Page 65 of One for the Road
I cleared my throat, remembering the reason we were here in the first place. “Your stomach looks fine, might want to ice it later to be on the safe side.”
Her reflection glanced at mine, eyes locking in the mirror. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” So formal. I grabbed my jumper, punching my arms through the sleeves. “We should get going.”
I felt strangely pulled apart as I stepped out onto the green. Like my insides had been rearranged and put back in the wrong order. The sunlight was a little blinding. The air a little too clear. Voices too loud.
I felt the eyes of onlookers on us, and my cheeks burned a little, like I was doing the walk of shame. I looked to Isla, ready to apologise. But she was . . . laughing?
“Well, if they didn’t believe us before, they certainly do now.”
16
Alistair
The drive home from the market had been awkward as hell. Like the calm right before the storm.
Teddy had taken the news of Cameron’s cancellation with only a solemn nod and a “Can we go home now?”
“What about ice cream?” Isla had asked, plastering on a shaking smile that even I saw straight through.
“I’m not hungry,” Teddy had said, sighing as she slid into the Land Rover’s back seat to wait while Isla and I packed up the food truck in a strained silence that accompanied us all the way home.
Between Isla furiously switching through the radio stations until she finally settled on one my mum would listen to and Teddy’s brooding taking up all the air in the car, I’d quickly taken my departure as soon as I’d parked in front of the cottages, barely able to look Isla in the eye as we’d hurried through a goodbye.
We hadn’t even planned when to go out again.
Closing the front door, I’d dropped back against it with a heavy sigh, wondering if maybe that was for the best. Aweek ago, this plan had felt foolproof. A few dates in the village, a wee bit of hand-holding and we could get on with our lives as soon as summer ended. But now I realised it all became a lot more complicated in real life. Fake or not, spending time with someone meant your lives intertwined, whether you wanted them to or not.
I wasn’t sure I wanted my life to intertwine with Isla’s. Not when I’d be out of here the second the surgery sold. What would be the point of complicating that?
A devastated cry from Isla’s side of the wall had finally snapped me out of it. Isla hadn’t been lying when she said Teddy would be devastated at Cameron’s cancellation. Teddy’s sobs followed me all the way to the bedroom where I tore off the jumper that somehow smelled like Isla.
I’d showered as a distraction, doing my best not to remember how her silken skin felt beneath my hands. Afterwards, I made a smoothie that Heather had so lovingly named my douchebag drink–because according to her, only arseholes drank wheatgrass – and then got a jump-start on patient referral letters at my kitchen table. But it was no use. An hour later, I could still hear Teddy crying through the wall.
It was a mystery to me why anyone would have kids, even if Teddy was turning out to be a great one. Parents like Isla gave up their bodies, money and sanity, just to be told, “It’s all your fault we have to live here! Why does Daddy have to hate me just because he hates you?”
I’d been half tempted to call back,Because the spineless little prick decided to start his midlife crisis a decade earlier than scheduled.
Yeah, I’d been practically standing with my ear to the wall for that part. I was a snoop when it came to Isla, fucking sue me. And I’d heard enough to know that Isla handled the tantrum with a grace I did not possess.
“I know you’re hurting, baby girl. I’m so sorry I can’t fix it.” The anguish in her voice had me palming my keys, ready to drive over to Cameron’s place, punch him in the dick, then drag him here by the collar and force him to his knees so he could give them both the apology they deserved.
Isla wouldn’t thank me for getting involved with Cameron again. I’d already dented his pride enough for one day.
It was for that reason alone I was standing in my front garden right now, holding the Lego set I’d just dug out of a moving box, like a complete arsehole.
“Where’s your mummy?”
Teddy sat cross-legged on my lawn, elbows on knees, tear-stained cheeks planted on her fists.
“On the phone to my granny.” She sighed quietly. “Am I in trouble for being in your garden again?”
“No.” I walked closer. “I was hoping you might help me with my Lego. Can I sit?”
She squinted behind her glasses, gaze shrewd. “You played with Lego when you were a kid?”
“A kid?” I huffed out a laugh. “I still play Lego now.” It was a great stress-reliever. “Shift over, let me show you what I’ve got.” I sat cross-legged, like her. My legs folded a little awkwardly, but I made it work and handed her the box.
