Page 5 of Sanctuary at MacLeod's Cove
‘Hey,’ said Jen. ‘It would be weird if you weren’t talking about me.’
‘Who says we were talking about you?’ Lucy challenged.
‘Of course we were,’ said Kate. ‘We only hear from you from one birthday to the next, and then suddenly you’re at Heathrow Airport. It would be odd if we weren’t trying to figure out what on earth is going on.’
Jen winced. She’d never meant to hurt anyone, but the pain in her mother’s voice was barely concealed.
‘Yes, sorry about the lack of contact. It’s been...’ She trailed off, unable to condense years of control and its effects into one sentence.
‘Difficult?’ Kate ventured, rising out of her chair and pulling Jen into a hug.
Jen leaned into her mother’s embrace only briefly before moving away. She sensed that if she allowed her composure to crack, even a little, she’d break down completely. And then she’d be no good to anyone, least of all herself, least of all her son. Instead, she simply nodded in agreement.
‘Sit down before you fall down, Jen,’ said Lucy. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to crash?’
Part of Jen wanted to retreat to bed — preferably Liam’s — and curl up under that light duvet in the attic of her childhood. Talk about returning to the womb. But she owed her mother and sister some kind of explanation for turning up with such little warning. She needed to learn to open up, to trust again. She might as well start now.
‘I won’t sleep if I go to bed. So, if I’m not keeping you both up?’
Lucy glanced at their mother. ‘Put it this way, neither Mum nor I would be sitting having a drink in the kitchen if you weren’t here.’
‘Then perhaps we should?—’
‘Don’t be so damned polite, Jen,’ Lucy interrupted, opening the glass-fronted cabinet. ‘You’re with family now, so no need to stand on ceremony.’ She grabbed the whisky bottle and held it up. ‘If I remember rightly, this used to be your drink?’
Jen recognised the brand from the shape of the bottle. ‘I’m surprised you remember.’
‘I was an impressionable ten-year-old, shocked by my big sister raiding the drinks cabinet when Mum and Dad were out of sight.’
Jen grinned and accepted a glass of whisky topped with ginger ale. ‘Are you trying to land me in it, Lucy?’
‘It’s too late for that,’ said Kate. ‘We knew. But you were over eighteen, and we kept an eye on how much was disappearing.’
Lucy held up the bottle. ‘Mum?’
‘No thanks, love.’ Kate tilted her head and smiled at Jen. ‘It’s so good to see your lovely face again. I’ve missed you.’
Jen blinked and reached across the table for her mother’s hand. ‘I’ve missed you, too.’
Kate’s smile sank into lines, which were deeper now than the last time Jen had seen her. Lines that showed Kate had also had her own worries over the years.
‘Then why didn’t you call more often?’ she asked. ‘Why did you put your brothers off from visiting when they were in London? When Dan saw you five years ago, you assured him everything was fine and put off any ideas of further visits. Why didn’t you come home before now?’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘We have the time, and we have the whisky,’ said Lucy, settling onto the window seat and tucking her feet under her. ‘Continue.’
Jen cleared her throat. ‘OK,’ she said on an exhaled breath. ‘Here we go. Alistair. Well, when I met him, I couldn’t believe my luck. He was the opposite of…’ She didn’t even want to sully the memory of her ex-boyfriend by including his name in the same sentence as Alistair.
‘Sam,’ Kate said. ‘Go on. Tell me how you first met.’
‘He swept me off my feet. Literally rescued me from being stood up at a café, took charge of everything, made me feel like the centre of his universe.’ Jen's voice grew quieter. ‘I really loved him once. I think he loved me too, in his way.’
‘So it was all good to start with,’ prompted Lucy.
Jen swallowed hard. ‘Yes. But when I look back now, I realise there were warning signs I should have seen. Like the fact I never met any of his family.’
‘You didn’t? Why not?’
