Somewhere Only We Know (5 page)

Kate turned over in bed
, picked up her mobile and saw three missed calls from Callum. Every day for the past two weeks he rang her several times in the morning, again in the afternoon and then again at night.

She refused to take his calls and didn’t read his texts either. She knew it wouldn’t take much for her to cave and go back. She missed him so much she could barely breathe.

But she also knew leaving was for the best and in time, Callum would see that too.

The day she left, she climbed into her car, pulled out of the underground car park and just drove. She had no plan and no idea where she was going. Before she knew it she was on the interstate heading west.

She stopped a few times, staying at little road side motels and small towns along the way. Finally, eight days later, she arrived in Seattle, she was too tired to drive anymore. She booked into the Grand Hyatt in Bellevue and had been camped out in her room ever since.

She had spent the last
four days in her PJs, watching movies and ordering room service.

You need to get
your ass out of this bed and out of this room,
she thought to herself.
And you need to get your stinking butt into a shower.

She kicked back the bed clothes and climbed out of bed. She made her way to the bathroom. Closing the door behin
d her, she turned and looked at herself in the vanity mirror.

“OH JESUS CHRIST!” She exclaimed when she saw her reflection. She was almost unrecognizable. Her hair was like a nest on the top of her head, her eyes were red and swo
llen. The three day old mascara-induced panda eyes made her look that bit scarier. She leaned in and looked at herself closer. “You, my girl, are a mess.”

She climbed into the shower and washed quickly. When she
had dried herself and put on the fluffy white hotel robe, she sat in front of the dressing table in the bedroom.

She picked up her brush and set about trying to sort out the mess that was her hair
, but it didn’t matter what she tried, it was still a disaster. She sighed deeply and dropped her chin to her hands and stared blankly at her reflection.

She needed help. Professional help. She remember
ed reading something in the information book for the hotel the day she arrived, something about a beauty parlour in the hotel. She decided it was probably the best thing to do. She dressed quickly. Then she tied her hair up in a hair tie as she was unable to do anything else with it. She grabbed her jacket and handbag then headed for the door.

Twenty minutes later she was sitting in a chair
in front of a large oval mirror waiting for the stylist who was going to look after her. As she sat there, she thought about Callum and wondered what he was doing right in that moment. She missed him. Which she found ironic as they had barely spoken in months. She wished she could just call to see if he was okay, but she knew if she rang him, she would fall to pieces.

She wondered
if Callum had called her dad or even Leah or Olly. She guessed he hadn’t, as they would have being calling her non-stop too. She decided she would call her father when she got back to the hotel room. Just to check in with him.

“Hi, I am Jen,” the bubbly little blonde that suddenly appeared behind her chirped
, and made Kate jump with fright. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to give you a fright.”

“It’s my fault,” Kate replied quickly and blushed a little. “I was miles away.”

“Wow!” Jen exclaimed. “I love your accent. British?”

“Irish,” Kate
corrected her.

“My grandmother is Irish,” Jen re
plied with a broad smile. “She’s from Cork.”

“Wow,” Kate
smiled, not really knowing what else to say. “Cork is beautiful.”

“My boyfriend and I are going there later in the summer,” Jen
told Kate excitedly. “I can’t wait.”

Kate just smiled
, but didn’t reply.

“So what can I do for you…?” Jen said looking at Kate and she realised she was waiting for her to tell her what her name was.

“Kate,” Kate replied. “And I am not really sure. It’s a mess. I guess I need a trim and God knows what else.

“Well let’s take a look, shall we?” Jen said
brightly, as she pulled the hair tie from Kate’s hair. Her face dropped for a moment, but she quickly recovered her perky demeanour. “Oh dear.”

“I know it’s bad,” Kate said
, as her face burned hotter from embarrassment. There was a time she would have had her hair done every four weeks. Now, Kate couldn’t even remember the last time she used conditioner.

“It isn’t great,” Jen said, placing her hands on each of Kate’s shoulders
and smiling at Kate in the mirror. “But nothing we can’t put right.

They decided on a conditioning treatment before Jen put in some highlights and then gave Kate’
s hair a good cut.

“So, what brings you to Seattle?” Jen asked when she had Kate back in the chair after her treatment and was applying her highlights.

“I just needed a change of scenery,” Kate replied and smiled.

“Well I guess Seattle is different from Dublin,” Jen laughed.

“Actually,” Kate said, unsure of why she felt the need to explain. “I was living in New York.”

“Oh wow,” Jen said with an excited grin. “I love New York.

“Yeah, I did too once upon a time,” Kate replied sadly.

“Oh?” Jen asked, her interest peaked.

Kate knew she had caught the girl’s attention and mentally scolded herself. She had thought coming to another city, okay not as big as New York, but a major city none the less, she would have been able to blend into the crowd just like she could in New York. She was wrong.

She just smiled at the girl and changed the subject to the weather.

For the remainder of the time, she kept the conversation away from anything too personal. Even when Jen tried to push her for information about why she had decided to leave New York.

An hour and a half later, a very different looking Kate waved goodbye to Jen and headed back to her room. She pulled out her laptop and started to
google rental properties in Washington State. After searching through several properties, she found a beautiful bungalow in the sleepy town of Redmond that was available to move into straight away.

After making a few calls, Kate packed her few belongings, climbed into her car and set off on her journey once again.

She had tried to call her d
ad before she left the hotel room, but it went straight to voice mail. She left a quick message, trying her hardest to sound up beat, something far removed from what she was really feeling.

It was almost 5 pm when she reached the little bungal
ow, she was hoping was going to be her home for the next few weeks. She had stopped along the way at a mall and bought some supplies for her new home. Although it was furnished, she knew she would need some bedding and towels. Also she picked up some groceries to get her through the evening until she had time to go and do a proper shop the next day.

As she pulled her car in
to the driveway, next to a silver mustang, a middle aged lady appeared on the front porch.

Kate quickly climbed out of her car and hurr
ied up the path way to the lady who was standing waiting with her hand outstretched.

“You must be Kate,” s
he said, as she shook Kate’s hand. “I am Nina, we spoke earlier on the phone.”

“Nice to meet you Nina,” Kate replied, giving the lady a bright genuine smile.
But she couldn’t deny the butterflies racing around her stomach. She was afraid Nina would ask her a lot of personal questions, ones she was just not ready to answer.

Nina led Kate into the beautiful little Bungalow and the moment she step
ped inside, she fell in love with it. It was welcoming and homely, yet modern and classy.

The Bungalow was a two bedroom, two and a half bathroom, cosy little building.
It had hard wood floors and a beautiful open fire. It was decorated in mute, natural tones with random, colourful wall art, giving off the perfect splashes of colour the place needed.

Nina went through all the details of the house
, as Kate wandered around only half listening to her. She was relieved when she didn’t push too hard when the subject of her marital status came up.

Twenty min
utes after Kate arrived at the bungalow, Kate signed a three month contract, got the keys and the green light to move in straight away.

As Kate stood on the front porch and watched Nina pull out of her driveway
, she couldn’t keep the smile from her face. When Nina had gone, Kate turned and walked back inside, closing the door behind her. She was home.

********
**

It was almost
1 am before she was finally finished settling in to her temporary home. She gave everywhere a good clean and made up her bed. Rearranged some of the furniture and unpacked what little belongings she had.

Finally she made herself something small to eat before she cleaned up the dishes.

She sat down on the sofa and sighed deeply, she was feeling very contented. She was ready for bed as tiredness quickly over took her.

She was just about to
head to bed when her phone buzzed on the coffee table. She thought it was most likely to be Callum, he had rang her several times during the day, but she still refused to take his call.

When she picked it up to check, she saw her father’s number flash on the caller ID.
Kate felt panicked for a few moments. She thought maybe Callum had called her dad. What was she going to tell him?

She took a deep breath and hit the answer button.

“Hi Dad,” Kate said as brightly as she could.

“Hello Sweetheart,”
Harry Kelly’s deep voice came booming through the phone. Kate closed her eyes and pictured her dad. She could smell his Old Spice after shave and the memory made her long to be back home. She missed her dad. He was the only one who never expected her to try to be anything other than herself, after Emily died. He never said she needed to learn to cope bit by bit, that time would be a healer or that she needed to keep going for Callum or Emily’s sake.

Some days he would just sit and hold her while she cried without saying a word.
He was the only one she allowed herself to cry in front of, because he was the only one who didn’t seem to judge her.

“I didn’t wake you, did I?” he asked, suddenly remembering the time difference.

“No,” Kate replied with a smile. “I was already awake.”

“I do forget about the time difference,” he sighed. “I saw I missed a call last night from you and I
just wanted to check you were okay.”

“I’
m okay Dad,” Kate replied. “I just called to say hi.”

“How is Callum?”
Harry asked unaware that the mere mention of her husband’s name made Kate’s heart ache. She thought of Callum and she wondered if he had slept since she left. If he had managed to get himself to bed or God forbid, he had lost himself in the bottom of a glass night after night.

She hadn’t allowed herself to
think about Callum in any real depth since the morning she walked out of the apartment. She had done everything she could have to not let Callum fill her mind, but now she longed to talk to him, just to see that he was okay.

“He’
s okay,” she lied and she hated lying to her father. But Kate wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet. She needed a little more time.

They talked for about twenty minutes
, well Harry talked and Kate happily listened. He told her all about her twin brothers and their latest antics. About the endless string of girls they were dating and how he wondered would they ever settle down like Kate had.

Kate couldn’t help but laugh when she thought of her brother
s Shea and Dara. They were always getting into all sorts of trouble. Harry always despaired about his sons, but Kate just laughed whenever she heard of their antics.

It was almost 2
am before Kate said goodnight to her father and climbed into bed, completely exhausted.

As she lay there in the darkness of her new bedroom, her mind wandered back to Callum. She picked up her phone from the nightstand and brought up his number. She stared at it for a few minutes before she pressed call.

“Kate,” Callum’s voice echoed through the phone after just two rings. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”

“Hi Cal,” she
said, taking a deep breath. “I’m okay.”

“Katie, I miss you so much,” Callum
’s voice was filled with so much sadness, Kate could hold the tears back no longer. “Please baby, please come home.”

“Callum, please don’t,” Kate sobbed quietly. “I just wanted to tell you I was okay, that I am safe.”

“Katie, we can make this work,” Callum begged.