He had told her he wasn’t a commitment kind of guy. But that wasn’t true. Once, he had been the ultimate commitment guy, the poster boy for marriage. Before he became the poster boy for betrayal and cruelty.
When was the last time he’d been in love, seven years ago? Emelia. The woman he thought might be the one, before they both grew up and grew apart. She’d taken a job with a medical charity in Africa and he’d moved to London.
And then there was Sharon.
His chest hurt, the way it hadn’t done for a while now. He reached inside the covers to rub over the breastbone, the place where his heart should have been. He wasn’t clueless, he knew what that pain was, it had started soon after that New Year’s Eve party where Sharon and he ended up in bed. Two hours of forgettable sex that he regretted as soon as it was over, regretted even before it was over.
And then regretted a lot more six weeks later when she found him at work and showed him the stick with the double blue line.
Two little lines that ruined both their lives.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Millie was in tears.
Literally. There were two tears sliding down her cheeks as she turned this way and that, checking her silhouette in the full length mirror in Laura’s studio.
Whispers and noises told her that several of the women had left their weaving and clustered behind the closed door hoping to find out how the fitting was going. ‘The Dress’ had generated a lot of excitement in the Casemate and they were eager to see it.
“I don’t know what to say.” She wiped her eyes. “You are a genius. Look how it hangs, no, not hangs—” She took a step forward, watching how the skirt swayed gently around her hips and legs. “It floats like air! And you made me look slim.”
“Youareslim,” Laura said. All brides worried about their weight, but Millie had the kind of smooth curves men found sexy. And the golden tan from her trip to South Africa made her look healthy and gorgeous. “I would kill for a figure like yours.”
“What are you talking about? You are model slim.”
“I think the phrase you’re looking for is ‘flat as a plank.’”
Millie stopped watching her wedding gown and gave Laura a thoughtful gaze. “If you had a best friend you loved, would you let anyone tell her she’s flat as a plank?”
Laura shook her head.
“Then why would you say that to yourself?”
The question surprised her. “Because if I don’t tell myself the truth, who will?”
“My ex called me ‘frumpy, dumpy and beige.’”
“Arsehole!”
“Well he was upset, so he took it out on me. The way I see it, the world has no shortage of people who will tell you ugly things becausethey’reunhappy or jealous or just plain evil. You have a choice, listen to them or listen to people who make you feel better about yourself.”
Laura felt a little uncomfortable under Millie’s steady gaze. “How did you get so wise?” She laughed, hoping to move the conversation away from herself.
“You know I love George. I fell in love with him very quickly and would have given up the world for him. When we broke up briefly, I could have easily curled up and died.”
Laura was shocked, because the conversation around the kitchen table had given her the impression George was besotted with his fiancée.
“I thought I had lost everything, all my plans and dreams, my future.”
Yes, that was how she had felt when Jacob broke off their engagement. She hadn’t been in love with him but it still hurt like hell. She couldn’t imagine how much worse it would have been for Millie.
“Do you know how I survived?”
Yes, she really wanted to know, because she was still trying to survive the loss of her dreams of marriage and making a home with some man. Most days, she had to swallow her pain when looking at all the wedding preparations. Even more lately, after her night with Adam. Every day she had to curb her stupid heart form imagining him on one knee, offering her a ring.
“I learnt from the pain,” Millie said. “I had to make wonderful things that wouldn’t melt away if some man said nasty things to me. So I created my café.”
“Blue-Sage café?” Laura could close her eyes and still remember the smell of drying herbs, the colours on the hill overlooking the pretty beach.
