Page 48 of A Very Happy Easter

“She said her family was dead. And if she’d been sent back to where she came from, she’d have been dead too. I know the higher-ups took her out of the country, but that was more to protect the unit than because the powers that be cared about her safety.”

“I suppose that’s something.”

“That’s what I keep telling myself.”

Another thought struck me: how happy and relaxed Heath had been around his colleagues tonight.

“Emmy would save the girl, wouldn’t she?” I murmured.

“Every time.”

“She’s brash, but I saw her humanity.”

“She earns loyalty rather than commanding it.”

I curled against Heath’s side and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you. Thank you for rescuing Aya, and thank you for rescuing me.”

He wrapped an arm around me, holding me close, and my breath hitched when he kissed my hair.

“Every time, Edie. Every damn time.”

As Jerilyn drove first to Heath’s apartment and then on to my place, I thought back over the series of events that had led to this moment.

If Neil Short hadn’t raped me, Eisen would never have broken his face. And if he hadn’t broken Neil’s face, Eisen wouldn’t have escaped to Grandma Elizabeth’s house in Somerset to lie low after the shit-storm that followed. If he hadn’t gone to Somerset, he’d never have met Janie. And if he hadn’t met Janie, I’d never have met Heath.

And if I hadn’t met Heath, I’d be pretty damn miserable.

Maybe I’d be happily married to the kind of boy my parents wanted me to meet?

Or maybe I wouldn’t.

I’d never forgive Neil for what he did, but meeting Heath made the aftermath just a little bit more bearable.

After we’d dropped him off at home, Jerilyn twisted in the front seat.

“Holy shit, that man is gold. Tell me you’re keeping him?”

Now when I looked back, I realised that was the night things began to change. That was the night I began falling in love with Heath Carlisle.

“I hope so. I really hope so.”

Thirteen

“What’s this film about?” Heath asked.

I tried not to grimace. “A mother who loses her son, and when she tries to find him, she accidentally summons a demon in his place.”

“Loses him as in he dies? Or she just misplaces him somewhere?”

“Hell, I don’t know. I’m only going by the blurb. And okay, I know it doesn’t sound fantastic, but before Horatio took up directing, he used to spend his days snorting coke, so we’re all very thankful for his new hobby. The best bit? Nobody can talk to me for two hours, which is wonderful.”

Plus we had snacks and comfy seats in the back row. Horatio’s movie had debuted at the New Dawn Film Festival in Newcastle last November, and now in January, his parents had booked the whole of an upmarket cinema for a friends-and-family showing. I’d put in enough money to be credited as an associate producer, and I did admire Horatio for following his heart, something I’d struggled to do over the years.

“Well, I’m going to talk to you,” Heath said. The seats were sofa-style, and I’d folded up the central armrest. When he leaned in, he was close enough for his lips to brush my ear. He quickly apologised. “Shit, sorry. At least there’s nobody behind us to throw popcorn.”

“Throwing popcorn would be such a waste.”

He held up a piece of buttery goodness to my mouth, and I ate it. I didn’t even care if it got stuck in my teeth. Years had passed since I’d been to the cinema, and I was determined to enjoy it to the max.