‘I did for a while, but the job was great, I won’t lie. I was sailing much more than I would’ve been here and got to see parts of the world I hadn’t known existed. It was a lonely life in many ways, and in others…’
She wanted the conversation to stop, it had to, she needed to walk away, get her head straight. ‘I need to go. I have an attic to deal with.’
‘I’ll see you around.’ His words drifted over her as she turned and left.
She took a faster pace up the hill to Bay Street than she otherwise might have done when she didn’t have something hefty on her mind.
She was still thinking about Mateo when she reached the Sweet Life Café for the first time since they’d arrived on the island, when she noticed Gayle’s visitor – or tourist, or whatever – Louisa, disappearing inside. Maybe Gayle included puddings in her tourist’s holiday package, who knew. Or perhaps as Addie said, Gayle was lonely and she liked the company.
If she had been lonely, then why hadn’t she fought harder for them to stay?
Aunt Gayle could’ve asked her and Mateo to slow things down for a while rather than warning him off. She could’ve let things unfold with him, see what Susanna wanted to do long-term.
Then again, if she hadn’t left would she have regretted it?
She turned into Evergreen Close. Mateo’s voice was in her psyche still, deeper, more matured over the years, but with the same notes as before. Seeing him felt like a pick-me-up in the gloom of her marriage troubles, but she also felt guilty for the way it made her feel.
She needed to speak to Alex.
Alex. The man she’d married. The man she thought she would be with forever.
The man who was keeping something from her.
As his mobile rang out, followed by the home phone, she wondered, if she found out that Alex was cheating, would she seek revenge and do the same?
She was here on the island and the man who had been the first one to show her what real passion, tenderness and understanding was, had looked at her in the same way he always had.
Did they have unfinished business?
16
ADDIE
‘You were quick. I thought you were going all the way around the island this time,’ said Addie when Susanna came through the door. Addie had been taking some time for herself, reading a book after baking a batch of oatmeal and raisin cookies.
‘Changed my mind.’ Susanna took off her shoes and left them in the hallway before following the aroma into the kitchen. ‘Something smells good.’
‘Help yourself.’
She reached for a cookie, still nice and gooey having not been out of the oven long and closed her eyes when she bit into it. ‘You, my girl, have talent.’
‘I haven’t done any more sorting.’
Susanna spoke carefully through her mouthful. ‘You deserve a break too.’
‘This is the first time I’ve had a decent chunk of time to read a book, and I couldn’t resist baking something too.’ But she felt guilty. There was still a ridiculous number of boxes to go through. They’d already got rid of so many bits and pieces, which she supposed had all been lumped into boxes because nobody had had the time or the inclination to sort through what should be thrown and what should be packed. When Harry died everything had been so rushed with sorting the house and moving the girls so suddenly.
‘Aunt Gayle had all the ingredients?’
Addie nodded. ‘Fully stocked pantry.’
‘We’ll do more sorting after I’ve had another one of these yummy cookies,’ Susanna declared.
They were getting there with the boxes and she expected they’d be through the rest of them way before the eight days prior to the living funeral were up. She wondered how they’d fill their days then or whether Susanna would push more to leave.
After Susanna finished the final mouthful of her second cookie she licked her fingers. ‘I called Alex.’
Addie plucked a cookie for herself. ‘And how is he?’
