‘I like to eat out?’ Fuck’s sake.
‘Campbell, I’m married now. I can’t go fleeing off around the country for dinner with my exes, even if it is for charity.’
‘So bring your husband, too. I’m happy to meet him.’
Cherry took a steadying breath.Something reeked of bullshit.‘Let me speak to Sean,’ she said. ‘The money would be great, but I need him to be okay with this. Things are––’
‘Oh, aye –things are what?’
‘Nothing. It’s important that we’re open with one another, that’s all.’ There was no need to tell Campbell that they had only started finding their feet in the marriage.
‘Sure. Let me know tomorrow then.’
Cherry surveyed the coffee shop. She’d be happy to swap this conversation for any of the normal ones these people were having. ‘I’m surprised there isn’t another woman in the wings for you to go to dinner with,’ she said. ‘You’re still a committed bachelor then?’
‘Aye, that’s me. I mean, if I met my dream woman then great, but I’m starting to think she isnae out there...’ Campbell stared over Cherry’s shoulder as if disappointed his dream woman wasn’t on Kinshore High Street. She suppressed a smile and opted to soften him a little more.
‘You and Shanola Smith seemed like you had a good thing going on for a while.’
‘Och, Shanola is great, but she wanted a family, which she has now.’ Campbell shrugged, and Cherry heard a faltering in his voice, which gave her a subtle in-road. Shepushed her chair closer to the table and lowered her voice. ‘Cam, this is probably not the place to ask you this, but you know when we were dating and how we used to have “Russian Roulette” sex?’
Campbell’s face lit up, and he finally took off his sunglasses and pushed his own chair in, too.
‘Hardly going to forget it, sweetheart.’
‘And how I was late with my period a few weeks but then it came?’
‘Um, aye, in Sun City, wasn’t it?’ He leaned back a little as if remembering the sex.
‘Yes… I’m sorry to pry, but did you ever have anything like that happen with anyone else?’
‘Not sure this is the place to be having this conversation.’ Campbell recced the coffee shop. People were almost taking it in shifts to peer at them, but no one appeared to have a phone out. You never could tell, though. He turned back to Cherry and, despite talking in code, put his hand on his chin to hide his mouth.
‘I never played Russian Roulette with anyone else. Never wanted to get into that level of debt again.’
‘I see.’ Cherry had been half hoping that Campbell had found himself in that position again, only in as much as it might indicate that her body was not the issue. Grant her some peace of mind. But it didn’t look like she would be getting that here.
‘Are you sure everything is hunky-dory?’ Campbell seemed to get what she was talking about, as well as assuming a little beyond this. ‘If you ever need any money formedical stuff or whatever, let me know.’
‘We’re fine, Cam. Just fine.’ Cherry hated having to ask Campbell about this at all, and she certainly wouldn’t be taking any money from him for ‘medical things’. ‘So, tell meabout this golf rom com you’ve been filming. I’m curious as to how you make golf sexy.’
‘This is it, sweetheart.’ Campbell grinned and made someVoguedance moves around his face. ‘Thisis how you make golf sexy.’
Thank goodness the man was easily distracted. Cherry had asked her awkward question, and now they could move on.
Chapter 29
Sean
Sean stood at the lounge window and contemplated the dark clouds lurking ominously over the water. You couldn’t have as much sunshine as they’d been having of late without a storm as payoff. The surf forecast was pretty gnarly – waves up to six feet. Once he’d shown his face at today’s poker tournament, the beach was his first stop. He’d take his chances on lightning and thunder for the reckless thrill of those waves.
Speaking of taking chances and reckless thrills, the poker tournament was the deadline that had been circled in red ink in his mind for the past two months. The day his wife could walk away, having done what he’d asked her to do.
But now… Now things were different. Cherry was settling, agreeing to give things a shot, accepting at last that they belonged together. They slept all night in her bed and spent time together curled up on the sofa watching movies, ate meals together, drank beer and wine and laughed a lot. And her bags weren’t packed to leave after the tournament.
They hadn’t discussed Tennessee and her future in the poker world, but they had agreed they would after today.
Sean turned at the creaking of the stairs.
