Jules perched on the edge of a wooden bench on Matt’s veranda while he was inside prepping dinner. They were barbecuing again—salmon this time—and he’d insisted on doing everything himself so she could make her call, even though he was still bandaged up.
She was nervous, and no wonder. She’d managed to hurt two of the people she loved the most. With Will, even when her was telling her off, Jules knew it would be okay between them. It always was. But what if she’d screwed things up with Lucy for good? Well, if she had, she wouldn’t know for sure unless she tapped the “call” button on her phone.
Six rings and she was about to hang up when Lucy’s sleepy face appeared on the screen, grainy from the lack of light on her end. “Hello?” Lucy yawned and shook her head quickly, as though to wake herself.
“Hey, Luce.” God, she’d missed Lucy. Why had she let their rift go on so long?
Lucy blinked at her several times. “Jules, hello,” she said in a quiet voice. “What time is it?” Jules wracked her brain trying to calculate the time difference and came up short. It didn’t matter anyway, as she’d obviously woken Lucy up.
“It must be late there, I’m so sorry. I can call another time.”
“No, wait!” Lucy whispered. Lucy looked off screen, a small frown on her face. “Um, Jules …” She looked back at the screen. “I may as well come clean. I’m not alone, if you get my drift.”
Blergh! It really was a bad time to call. Jules had a firm and very quick talk to herself—It’s weird, but it’s fine and you love them both—and ploughed ahead. “Oh, right. So, do you want to move into another room?” Practical solutions, that’s what Jules was good at.
“Oh, it’s just that we’re at the cabin. The hunting cabin, I mean. There is no other room.” Jules did her best to hide her surprise; her best friend and her brother were literally shacked up. “Unless you think I should go outside,” added Lucy. Jules scrutinised her friend’s face and saw the smile tugging at the corner of Lucy’s mouth. She was kidding.
Jules loved Lucy even more for the lifeline—joking with her instead of telling her off, which she was completely entitled to do.
“Look, if Will hasn’t woken up yet, he probably won’t. That guy could sleep through anything. It’s one of the things I hate about him.” Lucy sniggered and the two friends shared a smile. “Look, Lucy—”
“I know what you’re going to say, and you don’t have to say it.”
“I do. I do have to, Lucy. I was a total asshole to you, and you didn’t deserve that. I’m so sorry.”
Lucy pressed her lips together and nodded. Jules saw in that small gesture that she had hurt Lucy with her harsh words on Christmas Day. How was an apology over FaceTime ever going to be enough? “Luce, please forgive me.”
“I forgive you.”
“Really? I mean, you can tell me off if you want to. Will did.” Lucy’s eyes widened, then narrowed as her brows furrowed and Jules could see her chewing on her thoughts.
“All right, then. You were hurtful.”
“Yes.”
“You acted like I wasn’t good enough for Will.” Jules nodded, the tightening in her throat preventing her from speaking. “You made me feel small, Jules,” Lucy whispered.
Anguish tore through Jules’s heart. “Oh, Lucy, I’m so, so¸ sorry. You are good enough for Will, of course you are. And you are not small. You’re one of the best people I’ve ever known. I wish I could take back everything I said, but please know that it wasn’t about you. It was my own fucked-up way of seeing the world and not because of you, okay?”
Lucy was crying now, tears streaming down her face, and Jules’s heart lurched. “I wish more than anything that I was there to apologise in person—well, I mean, not right now, in the cabin with you and Will, but …”
“Hah!” exclaimed Lucy. Was that laughter or crying? Wondered Jules. Lucy ran her fingertips under each eye and, as her whole body started to shake, Jules watched anxiously. “Oh, my god,” said Lucy, her face erupting into a broad smile. “Can you imagine?” She laughed again, shaking her head and Jules blew out a long sigh of relief.
Lucy had forgiven her.
“Are we good, Luce?” asked Jules, just to be sure.
Lucy’s laughter subsided. “We’re good, Jules.” Lucy blew out her own sigh. “So, tell me all about Australia. Where are you right now?”
“At Matt’s … Chloe’s friend. He’s …” Jules wasn’t quite ready to articulate what Matt was to her. “It’s beautiful here, Luce. Look.” She swivelled the camera on her phone and panned slowly across Matt’s property, then turned the camera back on her.
“Oh, that is lovely. It’s definitely going on the list. Given all our holidays together, it’s hard to believe that we’ve never gone to Australia.”
“Right? Maybe because Chloe always wants to go somewhere new.”
“Speaking of which, I talked to my mum this morning and apparently Chloe went off to London for a few days with Alan—I mean, Archer.”
“Really? So, they’re a thing?”
“Possibly. Do you think we should call her? I’d love to hear all about it.” Lucy giggled excitedly, raising her eyebrows. Her laugh was infectious and Jules found herself grinning, relieved that they were back to being besties again.
“Well, what time is it there?”
Lucy’s eyes flicked to the bottom of her screen. “It’s 8:00am.”
“Let’s do it.” Jules tapped on her phone to bring up Chloe’s profile and connect her to the call. Two rings and Chloe’s face appeared, her eyes wide and her mouth grinning.
“What’s up, bee-arrrches?”
Lucy tutted in mock outrage and Jules grinned back at her. Chloe appeared to be bopping to unheard music, her shoulders working a groove. “Hey, Chlo, you look like you’re in a particularly good mood,” said Jules. “What’s goin’ on?”
“Well, ladies, I suppose the big news is that I’m in lurve.”
If either Lucy or Jules had been drinking something, it would have been a spit-take moment. “Sorry, what?” Lucy smiled. “You are in love?”
“Yep.”
“With Archer Tate?” asked Jules to clarify.
“Uh-huh.” Chloe was still chair dancing, her head bobbling along to a rhythm the others couldn’t hear.
“And, uh, is he also in love?” tendered Lucy. Jules silently gave Lucy props for asking. It was one thing to have a celebrity crush and call it love, but was Chloe talking about actually being in love?
“Yeah, of course.” Chloe stopped her chair dancing. “Ohhh, did you girls think I was just crushing on some poor unsuspecting famous actor?” she asked.
“Well, no, not exactly,” said Lucy.
Jules figured she might as well come clean and raised her hand. “Yeah, I did.”
“Hah! Well, no, it’s way weirder than that.” She filled them in on their jaunt to London, including her two run-ins with Madison and the exchange of “I love yous”.
Lucy and Jules hung on every word, and when Chloe wrapped up her update with, “So, yeah, it’s pretty frigging cool, right?” They both burst out laughing.
“It’s incredible, Chloe!” said Lucy, her enthusiastic voice at full volume.
“Yes, totally. That’s amazing, Chlo.” Added Jules.
There was a murmur from Lucy’s end of the call. She looked off screen and, eyes wide and lips pressed together, looked back at Chloe and Jules. “Um, someone wants to say hello.”
Her screen blurred and a sleepy looking Will replaced Lucy. “Hey, Jules. Hi Chloe.”
“William, hellooo there,” said Chloe, her voice loaded with inuendo. Jules could tell from her expression that she was chanting, “Go, Lucy,” in her head. Jules wasn’t quite that onboard with the “Lucy and Will” thing, but she smiled at her brother.
“Hey, Will. How’s it going?”
Will turned to his left and grinned. “It’s going great, actually.” Okay, that was enough. Jules didn’t want any details of her brother’s sex life, especially now that it included Lucy. He must have caught her expression. “Hey, since we’re up, I’m going to, uh … go make tea or something. Here.” He handed the phone back to Lucy and Jules saw lights come on in the cabin and heard a kettle starting to boil.
Lucy looked off camera, then back at her and Chloe. She flashed a huge grin, her shoulders lifting in a silent “Squee!”
“Lucy, you are adorable,” said Chloe.
As Lucy and Chloe chatted about Penham, Jules watched her friends closely. She had loved these women as sisters for as long as she could remember, and she missed them immensely. They were as important to her as her parents, as Will, as …
Did Matt belong on that list? Perhaps …
“Hey, guys?” she said, interrupting Chloe’s lengthy account of all the delicious food she’d been eating. Two pairs of eyes looked at her expectantly. “Sorry, no big announcement, or anything, just … I miss you guys like crazy.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Chloe.
“Me three,” added Lucy.
“So, next time we travel, it’s together, right?”
“For sure.”
“Absolutely!” declared Lucy.