The Summer We Loved

by Wendy Lou Jones

  Zoning out from the chatter, Pete looked deep inside himself. Something was building inside his guts and it scared him. Jenny had loved him. He tried to picture her smiling at Phil and his muscles tightened. By now he might be slow-dancing with her. Pete’s fingers dug into his skin. This was what he had wanted… wasn’t it? For her to be happy? But it was with another man. Another man holding her, touching her, looking into her big, round eyes as he carried her off to bed with him…

  “Are you all right, mate?” Neil asked, and Pete could feel that his jaw was clenched.

  Chills shook him. He had made such a huge mistake. Could she still love him, given half a chance? Could he fight for her and win her back? And then, standing there in that bar, he suddenly understood what love was and he knew that he loved her. He wanted her. He needed her, every second of the day, and right now he was throwing her at someone else. Something akin to blind panic wrenched at his soul as he urged himself to feel what he’d dared not feel before. He loved her. He loved her. He loved Jenny White, his beautiful, independent, soulful Jenny Wren. He loved her and, feeling unworthy, he had done everything in his power to serve her up to another man. A better man; but it wasn’t him.

  “Yeah. No. Actually… sorry; I’ve got to go.”

  He wanted her far more than any new pretender could. He needed her, like he needed the air to breathe. His time at St Steven’s was almost over. He might not get the opportunity to see her again. He looked at his watch. It was almost ten. Maybe it was already too late, but he had to take that chance.

  With the chorus of cheers and chanting ringing out behind him, he threw his kit bag in the boot of his car. Everything else could wait. He had to find her, and he raced off in the hope that it wasn’t too late.

  As he pulled up in the car park behind the function room at the back of The Nifty Goat, Pete’s heart was pounding. He jumped out, not sure if he was elated or terrified, and marched around the corner to the main door.

  Inside, the party was in full swing. He was immediately welcomed in by some rather inebriated lads and he smiled and laughed and chatted, while his eyes searched feverishly behind them. He managed to pull himself free and spotted Kim, centre of attention in the corner of the room, queen of all she surveyed. A pile of guys hung around the bar waiting for their orders, but there was no sign of Jenny. He moved around, trying to scan the room and then he saw Sophie under an open window, resting on a chair. He walked over.

  “Soph. Hi. How are you doing? You’re looking radiant.”

  “I’m looking fat.” She smiled. “Congratulations on your exam, by the way.”

  “Thank you. Um… You haven’t seen Jenny around anywhere, have you? I need to have a quick word with her.”

  “Last thing I saw she was getting very friendly with that lovely locum chappy, Carl, is it?”

  “Phil.”

  “Yes. That’s the guy. Nice man.”

  Pete bristled and cursing under his breath as he walked away, he left Sophie commenting on his rudeness.

  Phil was nowhere in sight and nor was Jenny. What the hell had he done? Fear coursed through his veins as he was overtaken by the urge to yell out. It couldn’t be too late!

  Striding up to the DJ, Pete grabbed the mic and called out her name. The talking hushed as only the music played on, and puzzled looks flittered around the room. His eyes darted around as the DJ brought the music to a stop. Whispers mingled as his search became more apparent. He asked again if anybody had seen her, but there was nothing. Pete shoved the mic back at the DJ and stormed out of the building to search outside. At the doorway he spotted Phil coming out of the gents. He grabbed him. “Where’s Jenny?”

  Phil looked taken aback and tried to unhand himself. “I don’t know. I was talking to her, we were dancing and then she just took off. I’ve no idea where she is now.”

  Concern gripped Pete. “When? When did you see her last?”

  “Only about five minutes ago. Ten, maybe. I don’t know. Why? What’s the matter? I thought you weren’t going to be here, anyway.”

  Kirsty, a nurse, walked passed in the direction of the toilets. “She’s gone,” she said. “She left a few minutes ago. Seemed to have something important on her mind. Not sure what. She didn’t stop to talk. But from the look on your face it’s not a long shot to believe it’s got something to do with you.”

  Pete wasn’t going to waste time arguing. “She’s gone? Out? In the dark? You’re sure she didn’t call a cab or something?”

  “Jen? Unlikely. You know what she’s like. If it’s that important to you, you could probably still catch up with her, if you try.”

  Pete thanked her and hurried out to search up the road for Jen. He strode out under the streetlights until his fears made him impatient and he broke into a run. The wind was whipping about him as a rising tide of concern made him peer into every darkened side road as he passed, half afraid of what he might find.

  At the end of the street was a crossroad. His flat was off to the right and her house was a mile or so to the left and he was just about to head off in that direction when a sudden noise and a crashing of bins caught his attention back on the right. He heard a scream and although desperate to speak to Jen, he could not ignore what sounded horribly like a woman crying out for help. He looked one way and then the other. He heard another sound of a man shouting. Jenny would still be there when he got back, and he ran off in search of the disturbance.

  A short way up the road he slowed down and listened. A muffled cry had him around a corner and into an alley. It was lit at one end by a streetlight, but darkened as he walked in. He called out. Silence. A few steps further on, his body braced as he came face to face with a man. There were two of them. They must have been late teens, early twenties perhaps. A quick review of his surroundings and he knew it was going to be better to talk them down. A blade glinted in the half-light and adrenaline began to surge.

  He held up his hands. “Is everything all right, lads? I just heard a cry, that’s all.”

  A mouthy youth approached him, trying to stare him down. He was shorter than the other and wiry. He looked as though he hadn’t had a good meal in weeks. “It’s none of your business, is it? So get lost.”

  Pete wasn’t afraid of them, but with the possibility of a third somewhere lurking in the shadows, maybe more, he couldn't be sure, plus their weapons if they all had them, it was going to be a big ask. He took a single step back. “I’m not after a fight here, lads. Just wanted to check everybody was okay.”

  “Get him out of here, Rigsy,” a voice spat, moving up out of the shadows beside him.

  Pete heard a struggle beyond him and then a high-pitched voice yelped out. They had someone. He tried to keep his voice calm. “Let her go, lads. Don’t be foolish. Let her go and nobody has to get hurt.” He moved cautiously towards the place where he had heard the noise, but the bigger lad blocked his way.

  “You’re going to regret this, pretty boy,” the lad said to him and he lunged at Pete, the punch missing him by a fraction of an inch. Pete dodged past and quickly turned the second lad against the first, blocking his attack. He was running on instinct. Years of training and a childhood living on his nerves were going to be invaluable to him now. In a blink, he had the second lad with his arm locked behind his back and his wrist flexed, yelping. Another moved about in the shadows with the woman in his grasp. He heard the man cry out in pain and then the woman screamed out his name.

  All of a sudden, Pete’s world hit a flat spin. Jenny. It was Jenny, and a rage took over him. “Jenny!”

  Pete launched the second lad at the first, taking out his feet as he shoved him. The first lad, Rigsy, quickly recovered and pulled his blade into the game, a slow, arrogant chuckle dancing in his voice. He broke into action, swiping at Pete repeatedly. Pete jumped out of reach and took the opportunity to disarm him. It was a blind fury that spurred him on. Trying to block out all thoughts of what they might already have done to Jen, he concentrated on staying alive and
annihilating the opposition.

  Untrained, another lad swung. He overshot and Pete took the advantage, locking his knife arm back across his body and slamming his elbow down across his knee. The lad screamed out as his elbow snapped sickeningly, leaving the knife clanking to the ground as Pete quickly kicked it away.

  Alert to the sounds of Jenny being grappled by whichever one he had left to maim, he poured every ounce of strength and cunning into destroying them. He felt flesh cave as he sank the back of his fist into a guy’s face and, with a sickening thud, he crumpled and staggered away. He was machine now.

  Movement came from behind him as he was caught around the throat and Pete braced himself for escape. His hands grabbed the arm that held him, flipping it over his head and spinning him into a lock. He launched the lad at the brick wall in front of him and it made a hideous crack that echoed in the darkness around them. Pete was all out of sympathy. He drove his fists in hard and the lad collapsed at his feet. There was someone in the shadows, someone else, and he prepared to strike. Jenny called to him. “Look out!”

  Pete spun round in the dark and took a blow to the face. He recovered and found himself in a bare-knuckle fight with a much meatier guy. But the man mountain’s reactions were slow, infuriating the oaf, who then pulled out a blade. Pete’s side took a swipe before he could make out the direction. He was cut, but he could barely feel it. He had to protect Jenny. He rallied and launched a right hook and a cross to the big lad’s face and followed with an upper cut. The lad was reeling. He spun him by the arm and shot a kick out so fast and so hard that the lad went toppling like a tower and fell crashing forward against the wall.

  Pete spun around again to check on the others and scanned for danger. His mind was working at a frightening speed, but they were moaning where they lay and were no threat to anyone any more. He stood over the last one and knelt on his neck. He increased the pressure. “If I find out any of you have harmed a hair on her head, I will find you and I will kill you,” he said and then he smashed his fist into his face, knocking him out.

  Jenny rushed up and they fled the alley. She fell against him, crying and calling his name. She was there, beside him, her body shaking, but alive. He had to gather his senses and get her out of there.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked as he held her away from him and peered in the half-light to try and make out her injuries.

  “I’m okay. But you’re bleeding. Give me your phone, Pete, they took mine.”

  He wrapped her in his arms and then they ran out across the street to get away.

  Stopping a good distance off, Pete found a place where he could keep an eye out for the attackers while keeping Jenny safe.

  His body began to shake as the adrenaline was crashing, but he was still at the ready, still vigilant.

  Jenny was talking to him. He focused in on what she was saying. “Your phone, Pete. Where’s your phone?”

  Pete handed her his phone and watched in a daze as her trembling fingers tapped in the numbers and her voice asked someone for help.

  Chapter 17

  Pete was trying to move her further away from danger, but Jenny knew they needed to stay put. The emergency services were coming and she had given them the address on the road sign close by. His eyes were wild and not really seeing her. She had to try and make him connect. “Pete. Look at me. We have to stay here.”

  “It’s not safe. I need to get you away.”

  “No. The ambulance will be here any minute. Just hold on. I know I can trust you to protect me if they show up again. In fact I can hear the sirens now. Listen.”

  The ambulance arrived and a police car close after. Jenny directed them to the alleyway while the ambulance crew took a look at Pete and loaded him on board.

  In the back of the ambulance, the paramedic tried to take his details and another pressed a pad against his wound, laying him on the trolley in an attempt to calm him down. Pete struggled, trying to see the street outside, calling out for her with such anguish. Jenny tried her best to reassure him she was safe and she would see him at the hospital, but he wasn’t settling. A policeman went inside and explained that they would take her with them, but as they closed the back of the ambulance, she could still hear his cries calling her name.

  In the back of the police car, half frightened to death by what she had seen him throw at them, and still shaking from the attack, Jenny began to realise she was safe. She had witnessed a young boy fighting for his life… for her life, and now he needed the reassurance that everything was okay.

  In A&E they were separated again. She could hear Pete creating hell over the other side of the department, but the police arrived and calmed him down, reassuring him that they would be staying with them both until they were free to leave.

  Jenny tried to help, calling out that she was fine and telling him he needed to get seen to. It was as if the world around her was moving at a hurtling pace and she was inside it, in a bubble, watching it pass by.

  A numb kind of peace took hold of her as she settled in for the wait to be seen. Half an hour or more rolled past before she was called. Moving through the process, she tried to answer where she could, but her only real concern was the baby.

  She told the nurse and they arranged for a doctor to do an early ultrasound scan. But this would not be for a while, so she was asked to wait back outside in the waiting room until they called her name. So there she sat with the policewoman who had been drafted in to sit with her.

  “Have you got them,” Jenny asked, looking through the half-open door into A&E to see if they were inside.

  “I believe we have three males in custody, yes,” the police woman said.

  “Three?”

  “I believe so.”

  “But there were four of them, I’m sure there were,” Jenny said. “What about the other one?”

  The woman called to a colleague to radio in. “He must have given them the slip. I’m sure they’re out looking for him right now. Try not to worry.”

  “Where are they?” she asked her, for Jenny was certain they would need attention.

  “They took them to Garnley General,” she replied. “So you didn’t have to see them.”

  Jenny was grateful. “Thank you,” she said and felt her tension ease just a little. She looked around her, reading the posters on the walls, but taking none of it in.

  It felt like an eternity before Pete was ready to be released. When he appeared, he had a bandage just visible through the ragged slit in his shirt. He gazed at her and his golden eyes were full of such intensity it took her breath away.

  “Are you okay?” she asked and he nodded and reached out a hand to pull her to him. He squeezed her tightly and she looked up at him. He was her rock in stormy waters. She might be battered from bumping up against him, but he was strong enough to lift her above the waves and keep her alive.

  “Can we go?” he asked, calmer now that he had seen her.

  “Miss White hasn’t been discharged yet,” the WPC told him. “But as soon as she’s cleared, we’ll take you both back to the station to make a statement. If that’s all right?”

  Suddenly, concern furrowed his brow. He looked at her. “You’re hurt? I thought you were okay.” His voice was urgent, needy, angry even. “What is it? What did they do to you?” His gaze was searching her rapidly, looking for evidence of what he had missed.

  She stepped away from the others, just slightly, and took hold of his hand. It was time for the truth. “I’m fine, Pete. It’s not me.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “It’s the baby.”

  She watched as his face paled. “Baby?”

  She nodded. “They said they would scan me to make sure I haven’t… That it’s…” She couldn’t even bring herself to say the words.

  Pete was dazed. “You’re… pregnant?”

  “Yes.”

  He took some deep breaths. “And is it…?”

  She nodded again. “Of course it’s yours, Pete. Who else would there be?” Jenny
thought for a minute he was going to pass out, but she needed him to know. And with the tiny part of her that wasn’t praying for the life of her unborn child, she started praying that Pete would be pleased.

  Furtive looks passed between the police officers until a nurse appeared and called her name and Jenny turned to see.

  “Jenny White?”

  “Yes.”

  “If you’d like to come this way, please.”

  Jenny turned back to the WPC. “I won’t be long,” she said and she made to follow the nurse. But Peter was still with her. She stopped. “It’s an internal thing,” she said in dismay. “I’d rather go in on my own.”

  But he looked at her. “No. I’m coming with you. This is my baby too. Please, Jen, don’t stop me.”

  Jenny let out the breath she’d been holding and met his gaze, searching for the answer she had hoped to find. Had she seen it in there? Or did he just need proof? “Okay,” she said and he took her hand and they walked in together.

  On the trolley, the doctor inserted the probe and uncomfortable, both physically and mentally, Jenny stilled. She held her breath as she waited for the news. Any second now she would know if her baby, their baby… Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as the tension and worry sank through to her bones. The world about her froze as the clock on the wall ticked on. Pete squeezed her hand and as the fuzzy screen pitched and swirled, the doctor finally peered closer. He pointed. “There,” he said and a tiny, funny-shaped blob appeared through the fog and in its centre was the miracle of a ticking heart.

  Relief the size of a tidal wave crashed over her as she saw her baby for the first time and, filled with hope, she plucked up the courage to turn to Pete. He was staring at the screen, open mouthed. What was he thinking?