‘I saw you kissing a woman.’
‘When?’
‘Just over a month ago – end of March. I was watching the boats and you got off one with a woman with red hair. You hugged and kissed on the beach.’
‘That was Lynette. She’s a friend.’
‘Didn’t look like a friend to me.’
‘Well, she is. She’s the sister of a friend who thought it would be a genius idea to set us up cos we were both divorcees. I wasn’t interested but he wouldn’t drop it so I reluctantly agreed to meet her for coffee. Turns out Lynette wasn’t interested either cos, like me, she hadn’t wanted the divorce. We became good friends and when you saw us, we’d just been to Lodore Falls to scatter her dog’s ashes because it was one of their favourite places to go for walks. Shedidkiss me. On the cheek to say thanks for being there on a difficult day.’
I winced. How wrong had I got that? ‘I’m sorry about your friend’s dog. Is she okay?’
‘Getting there.’ He gave me a playful nudge. ‘I can’t believe you thought we were kissing properly. Lynette would find that hilarious.’
‘It was the angle,’ I muttered. ‘Sorry.’
‘So, what about you? Any relationships?’
I told him about Graeme and the disastrous proposal, but skirted round the reasons why it had ended. I should have known he’d question it.
‘Was it because of me?’ he asked when I didn’t respond.
He sounded so hopeful and, even though the drink had elicited the truth about so many things from me today, I couldn’t bring myself to tell Flynn the truth about this. This was a man who hadn’t put our house on the market because he’d hoped I’d come back, who still wore his wedding ring because the vows he’d made were forever, and who’d just told me he hadn’t given up hope of me returning. Much as my heart might be screaming to admit that he’d held tightly onto my heart all along and I still wore my eternity ring, I hadn’t yet found my way through the rain. Until I did, I couldn’t give him hope. The water under our bridge had been extremely turbulent. Could we ever recover from that even if we wanted to? I’d broken his heart so badly and he hadn’t deserved it. I couldn’t risk doing that to him again.
‘Mel?’ he prompted.
‘We just weren’t right for each other.’
I felt his leg tense against mine and then he moved away to the end of the chaise. I’d upset him and I hated doing that but it was necessary to protect him.
We sat in silence as the time ticked by. Shivering, I pulled the curtain more tightly around me. It wasn’t just the cold I was battling with now – it was the desire to sleep. A bottle of wine on an empty stomach had definitely taken its toll and all I wanted to do was curl up under my duvet.
‘What was that?’ Flynn whispered, grabbing my arm. ‘Did you hear a car?’
‘Rosie?’
Dropping our curtains, we raced to the door and banged and yelled for help. After several excruciating minutes, a voice called my name.
‘Yes! We’re trapped in here.’
‘Step back.’
Flynn and I shuffled away from the door and it opened moments later. Rosie and Georgia stared at us.
‘What happened?’ Georgia asked.
‘Door wouldn’t open.’
‘Oh, my God! Come out.’
As I stumbled up the staircase, I was very aware of how drunk I was. Behind me, I heard Flynn apologising to Rosie for drinking some of her wine but she dismissed it as she apologised profusely for us getting trapped. All I could think about was how desperate I was for the toilet, followed by a pint of cold water and a mountain of toast.
When I returned from the bathroom, I found them in the kitchen. Flynn had a glass of water in one hand and was eating a banana.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Rosie said. ‘Are you okay?’
Georgia rushed at me with a hug, preventing me from answering.
