Page 127 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘What are you scared of?’
For a moment she thought he wasn’t going to answer. She had no right to expect that he would. He took a deep breath in. ‘I’m in love with someone I don’t even know.’
‘You do know me.’ Jodie absolutely knew that was true. ‘I lied about details, facts and stuff, but I never lied to you about what I’m really like. When we were together, I promise. That was all me.’ She stepped closer to him, hoping she might have said enough.
He stepped back. ‘And, now every time I look at you I’m terrified you’re going to leave again.’
‘Only if you come with me.’
‘I want to believe you.’
‘You can. Home is where you are.’ They both knew what that meant. ‘So home is here.’
His brow furrowed. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You’re Lowbridge. You belong here.’
‘I always have. But not for the last few weeks. I think you did break me.’
Jodie felt like all the air had been knocked out of her. Everything she’d been holding on to was a lie. Gemma was right all along. Jodie broke things and hurt people.
‘I mean,’ Pavel continued, ‘you broke me out of something. It hurts but I think it might be good. I never thought of going anywhere else, or living any other life. But now this life doesn’t feel the same when you’re not in it. I’m more scared of a life without you in it than of anything else.’ Now he reached a hand towards her. ‘You promise you won’t run without me, my darling?’
His darling. ‘I promise. I don’t want to run away any more though. I could make this home.’
He was quiet.
‘What are you thinking?’
‘Just that I’ve never tried anywhere else.’
Jodie thought about that. Lowbridge was the first place she’d felt like she was capable, the first place where she’d found something she was good at, but now there was one, maybe there were others. ‘So the future’s unknown?’
Pavel nodded.
‘Scary?’ she asked.
‘A bit, but I think I need to get better at remembering that some things are out of my control.’
‘You don’t have to fix everything, you mean?’
Finally he smiled. ‘Not when it doesn’t need fixing.’ Down below them the strains of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ drifted out on the breeze, and Pavel Stone bent his head towards her and found her lips. They stood for a long time, bodies locked together, until finally they moved apart. ‘Happy New Year, Jodie.’
‘Happy New Year, my darling.’
Epilogue
The breakfast Bella and Flinty rustled up for the guests still standing as dawn broke was a celebration of fat, salt and carbs. Bacon, sausages, black pudding, haggis, tattie scones, mushrooms, eggs, piled up for guests to help themselves.
Jodie pulled up a chair and squeezed in at a big round table next to Pavel. Across the room the Strachans were piling ketchup onto sausage and fried egg sandwiches. Jill was deep in conversation with Kenny the tour guide, and Netty and her husband were half asleep in the corner. Next to Jodie, Darcy was resting her head in her hands. ‘How can I be hungover? I haven’t been to bed yet.’
Veronica raised an eyebrow. ‘I don’t think it’s the sleep that causes the hangover, dear.’
‘How do you look as fresh as a daisy?’ Darcy shot back.
‘Oh, she grew up here, basically weaned straight on to whisky,’ Flinty explained.
Pavel cleared his throat and took Jodie’s hand under the table. ‘So while everyone’s here, we’ve got something we’d like to tell you.’
