Snow Going Back

Chapter 9

NINE

Kate flicked down her indicator and pulled off the highway with a smile.

She’d been on the road for five and a half hours, stopping only once to briefly stretch her legs, not wanting to draw the journey out any longer than necessary. To her surprise, snow had been steadily falling for the last hour, and as it coated the ground in a thick, fluffy white blanket, the wet grey world she’d woken to that morning had morphed into a bright and cheery winter wonderland.

The satnav led Kate down a much quieter road, and the sounds of the highway soon melted away to nothing. As she wound through the dense evergreen forest, the sun briefly broke through the clouds and every fallen snowflake began to wildly glisten. Kate smiled, drinking in the incredible natural beauty of the place, and for a while she almost forgot all her problems even existed. After another few miles, she passed the welcome sign for Pineview Falls, and as she reached the main high street, she slowed to a crawl.

‘What on earth …’ she muttered, looking around.

Picturesque buildings lined each side of the street, some brick, some colourful timber, all of them unique. Quaint shopfronts and restaurants advertised their wares in pretty window displays and on hand-painted signs, and the coffee shop in the centre, with its pitched roof and wooden window shutters, was so inviting she almost pulled over there and then. The whole high street was thoroughly enchanting, as though it had been plucked right out of the pages of a fairy tale. She’d never seen anywhere quite like it.

The red-framed glass door fronting one of the larger brick buildings swung open and two small boys ran out, scampering away clutching paper bags. A frantic-looking woman chased after them a moment later. Kate glanced up at the sign: The Old Firehouse Sweets ’n’ Treats . Her gaze moved up to the old bell in the brick tower above it.

‘Seriously, what is this place?’ she breathed.

Driving on, Kate left the curious little town centre and made her way to the address Bob had given her the night before. She stopped on the side of the road and peered out of the window, as the satnav declared she’d reached her destination. A white picket fence separated a generous garden from the sidewalk, opening up at one side into a wide sweeping driveway. The brick walls of the large home were painted white, with grey shutters decorating the outer edges of each window. Steps led up a covered porch that ran half the length of the house and to a green front door with a big brass knocker.

After pulling on to the drive, Kate parked and rummaged in her bag for the keys. She found the one marked Front Door , then, hesitating only a moment to brace herself against the cold, she finally got out of the car.

‘Jesus Christ ,’ she yelped as she grabbed her handbag and dashed across to the front of the house. Pulling out the key, she blew in and out in swift bursts, shivering violently. Her hands shook as she tried to insert the key into the lock, and she cursed under her breath. ‘Come on ,’ she pleaded. ‘Come on, come on, come on… Yes !’

The key slid in, and soon she was inside with the door closed firmly behind her. Her joy at being out of the cold was short lived, however, as she swiftly realised it wasn’t much warmer inside.

Wrapping the practically useless tailored red coat she’d chosen for Boston’s mild autumn temperatures around herself a little tighter, Kate tucked her hands under her armpits and looked around the wide entrance hall, wondering where to start. She flicked on the lights and began to explore, walking from room to room and admiring the polished hardwood floors and pale greens and greys in the tastefully decorated rooms. She found the hot water and heating controls and whacked them up high, then checked the kitchen cupboards and fridge. She’d forgotten to stop en route for supplies, which her stomach was now pointedly reminding her.

A carton of milk stood in the door of the fridge, and she eyed it dubiously before pulling it out to check the date. Remarkably it actually was in date, and as the only other things she could find were half a box of Cap’n Crunch and a jar of instant coffee, she settled for exactly that.

‘ Ugh !’ She grimaced as she tasted the first mouthful of cereal. It was awful. She glanced disgustedly at the box. ‘Well, Cora,’ she muttered, ‘you have great taste in furniture, but cereal, not so much …’

A couple of hours, another grudging bowl of Cap’n Crunch and a hot shower later, Kate changed into her pyjamas, thankful that she’d packed her thick winter ones. She’d only packed a couple of outfits, not realising she’d be over here for more than her usual couple of days, and neither were even remotely suitable for the freezing temperatures that had fallen over northern Vermont. As she’d unpacked, the local news had informed her that the area was experiencing an unexpected cold snap, the usual mid-November weather having apparently decided to make its entrance a little early this year. She’d have to go out first thing and buy some more suitable clothes, she decided. And a coat that actually stood a chance of doing its job.

Her phone buzzed, and she looked down to see Lance’s name flash up on the screen. She took a deep breath in to steel herself and then answered with a smile.

‘Hey, how are you?’ she asked.

Despite the stress of the situation, it still felt good to see his face. She’d worked so late the night before, going over everything with Raymond and Bob, that she hadn’t had a chance to talk to him.

‘I’m good,’ he replied with a yawn. He lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes, dropping them back into place and pushing back the stray hair that flopped forward. ‘Just having a bit of a crazy night. Client went psycho in the courtroom and now there’s months’ worth of damage to try and undo.’ He shook his head. ‘How’re things there? What was the big emergency?’ There was a short pause as he squinted at the screen. ‘Where are you?’

Kate sat down on the bed she’d commandeered as her own and looked around. ‘Long story,’ she said heavily.

‘I’ve got time,’ Lance replied.

‘Have you?’ Kate looked at her watch. ‘It’s gone midnight there. You must be exhausted.’

‘It’s fine.’ Lance held a full glass of Scotch up to the screen. ‘I need to decompress anyway. Call it a bedtime story.’

‘I’m not sure it’s one you’ll like,’ Kate warned.

‘Try me,’ Lance replied, a touch impatiently. ‘Come on – what was this emergency they flew you over on a Sunday for?’

Kate shifted into a more comfortable position. He’d been less than impressed when she’d broken the news that she had to leave for Boston just hours after he’d proposed, so this news was going to go down like a lead balloon.

‘Short version, there’s an old contractual agreement that falls outside our usual remit and that I’m responsible for carrying out. The terms are explicit with no room for movement, and it requires me to be in Vermont for the next few weeks,’ Kate told him frankly.

‘ What? ’ Lance looked horrified. ‘Kate, we’re getting married in a few weeks!’ His expression darkened. ‘No. This is too much.’ He shook his head. ‘You need to turn it down and get on a flight back home tomorrow . Tell Bob he can find someone else.’

‘ Excuse me?’ Kate’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

She could understand his feelings, but that didn’t mean he could tell her what to do and how to speak to her boss.

‘Kate, this is preposterous ,’ Lance continued. ‘I mean, what do they expect you to do? Put some case you shouldn’t even be on in the first place before your own wedding and then fly back last minute and hope you make the ceremony?’ His voice rose as the sarcastic side of his temper went off like a firework. ‘Sorry, Vicar, she’s somewhere over Birmingham – if she parachutes into the wind just right though, she still might make it…’

‘Lance, come on,’ Kate said gently. ‘I’ll come back and forth to sort whatever I need to for the wedding. Bob even put his PA at my disposal to make things as smooth as possible.’

‘Why? Where’s Pam?’ he asked.

‘Busy handing all my cases over to other people.’ Kate paused, but Lance had fallen into a brooding silence. ‘Look, I’ll explain everything properly when I get back, but just know that I tried to get out of it. I really did, but there’s no other way.’

Lance opened his mouth to speak but then clamped it back shut and just shook his head.

‘It’s not ideal, I know. But Amy and Mum are both absolutely itching to get involved. I’ll speak to them tomorrow and let them loose.’ She forced a smile, trying to break the tension. ‘They can make sure things are going to schedule and cover anything I can’t. It’ll be fine. Really, the only thing that I can’t delegate is finding my dress.’

Lance sighed sharply. ‘It will have to do, I guess.’ He ran his hand back through his sandy gold hair and sighed. ‘I hope they appreciate what you’re doing for them here.’

A frown flickered across Kate’s brows. ‘I’m just doing my job, Lance. You know how it is, the weekends, the late nights – you’ve just got in yourself. It’s what we do.’

‘For now , sure,’ Lance responded. ‘But we’re getting married soon. I just hope they understand what that means.’

Kate blinked at the screen. ‘What does that mean?’

‘Well, you won’t be at their beck and call to jet around the world putting out their fires forever, Kate. We’ll be married . Your priorities will change.’

‘To what exactly?’ she asked slowly.

Lance tutted. ‘To us , to our future . We’ll be building a proper home somewhere soon. Finding the right place, turning it from house to home. That alone will be a huge project. And when our children come, that’ll change things considerably. Raising them will be a full-time job. They won’t be able to pull you away like this then. If you’re even still working at that point.’

Kate’s eyebrows flew sharply upwards. ‘I’m sorry, what ?’ she asked. ‘Why wouldn’t I be working? Surely if we have kids, we’d juggle them and our careers between us.’

It was Lance’s turn to look surprised. ‘That wouldn’t be a very stable environment, Kate, being tossed between two busy overloaded parents. Children need their mother to be a constant.’

Kate felt the prickly heat begin to rise from her chest up and around her throat again. She placed a hand on the back of her neck and rubbed it.

‘There’s nothing wrong with two working parents, Lance. And I haven’t worked as hard as I have for my career to give it all up and become a stay-at-home mum,’ she said in an apologetically stubborn tone.

‘There’s nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home mum, Kate. Raising children is the most noble job a woman can do,’ Lance berated.

‘I didn’t say otherwise, but it just isn’t what I’ve personally spent all these years working towards,’ Kate responded, feeling the heat reach her face. ‘And why are we debating all this? We’ve not even discussed kids yet – whether we even want them, and if so when, in the distant realm of someday that might happen. We’ve barely been engaged two days!’

‘ Someday ?’ Lance repeated. ‘Kate, we’re not starstruck kids with all the time in the world ahead. For two people of our age about to get married, I assumed it was a given that kids aren’t in the too distant future at all. That is the point, after all, isn’t it? A family? And with the utmost respect here, and though I truly hate to sound like your mother, you do only have so much time biologically.’

Kate stared at him in disbelief. ‘I’m thirty-five, Lance, not sixty! Women have kids well into their forties all the time.’

‘I know, but there’s a lot to think about. What if we struggle to get pregnant? What if we want a gap between each child? What about the health risks that increase with age?’ Lance let out a long breath. ‘I’m just thinking about things practically. When you take everything into consideration and plan backwards from the outer edge of your physical ability, it lands us pretty much here.’

Kate opened her mouth to respond but just ended up shaking her head, for once lost for words.

‘Look, we don’t have to talk about this now,’ Lance said finally. ‘But you do need to think about it. I mean, come on, Kate. You’re the biggest planner I know. You run your life with the precision of a military general, so why would this be any different?’ He raised an eyebrow in question. ‘Set all the variables out and work the plan back. You’ll see what I’m saying. We can come back to this conversation then. Now, when will you be back?’

Kate paused and bit her lip, staring back at him through the screen. Her flight back was booked for Friday night, but after this conversation, she suddenly wanted to go home even less than she had before.

‘I’m not sure yet,’ she lied. She’d get Erica to cancel it for now, she decided. Then she could rebook when she was ready.

‘You’re not sure ?’ Lance repeated.

‘I need to see what dates are best to come back, but it won’t be too long,’ she told him vaguely. ‘This place is just a lot further than Boston, so I need to sit down and figure it all out properly.’

Lance let out a resigned sigh and rubbed his eyes once more. ‘Right. OK,’ he replied. ‘Just let me know as soon as you can. I’ll book a nice restaurant for when you get back, take you for dinner.’ He smiled at her tiredly. ‘We haven’t actually celebrated our engagement just the two of us yet.’

Kate nodded. ‘Life gets in the way of everything, right?’ she joked.

Lance nodded wryly. ‘I’ll speak to you tomorrow. Sleep well.’

‘You, too,’ she replied.

The call ended, and Kate stared at the screen. Two days ago, she’d just been minding her own business and living her life, happily chugging along in her own lane with her easy-going boyfriend and her annoying but manageable clients, and now her whole life had been turned upside down. Two days ago, she’d thought she and Lance were on the same page, but suddenly he was ambushing her with proposals and arguing over her body clock. Planning out their future with a bunch of kids they’d never discussed but who he suddenly expected her to give up her career for to raise full-time. Kate didn’t know what she expected the picture to look like when, or if, she had children one day, but she knew it wasn’t that. She moved her gaze to the small iceberg sitting on her finger and sighed.

Why would Lance assume she’d be happy to throw away her career after all the years of hard work she’d put into building it? She’d always thought he respected her career. That he’d respected her . At the very least enough to ask for her opinions. She’d always thought they saw each other as equals. But suddenly she wasn’t sure. In fact, after the last few days, Kate wasn’t sure she knew Lance very well at all.