The Things That Matter
Page 24
We knew it couldn’t last forever, but we were enjoying it while we could. We still came home for stilted, formal dinners with Dan’s parents every couple of months, where Miranda criticised my clothing and Timothy talked about equity and risk, but it was a fair price to pay. She hated me even more, but she had to accept he’d made his choice this time. No trickery, nothing to do with class or anything else. Just a man choosing the life he wanted. We gave back the flat deposit, which seemed to annoy them more than anything, but it didn’t seem right to keep it when we’d rejected everything else that came with it. But we got to see Dan’s siblings, see their kids and watch them grow up. He was still part of the family, a black sheep rather than an outcast, and I think he liked it even better than briefly being the golden boy.
We were frequent visitors to the farm. We’d spent a month or so in the Highlands with Kit before leaving for our travels and Dan had created a beautiful sign for her, advertising to any passing travellers on the road that ‘Scottie McTavish’s Excellent Farm’ was open for business. ‘Fudge, Drinks and Wee Knick Knacks’ it proclaimed on the sign, and Kit laughed for a full thirty seconds when she saw it, and then gave Dan a pat on the back.
She liked him, they all did. It’s hard not to like someone who makes a grand romantic gesture on your doorstep, but it was mainly because they saw how happy he made me. ‘Bloody hell, it’s like someone’s plugged in your batteries,’ Kit had said, and served Daniel up a plate of food.
Christmases are spent at Fraser’s pub, all of us at a long table.
Life changes little by little, but when we’re all sat round the table, none of that seems to matter. Effie still makes the world’s best breakfasts. Sarah still has that way with horses, and Lachlan loves his mama’s new boyfriend. Kit and Effie still squabble in a way that only speaks of years of love. Fraser still says very little (except when he can’t miss an opportunity for a good punchline).
Kit spends one day a week sitting with Nina, chatting. She doesn’t tell me much about it, because I don’t want to know. But she’s doing okay, they’re talking. Nina sends me a birthday card every year. She knows my favourite cake now.
I won’t forgive her for what she put me through, but it doesn’t torment me like it did. Seeing those birthday cards doesn’t feel like obligation. It just feels like a form of love, however misshapen.
As we sit around the table, everyone wearing party hats and chatting loudly, wine flowing, Dan takes my hand and grins at me. We’re going to tell them we want to settle down up here, close to them. To be part of all this. We’re going to need a settled home and friends and family around us when the baby comes. It doesn’t have to be us against the world anymore.
I squeeze his hand, surrounded by these beautiful people, watching snow settle on the peaks in the distance, and I feel at peace, like I was always meant to be here. Like I’m living the life I designed, the happiest one I could imagine.
And more than that, I feel like I deserve it.
THE END
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Don’t miss The Book of Us, another soul-stirring ode to the complexity of forgiveness and the friendships that change our lives forever.
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Get your copy right here!
Acknowledgments
Some books take longer to become who they’re meant to be. They’re a little like people that way. The Things That Matter was a book I started working on as a writer-in-residence at Red Door Studios in around 2012. I was in love with the story, but a few months in I realised I wasn’t old enough or experienced enough to write it. I wasn’t ready yet, and neither was this book. So it had to wait. Over the years it popped up in a variety of guises, trying to become a time lapse story, a YA book, even a thriller (which led me to my wonderful agent). This book has been trying to become for almost as long as I’ve been a writer, and there’s something very special in allowing it to finally go out into the world.
Big thanks to Hayley Steed, my agent, who saw the potential in these words even when they were in the wrong genre! This book wouldn’t be what it is now without the skilled vision of Hannah Todd, who helped me craft it into something that had hope and love at its core, the way it was always meant to be. To Bethan, Charlotte and the OMC crew who have looked after it since, thank you!
To the usual band of wonders, mainly the TSAG and Savvy Writers Snug groups who always are there with a kind word and lots of advice, to Lynsey James, my writerly cheerleader, and to my mum, who always listens to me outline a story with unbelievable enthusiasm: thank you.
Finally, a thank you to Shaun: for the endless cups of tea, the kind words, the plot lines questioned and the walks around the block when I needed to think it out. Falling in love with you inspired this book, and growing in love with you helped me to finish it.
Thank you for reading…
We hope you enjoyed The Things That Matter!
Do leave a review if so on all your preferred platforms to help spread the word!
And don’t miss The Book of Us, another soul-stirring ode to the complexity of forgiveness and the friendships that change our lives forever.
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Cass and Loll used to be inseparable. They met at university and they made sense, like two halves of a whole. They had planned their lives around each other, writing down their dreams in The Big Book of Our Life – the things they wanted to achieve, the places they’d go after they finished university. But then one night changed everything.
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Seven years later, Loll receives a letter from her old friend. The coming year will be the year they both turn 30, but Loll might be making it to 30 alone. Cass has cancer. Loll had believed she would have her whole life to come to terms with Cass’ betrayal, but time is running out. Cass’ final wish is to complete The Big Book of Our Life, but has enough time passed to heal old wounds?
You can get your copy right here!
Be sure to follow Andrea on Twitter @ALMichael_, on Facebook also @Andreamichaelwrites, and check out her website at www.andreamichaelwrites.com for all the updates on her latest work.
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You will also fall instantly for Mr Right Across the Street by Kathryn Freeman, an irresistible feel-good romcom about the courtship that unfurls through window notes between Manchester newcomer Mia and local bar owner Luke, who lives right across the street…
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And don’t miss The Last Beekeeper by Siya Turabi, a lyrical historical novel of secret-wreathed forests and starlight whispers set in 1970s Pakistan, where a young boy must choose to follow his head or his heart on an unforgettable journey of family, friendship, and self-discovery.
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Happy reading!
Andrea Michael writes books to explore complicated relationships and might be aiming to make you cry … just a little.
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You may know her from her previous romantic comedies, written under the name ‘A.L. Michael’.
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She works in marketing, runs writing for wellbeing workshops, and lives in Watford with her fiancée and their crazy cat.
www.andreamichaelwrites.com
Also by Andrea Michael
The Book of Us
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