I hummed, dropping a kiss onto the curve of her newly exposed neck. “Nothing interesting.”
Lia sighed, melting fully into my embrace. For a few moments, we stood like that, and I tried to remember how long it had been, before her, that someone had simply hugged me for the pleasure of it.
Maybe that was why I was so addicted to touching her whenever she was in reach. Because I could and because it felt fucking great. I wasn’t reading between the lines of those touches, and neither was she. I’d found someone—something—quite remarkable, even if it was quite by accident.
It was in that quiet embrace, and recognizing the power of it, that I had an idea.
“What do you say to a small detour on the way back?”
Lia’s face spread into an excited grin. “I say yes.”
My girl was always up for an adventure. Excited to attend a losing match, simply because the atmosphere was electric, unafraid to stand for hours in the rain to experience it. As I watched that look in her eye again, at the thought of experiencing something new, I desperately wanted to get this right. I wanted to be the parent I’d never had. I wanted my child to know love and support with this beautiful woman to teach him or her about excitement and adventure and loyalty, and hopefully me to teach them about hard work and grit and the beauty of achieving your goals by doing something you loved.
Shortly, we were back in my car and driving down the roads of West Yorkshire under a cloudy November sky. As we approached Stocksbridge, the steel mill looming off in the distance, I couldn’t believe she hadn’t asked me a single question about where we were going. Lia relaxed in her seat, taking in the sights with a soft smile on her face.
“I always wonder if people get this excited when they drive around my state, you know?”
“What do you mean?” I made a turn away from town and toward the farm where I’d grown up, the roads growing smaller, the houses farther apart in the green countryside.
“This is all normal to you, you know? But every stone house I see, every perfect little green hedge, or rolling hill, it’s nothing like what I see back home, and I just want to soak it all up. I wonder if people drive around Seattle and feel like that.”
I glanced at her with amusement. “I’d reckon so. You have mountains in Washington, yeah?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Then I’m guessing they all gawk out the windows just like you are, love.”
She smacked me in the stomach, and I laughed. It was a good momentary distraction because as I took the final turn, my parents’ house rose up just over the next hill. It looked exactly the same. Mentally, I had to do some calculations to remember exactly when I’d been back last. Typically, we gathered at Lewis’ house or pub so we were both on neutral ground.
The house was all weathered rock and dark-framed windows, probably the same ones that needed to be replaced the last time I’d been there. Five years was what I figured. Wooden fencing stretched along emerald plots of grass, and a few fat sheep grazed near the house. The barn had been painted, a fresh coat of white covered the planks of wood. I could hear the goats, a new addition since I’d been out last, and tried to muster a smile when Lia exclaimed when they crowded the fence as soon as she got out of the car.
“Oh, how cute are you guys?” she said, laughing when one particularly brash one jumped over the group to try to find food in her hand. “Goodness. I wish I’d come prepared.” She held up a hand to shade her eyes and glanced at the sprawling land surrounding the house. “Where are we?”
A quiet voice interrupted before I could answer. “J-Jude?”
My mum was standing in the door that led to the kitchen, a bright red towel clutched in her hands as she stared at me like she’d seen a bloody ghost. Her hair was still dark, streaked liberally with gray along her temples, something she’d never felt the need to hide.
I came next to Lia and set my hand on her back. She glanced at me with a million and a half questions in her eyes. I smiled down at her, then looked back to the house. “Hello, Mum.”
“Ohhhhh,” Lia breathed. She cut me a glance. “You could’ve warned me,” she whispered under her breath.
“Surprise,” I whispered back.
Lia lifted her chin and smoothed a hand over her hair. Given we had made no plans other than to drive back home, she’d dressed for comfort with a massive hoodie over jeans and tall brown boots. Looking at her, there was absolutely no indication she was pregnant. She looked young and pretty.
“What are you doing here?” Mum asked, eyes traveling from me to Lia and back again.
I curled a hand around Lia’s shoulders. “We just took a holiday in Haworth for a few days. Thought we’d drop by to say hello on our way back home.”
Her hand came up, and I noticed the tremor in it as she laid it on her chest. “Right. Your father is out in the backfields. He won’t be back for about thirty minutes yet.”
I nodded, just as Lia cleared her throat sharply.
Right.
“This is Lia Ward, Mum.”
Lia smiled, moving forward to hold her hand out. “It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. McAllister.”
“You’re American.”
The smile on Lia’s face deepened, a dimple appearing in her cheek. “Your son said that in almost the same tone the night we met.”
My mom didn’t smile back. Probably because she wasn’t terribly happy to see us.
They didn’t do surprises well. Any change to their routine, to their schedule, was absolutely out of the question.
Lia’s smile faded slowly. “Umm, what kind of farming do you do? Jude hasn’t told me too much.”
She hummed. “Of course, he hasn’t. We have sheep and goats. We sell milk and cheese, the wool from the sheep, and the meat, of course. But we’ve started doing tours as well. That’s where my husband is. He’s got a school group here for a tour.”
My head reared back. “You do? Dad hates people stomping around his farm.”
“There’s good money in agritourism, Jude.” She glanced at Lia briefly. “We can’t all make millions of pounds a year playing games.”
Lia’s mouth fell open before she snapped it shut.
I may not have reacted on the outside, but the arrow buried deep, even if she hadn’t intended it that way. That was the thing about my parents. In their discomfort of what I did, the success I’d found, they managed a razor-sharp level of disdain that I wasn’t even sure they were aware of.
“Quite true, Mum.” I lifted my chin. “You could cash the checks I’ve sent you, though, if he hates doing tours so much.”
“We’re perfectly capable of supporting ourselves, Jude.” She did some chin lifting of her own. “Riding on your coattails is best reserved for others.”
Lia, as I expected, didn’t let that barb slide. She smiled again, but I could see how it cost her. “I certainly hope that wasn’t aimed at me, considering I’ve just met you and you know nothing about me.”
My mum’s cheeks flushed a rosy pink. “No, not you. I apologize if it sounded like it. Past experiences have taught us that almost everyone who meets him wants something from him, is all.”
“Well,” I said slowly, “I suppose you’ll be pleased to know that Lia had absolutely no idea who I was when we met. Called football—what was it again, love?—boring?”
Lia blinked. “Umm, yeah. Somewhere along those lines. I just … I didn’t understand the game like I do now.”
“She’s here studying at Oxford for Michaelmas,” I told my mum, who was regarding Lia with guarded curiosity in her eyes. “Getting her master’s degree in English Literature.”
That softened her just the slightest. My mum always loved to read.
Lia glanced between my mum and I. “I specialize in the Bront?s. That’s why Jude took me to Haworth,” she said, looking up at me with a strained smile.
“I was always fond of the parsonage museum myself,” my mum said.
I glanced over at her. “You’ve been there?”
“I do travel some places, Jude,” she answered crisply.
It was that tight reply, the defensive snap in her voice that pushed me just slightly over the edge of propriety. “Right. Just not anywhere you might see me do my job, right? And certainly not if I ask you to.”
Lia tightened her fingers around mine, eyes focused on the ground.
My mum lifted her chin. “You gave us no notice, Jude. Just like always, you expect the world to stop revolving simply because you’ve asked it to. But people have lives and jobs that don’t bend to your whim.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.