Finally, she looked across the narrow bridge in front of her at Cranbridge Stores, the first shop on the corner of Riverside Lane, facing out towards the river.
It was a detached brick building in the same honey-coloured brick as the rest of the village. On the upper floor were three sash windows, above which the roof narrowed to a point. On the ground floor, the main shop had a large front door in the middle, flanked by two huge bay windows on either side. Outside the shop was a large wooden veranda that ran the entire width of the shop, covered by a wonky roof in the same dark oak. It looked shabby with its faded sign adding to the air of neglect.
Amber screwed up her eyes and tried to connect the ramshackle shop with her godmother. She had last seen Cathy Kennedy at her twenty-first birthday party in London. She was a warm, attractive woman who always gave out the most enormous bear hugs.
Amber could just about remember Cathy’s husband, the infamous Todd Kennedy, laughing with her dad about something. Todd had been a man who didn’t appear to take anything seriously, as begat a man who had been a rock guitarist for most of his adult life.
Then there were two sons, Josh and Pete, but she couldn’t remember them at all, having not seen them since she was ten years old or so.
But that all seemed a long time ago now. She wondered why a famous musician with a dazzling personality had ended up bringing his family to such a quiet village.
Aware that the drizzle was beginning to frizz up her long dark blonde hair, Amber took a step forward towards the bridge and found something crunching underneath her Converse trainers. She looked down to see a carpet of acorns that had fallen from the oak tree beside her.
It was autumn already. That back-to-school feeling after the long summer holidays. The nausea washed over her as she glanced down at the jeans and leather jacket which she had travelled in. She instantly felt frumpy. Weird. A loner.
The school bullies’ taunts went around and around inside her head – Oh my God, look at her shoes! Have you seen her earrings? Her hair is awful! She’s got no friends. Just spends all her time alone, drawing.
She automatically tucked a long lock of blonde hair behind her ear and then wondered whether it made her ear stick out and drew it back in front of her face. Since leaving school well over a decade ago, she had told herself that the bullies hadn’t won. After all, she had lived and worked in London and New York in some of the most famous shops in the world. But, in truth, the endless bullying throughout her childhood had shattered her self-esteem. She had tried to tell herself that she must have been talented to have been headhunted for the job in New York. But she continued to doubt her abilities each and every day.
When she had first moved out to Manhattan, she had been excited. She imagined Sex and The City-type cocktail nights and swanning down Park Avenue with her takeaway coffee, catching the eye of some hunky guy in an expensive suit.
And yet the reality wasn’t so dreamy. She had actually felt desperately alone in the big city. Friends had been hard to come by and whenever she had tried dating, it had been an utter disaster. One guy just wanted to hear her swear in her British accent. Another had conveniently forgotten to tell her he was engaged to be married.
So, she retreated back to her safety net of channelling all her efforts into her work and then stayed in each and every night. It was better that way, she told herself. If you hid yourself away then you couldn’t be hurt.
But that seemed to make things even worse, she had found. If you’re lonely we recommend you join a club, the magazine articles said. Go out and meet new people. But Amber’s lack of confidence held her back. So she had tried to remain positive whilst keeping inside her rented room each night and watching box sets on Netflix whilst eating peanut butter out of a jar.
Occasionally, she got cross with herself over her drab existence and would head out on her days off to one of the many museums to study design or to ride the Staten Island ferry, determined to live the New York dream. But it never completely stemmed the loneliness.
A sound on the opposite side of the river made her focus back on the present day. In the distance, she could see that a man had just come out of the Cranbridge Stores. He was the first person she had seen so far in the village. At least it showed her that the shop was actually open.
She was looking forward to seeing Cathy, who had been so unwell during the past couple of years. At least they could catch up before Amber booked her forwarding flight on to New Zealand in a few days’ time.
Thinking that her aunt may be beginning to worry about where she was, Amber began to walk across the narrow bridge. It wasn’t until she was almost halfway across that she realised that the man who had just come out of the shop was also heading over the same pedestrian bridge towards her. She glanced at his face as he grew nearer and realised that she recognised him. But he also looked to be in an absolutely foul temper. With his leather jacket and five o’clock shadow, he had an air of menace about him.
Amber quickly decided to step to one side to let him by as the bridge was barely wide enough for two people.
However, she was still jet-lagged and not quite with it and so took a misstep as the toe of her trainers got stuck in the raised edge of the bridge. She flailed, her arms swinging around like a helicopter. Beginning to lose her balance, she reached out and grabbed the man’s arm in a panic.
Then, as if in slow motion, she dragged the man with her as she fell off the side of the bridge and into the river below.
2
If Josh Kennedy had been in a bad mood only a minute ago, that was nothing compared to his temper once he found himself suddenly falling into the freezing-cold river.
‘What the hell!’ he shouted out in shock as his bottom crashed into the stony bottom of the river and the whole of his spine jolted in pain.
As the agony slowly faded, he registered that he thankfully hadn’t broken any bones. However, he quickly became aware of the cold water seeping into his clothes. He shivered, wondering whether the day could get any worse.
It was nine o’clock in the morning. He’d managed one coffee so far that day, swiftly followed by the normal row with his mum, which was becoming a daily event. Storming out in a fit of pique, he had wanted to cool his anger off. Ending up in the river certainly hadn’t helped.
He wiped the water dripping from his hair and face and stared in shock at the blonde-haired woman sitting in the river next to him, who was looking right back at him with brown eyes which were huge in shock.
‘Hi, Josh,’ she said, to his amazement.
He gave a start. ‘Do we know each other?’
‘You could say that,’ she told him. ‘After all, our mothers have been best friends for all of their lives.’
He looked at her, incredulous. ‘You’re Amber?’
She gave him a sheepish smile, which lit up her pretty face. Josh was almost rendered speechless. He couldn’t quite believe that this attractive woman was the same Amber Green who had been a gawky teenager with huge frizzy hair.
Now she was all grown up, with her blonde hair hanging in soft waves around her shoulders. Long dark eyelashes. Pale smooth skin highlighted by freckles and a rosy blush across her cheeks. Her trendy leather jacket was also soaked at the hem and dripping water back into the river.
She nodded ruefully. ‘I’m afraid so. Sorry about, you know, taking you into the river with me.’