“I wasn’t on duty. Day off.”
“Oh…I thought…” I paused. “I suppose I presumed you were at work.”
“Shifts, remember.”
I nodded. “So did you do much? See your kids?”
“They were at school.”
Again I nodded. “See any mates?”
“Yeah, I did actually. Jamie.”
I waited for him to continue.
“We had something to do.” His jaw tensed, and his eyes narrowed. He set the wooden spoon he’d been using to one side.
“Sounds mysterious?” I poked the bag of dry pasta.
The atmosphere had changed. His body had stiffened, and he’d folded his wide arms tight over chest.
“What did you have to do?” I asked, straightening and mimicking his posture.
“Something I should have told you about before I did it.”
A sinking feeling grew in my belly. A hole. A sense of falling. What had he done? Had he let me down already? What had he interfered with?
“What?” I managed through my dry mouth.
“I went to Yorkshire.”
My belly tightened to the point I thought I was going to vomit the milk back up. “No…tell me you didn’t.” Sweat popped on my brow, cold sweat, and under my arms prickled.
He stared straight at me, chin tilted. Unapologetic. Totally.
“Why? Why the fuck would you do that? Go there…of all places.” My eyes stung with tears. He’d betrayed me.
“I needed to see it for myself.”
“You didn’t believe me about it?”
“Of course I did.”
“No…no you obviously didn’t, and now…now how can I ever trust you? You keep going on about trust, yet you’ve destroyed it.” I grabbed the bag of pasta and stepped back, clutching it. “You are one of the few people I’ve ever told about my childhood. About them…they’re crazy…” I dug my hand into the pasta. “And what they were going to do to me.”
“Amy, come on.” He unfolded his arms and held them out to me.
I backed up further. “No. Stay away from me.” Anger and fury swirled with betrayal and hurt.
“Amy.”
“Fuck off!” I threw a handful of pasta at him. Hard, a proper pelt. It hit him in the face like a smattering of pebbles and then clattered to the floor.
“What the…?” He scowled at me. “Stop that!”
“No, you had no right to go there. I hate you, get out.”
“You do not hate me.”
