‘I’m not getting married.’ He swallowed.
‘Oh, right, it’s just that I think you’ll find that’s what fiancée means!’
He rubbed his eyes and she noted the slight shake to his fingers. ‘It’s all a fucking mess.’
‘It is. A mess of your making!’ she spat. ‘I feel like such an idiot. I believed everything you told me!’ This was the hardest thing for her to fathom: how she had fallen and how quickly. ‘I’ve got to give you credit, you were very convincing.’
‘You can believe me! I love you! I do.’
Those words were no longer the key to a portal in which she could see her future. She looked out over the water and let her pulse settle.
‘Do you know, this is where I was sitting when I first saw you.’
‘I thought it was at Hele Bay?’ His mouth twitched briefly, as if he were happy in the memory.
She shook her head. ‘No. I was standing right here. It was like I was aware of you before I actually saw you, and when I did,I remember thinking,there you are.As if I’d been waiting for you, waiting for you without even knowing it.’
‘It’s the same, the same for me, but—’
‘But what, Edgar, Bear, Ed, whatever your bloody name is?’
‘It’s such a mess!’
‘Yes, so you’ve said.’ She sucked in her cheeks to stop a sob forming.
‘I need to tell you—’
‘No, no you don’t need to tell me anything.’ She cut him off. ‘I want you to leave me alone. Please just go away.’ Her veins ran cold with humiliation.
‘Tawrie, please, I want to explain, I need to—’
‘I said go away! You don’tneedto do anything. Don’t you think you’ve done enough?’ She was unaware of just how loudly she had yelled until Needle came alongside.
‘Everything all right here, Taw?’ He stood with his shoulders back, chest out, as if prepared to go toe to toe with Ed, and she was strangely glad he was there. Despite having him witness her distress, it felt good to have the support of someone who knew her, knew her family. Here in this little town, where she belonged and Edgar Stratton did not.
‘Everything’s fine, thanks, Needle. Just saying goodbye to this wanker-named blow-in.’ She found there was nothing rewarding in having spoken so foully about the man she loved, nor the expression of hurt that flashed across his face. ‘You’d better get back to your fiancée, your decaf coff might be going cold.’
He looked from her to Needle and then at his watch, before walking slowly, shoulders hunched, back to his fiancée, who thought he was in the loo.
‘You all right, love?’ Needle placed his hand on her shoulder. His kindness was almost more than she could stand.
‘I will be. I’m going to go home for a bit.’
‘Want me to walk you?’ He bent his head and looked into her eyes; sweet, kind Needle who might not be sharp, but was lovely.
‘I’ll be okay, Needle, but thanks.’ She turned and walked away, although with her thoughts spinning like a tornado, tears clouding her vision and with the collapse of the adrenaline-fuelled happiness that had been holding her up, tiredness now lapped at her heels and her footsteps faltered.
Ed turned to look at her as she passed him at the café entrance, making her way up Fore Street.
She kept her gaze firmly ahead, willing her robust legs to move faster, as she fired off a text to Connie.
JUST NEED AN HOUR
Her cousin’s reply was swift: a single kiss.
Having made it to the top of the steps, she spied her nan in a deckchair, reading the paper in the sunshine with her broad-brimmed straw hat hiding her face.
‘Here she is! All okay, little love?’
