Jade sighed. ‘I became very jealous when I found out how much time you’d been spending with her at the theatre, when I wanted you to spend time with me.’
‘I’m sorry, Jade.’
‘I know you are.’
‘The cottage,’ said Jack looking up at the property. ‘It’s for both of them isn’t it. Recompense for getting in the way.’
Jade nodded ‘That’s right. They deserve their happy ever after, Jack.’ She took his hand, and they both turned to look at Bridie and Oliver disappearing into the distance along the promenade. Jack said, ‘They’ll love it there, their first home together, I’m sure.’
‘So, am I. It’s next door to Bridie’s favourite place, after all. Now, talking of home, lets return to ours, shall we?’
Jack, Jade and Milo turned in the other direction, and headed home.
As they walked along the promenade, hand-in-hand, Bridie suddenly had a thought. ‘Where will Isobel stay tonight?’
‘I think Jack has organised a hotel room.’
‘Oh, yes. Isobel mentioned that.’ Bridie remembered. She also recalled Isobel had said something about inviting her to live with him. She presumed he’d meant in the cottage next door to the theatre where he had been intending to live if the divorce had gone ahead.
Bridie glanced over her shoulder and saw something she hadn’t expected. Isobel was walking hand in hand with Reggie along the promenade in their direction, a few yards behind them.
‘What are you looking at?’ Oliver asked, glancing behind him too.
‘Love that has stood the test of time.’ She turned her gaze on Oliver. He returned her smile. She guessed he thought she was referring to their relationship, how long they’d known each other, and how Oliver’s love for her had never wavered in all those years apart. Although it was true for them, she was thinking of Reggie and Isobel.
Oliver said, ‘Some loves never die.’
Bridie looked at him askance. ‘You’re such a romantic.’
‘I can say the same about you, Bridie, with all that talk of love that has stood the test of time.’
They stopped briefly, a little way along the promenade. Night clung to the beach in pockets of shadow, but the horizon had softened, the hard black line between sea and sky blurring into something gentler in the moonlight. The air smelled of salt and kelp and possibility. The world felt paused, as if it were holding its breath.
For a moment, neither of them moved. There was so much history between them it felt almost visible, like a third presence hovering in the soft glow of the streetlamp.
They walked a little further before he spoke again. ‘I owe you an apology. No – more than that. I owe you the truth.’
Bridie stopped walking, thinking that Oliver didn’t owe her a thing. It was quite the reverse.
Oliver halted too, immediately turning to her. The moonlight was stronger now. She could see the lines around his eyes, the raw honesty there.
‘You broke my heart, back then, when you were with Jack,’ he said simply. ‘And I spent years pretending I was over it when I wasn’t.’
‘I know,’ she said.
She studied him, searching for the boy he had once been, her best friend at school, and the stranger he’d briefly become before they’d renewed their friendship, and she’d found love, true love this time. She asked. ‘Why fight so hard for this theatre, for me, even though you thought we’d never be together?’
Oliver exhaled slowly. ‘Because I finally realised something. Even though back then you were with Jack, you still left me too, you know, when you went to London. But you didn’t choose the theatre over him – or me. You chose yourself. And I was too young to understand that loving someone means letting them go to become who they really are.’
The words landed quietly, but they landed true. Bridie breathed in, the cold air filling her lungs. She thought of the theatre, of Isobel, of Jack, and of the community that had caught her when she’d been falling. Of the woman she was now – bruised, wiser, still hopeful despite herself. And the man she loved, she’d always loved, standing beside her.
She turned to him and gently touched his cheek.
‘May I kiss you?’ Oliver said.
‘I thought you’d never ask.’
He brushed a wisp of hair away from her face with his fingertips. ‘God, I’ve missed you.’
