Page 4 of Stolen Kiss

“You’re going to need shoes, babe,” Freya said, coming in and kissing her on the cheek.

Freya was more glamourous in her clothing choices and would never hear of wearing jeans. She was a school teacher and always wore skirts and high heels. Tonight she had skin tight black trousers, a white silk blouse with poofy sleeves, knee-high boots with a low heel and a black jacket with her sleeves rolled up and the long sleeves of her blouse cuffed at the wrist. She wore long gold jewellery that disappeared into her cleavage. Her handbag was crossways over her body, with the bag resting on her hip.

“Hey, lovely. You look sensational.”

“So do you, your hair looks fantastic,” she said circling Heidi.

It should. Heidi spent an hour curling her hair to get the perfect bounce. The ever present breeze. She wasn’t expecting to meet anyone tonight because he never came into town, so she told herself her perfect hair was for her. And that was a big fat lie. The other lie she told herself was that she wasn’t counting how many days he’d been on the island and not come to see her.

It was ninety-eight days.

Roughly speaking.

Heidi’s leather ankle boots were at the door, alongside all of her shoes. She had dedicated the under the stairs cupboard to all her precious shoes she rarely got to wear because of spending many hours driving around the island taking care of the mums or doing routine health checks. It didn’t stop her from buying pretty shoes.

“It’s the last thing I put on, you know that,” Heidi said.

“I do, but I still like being bossy, a force of habit from teaching kids all day.”

Freya had taken up residence in the armchair near the unlit fireplace. Freya knew Heidi wasn’t really ready, and she’d be waiting another ten minutes for Heidi to gather herself to leave. She had to change her bag from day time bag with everything she owned for just in case purposes to going out for a session and maybe not getting home until dawn.

“I wonder if Archer and Jason will be out tonight?” Freya said idly.

“What about Luke and daisy too?”

“They’re leaving tomorrow for their college courses, so I doubt they’ll come into town.”

“How do you know?”

“Luke told me,” she said as she flipped through the TV magazine.

Heidi stayed quiet, itching to know if Luke had indicated if Jason would actually show up.

“I doubt it, then. They’re probably eating up at the house before they get split up. They never come into town, anyway.”

“Archer has. We’ve seen him in The Anchor loads of times over the last few months. Archer’s been back for six months and Jason came back for the wedding three months ago and hasn’t left.”

“He also hasn’t been in town either.”

“And how would you know this, young lady?” Freya asked, waggling her eyebrows.

Busted.

“Maggie talks about the Turner siblings all the time when I go up to the Hall to see Miss Turner for her check-up. If I don’t go down for a cup of tea, then I get a telling off the next time I go. She sits me down, feeds me cake and tea and then tells me everything about all four Turner siblings.”

“Really? How rude, I never get cake. I get biscuits, though, homemade. They’re my favourite.”

“So that’s the only reason I know. I have not sought any information. Jason has avoided me for eleven years. He can keep going for all I care.”

Freya gave Heidi a knowing look because each time Heidi drank too many shots, she was crying on Freya’s shoulder in the small hours, lamenting her broken heart over Jason Turner.

“If he’s not out tonight, then he will defiantly be at the gig racing tomorrow,” Freya said.

“We’ll see,” Heidi replied.

Heidi tossed the blue button into a jar on her windowsill and pulled on her boots. Each time she helped deliver a baby, she dropped a button in the jar. Pink for a girl, blue for a boy, and white for the babies who were born angels. There were no white buttons, and she wanted to keep it that way.

“Aww, cute they had a little boy,” Freya said as she looped her arms through Heidi’s crooked elbow.

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