The Secret Seaside Escape - Heidi Swain Page 0,126

took a long swig from his bottle and then stuck it in the sand.

‘What is it, Joe?’ Hope asked. ‘Is it something to do with the crash?’

I had a feeling she was on the right path and when Sam’s eyes met mine and he nodded, I felt sure.

‘Yes,’ Joe said heavily, ‘it’s everything to do with the crash. Sam and I talked about it earlier and we were going to just keep it between ourselves, but now we’re a foursome, and I get the feeling that we always will be, I want to tell you and Tess too.’

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during this earlier meeting between the two men. They hadn’t had all that long to talk, but it was obvious they hadn’t wasted a single second and I was glad about that. They should have had the conversation years ago of course but I did understand that what was often obvious for someone to see and easy to say from the outside, could be hidden on the inside.

‘I always wanted to believe that Sam’s memories of that night were hazy,’ Joe began. ‘I told myself that the length of time he was in a coma and the trauma of the surgery and the fact that he never said anything, meant certain things were never quite as clear in his mind as they were in mine. But,’ he added, his lip trembling, ‘I did sometimes wonder if he suspected . . .’

‘Suspected what?’ I asked, looking between the two of them.

‘That he wasn’t the person driving,’ Joe said quietly. ‘If he knew that it had been Jack.’

My hand flew up to my chest and Hope looked like she might faint.

‘Are you sure it was him?’ she whispered. ‘Are you sure it was Jack behind the wheel?’

‘Yes,’ Joe continued, ‘completely sure and it was all my fault.’

‘Why?’ Hope and I asked together.

‘Because I was the idiot who took him out drinking,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Even though he was ridiculously underage. I thought it would be a laugh. I thought it would be fun to have my little brother bending the rules I was always so determined to break, but it all backfired because I was also the one who couldn’t stop him jumping into the driving seat when Sam came to pick us up.’

Hope and I looked at each other. The expression in her eyes told me that she had no former idea about any of what Joe was saying. She was as shocked as I was, more so because she had been a part of Wynmouth when the crash happened.

‘By the time I had come out of the trance the shock of the crash had plummeted me into,’ Joe continued, ‘everyone was running with the assumption that it was Sam who had been driving because it was his car.’

‘But you were never charged?’ I said, turning to Sam. ‘You weren’t arrested, were you?’

‘No,’ he said, ‘I wasn’t. Joe always maintained he couldn’t remember which seats he’d pulled me and his brother out of and so there was insufficient evidence to arrest me.’

‘But I did know,’ Joe elaborated with a sob rising in his chest. ‘I knew it was Jack, but seeing my parents so bereft and so broken by the loss of their boy, I just couldn’t bring myself to admit it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t tell them that, or confess my part in it. I was the biggest coward.’

‘No,’ Sam said, ‘like I told you earlier, you weren’t a coward, Joe.’

‘And, I never wanted to leave Wynmouth either,’ Joe carried on, refusing to acknowledge Sam’s kindness and sniffing hard as his tears flowed, ‘or the farm, but I couldn’t stay here and live with the guilt. I might have saved my parents from further heartbreak, Sam, but there hasn’t been a single day since that horrific night when I haven’t hated myself for letting you shoulder the blame.’

‘Did you know?’ Hope asked, turning to Sam. ‘Did you know it was Jack?’

There was a beat of time before he answered.

‘Yes,’ he nodded. ‘I always knew. I had got out to open the back door, because the car was old and it stuck, and that was when Jack jumped in.’

‘But why didn’t you ever say anything?’ Hope asked, her tone was incredulous. ‘I barely left your side in that hospital and you never said a word.’

‘Because to begin with I wasn’t sure whether or not Joe could