Page 74 of One Last Gift

Hazel held up a finger. “You don’t need a guy to make you happy,” she repeated, “and I’m sure you’d find a way to be happy on your own, because you are brilliant and courageous and kind and fun, with or without a guy. You’ve pulled yourself through the worst year imaginable, and I know you’re still healing, but if you can get through that, then there’s no doubt you could make a life for yourself without someone there, and I’ll happily come spend time going on walks in the country or whatever with you, just the two of us, until we’re too old to walk and then we’ll get those little scooter things.”

“Well, good,” Cassie said, feeling a bit stumped. This wasn’t where she’d thought this conversation would go.

“But,” Hazel said pointedly, “you already have a guy. A guy who wants to be with you, who is definitely not perfect but who clearly cares about you. A guy who, let’s be honest, you’ve been in love with for most of your life.”

“I have not—”

Hazel held up a finger again and Cassie bit her lip. Maybe, she admitted, there was some truth in that.

“If you don’t want to be with him because you don’t love him or don’t think you could love him in that way then that is totally and completely fine. But I’m not sure that is the reason. And I wouldn’t be your friend if I didn’t say so.” She finished her coffee and got to her feet. Then smiled, and gave Cassie a swift kiss on the cheek, something which was quite uncharacteristic for Hazel. “I have to go. A motorbike advert calls. Unless…do you want me to stay to open the clue with you?”

Cassie hesitated, then shook her head. This last time, as with the first time, it was something she had to do on her own. She watched Hazel go, her words playing on repeat in her head. How long had she been wanting to say that? Then she squared her shoulders, and reached into her bag for the envelope. One thing at a time. Today was about Tom, not Sam.

And so, she opened the last envelope. There was no accompanying note this time, just the clue.

You may be surprised

At where this will end,

And how you take it,

Well, that will depend.

Go to the place where you dread to be,

And find the redhead who can give you the key.

P.S. I believe in you.

She read it a few times, frowning.

I believe in you.

Her heart tugged with those words. Pain, yes, but also something lighter and brighter, something that was surfacing more and more these days when she thought of Tom. It didn’t make it any easier to figure out the clue, though, and she bit her lip as she read it one last time. That was OK, she told herself. She just had to give herself time. Because she found that, like Tom, she believed that she would figure it out.

—

Cassie smiled automatically at the people waiting in the hotel reception, who were clearly impressed with the Art Deco vibe, before taking the lift down to her little basement office. Josh grinned at her as she let herself in. “Welcome back. How was…What? Why are you staring at me like that?”

Cassie only continued to stare at him.

At his ginger hair.

Redhead. The place you dread to be.

Josh lurched for his phone to look at himself in his camera.

“No,” Cassie said. “No, it’s not you, it’s…” She hitched in a breath. “Tom.”

Josh frowned. “What?”

“Tom, he—”

But she was interrupted by Robert coming in. He glanced at Cassie. “Nice holiday?”

“Yeah,” Cassie said, her voice sounding a little strangled. Work. Tom had been sending her back to work. “Yeah, it was—”

“I’m sure it was great. But look, I need you to get your head back in the game, OK? We’ve got a birthday party for a one-year-old to pitch for later today, and I need ideas.” He left it at that, sweeping out of the office in a way that Cassie was sure was deliberately overdramatic.