Page 87 of Merrily Ever After
She nodded. ‘So now we wait.’
He reached across the divide between them and gave her a hug. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Excited. Scared. Wondering what she’s going to think,’ she said with a wry smile. ‘And if I’ll get a wink of sleep tonight.’
Will let her go and smiled at her. ‘I’m really proud of you, you’ve done a brave thing. And now I’ve met Merry, I think you’ve done the right thing. She’s nice and whatever happens next, however she reacts, I don’t think she’ll be unkind.’
Emily returned his smile. ‘Thank you for being here and boosting me. I need a friend right now.’
For a fleeting moment, a look of disappointment flashed across Will’s face. ‘Any time.’
‘Will.’ She took his hand and laced her fingers through his. She’d just been brave posting that letter, she could be brave again. ‘When I say friend, I mean someone special, by my side. It wasn’t a relegation to friend zone. Just in case that was what you were thinking.’
A smile lit up his face and he laughed. ‘Busted. You can read me like a book. In which case, can you tell what I’m thinking now?’
Emily had no idea, but she was thinking that she’d quite like to kiss him, so she decided to go with that. She tugged him closer until their faces were almost touching.
‘This?’ she murmured before kissing him full on the lips.
‘Amazing. You’re a mind-reader.’ He returned her kiss, his arms reaching around her to bring her closer still.
By the time they came up for air, giggling and delighted with each other, the windows had steamed up and Emily was getting increasingly hot under all her layers.
‘Wow,’ she said, grinning at him. ‘You are a very good kisser.’
‘So are you,’ replied Will, sitting back in his seat. ‘I think we’d better stop there or we might be in danger of doing something illegal in a public place.’
‘And we can’t have that.’ Emily’s cheeks were flushed, and she was glad of the darkness to conceal them. ‘I feel like a teenager, snogging in a car.’
His eyes glittered. ‘What would you like to do now?’
‘I think I’d like to go home and let you take my mind off that letter.’
‘That sounds like a plan.’ He started the engine.
She grabbed his face and kissed him again before he could put the car into gear. ‘You are turning out to be one of my very favourite occupational therapists.’
‘One of?’ He pretended to look insulted.
‘The night is young.’
There was a tingling sensation in her stomach as the car began to move, although whether it was because of delivering that letter to Merry, or the prospect of an evening with Will, she couldn’t be sure. Either way, she felt more alive in that moment than she had in a very long time.
Tomorrow, she thought, taking a last look at Merry and Bright as they went by, she could be waking up to a very different life.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Merry
14 DECEMBER
‘Bye, darling, have a lovely day!’ I shouted.
Freya gave me one last wave before disappearing into a crowd of girls as they made their way inside, the shrill ring of the school bell cutting across all the playground noise.
I drove away slowly, careful to avoid the other parents or carers who’d arrived even later than us, and began to prepare myself for the day. It was Monday morning. The children rarely stayed over on a weekday because Lydia’s house was much closer to their schools than Holly Cottage. But Lydia had had an early meeting in London to get to, so Cole had offered to drop them off at their respective schools this morning. But then an hour ago, he’d received an urgent call from Josh, his foreman, about an emergency on the building site. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but I’d caught the words ‘Portaloo’ and ‘blockage’ and frankly that was enough.
I ran through a mental list of what I had to do today as I headed towards Wetherley and had got as far as the ring road when Harley rang.
