Never Alone Read Free

it. The cottage is lovely, and you are too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he moves in today. Has he got all his stuff with him?’
    Sarah looks across to the car parked outside the garage. ‘I don’t know – maybe. He’s not said anything.’
    ‘And? Is he just as gorgeous as you remembered?’
    ‘Oh, give over. It’s not as though I haven’t seen pictures of him over the years…’
    ‘Well?’
    ‘He’s not really changed much, put it like that.’ And my heart’s not stopped pounding, she wants to add. And it’s as though the last twenty-four years haven’t happened. Do I feel the same way? No, it’s worse. Much worse.
    Sophie gives her girlish giggle, the one that makes you think she’s twenty-three, not forty-three. ‘It sounds as if it’s going well. I’m glad to hear it, and I can’t wait to meet him and see this man you’ve been obsessed with your entire life.’
    ‘You keep your paws off.’
    ‘Don’t worry, darling, I only have paws for George, you know that.’
    Basil, who has been waiting at the door, starts barking again. Sarah glances up and sees Aiden crossing the yard towards the house. He is talking on a mobile phone, smiling.
    ‘Soph, I’ll call you later, he’s coming back. Basil, for Christ’s sake shut up! Bed!’
    Basil whines and obliges, but then leaps up again as the door opens and Aiden comes into the kitchen. Sarah puts her mobile down on to the kitchen table. ‘What do you think?’
    ‘It’s great,’ he says. ‘I can’t believe how big it is inside.’
    ‘Cunning use of white paint, I think,’ she says, transferring the tray with the teapot on it over to the table. ‘Have a seat.’
    She pours the tea while he watches her. There is some tension in the air already, or is she imagining it? Is it her? He’sgearing up to tell her that he’s just here to look, he needs to be nearer to London actually, nearer his friends. He has friends, of course. Even though he’s been away for years.
    ‘I wanted to say how sorry I was not to make the funeral.’
    She stops, mid-pour. Looks at him in surprise.
    ‘I meant – Jim’s funeral, of course. Although I would have come to his dad’s too, if I’d been here.’
    ‘Oh. That’s okay. I wasn’t expecting you to come all the way back from abroad.’
    ‘But I should have come. He was a good friend. What a shock to lose him so young.’
    Sarah wonders if he’s expecting her to be upset, or to cry. It’s been three years since Jim died, and actually, when it happened – six months after the car crash that had put him into a persistent vegetative state – it had been almost a relief. Her grieving had been done slowly, painfully, beside a hospital bed. ‘Yes, it was. He was… a great father.’
    She can’t quite bring herself to say more than that. And even when Jim had been alive and well, despite being happy and settled and everything else that came with a twenty-year marriage, it had been Aiden she’d thought about before falling asleep, Aiden she’d fantasised about when the mood took her.
    He can never know that. Ever.
    ‘Thanks,’ Aiden says, as she passes a mug across the table towards him and carefully avoids his touch.
    Basil has settled under the table, his large behind on Sarah’s foot, which means his head must be resting on Aiden’s. Tess is watching the scene from the sanctuary of her bed in the corner, her gaze wary.
    ‘So…’ Sarah begins, then stops, with no idea how to continue. Why does this feel so awkward?
    ‘So,’ he replies, and laughs. ‘Tell me about the cottage. What about rent, bills, stuff like that?’
    ‘Oh, I wasn’t going to charge you anything. It’s on a separate meter, so I guess you could pay the bill for electricity. And you can stay as long as you like.’
    He gazes at her across the table and she’s aware of his eyes, that they are green. Somehow she’d forgotten this detail, despite picturing him in her mind so often.
    ‘That’s a very generous offer, but not