Free Good Enough to Trust (Good Enough, Book 2 - Going Back) by Zara Stoneley

little
smile and a hug, and tell me not to worry.” But the way she often winced as she
did, it meant I couldn’t help but worry. “I shouldn’t have left her with him. I
should have stayed or made her come with me.”
    “You couldn’t make
her, Soph.”
    No, I couldn’t
make her leave, but I could have stayed. “We’d only been gone a couple of weeks
when the police tracked us down on the campsite and told me I needed to go back
with them. Joint suicide they said.”
    He’d killed her,
killed her because there was no-one there to stop him. Holly had heard some of
it before, but she didn’t know I’d run away. “So I went back with them and
Ollie said he’d sort things and follow me. But he never did. And then there was
all the funeral and questions and endless shit and it didn’t seem to matter
anymore.” I rested my chin on my hands and tried to remember what it had been
like, it all seemed so long ago now. “Dane made a few noises about Ollie, but
him and Sal were as thick as thieves, and he didn’t really have time to stick
his nose in too much. We were just kids playing a game that went wrong.”
    And all for
nothing.
    “She might have
loved him, Holl, but she wouldn’t have killed herself. She wouldn’t. Why would
she do that?” And why would she lie, and add her farewell kisses on the bottom
of a note that was as flimsy and crumpled as the words written on it? “Maybe it
was wrong to come back here. It’s not going to solve anything is it?”
    “You won’t know
till you’ve done it though, will you?” Holly had always thought she wasn’t good
enough for anyone, and why the hell she’d let herself believe it, I don’t know.
She was the best friend I’d ever had. And the only person I’d told the whole
story to.
    “Looks like
someone is trying to get your attention.” I twisted to see what she was looking
at, and Will was stood at the bar, watching us quietly as he nursed a drink in
his big bear’s paw of a hand, and the second I waved he grinned and set off
towards us. He could sure move fast for a big man.
    “Will, this is my
best mate, Holly.” They eyed each other up. “We’re heading up to the fall, St.
Nectan’s kieve, she wants to see it, don’t you, Holl?”
    Holly gave me a
look. “I do?”
    “You do.” I
suddenly wanted someone to go with me, and I trusted her.
    Will looked from
one to the other of us and I could see it on his face, the fact that when he’d
offered, I’d refused to go with him. “Want a lift?”
    “We’re fine, we’ve
both got cars here, haven’t we?”
    “Yup, but thanks.
Nice to meet you, Will.” Holly has that detached, cool air about her sometimes
that only blonde women can do properly. And I know it’s because she’s being
careful, but a lot of men take it that she’s either too posh or they see it as
a challenge. Will didn’t seem to take it either way. He grinned, took the
thanks as it was meant and I could see her instantly warm to him. The world
needed more men like Will. She held out a slim hand and his own large one
engulfed it for a second, then he hooked it through his arm and led the way out
to the car park.
     
    Holly pointed
towards her battered little car sitting in the shadow of the Landrover, and I
tried not to laugh. Our three misfit vehicles sat lost and lonely in the large
parking area, and I dearly hoped they weren’t a reflection of the people who
owned them.
    “You got here in
that?”
    She feigned
offence. “Don’t call him a ‘that’, he’s fine, just a bit worn at the edges.”
Will grinned and leaned back against his mud-spattered Landrover.
    “But you can’t go
back tonight, not all the way. What if it breaks down?”
    “I’m not.” She
laughed. “And it won’t. Anyhow, I was coming down to meet Mum in Bristol. She’s
left Dad in Australia and come over on her own for a few weeks.”
    “Bristol? Why the
hell are you meeting her in Bristol of all places, why not at home?”
    “Not everyone