‘It’s me, Tom. Surely you recognise me? These rugged good looks haven’t changed that much. In fact, I think I’m maturing like a fine wine,’ he said jokingly. He still had that twinkle in his eye.
Florrie didn’t understand what was happening. He was showing no shame whatsoever even though eight years ago he’d left her feeling hurt and betrayed. Tom went to touch her arm but Florrie moved it away.
Of course she recognised him. She’d dreamed of his face for many years after they’d parted and there was no denying he could still take her breath away just by the way he looked at her. Trying to suffocate all the old feelings that were attempting to rush to the surface, she told herself,Remind yourself how he treated you. The words turned over in her head as she gave herself a little shake.
‘I’m sensing something isn’t quite right here,’ Tom said, clearly confused by her continued silence.
Her stare turned cold and icy. ‘Not quite right’ was an understatement.
Tom raised an eyebrow and looked a little uncomfortable but persevered in attempting to thaw her freezing cold welcome. ‘I couldn’t quite believe when I saw you inside the church earlier. I honestly thought I was seeing things.’
Florrie remained silent.
‘Do you have anything to say to me after all this time?’ he asked, looking perplexed and sounding confused. ‘I’m really pleased to see you and I thought … I thought you would be too…’ He trailed off.
‘Why are you here?’ Her tone was unfriendly, her gaze unrelenting.
‘I came to pay my respects.’
‘After eight years you turn up out of the blue after treating me like you did, and today of all days?’
He narrowed his eyes at her. ‘What exactly are you insinuating I did? And what do you mean, “today of all days”?’
Florrie blew out a breath. ‘Unbelievable.’
‘I’m not quite sure what’s going on here but I’m sensing there’s something that I don’t know about.’
‘You know exactly what you did, and then to turn up at my great-aunt’s funeral like nothing has happened and to claim you’re pleased to see me?’
Now it was Tom’s turn to stare, open-mouthed. ‘Today’s funeral … Ada was your great- aunt?’ He looked like a rabbit caught in headlights. How had he not realised Florrie was related to Ada?
‘So what were you doing here?’ She didn’t let him answer. Now that she was speaking she couldn’t stop. ‘Have you turned up to apologise? What, you assumed I’d be at my most vulnerable and more willing to forgive you? Fat chance of that!’
Florrie averted her eyes for a moment and glanced down at his left hand. There was no sign of a wedding ring. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of that … or of the fact that she’d checked.
‘Apologise? What do I need to apologise for? If anything, it’s you that needs to apologise to me. But as soon as I saw you, I knew I was prepared to let that go.’
Florrie released a strangled sound from the back of her throat before she said, ‘Me? What wouldIneed to apologise for? You infuriate me.’ Did he think he could just slip back into her life unexpectedly without any sort of explanation? Behind her sunglasses she closed her eyes for a second. Even though she wanted to dislike him with every bone in her body, he was right – he had matured like a fine wine, and was now even more utterly gorgeous than she remembered.
The two weeks she’d spent with Tom in that private beach house had been the best two weeks of her life. She’d fallen wholly in love with him, and he with her, or so she’d thought. But soon after she’d discovered that she was nothing more than a bit of fun to pass the time away. He’d had a girlfriend waiting for him in St Tropez. Florrie had seen the photographs of them together on his father’s yacht.
‘That feeling is becoming very mutual,’ Tom said, his bewilderment giving way to frustration and annoyance.
Florrie turned and walked away without giving him a second look.
ChapterThree
Florrie hurried towards the village pub.
Damn. That just had not gone to plan. Why hadn’t she let him answer why the hell he was at the funeral? She thought about going back but the last thing she wanted was a full-blown argument while standing in front of the graves of her loved ones.
Reaching the pub, she took a breath and tried to calm her racing heartbeat before pushing open the door. Instantly she was hit with music and the happy sound of chit chat, and she relaxed. The scene in front of her made her smile. A large number of villagers had gathered around the piano in the far corner where Drew was playing, and Dolores had taken to the microphone and was belting out one of Great-Aunt Ada’s favourite songs. Huddled together were all of Ada’s friends, including Grace and Andrew from Heartcross Castle, Felicity and Fergus, Flynn and Julia from Starcross Manor, Jinny and Gabe from Bumblebee Cottage, Molly and Cam from The Old Bakehouse, along with the local doctors Ben and Katie. Florrie could see dozens of glasses of port held aloft and watched as Dolores reached the chorus and everyone joined in. She leaned against the bar and the owner, Meredith, slid a drink towards her.
‘This is exactly the send-off Ada would have hoped for. A true celebration of life,’ Florrie observed.
Meredith pointed to the memory box that was placed on the bar. ‘Everyone has been writing down their favourite memories and after the buffet we’re going to read them out. I think Dolores and Martha have a couple of other things up their sleeves too.’
Next to the bar was an oversized cork board where friends of Ada had pinned their favourite photos of her, creating a wonderful collage of memories. ‘Look at Great-Aunt Ada’s hair in that one!’ Florrie laughed. ‘She looks like a mad professor!’ Back in the eighties, when home perms were all the rage, Dolores, Martha and Ada had decided to perm each other’s hair one Sunday afternoon … with disastrous results. ‘I can remember Ada telling me that even though it was the height of summer they all ended up wearing bobble hats for weeks until their hair had begun to tame.’
