‘Because,’ she said simply, ‘it would have broken his heart, and I could never do that to him.’
I got to my feet and gazed into her eyes, seeing the truth for myself at last.
‘My God. I thought it was a crush! You really love him, don’t you?’
For a moment she hesitated, then nodded slightly. ‘Nothing’s happened,’ she said quickly. ‘And Danny doesn’t know how I feel.’
‘But why not? You’ve been together eighteen years. Why haven’t you told him?’
‘There’d be no point,’ she said sadly. ‘The plain fact is, there’s no room in Danny’s heart for anyone but you, and I don’t think there ever will be.’ She gave me the smallest of smiles. ‘Night, Kirsty.’
As she walked away from me, a forlorn little figure in an eccentric outfit with crazy hair, my heart broke for her and for Danny. I’d taken everything from them, and here I was, still preventing them from finding happiness. It wasn’t fair.
Maybe I hadn’t done much to deserve my happy ending, but Rory deserved his, and so did Danny and Brooke. This entire mess was down to me. Somehow, I had to make up for it. It was the least I could do for them.
28
I didn’t sleep much that night, and judging by Rory’s restlessness I thought he’d had a pretty sleepless one, too.
When we both finally gave up and opened our eyes to the new morning, we gave each other sheepish smiles.
‘Happy anniversary,’ I said.
He rubbed his eyes. ‘Happy anniversary, darling.’
Ten years of marriage and look where we were. We faced each other and it became obvious that neither of us knew what to say to the other. This wasn’t what we’d envisaged our special day to be like, that was for sure.
‘Shall we go downstairs for breakfast, or do you want to eat in here?’ Rory asked.
I had a feeling that, right now, we needed to be around people. We needed distractions, other people to look at, noise, chatter, laughter. Normality.
‘Let’s go downstairs,’ I suggested. ‘I think I’ve spent enough time closeted away in this room.’
He nodded and thirty minutes later we were taking our seats in the dining room.
I don’t honestly think either of us were particularly hungry, but we dutifully ordered our favourite Eggs Benedict, ignoring the delicious pancakes, muffins and waffles that were on offer.
‘Seems pretty busy through there,’ Rory remarked, as we watched several people coming and going into the adjoining function room.
‘Must be some event happening later,’ I said.
‘Someone else’s anniversary perhaps,’ he said wistfully.
I didn’t reply, all too aware that our own special day was turning out to be a day we’d never forget for all the wrong reasons. I still wasn’t sure what was going to happen after we left here. This might be the last anniversary we ever had. When I told Rory the truth it might well be the finish of us.
As we sat sipping our coffee, Penny came over to us.
‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘Is everything to your satisfaction?’
We both agreed that it was, although I thought it was a bit odd that the boss herself was checking up on us. It was usually the waitresses or waiters who made sure we had everything we needed.
‘You seem very busy,’ Rory observed. ‘Is there a celebration happening later?’
Penny smiled. ‘There is. An engagement party. The owner of the village is marrying the grandson of the former owner of the village, so as you can imagine we’re all very excited.’ She glanced over at the function room. ‘We’re starting to decorate it already. And there’s going to be music, too.’ Her eyes twinkled. ‘You could say everyone’s going to be in High Spirits tonight.’
‘High Spirits!’ Rory put down his coffee cup and laughed. ‘This is where Danny’s group are performing tonight! He said there was a special event…’ He broke off and gave Penny a wary look. ‘I mean…’
She nodded. ‘I know what you mean, and you’re right. Danny’s one of the lead singers.’
