Page 70 of Witch You Weren't Here

It felt like they were edging out over the ice towards each other again, but it wasn’t their weight that might crack it – it was their heat melting a hole as they got closer. And she was no longer sure if falling through meant drowning … or learning to swim?

But she could commit to a dance, couldn’t she? It wasn’t like they were agreeing to go on a date. He wasn’t asking that.

‘No one would mind that. I’d like it.’ Understatement of the century, but still, honest.

He smiled and leaned in closer to her. Her body immediately began getting very excited, as though all her cells recognised his and were vibrating at a higher frequency. ‘You might change your mind when you see my dance moves,’ he warned her in that low, husky voice, sending goosebumps racing across her skin.

‘Do you just like to stand and sway?’ Because she wasn’t opposed to that, especially if their bodies were pressed together everywhere important.

‘No. Quite the opposite. You ever seen the dance scene in Airplane?’

‘Never even heard of it.’

‘Whatever you do, don’t look it up.’

She wrinkled her nose as she laughed and he suddenly reached out and stroked his finger down her scrunched-up nose.

‘It feels like I’m turning inside out when you do that,’ he whispered, and the laughter caught in her throat.

She took a shaky breath in and his hand moved to cup her cheek. She was just about to close her eyes when there was a sharp rap on the window behind Harry. They both froze.

‘It’s Joe, isn’t it?’

Kay squinted over his shoulder, seeing the rain-blurred shape of a man with a hood pulled up, peering in. ‘Yes.’

Harry lifted his eyes up to stare at the roof for a second, a rueful smile on his lips. He caressed his thumb once down her cheek and dropped his hand. ‘Just like old times.’

Kay didn’t have time to process what that meant before he grabbed his coat and turned to open the car door. As he climbed out to greet her brother, she gave herself a moment to adjust. The thud of the door closing behind him was like her ears popping after being underwater, everything rushing back in at full volume. She could hear her brother thanking Harry, and Harry typically demurring, as he headed for the boot.

Joe was here. The wedding was happening.

She grabbed her coat too, shivering in the rain as she got out, but finding Harry had already fetched the umbrella for her and was coming to meet her with it open, like she was some kind of celebrity. ‘Thank you,’ she said, taking it from him.

Joe was waiting at the open boot.

‘We’ve been so worried,’ he said, giving her a big hug, despite the umbrella, the waterproof material of his coat squeaking. ‘Thank the Goddess you made it back OK.’ She patted his shoulder and was about to say something about how sweet he was, when he pulled back and lifted his dark eyebrows up so they nearly hit his hairline. ‘What in the name of Samhain did you do to your hair?’

Kay laughed, putting her hand up to it. ‘Don’t you like it?’

‘Depends. Did you do it as a wedding present for me? Because it’s my football team’s colour?’

‘Er, yeah, sure, we can say that.’

‘You are such a bullshitter.’ He tousled her hair like she was seven and turned to Harry again. ‘Seriously, thanks so much for getting Kay home to us. It was so lucky you were there.’

Harry pushed his hands into his pockets. ‘I was just as lucky. She got me home too.’

‘Yeah, but not with magic.’ Joe pointed to the boot. ‘These all yours, Kay?’ When she pointed out her bags, he gathered them from the boot and started moving towards the house. ‘I’ll see you soon, Harry.’ He clapped him on the shoulder as he went past and turned to walk backwards as he got on the pavement. ‘If you can make it to the ceremony, that would be great, but we understand if you’ve got to be with your dad.’

‘I’ll do my best.’ Harry lifted his hand to wave goodbye to Joe and looked back at Kay. She took a step towards him—

‘C’mon, Kay, there’s so much to do.’

Harry laughed. ‘Good luck.’

‘You too.’ She didn’t trust herself to kiss his cheek, so she caught his hand as she walked by, the brief brush of their skin like a sip of expensive wine. The temptation of warmth spreading from her stomach. The worry that she could never afford to buy the bottle.

When she reached the gate of her mum’s house, she looked up at it, with its pretty whitewash and thatched roof, remembering the image Harry had drawn on her skin, infused with a sense of peace. There was a part of her that naturally felt centred here, but it was tangled up with other emotions too. Perhaps that peace had been more to do with what he’d felt when he visited, able to escape the pressure of his parents for a short while.

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