I Found You - Lisa Jewell

‘I want you to be. Yes.’ He turns and glances at the small semi to his left. ‘But it’s not just me any
more, is it?’
She leans forwards and peers at the house. It’s an innocuous-looking place. Well kept. A shiny
green Peugeot 107 on the driveway, patterned curtains at the windows, purple hydrangeas in the
flowerbeds.
‘I can do family,’ she says.
‘Family with baggage?’
‘I can do most things.’
He smiles. ‘I know,’ he says. ‘I know you can.’
‘What did you think?’ she says suddenly, wanting to delay the onslaught for a few moments more,
wanting to hear something light, something hopeful. ‘The first time you saw me. On the beach. In the
rain. What was the first thing that went through your mind? Honestly.’
He smiles. He takes her hand. He says, ‘I thought you looked wet. And a bit scary.’
She taps his arm and tuts. But she can see why he might have thought it. She’d been acting the role
of the scary woman for years because deep down inside she was scared. Scared of being alone.
Scared of being an outsider. Scared that she’d had all her chances at happiness and blown each and
every one of them.
He puts an arm around her shoulders, brings her head into the crook of his shoulder and says, ‘I
thought you were magnificent.’
‘That’s nice,’ she says. ‘For what it’s worth, I thought you were handsome. And also very wet.’
He laughs and kisses the crown of her newly highlighted head. ‘I’m glad it was you who found me.
I’m glad it wasn’t anyone else.’
‘So am I.’
‘Shall we go?’
‘Yes,’ says Alice. ‘I’m ready.’