum turn back to the florist, who I swear has pound signs behind her eyes right now. “We haven’t been spending nearly enough time together lately. So let’s fix that.”
“Now?” I ask, confused. “I mean, I suppose wearetechnically spending time together, but—”
“That’s not what I meant,” Jack interrupts. He takes my hand, his eyes glinting mischievously.
“What do you say we get out of here?” he asks.
Chapter 13
Still holding hands, Jack and I dash out of the hotel and across the road to the beach, giggling like teenagers playing hooky from school.
“That’s better,” says Jack, pulling off his suit jacket and loosening the collar of the shirt he’s wearing underneath. “If I never have to hear the word ‘heather’ again, I’ll be a happy man.”
“Can you imagine me dressed like a shepherdess, though?” I ask, nudging him.
He chuckles, making the dimples come out on his cheeks.
“You’d be a beautiful shepherdess,” he tells me, smiling bashfully. “I’d rather not have Edna as a member of the wedding party, though, if it’s all the same to you.”
“Agreed.”
I glance over at him. With his shirt sleeves rolled up and his sunglasses on, he looks like a movie star. It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful he is. And the fact that he’s actually speaking to me right now is pretty amazing too, let’s be honest.
“I didn’t think you’d come to this thing today,” I admit as we sit down on the sand, our backs against the sea wall. “You’d left before I even woke up this morning. And you were already asleep when I came to bed last night.”
“I wasn’t,” Jack admits, sheepishly. “I was just pretending. I didn’t know what to say to you after —”
“After I accused you of lying to me about your trip to the library?” I finish for him, aware even as I say it how utterly ridiculous it sounds. I’m a paranoid mess because my fiancé went to thelibraryand didn’t tell me?
It might be time to stop listening to all those true crime podcasts where it’s always the husband who did it.
Jack nods.
“I went there to see if they had an old map of the estate,” he says. “Dad wanted to see one. He’s been looking into the family tree, and I think being here made him want to know more about where he came from, you know?”
“Makes sense.”
“I didn’t tell you about it because it completely slipped my mind,” he goes on. “I went from there straight to the Emerald View site, and there was a problem with the builder. By the time I’d dealt with that, I’d forgotten all about the stupid library. How did you know I was there, anyway?”
“Er, Frankie saw you,” I say quickly, not wanting to admit I was there myself — or why. “Did you, er… did you find anything interesting on the map?”
“I haven’t had a chance to look at it,” he shrugs. “Dad has it. Why were you so bothered by the idea of me not telling you about it, though? I didn’t think we had the kind of relationship where we had to tell each other our every movement?”
He looks at me over the top of his sunglasses, and I briefly consider telling him about the last message, and what McTavish told me about his grandfather losing the land to Jack’s in a bet. Then I remember that McTavish doesn’t want Jack to know. And Jackliterallyjust accused him of “having a thing for me”.
Maybe some things are better left unsaid.
“We normally do, though, don’t we?” I say cautiously. “Tell each other everything we’re doing? But lately it’s been… well, it’s been different, hasn’t it? I feel like we’ve barely talked since Rose got here. And I don’t need a report on your every movement, Jack — I’m notinsane. I just feel a bit lonely, is all. Like you’re right there beside me, but I still miss you. I miss the closeness we used to have.”
“I know I’ve been busier than usual,” Jack admits, staring out at the ocean. “This whole thing with The View; it’s needed more involvement from me than I thought it would. It’s been… well, it’s been complicated. Much more so than I expected. It’s been taking up so much of my time and energy, it’s been hard to find time for anything else. I’m sorry if I’ve been neglecting you. I don’t mean to.”
