A bolt of lightning – white and razor sharp – cut across the sky outside, followed by the loaded rumble of thunder.
Where was he?
Amidst a media frenzy for her attention, Cherry posed for some photographs, forcing happiness onto her face.
Give them soundbites, say things about the charity, present the right image. It’s all about image.
But her mind was on Sean. Where was he? Where was her husband?
‘What made you decide to organise a charity poker tournament for MND fundraising?’
‘Do you plan to do anything else to raise funds for MND?’
‘I believe you used to date Campbell Duff? Is there tension with your ex and new husband being in the same room?’
Where is Sean? Where is Sean? Where is Sean?
Cherry answered the questions as politely as she could. And when she got away, the rain now thundering down outside, she found Jamie.
‘Jamie, where’s Sean?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Jamie checked the room once, then back again, the second time his eyes settling on the window. He paused, and Cherry watched as something changed on his face. A darkening in his eyes.
‘What?’
‘Fuck!’ Jamie swept his hand through his hair. ‘He wouldn’t.’
Cherry didn’t know what Jamie was getting at, but her first thought was that Sean – never one to walk away from a challenge – probably would. She followed Jamie’s eye line to the window. To the rain teeming down, to the dark smoky skies, to the enormous waves churning into the shoreline far in the distance.
Huge, gnarly waves.
Surf that was going off.
Storm of the year.
He wouldn’t.
But Cherry knew he would.
She turned to Jamie.
‘He’s gone surfing, hasn’t he? He’s actually gone surfing in this fucking weather.’
Jamie nodded. ‘Aye.’ He thought for amoment, pressed his tongue into his cheek and took a deep breath. ‘Shit. Right, come on. I’ll drive.’
Chapter 31
Sean
It wasn’t the first time Sean had surfed in conditions like this. But it was the first time he’d done it with a storm going on inside him to match the weather.
The first time with a helicopter rising up in the distance possibly carrying his wife and her movie star ex.
She hadn’t cheated on him and wouldn’t. He knew she wasn’t interested in Campbell. But Cherry had betrayed him in a different way. She had told Campbell about their private life. The man knew way more than he should.
All these weeks of mining his soul for strength to deal with Cherry’s trauma on top of the grief over his dad, of grafting to show her that she was all that mattered, that he would be her concrete foundation when she felt like she was standing on sand.
Apparently, it meant nothing. Sean was just a slot machine that kept on spitting out the jackpot.
