Page 56 of Welcome to Pennycress Inn

Rubbing her eyes as wine-induced sleep threatened, she pushed herself to standing and walked across to the small leaded window sunken into the yellow Cotswold stone of the cottage overlooking the garden and looked down at the photo frames displayed there.

Picking one of them up, she laughed. It was a photo of Jackson with her, Richie and Jenny. Taken on the beach at Whitby Bay, if she wasn’t mistaken. They were all smiling and holding ice creams. She and Jenny had their hair in bunches despite being in their early twenties, and Richie and Jackson had spiked theirs up with gel.

‘Oh, you found that pic.’ Jackson chuckled as he held out a mug towards her.

‘Ha, I did.’ Carefully replacing the photo frame, she took the mug. ‘I think I remember that day.’

He grinned as he looked at it. ‘About ten years ago we’d gone down to Whitby Bay on a day trip. Is that what you were thinking of?’

‘Yes, we tried to recreate a photo taken when we’d been younger.’

‘That’s right. Hence the Mr Whippy ice creams and the shocking hairstyles.’

She shook her head. ‘Harry asked me to move in with him that day.’

‘He did? I didn’t know.’

She nodded. She’d felt confused even back then. ‘I almost said no. I think if it hadn’t been for the fact we were by the beach and everything else was perfect, I might have told him we should wait.’

‘Seriously?’ Jackson sat down on the large blue sofa.

‘Yep. Jenny and Richie had been talking about how super happy they were with Rob and Jane, and I felt left out.’ She shrugged. It had felt right when Harry had asked. The timing had anyway. She just hadn’t been so sure about the man. ‘And you’d just got with that girl. What was her name? Tania? And you were so in love.’

‘Tasmin.’

‘That was it.’ Sitting beside him, she ran her finger through the cream on her hot chocolate before licking it off.

‘And just for the record, I wasn’t “so in love”.’ He curled his free forefinger around the words.

‘You weren’t?’

‘Nope. It was you I wanted, but you were with Harry, and I had to let the idea of you and me ever getting together go.’

‘Ha, now I know you’re joking.’ She pointed her finger at him. It had been her who had had the crush on him, not the other way around, despite what he’d previously hinted at. She’d have known if he’d felt anything more than friendship towards her.

Jackson reached around the back of her and drew her towards him for a hug. ‘Think what you like, but it’s true.’

‘Well,ifyou are being honest…’ She shifted against the cushions so she was looking at him. ‘And that’s a big if. Then we’ve wasted so many years trying to be happy with other people and being in rubbish relationships which we’ve tried so desperately to make work. And for what?’

‘For nothing.’

‘Exactly. For literally nothing.’ She drank some hot chocolate, its sweet flavour just perfect after the wine. ‘Are you being really honest though? Or just saying what you think I want to hear?’

‘Have I ever lied to you?’ His expression was serious.

‘Umm, no.’ She laughed. ‘Actually, how am I supposed to answer that? If you have, then I wouldn’t know anyway, unless you’re a super rubbish liar and I found out after.’

Jackson chuckled as she leaned back against him. ‘True. Well, I’ll promise you that I haven’t then.’

‘Uh-huh.’ She nodded and balanced her half-full mug on her lap before closing her eyes. It just felt so right with him. All the feelings she’d spent years trying to squash down inside her, trying to bury and tell herself they weren’t real, were surfacing and she’d never felt so happy, so sure of being with someone before.

‘Penny for them.’ Jackson’s breath tickled her hair as he spoke.

‘I was just thinking how perfect this was, that we’ve met again like this, and how much I love you.’ She clamped her hand over her mouth and sat up, her hot chocolate dribbling down the side of the mug and forming a puddle on her jeans as she did so. What had she said? She stood up, her face hot with fierce embarrassment. ‘I’m so sorry. I’ve drunk too much wine.’

‘No need to apologise.’

‘Oh, there is, there really is.’ She looked around for a coaster, somewhere to place her mug before spying an envelope standing behind a picture frame on the mantelpiece and placing it on there. ‘I shouldn’t have had so much to drink. I’ve not had a sip of alcohol in months and it’s gone straight to my head. I’ll let myself out.’

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