Page 78 of A Simple Mistake
“It is.And I won’t, and Daniel knows that.But fear isn’t reasonable.”
“You think giving him time will help?”
“Maybe a little?Right now, the attack is colouring his reaction, but Nico, think about the way you two act.When there is a threat or a danger, you will try to remove it.Daniel?He’ll do his best to avoid it.Neither one of you is wrong.You just use different methods to keep each other safe.”
“So… hedoesn’twant me to help you.”
“Not in his heart of hearts, no.He’s too worried what itmightdo to you to wait and see if itwill.”
Nico deflated, close to giving up on his plans.It should have pleased Jack, Nico not stepping onto the thorny path he himself was walking, but—perversely—it did the opposite.It made him search for options.And options were close at hand.
“There’s one thing you can try,” he said.“You could show Daniel that not everything you do with me—very little, in fact—will bring you into contact with your old life and people like Goran and Pavel.Online investigations cover a lot of ground and different cases.Aidan said you’ve done a bunch of work on Mrs McTavish’s case.Daniel didn’t object to that, did he?”
“He helped me.He was the one who realised Mrs McTavish had a twin sister.”
“A… what?I think you should catch me up on your progress.”
“Oh, of course.You were nodding off when we told you.”Nico launched into the tale, glad to put his Daniel-shaped problems aside for a while.“So that’s where we got stuck,” he summarised.“I found the twins’ birth certificates, but I don’t know how to find Valerie Franklin.And we can’t imagine what it is Mrs McTavish can only do as her sister.”
Gareth ended the call and leaned back in his desk chair, eyes on the images of Jack on the wall in front of him.The joy of seeing them hadn’t worn thin yet and Gareth couldn’t imagine it doing so for a very long time.
He turned his head, contemplating the bare space on the other wall.This room was his space, so why not fill it with memories?They’d cheer him on rather than hold him back, especially when he only needed to raise his eyes from his work to see his future right in front of him.
Gareth wasn’t one to dither once he’d made a decision, and when Jack popped his head around the door an hour later, being found flipping through old photo albums didn’t embarrass him one tiny bit.
“Remember this?”He held up a snapshot, taken while on deployment.A group of young men, their grins bright against the backdrop of sand and dust, with only one serious face in the group.
“I don’t think I knew how to laugh back then,” Jack said, scrutinising the image.“Everything felt like life and death.”
Gareth slid the photo back into its sleeve, swallowing the utterly sappy comment on the tip of his tongue.“I wonder what it’s like these days, with everyone having mobile phones.I remember taking photos and having to wait until we were home to have the film developed.”Seeing the faces of men who hadn’t made it back had ripped open barely healed wounds—and he’d taken far fewer photos during subsequent tours.“I’ve just spoken to Julian,” he said.“We’re both to work from home while we sort out this mess.That way Nico and Daniel won’t have to be in the house by themselves.”
“Guess what I just came to talk to you about?And here you are, having it fixed already.”Jack leaned over and kissed him.A soft peck, acknowledgement more than anything else.“That means I can deal with the insurance in between catching up with work.”
“Work, yes.We had some fun and games on Thursday, just before everything went to shit.I need to tell you about that.”
“That sounds promising.Does it mean there’s one job off my list?”
“Unfortunately, no.We’re just two annoyances down.”
“In that case, yes, tell me later.I want to tackle the painting while I have daylight and fresh air.”
“Are we sticking with the sage or are we changing colour?”
“We’re changing,” Jack said.“I haven’t even asked, but I’m thinking either pale sand or a sunshiny yellow.The sage looked classy, but it didn’t exactly catch the light.We’ll see.”His brows drew together as he thought.“I might take a spin through the arcade and see what else catches my eye.”
Gareth could imagine many less painful things to do on a Sunday.“Are you taking the boys?”
“I thought I’d ask.Get them out of the house.”
“Good idea.”
Jack dropped another kiss on his cheek, telegraphing just a hint of anxiety.Then he disappeared and a short while later Gareth heard three voices in the hall downstairs, before the car started.
He breathed out, listened to the house settle around him, and then went back to flipping through memories.It wasn’t the peaceful activity it had been earlier.His thoughts swarmed like angry hornets.Stung like them, too, and Gareth wished he knew what had triggered the discomfort.
In the end, he set the photo albums aside and headed downstairs to fix himself a pot of tea and a sandwich, idly tallying their to-do lists to keep himself in the present.His own was sizeable, Jack’s—after his stint away—positively endless, especially with the break-in and the hunt for Aidan’s old lady on top of everything else.
His churning thoughts came into sharper focus, and once he’d eaten his lunch, he took his pot of tea back upstairs with him and phoned Aidan.
