Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places.There seemed to be gay men crawling out of the woodwork when Pride rolled around. Then he smiled to himself.Yeah, and about ninety percent of them probably came over on the ferry for the event.
Sonia squeezed his arm. “You’ll find someone, sweetie.”
He couldn’t help but smile.How does she do that? Sonia had a touch of the psychic about her sometimes. She gestured with a wide sweep of her arm. “Somewhere out there is the perfect guy for you.”
Mark followed the direction of her arm. “Yeah, exactly—over the Solent in Portsmouth.” They both laughed.
They reached the foot of the hill and crossed the road to enter the main car park, which was virtually empty. Sonia stopped by her little VW Polo and pulled Mark into a fierce hug.
“You try and relax this weekend, hon,” she admonished. “Enjoy your day off. Maybe go across to the mainland tonight? You never know. Your prince might be waiting for you in some gay bar as we speak.” She winked.
Mark kissed her cheek. “Sorry, Sonia, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. You haveyourfairy tale guy, but they’d run out by the time I came along. Go home to your man and have a nice weekend.” Her face fell and Mark felt like shit for passing his negativity onto her. He kissed her again. “Don’t mind me. Get a few beers down me and I’ll feel much better.”
Appearing only slightly reassured, Sonia bobbed her head and climbed into her car. She waved cheerily to him as she headed out of the car park. Mark walked slowly over to his aging Ford Fiesta and got in. Instead of turning the ignition, he stared out through the windscreen at the horizon, where the Spinnaker Tower rose above the Portsmouth landscape across the water. He could hear the hovercraft revving up, ready to speed its occupants over to the mainland where home awaited some of them, a night of fun for others.
He wasn’t in the mood for fun.
For some reason his thoughts turned to the couple in the salon. He could still see that beautiful guy—Sam, that was it—and his partner.The way she spoke to him.Her words hadn’t beenthatvitriolic, but there’d been no hint of warmth. And as for shouting at him like that when he left the salon?
I wouldn’t have turned back either.
For some reason, what came to mindwasa conversation with his father some years previous.
“I shouldn’t have put up with it for so long, Mark.”
Mark clutched his father’s hand. “Then why did you?” He had to know.
Fred Horrocks had looked so small and frail, lying there in that hospital bed. There seemed to be tubes everywhere, but the steady beep of the heart monitor comforted the fifteen-year-old Mark, reassuring him that his father would recover.
“I thought it would get better,” his dad said at last. “I thought, ‘there has to be an end to all this anger, doesn’tthere?’ I mean, she can’t have an infinite supply, can she?” He attempted to smile, but his face suddenly contorted in a grimace as the steady beep changed to a more erratic rhythm. Mark looked around in desperation for someone,anyone, to help his father, and was then pushed aside as the doctors and nurses fought to revive him, leaving the teenager standing beyond the curtain, listening to the last breaths his father gasped on this Earth. The cardiac arrest which had struck without warning three hours previously had apparently not given up, and his father’s damaged heart evidently saw the futility in fighting a losing battle.
Tears streaked down his face as he watched the shadow-play on the curtain surrounding his father, as figures slowly retreated, pulling back in defeat.
“Mark?”
He stiffened at the sound of his mother’s voice as she came up behind him. He didn’t turn. He couldn’t bear to look at her right now.
“You’re too late. He’s gone.”
Mark shook himself, pushing down the painful memory that had only lost a little of its intensity during the last five years.
Where did that come from?There’d been nothing in the byplay he’d witnessed between Sam and Rebecca to bring the memory to the surface. A lovers’ tiff, that was all it had been.
He let his mind drift to Sam.
Where can I find a guy who looks like you, Sam?
Where ismyPrince Charming?
He snorted. If he wanted one of those, he’d have to leave the island.
Prince Charmings were in short supply.
Chapter Two
Sam knew trouble was brewing.He could feel it in the air, taste it.
Why did I open my big mouth?
