Page 63 of The Next Chapter

I smile and make out like I hadn’t already gleaned this information during a late night Lola stalk.

‘Nice to meet you, James,’ I say.

‘And you, Lily.’ His accent is thick. ‘I’d better be getting going, though, we’ve had word that there’s a sheep trapped in a fence down the way.’

I don’t ask how or why a sheep would be in a fence.

‘Mcleary’s farm again?’ Lola asks.

‘You know it. I’ll be seeing you Lola, Lily.’

James sticks his hands in his pockets and marches towards a pickup truck that’s in an even worse state than Lola’s.

Before he gets in, he gives Lola another wave.

I feel… I don’t know, angry? Yes, I think it’s that. It’s the fact that, at times, Lola seems so happy and content in a way that feels impossibly alien to me. It’s definitely anger. Irrational or not.

‘Did y’all get everything you need?’

‘Yes.’ It comes out sharp. Lola doesn’t say anything.

I take a breath, relax my shoulders, stamp the anger down because it isn’t helping anyone. ‘I think I got enough for now. Thank you for bringing me.’ I climb back in, balancing the paper bags with all my food in by my feet.

‘I’m cooking for Noah tonight,’ I tell Lola for absolutely no reason. ‘Risotto,’ I finish like an idiot, thinking that if I just keep talking, it’ll stop me from dwelling on the anger.

Lola starts the engine again. ‘I’m sure he’ll appreciate that, Lily, he likes risotto, and did I see y’all running around the loch earlier? Noah has always loved that route.’

I resist the urge to whip my head around in a very dramatic WTF moment. Noah definitely didn’t say that he’d been around the loch a lot. In fact, he made out like we were going to figure it out to see if it would work for a fun run. Though he did know that little infinity pool was there, which should have maybe given him away.

Not the time to be thinking about the infinity pool.

Wait, did he lie as an excuse to spend more time with me?

‘My mum said that when I was a teenager, all I ate was carbs,’ I tell Lola just for something to say and she laughs.

‘Are your mum and dad retired?’ she asks.

I swallow and shake my head. I don’t want to tell Lola that they’ve died. It’s like I’m betraying them to admit it. Though that makes zero sense. Or maybe it feels too close to the painful reality of it all. Skye isn’t real life. Instead, I talk as if they’re still here.

‘Mum’s a piano teacher. Had me in music lessons before I could talk by all accounts,’ I tell her, ‘and Dad works in the local secondary school. He’s a history teacher.’ The façade is slipping, on my alternate reality. It’s incredibly hard, talking about your parents as if they’re here when they’re not.

‘They sound like good people,’ she says.

‘They are, the best,’ I tell her.

‘I’m ever so pleased to hear that, Lily.’

We’re both quiet the rest of the journey back. Me, lost in memories of my parents. Of how different it would be if they were still here. I wouldn’t be in this car with Lola right now, that’s for sure. I don’t know what Lola’s thinking, only that she is thinking hard. She pushes her lips together and tugs at the bottom one with her teeth. She seems to be driving on autopilot, and by the time the gravel crunches under the truck’s tyres, she looks shocked.

‘Thanks again for the lift,’ I tell her, struggling to balance both the shopping bags in my arms.

‘No problem, Lily. Y’all have a nice evening now. I’ll see you soon.’

‘Yeah, bye Lola.’ I feel a shimmer of unease as I leave down the side of the hotel to the cottages. Running over what I said in the car. We hardly talked and when we did, I definitely talked about Mum and Dad. Probably it was just Lola being Lola. It’s like she can be fine, but then she goes all quiet and intense. I resolve to try to ask Noah about her some more later.

Speaking of Noah, he’s going to be here in an hour. And this risotto isn’t going to cook itself.

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