Page 69 of The Inn on Bluebell Lane
CHAPTER 36
ELLIE
“Oh, Jess, Jess.” Ellie’s voice came out in a sob of relief as she sagged against the kitchen cupboards. “Where are you, darling? Wherever you are, we’ll come and get you. Are you safe? Are you well? You’re not hurt?”
“Yes, I’m okay.” Her daughter sounded so sad and so small, Ellie wanted to pull her into the tightest hug right then and there. “I’m… I’m at Heathrow Airport.”
“Heathrow…!” Ellie’s mind spun. So Jess had been trying to go back to Connecticut. “How…” she began, only to have Jess explain in a small voice.
“I wanted to go home.”
Home.
Ellie closed her eyes. She had a dozen questions about how Jess had managed to get all the way to Heathrow, never mind through security and customs and all the rest, if indeed she’d gotten that far, but those could wait for later. “Which terminal, Jess?” she asked. “We’ll come right away to collect you.” It was a three-hour drive without traffic, and it was already six o’clock at night. But none of it mattered. All Ellie wanted was her daughter safe at home.
Home. This was home now, but clearly for Jess it hadn’t been. She should have realized how much her daughter had been struggling.
“Umm… terminal five.”
“All right. Sit tight, sweetheart. Maybe find a café where you can be comfortable. We’ll be there as soon as we can. And call me if you need anything, or if you just want to talk. For any reason at all. Any reason.”
Her voice throbbed with emotion and Jess let out a small sound, something between a laugh and a sob. “Okay.”
“I love you, Jess. So much. Dad and I both do. And I’m coming to get you.”
“Okay.” Jess sniffed. “Thanks, Mom.”
Ellie disconnected the call with a shuddery breath of pure emotion. Relief made her knees feel like jelly, her whole body weak. “She’s okay,” she told everyone gathered around—Matthew, Ava, Ben, and Josh all breathed out a collective sigh of relief. “She’s at Heathrow.”
“Heathrow…!” Matthew looked surprised, even though it was a possibility they had considered. Ellie didn’t think either of them had actually believed Jess would go so far, but at least she hadn’t got on the plane. “I suppose I’d better ring the police and tell them she’s okay.”
The officers had only left a few minutes ago, after taking Jess’s details. Ellie had struggled not to break down as she’d explained the situation. I think she’s had trouble settling here, she’d said, and it had felt like a confession, an admission of her own failure as a mother. Why hadn’t she realized just how unhappy her daughter was? Why hadn’t she done something about it?
“I’ll drive to Heathrow,” she told Matthew. “Jess and I argued last night. Well, the truth is, I lost my temper. I can’t help but feel it contributed to her running away.”
“That was not your fault,” Matthew told her firmly. “We’ll get through this, Ellie,” he promised her as he put his good arm around her. “Together.”
She nodded, her cheek pressed against his shirt, as she tried to hold back tears. It felt as if everything had fallen apart, and yet here they were, building it back up again. Together, just as Matthew had said. Perhaps you needed difficult situations to happen in order to realize what was important. What mattered the most. She was certainly realizing what mattered now—her family.
The three-hour drive to Heathrow along dark, rainy stretches of motorway felt endless, but it gave Ellie time to think. To plan how different things were going to be, moving forward. She’d listen more, and worry less. She’d get Jess and the other children involved in the plans for the B&B they all had something to offer, and they all needed to feel they belonged. She’d make sure they spent more time together as a family, the six of them, but also with Gwen, and maybe even Sarah and Nathan and their kids, too.
She hadn’t, Ellie realized, really given their life in Llandrigg a chance. She’d convinced herself she had, simply by moving there in the first place, but the truth was she’d been dragging her feet all along. Matthew had seen that, and Gwen had too. Maybe Jess had seen it, which had given her the liberty to act the same.
But it was all going to be different now, Ellie thought as she pulled into the short-term parking at terminal five. Starting right now.
She texted Jess as she hurried into the terminal, the brightly lit, big open space making her wince after the darkness of the car.
She strode toward the coffee bar where Jess had said she was waiting, by the international arrivals, scanning the faces of weary and jet-lagged travelers who sat hunched over their lattes, their suitcases by their feet.
“Mom!”
Ellie jerked around and then let out an exclamation of pure relief as Jess hurried toward her, dragging her duffel bag behind her.
“Oh, Jess. Jess.” She pulled her daughter into her arms, hugging her tightly.
“I’m so sorry, Mom.” Jess’s shoulders shook as she pressed her face into Ellie’s shoulder. “I’ve made such a mess of everything.”
“You haven’t, Jess. I’m so sorry I didn’t realize you were going through such a hard time. Ben mentioned something—”