Always You by Erin Kaye Read Free Book Online Page A

down on the closed toilet seat and tried to calm herself. Cahal had been in her thoughts since the day he’d boarded the plane to Australia two decades ago, the job as a lab technician long forgotten and their dreams of a life together in tatters. His face was as pale as a ghost, his lips pressed tightly together, thin and colourless. She remembered standing motionless, blinking in dry, wide-eyed disbelief as the metal tube containing the love of her life taxied down the runway and took off.
    She’d never seen or heard from him again. She’d been proven right in the end – their love had been too good to be true. Too perfect to last. Too insubstantial to survive in the real world. She’d tried to forget him but, in the years that followed, she’d never stopped wondering about him. And then one day, standing behind his mother in the post office queue, she overheard her tell the postmistress that she was going out to Australia for her son Cahal’s wedding. Sarah went home and cried, and that day a little bit of her died. Two weeks later she accepted Ian’s proposal of marriage.
    And now Cahal had been air-dropped into her life, turning everything upside down. She placed a hand over her heart and wondered why it felt like it was cracking open. She hated him for being here, for standing there so cool and collected and dismissing her as a nobody. But most of all she hated him for breaking her heart, a wound which had never healed, never mended, despite everyone’s assurances that it would. Time had merely sealed over the hurt with a thin scab, making life bearable. But now that the scab was picked off, the hurt was just as raw and painful as the day he’d left.
    She ran cold water over her blue-veined wrists in the sink and stared at the sad-faced woman in the mirror. She was a good-looking woman for her age, pretty even, but the bloom of youth was gone and every year that passed etched another fine line on her face. She’d spent her best years trapped in a loveless marriage, and she found it hard to forgive herself, or Cahal, for that. But looking back was pointless, and regret is the most damaging of emotions. She would not let herself wallow in it. Sarah dried her hands, smiled grimly at her reflection in the mirror, and walked out.
    Back in the drinks reception, she lifted a glass off the silver tray and made her way back to where she’d left Lizzy and Trevor – she had no intention of rejoining Andy whose voice she could hear rising above the bright hum of conversation like a foghorn. But when she got to the middle of the room, her colleagues were gone. She took a sip of Prosecco, hoping dinner would be announced soon, when suddenly Cahal appeared beside her, smelling like a spice market.
    ‘Sarah,’ he said, shoving both hands into his trouser pockets. ‘I … I never expected to meet you – here of all places.’ He glanced around the room, and then his gaze, intense and steady, came to rest on her. He inclined his head a little and lowered his voice. ‘I can’t tell you what a surprise it is to see you again.’
    A tingle travelled down Sarah’s spine and her heart leapt foolishly. But then she frowned and reminded herself that his word was not to be trusted. ‘Well, you know what a small place Northern Ireland is.’
    He glanced appraisingly at her figure. ‘You haven’t changed a bit.’
    ‘You must be needing glasses, Cahal.’ He laughed at this, and she added, ‘You’ve changed.’
    He ran a hand through his short hair and his smile faltered. ‘For better or worse?’
    She blushed at this allusion to the marriage vows she had once believed they would exchange. ‘Neither,’ she answered shortly. ‘Just different.’
    ‘That’s a relief.’ He allowed himself a small smile, revealing the crooked tooth she had once loved so much.
    ‘So, you’re HR manager for VTS,’ he went on. ‘You’ve done well, Sarah.’
    She felt herself grow an inch, at the same time hating that she cared what he