I looked at him and smiled but didn’t respond.
“I was thinking,” he said as he too looked out the window. “Maybe coming home so quickly was a bad idea. Maybe we should have stayed a little longer.”
“There was nothing to stay for,” I sighed. “I am better off letting it all go and moving on.”
“Maybe so,” he nodded but said nothing else for a few minutes. “Allister called earlier. I told him you were doing fine, but that you hadn’t changed your mind.”
“Thank you,” I said, grateful he hadn’t pushed the whole Allister issue. I knew Dad thought a lot of him, but he supported my decision to end the relationship. I didn’t tell him why, but for some reason, I think he already knew the reason.
“I think it might snow later,” he said standing up and kissing my forehead. “Anna has made some soup if you are feeling cold.”
“Okay,” I said only half listening. He turned and walked towards the door but stopped when he reached it.
“I almost forgot,” he said as he took a couple of steps back towards me, I turned and looked at him expectantly. “While you were in the hospital, the police said they found some of your belongings in Harris’s car. I didn’t mention it, because I wasn’t sure if you would want them.”
“I don’t know if I do,” I said honestly.
“I get that,” he said, before he continued. “The thing is, one of the things they found was your camera.”
“Okay,” I said, not knowing where he was going with this.
“I was putting it away last night, and something made me pick it up,” he explained. “I turned it on and started flicking through your pictures from your trip.”
“Dad, I really don’t want…” I began to protest but he stopped me. He pulled some photos from the pocket of his cardigan.
“I know you don’t want to be reminded of everything that has happened,” he said, holding the photos in his hands. “But I think these are ones you are going to want to see.”
He handed me the photos and I took a deep breath before I let my eyes drop to the photos in my hand.
My heart almost stopped. They were of Oliver. I totally forgot I had taken them. I had shot them the morning before I crossed paths with Dean.
I had stopped at a park to take some photographs. I was sitting on a bench, having a ten-minute break, when I saw him sitting on the grass. He was drinking a coffee and eating a muffin, when a little dog came up to him and started to beg.
He broke his muffin in half and gave it to the dog; he barely got one more bite when the little dog came back for more. I smiled as I watched them. Without even thinking I picked up my camera and started snapping. There were five photos in total.
“I completely forgot I took these,” I said quickly wiping the tears from my eyes.
“I think you lost your heart to him, long before you think you did,” Dad said sitting back down next to me.
“I don’t know how I am supposed to get over him,” I whispered.
“Why do you have to?” He asked, surprising me.
“He doesn’t want me, Dad,” I said sadly.
“I think he is trying to do what he thinks is the right thing,” he replied as he reached over and took my hand.
“I’m afraid to find out,” I whispered.
“Then let’s go find out together,” he said, giving me a knowing smile.
Chapter 36
Oliver
I sat on the porch of the lake house and took a sip from my cup of coffee, as I tried to feel somewhat human again. It had been two weeks since I walked out of the hospital. Two weeks since my life fell apart. I had no idea what my next move would be but hiding here was no longer an option.
That day in the truck, I completely lost it. I had climbed out twice and headed back toward the hospital entrance, but each time, something stopped me.
I finally climbed back into my truck and began to drive. Before I knew it, I was pulling up outside the lake house. It was a little after midnight, so I was exhausted, and I just wanted to sleep. As I stepped through the door, I could still smell the candles we had been burning the night before and I could still smell her perfume in the air. It almost killed me.
I missed her. It was only a couple of hours since I left her, but I longed to see her, to hold her and tell her she was my whole world. I grabbed a bottle of my dad’s whiskey from the liquor cabinet and sat out on the front porch. I stared out into the darkness, going over the events of the last twenty-four hours in my mind. I had no idea how things had come so undone.
I thought about the things Dean had said to Scarlet, as I lay there on the shop floor trying to catch my breath. I had no idea he and Clea even knew each other much less had a relationship. How had I been so clueless? I wondered if I had known, would I have been able to stop him sooner. Maybe if I had all the information I could have, but I guess I will never know now.
I pushed all those thoughts from my head. It was too late for regrets now. I brought the bottle of whiskey to my lips and tried to silence the thoughts in my head.
I woke the next morning, freezing cold and with the hangover from hell, lying on the floor of the porch.
I got up and winced in agony. My ribs hurt like a son of a bitch and sleeping on the ground really hadn’t helped. I stumbled to the kitchen and searched the cupboards for painkillers. Finding some, I took two with a glass of water, then stood in the kitchen trying to decide what I should do now.
I needed to clear my head. I packed some supplies from the house in a bag, pulled a sleeping bag from the cupboard we kept the camping gear in and headed down to the boat house. I threw all my belongings into the boat, untied it from its mooring and jumped aboard.
Pulling out from the jetty, I was happy to get some time and space away from everyone and everything. As I moved slowly along the lake, my phone started to ring again. I pulled it from my back pocket and stared at the screen. It was my dad. As it had been the fifty other times it had rang. I just switched it off.
I knew just leaving was unfair, but right in that moment, I just needed to get away. I thought about Scarlet. It was killing me, not knowing how she was. I knew she would have been out of surgery at that point and well into her recovery.
What if she remembers you? I thought to myself as I looked across the lake at the early morning sun. What if she wakes up and thinks you have abandoned her?
That thought broke my heart, so I pushed it from my mind. I was doing the right thing. She belonged with her family. Allister was right, I was not her happy ever after.
I spent the next few days hiking or on the boat in the centre of the lake, away from everyone. However, nothing I did seemed to clear my mind of the one thing I wanted to forget. Scarlet.
I returned to the house about twelve days after I had disappeared, I had run out of supplies, so I was left with little choice.
As I pulled up alongside the jetty, I could see my dad’s truck parked next to mine, in front of the house. I knew why he was here, just like I knew I couldn’t hide out here forever.
He appeared on the front porch as I backed the boat into the boat house. Once inside I jumped onto the jetty and moored the boat securely. As I did, I could hear footsteps approach the boat house, and I knew I couldn’t avoid a showdown any longer.
“You’re alive then,” Dad said as he stepped through the door of the boat house.
“Hey, Dad,” I said as I climbed back on to the boat to gather up my things. “If you came here to fight with me, and tell me what a disappointment I am, let me save you the trouble. I already know.”
“Is that what you think I am here to do?” He asked in his usual calm, nothing bothers me, tone of voice.
“Isn’t it?” I said as I threw my backpack onto the jetty and climbed back out of the boat.
“We have been worried about you, Olly,” he said, still not changing the tone of his voice.
“Well, I am still alive,” I said a little more abruptly than I should have. “So, you can
tell Mom and the girls, I am fine, and they can stop worrying.”
Before he could respond, I picked up my backpack and walked out of the boat house, back up along the path to the main house.
“And what about Scarlet?” He asked as he followed me out and back up the path. I didn’t reply, instead I just kept walking. “Oliver, she remembered.”
That stopped me, but I didn’t turn around. I hesitated for a moment before I continued up to the house.
“We went to see her every day,” he continued as he caught up with me. “Every day we would walk through the door and her face would fall when she realised it was just us.”
“She deserves better than me,” I said without looking back at him. “She should be with her family.”
“We are her family,” Dad replied grabbing hold of my arm, as we reached the front steps of the house. “You are her family. You are who she loves.”
“WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME, DAD?” I snapped spinning around to face him. “You want me to say I love her, because I do. I love her so much I can barely breathe sometimes. Do you want me to say she is all I think about? She is. Doesn’t matter what I do, she is there inside my head. But none of that changes the fact, I let her down. She got hurt, not once but twice because of me. How can I ask her to love me, much less trust me ever again?”
“You don’t have to ask her,” he said looking me straight in the eye. “Because she already does. She loves you so much it is painful to watch.”
“I can’t do it, Dad,” I said meeting his glare. “Clea died because of me. Scarlet almost died too. She is better off without me.”
I turned and walked back into the house. I walked to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer then headed back out to the porch and found Dad leaning against his truck.
I walked to the steps, sat down and opened my beer.
“You know, her father took her back to London,” he said after a few minutes. I didn’t reply. “She didn’t want to go, but I guess she didn’t have much of a choice.”
“Tell Mom I will be home soon,” I said ignoring what he had said about Scarlet.
“So that’s it?” He asked, and I could hear the disappointment in his voice.
“There is nothing more to say,” I sighed.
“Then I will be on my way,” he said as he pulled open the door of his truck. “But know this, Son. You may think you are doing the right thing, but all you are doing is hurting the people you love. And that includes yourself.”
Without saying another word, he climbed into his truck and moments later he was gone.
That was two days ago.
Since he left, I thought about everything he had said. Scarlet remembered me. I convinced myself that by now she probably hated me too. I left her when she needed me the most. What kind of man does that to someone they love?
I knew I needed to go back; it was the right thing to do. Even if going back meant I had to accept the fact I had made a mess of everything.
I thought about Scarlet, but then that was nothing new. I wondered where she was and if she was happy. I thought about going to London to try and see her, but she probably wouldn’t want to talk to me now. Still I wondered if I should try.
As I sat there on the front porch drinking my coffee, I knew what I needed to do. I decided it was time to go back and face the music. I stood up and returned to the house, leaving my cup on the counter, I quickly packed my belongings and made sure the house was locked up.
As I was making the final checks, I could hear a car approaching the house. I glanced through the window and saw my dad’s truck pull in. I smiled to myself. The one thing I could always be sure of in life, is my dad would never give up on me.
I walked through the front door, prepared for another lecture, but I was quickly stopped in my tracks.
There standing in front of me, looking even more beautiful than I remembered, was Scarlet.
“You broke your promise,” she said nervously.
“I know,” I said as I slowly walked down the steps of the Lake house. “I know you probably hate me now. I wouldn’t blame you.”
“I should,” she said, and I could hear a quiver in her voice. “I wanted to forget you, but someone once told me, when you love someone, you know them in your heart and your heart never forgets.”
“That’s very true,” I said moving closer to her.
“You didn’t come looking for me,” she said, as her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
“I’m an idiot,” I said as this time she stepped closer to me. “But I am an idiot that loves you more than life itself.”
“Then don’t leave me again,” she said as the tears trickled down her face.
I stepped up to her so we were now so close, I could smell her perfume.
“I will never leave you again, Scarlet,” I whispered as I brushed the tears from her cheek.
“I like that you still call me that,” she said and smiled through her tears.
“It’s who you are to me,” I said breathlessly, my lips barely an inch from hers. “Finding Scarlet is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
I slowly kissed her as I took her in my arms.
“I love you,” I breathed against her mouth.
“I love you too,” she whispered before I kissed her again.
Epilogue
Seven Months Later
I stood next to Dad and Seth and tried to focus on my breathing. I had never felt more nervous in my entire life.
“Are you doing okay, Son?” Dad asked as he leaned in closer to me.
“Yeah,” was all I could manage to say.
“Well don’t forget to breathe,” he whispered before he and Seth laughed out loud. “Don’t want you keeling over.”
“Remind me again why I thought you would make a good best man?” I said giving my dad a disgusted look, then looking at Seth, I added. “You’re not much better.”
They both just laughed again.
“Still,” Dad said. “I have to admit, getting married in the butterfly field was a genius idea. Noni would have loved it.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I smiled, happy I could pull off the one thing Scarlet had asked for, when we were planning the wedding.
We had turned the butterfly field into a picture-perfect location for the ceremony and I knew Scarlet was going to be thrilled when she saw it.
Suddenly music filled the air and I knew it was time. I looked at the minister standing in front of me and took a deep breath before I turned and looked towards the back of our friends and family gathered there. I held my breath as I waited for the first glimpse of my beautiful bride.
First down the aisle was Caitlin. She looked gorgeous in her baby pink bridesmaid dress. When she reached the front of the aisle, she gave me the biggest smile and I couldn’t help but laugh and relax a little. Behind her came Ella, looking just as gorgeous as Caitlin did. She took her place next to Caitlin.
Finally, the moment I had been waiting for. The music changed and everyone stood up.
And there she was. She was simply beautiful. Scarlet slowly made her way along the aisle towards me. Her eyes never left mine, and the smile on her face told me she was as happy as I was.
When she finally reached me, I shook her father’s hand, before he placed her hand into mine. I held it so tightly, but somehow, holding her hand gave me a sense of peace and suddenly all my nerves were gone.
“You are simply breath-taking,” I whispered, as I took in every inch of the woman, I was going to spend the rest of my life with.
“Thank you,” she replied with a smile that completely melted my heart.
We turned to the minster and he began the ceremony. It passed by in a blur of happiness. All I could think was, I am marrying my best friend.
At last, the minister pronounced us husband and wife, then told me I could kiss my bride.
“My pleasure,” I beamed, as I turned to Scarlet. I quickly drew her into my arms and kissed her like it was my very first time. As I
did, a huge cheer erupted from all the guests at the wedding.
By the time we reached the reception, which was being held in a beautiful marquee at the lake house, I felt like I was walking on cloud nine. Everything was going perfectly.
Finally, it was time for us to take to the floor for our first dance. Scarlet smiled when Ed Sheeran’s, Photograph came on the sound system.
“You remembered our song,” she said, as she leaned up and kissed me.
“I remember everything,” I smiled.
“So, do I,” she laughed.
“Are you happy Mrs. Caldwell?” I asked as we danced in time with the music.
“I am, Mr. Caldwell,” she replied and kissed me again.
“I love you, Scarlet,” I whispered, as I drew her closer to me. “Don’t ever forget that.”
“How can I?” she said, looking up into my eyes. “My heart will never let me.”
The End
Finding Scarlet Page 25
