Page 16 of A Scottish Christmas Hideaway
‘Well, it certainly works.’
There was a silence for a moment.
Jessica tilted her head. ‘What’s the story with Reuben and his wife?’
She didn’t reply straight away and a look of concern flitted across her face. ‘Have you asked him about it?’
Jessica nodded. ‘Yes, I just asked him how married life was and he said it wascomplicated.I didn’t want to ask anything else in case he thought I was prying.’
Her mum reached forward and touched her hand. ‘She lives in Dubai. I’m sure he will tell you about it when he’s ready. In the same way that people won’t ask you about what’s happened in London as they don’t want to be intrusive.’
‘I told you work has been crazy.’
‘Remember that I’m your mum and I know you, love. And I know that whatever is going on isn’t just about work.’ She tilted her head, her eyes full of concern. ‘And I can tell you’ve been crying,’ she said gently.
Her mum had a fair point, and as she sat there, curled up in the chair, she tentatively began to share. Biting her lip, she took a deep breath. ‘You’re right. Of course you are. You always are. It’s not just about work, Mum. It’s everything.’
Catriona nodded and waited for her to go on.
‘This time last year I thought I was in love . . . Iwasin love,’ she said sadly, rubbing away another tear that slid down her cheek.
‘This was when we were in Australia?’
Jessica nodded. ‘Remember those photos that I sent you from New York? That work trip I was on?’
Her mum nodded. ‘Yes, I do,’ she said softly. ‘We were in Australia and you were having a magical time in New York. Was this where this special person lived?’
‘No, he lived in Boston mostly but he travelled a lot with work to New York and to London — that’s where we met.’ Her mind wandered to those amazing early days and she was quiet for a few moments as she thought about Tim.
Her mum coughed softly, pulling her from her thoughts. ‘You’re miles away, love.’
‘Sorry. I was just thinking,’ she said, dragging her mind away from the memories she had carefully collated and stored away.
‘What happened then to this new man of yours?’
‘Tim. His name was Tim,’ she said quietly.
Her mum nodded. ‘And I’m assuming he is no longer on the scene, hence your broken heart?’
Jessica looked at her mum in the soft bedroom light, her face full of concern. If only she knew what a loaded question that was. ‘No, he’s no longer around,’ she said quietly.
Her mum tipped her head to one side. ‘What happened, love? Was it a really bad break-up?’
Jessica gulped, scarcely believing that she was going to have to say the words out loud. ‘Tim is dead.’
Chapter Ten
‘Oh, Jessica,’ she said, throwing her arms around her. ‘Why didn’t you say anything before now? What on earth happened?’
Jessica melted into her mum’s embrace, grateful she could let go of the huge burden that she had been carrying all year. The tears slid down her face as she sobbed again over the man she thought she had loved and then lost in such a devastating way. On more than one occasion she tried to pull herself out of her mum’s arms, ready to tell her what happened. But each time she tried to talk, her body shuddered and the tears continued to stream.
‘It’s okay, Jess, everything will be okay. Sssh,’ said her mum, stroking her hair soothingly. ‘Just let it all out.’
Eventually, after Jessica had cried all the tears she had left, she sat back and looked at her mum. ‘He died when we were in New York. But I didn’t find out until afterwards . . .’ Her eyes dropped to the floor and she fumbled with her hands as she remembered when and how she eventually found out that Tim had died. ‘Even though he hadn’t appeared for our date that night, I was annoyed but not too worried as that was the nature of our relationship. Things cropped up all the time.’ She knew her mum was looking at her curiously. ‘We had busy jobs,’ she said as a way of explanation. ‘Busy lives . . .’ she said trying not to sound bitter.
There was a long silence as she tried to gather her thoughts and her mum nodded encouragingly at her.
‘The following day at work I was absorbed in back-to-back meetings and could only check my phone when I managed to take a quick loo break. There were no messages from Tim, which was unusual. Normally he would have sent an apology as soon as he could if he’d had to cancel plans. It was strange that he hadn’t contacted me at all.’ She thought about how low she hadfelt later that night as she boarded the plane, her feet dragging. She’d stowed her cabin baggage on the plane and sat down at her seat, quickly sending another text letting him know her flight was about to take off. She had tried her best to get some sleep on the journey as she was going straight into work when she came off the flight. However, she was fidgety and worried and ended up half-watching one of the in-flight movies, only managing to doze.
