Page 60 of Coming Home
‘Gabe.’
‘Hello, Vi. Long time no see. And at least you remembered my name!’
Within seconds she’d taken him in. He looked exactly the same apart from a closely trimmed beard, his blond hair still cropped short. He was even more broad-shouldered underneath his fleece that bore a yellow emblem on the front.
Struck mute, she was still clutching the pricing gun like it was a weapon. His next comment told her he thought the same and as he held his arms up, he tried to lighten the mood. ‘I surrender. Please don’t shoot, I come in peace.’
Still not over the shock, Violetta was unable to laugh at his joke but did manage to lower her weapon and find her voice. ‘What the hell… how did you find me…? And what took you so long?’ Her next question was going to be ‘What do you want?’ but he answered that for her.
Delving into his fleece pocket he passed her an envelope, withViwritten in marker pen on the front. ‘Here, I wanted to return this. I thought it might be special.’
Her hand shook as she took the sealed envelope and, still bemused, began to tear it open as Gabe spoke, filling in a few gaps.
‘I was going to leave it at reception but the lady on there said you were working today so I came to find you.’
Opening the flap Violetta saw it contained a handwritten note and then when she looked closer, the silver bracelet her gran gave her, the one she thought she’d lost on holiday. ‘My bracelet. I don’t get it. How come you have it? Seriously, my head is so mashed right now.’
Gabe opened his mouth to answer when a couple wandered over to the display and not wanting to be overheard, Violetta made a decision and took a break. ‘Come on, let’s go to the café and we can talk there, I need a drink but unfortunately they don’t sell the hard stuff so I’ll get us a coffee or something.’
Moving around the display she was about to lead the way when she was brought to a halt by his sports shorts… and there was something else. ‘Oh Gabe. What happened to your leg?’
Looking down at his prosthetic lower leg, Gabe then looked back up at Violetta and answered with a wry smile. ‘Well, that’s kind of what took me so long.’
Amongst the muddle of thoughts that raced through her head as she bought two mugs of tea and carried them over to the table where Gabe was waiting, top of the list wasWhat if Mum had brought Darcy with her?
Trying hard not to think about her daughter, Violetta took him in as she approached. Snippets of their short time together reminded her that he’d been very funny, and relaxed and at ease with himself. He had also loved being in the army with his ‘brothers’ and she was sure his injury would’ve put paid to all that.
A rare but crystal-clear flashback to their holiday reminded her that’s who he was with, his army mates, a rowdy, fun bunch of blokes. While they’d relaxed by the pool he’d told her more about himself and in between ‘his mates versus hers’ water polo matches, or beach volleyball she’d been drawn to him and blocked the others out. That’s why she’d gone out with him that night. She wanted them to be alone.
Placing the mugs on the table she sat opposite Gabe who didn’t look in the least bit nervous which helped her relax. ‘So first of all, how did you end up with my bracelet and what happened to you? I mean after you and I, you know, and then you disappeared.’
A cheeky grin spread across Gabe’s face. ‘I can’t believe you don’t remember – but then again, you were very drunk that night.’
‘And I was so ill for two whole days afterwards. It was the worst hangover I’ve ever had.’
‘To be honest I’m not surprised. Anyway, your bracelet snapped and I picked it up off the pavement. You had that daft, tiny drawstring bag, I took the mick out of it and said it was like the one Scrooge kept his silver coins in. You’d tied a knot in the top but couldn’t get it undone, so I said I’d mind your broken bracelet and put it in the zip pocket of my shorts. I’ve had it mended, by the way. My treat.’
‘Ah, I see. And it’s a good job you kept it because I lost my bag that night, too, amongst other things. But thank you for having it repaired, that’s really kind. So, what happened next?’
Gabe was laughing as he spoke. ‘Well, I dared you to climb the flagpole on a dinghy and you went one better and hooked your knickers on the top. Do you remember that?’
Violetta’s hands flung to her cheeks, imagining someone finding her undies the next day. ‘I didn’t… so that’s where they went.’
‘Yep, that’s where they ended up. And you’d insisted on taking a bottle of rakija to the beach so we could drink it under the stars but shall we say, we didn’t get that far. We were in the dinghy and I fell asleep but you must have stayed awake and drank the rakija yourself. When I woke up the next morning I panicked when I realised I had to get back to the hotel because me and the lads were flying out later that morning. I did tell you it was my last night.’
Violetta shook her head. ‘I swear some of that night is a complete blank but now and then I get a flashback. So go on, what happened next?’
‘You were completely out of it and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t wake you, but I had to go. I pulled the tarpaulin over in case you got sunburnt or a seagull pooed on your face – so I did try to take care of you. I didn’t have your phone number and your phone was in that daft bag that had gone missing so I couldn’t even leave my number. If I’d had a pen, I’d have written it on your forehead, just for a laugh.’
At this, Violetta chuckled and believed he’d have done it, too. ‘So you went home and…’ She couldn’t say what had popped into her mind because he hadn’t broken her heart, had he?
‘Yep, ended up like this.’ Gabe motioned towards his leg. ‘I’m glad I wore my training shorts now, so you saw straight away. When I wear jeans it means I have to have the awkward conversation and big reveal later so at least we’ve got that out of the way.’
‘So what happened? How did you get injured?’ She had this incredible urge to reach out and touch his arm, knowing before he even began that it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
* * *
While UK combat troops left Afghanistan in 2014, around 750 remained as part of the NATO mission to train Afghan forces and Gabe was one of them. He went out there two weeks after he left Violetta in a dinghy but he didn’t forget her and intended searching for her as soon as he got back from his tour.
