‘Yeah, sure.’ He’d give the nagging a rest for now – at least his brother hadn’t mentioned again about selling his boat. Leo knew that boats and the boathouse were in hisbrother’s blood as much as his and always would be no matter whether he acknowledged it or not. He placed a baguette on each plate and laughed at Adrian’s appreciative groan on his first bite.
Leo and Adrian were similar looking – roughly the same height, although in their younger years Leo had constantly felt that at three years his brother’s junior he was trying to catch Adrian up height-wise. They’d both inherited their fair skin from their father’s side, skin that meant they were careful out on the sea and rash vests were a must, particularly in the height of summer. Their green eyes they got from their mother, Anne, their muscular physiques from their father Jimmy, who’d spent so many years working with boats that it had given him a certain longevity. All that fresh air and moving around was good for the body and mind. While Leo’s hair was dark without any greys yet and longer on top, Adrian’s had the salt-and-pepper look and he kept it cropped short, a bit army-like Leo always thought. The well-trimmed facial hair softened the look though, they wouldn’t allow that in the forces, but it made Adrian seem more himself than the version who’d fought to get away from the confines of his life all those years ago.
Adrian paused halfway through demolishing his baguette. ‘My divorce is final at last.’ He rescued a piece of chorizo that had escaped onto the plate.
‘Finally. Any regrets?’
Adrian grunted. ‘About marrying or divorcing?’ In tracksuit bottoms and a scruffy faded t-shirt Leo was pretty sure had said INXS once upon a time, Adrian seemed a far cry from the guy who’d left the bay with Harper, lived an entirely different life as a teacher wherehe wore a shirt and tie every day, been in a marriage where he was one half of a power couple who weren’t interested in family life but preferred eating at fancy restaurants or heading away for weekend countryside escapes.
‘Both I guess.’
‘We had fun for a while. But we shouldn’t have got married. And we shouldn’t have dragged our heels getting a divorce either.’
‘Why did you wait so long?’
Adrian shrugged. ‘She was and still is busy partying and flying high in her career, I just didn’t bother. I’ve not always been in a good place.’
‘I know.’ At least his brother could see that. He didn’t need anyone to say they told him so. ‘But you’re back now.’
‘Yeah, I’m back.’
‘Talking of marriage, the gift is all lined up for Mum and Dad.’ The joint gift the boys were organising was for Anne and Jimmy to spend two nights at The Dorchester followed by tickets to see a show in the West End. Their first date ever had been to see a musical in London and so it had seemed a fitting gift to try to recreate the memory in some way. ‘And of course we’ll have the family dinner, we’ll give it to them then.’ At least Adrian lived closer now, because before he moved back this way he’d rarely come to visit and Leo had had no idea whether he would turn up despite the occasion. ‘You still going to cook?’
‘I am.’ At his brother’s raised eyebrows Adrian shook his head. ‘I have managed to survive on my own you know, cooking for myself.’
‘Yeah, but anniversary dinner and all that.’
That had his brother laughing. ‘I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve. Don’t worry, it won’t be toast and boiled eggs.’
‘Nothing wrong with that.’
‘I think forty years of marriage deserves a little more.’ Adrian put both plates into the dishwasher and leaned back against the counter when he was done. ‘I just hope the topic of conversation isn’t that they made four decades and I couldn’t even make four years with my wife.’
‘Hey, this is about their success not your failure,’ Leo joked.
Thankfully Adrian took it the way it was intended, as brotherly banter.
Adrian should never have married Harper, but today was the first time Leo had heard his brother say it out loud, even though he’d suspected Adrian had thought it for a while. Marriage had been a rash decision – no doubt about it, Harper was stunning, a whole lot of fun, and probably everything Adrian had needed at the time to get over what happened. The trouble was, a whirlwind romance followed by a wedding had been a short-term solution. Now he was back, maybe Adrian would finally work through his emotions and try to make this town and the bay his home again. Mind you, Leo was one to talk when it came to dealing with his feelings. It seemed he’d buried a lot of them, just like his brother, and while he appeared to most people to have forged ahead with his life, Nina’s return had caused him to wobble at the reminder of the heartbreak, the dent in his pride when he’d lost the woman he loved. And that was before you dug deeper and found that while Leo might never admit it, he had never fully let go of the desire to settle down and have a family. Nina being here after all this time was a reminder of whathe’d never achieved, and that was one of the biggest frustrations of all.
‘Cup of coffee?’ Adrian offered.
‘Yeah, thanks.’ Time to stop feeling sorry for himself, focus on his brother.
Coffee made, they took to the easy chairs positioned beside the floor-to-ceiling window. ‘Bloody fantastic view,’ Leo approved.
‘Why do you think I rented this place?’
‘At least I know you don’t totally hate the sea.’
Adrian paused. ‘I never hated it, I hate what it can do, what it did.’
Leo got it. He wasn’t sure he’d get much more out of Adrian, but he didn’t want to let him get so wrapped up in his guilt now he was back that he couldn’t see past it. ‘You do realise Rhianne’s death wasn’t your fault, don’t you?’
‘So everyone tells me.’
‘You couldn’t control the weather, Adrian.’
‘No, I don’t suppose I could.’
