Page 106 of The Village of Lost and Found

But they locked eyes as he stood close to her and he didn’t let go of the jacket, merely letting his hands clasp her shoulders.

‘Tom,’ she whispered.

He slowly moved his hands around to her back and drew her closer to him. ‘Yeah?’ he asked.

‘I’m not sure this is the most sensible thing for us to do,’ she said.

‘I absolutely agree,’ he told her, causing her beautiful face to break into a soft smile. ‘But who wants to be sensible their whole life?’

But just as he leant forward to kiss her, she gave a start. ‘Who’s that?’ she asked, looking over his shoulder.

Tom automatically turned his head to look at the figure crossing over the narrow pedestrian bridge towards them.

He took an intake of breath. ‘It’s Andrea.’

His ex-wife was in Cranbridge.

58

Lucy felt as if she had fallen into the river running alongside her and Tom and that the cold water had woken her up from a dream.

‘That’s Andrea?’ she asked. ‘Your ex-wife?’

He nodded, his face set grim.

Lucy couldn’t believe it. She had had an amazing evening with Tom. The slow dance they had shared had positively sizzled with chemistry. And up to a few moments ago, she had hoped that they were going to kiss again. In fact, she was longing for him to kiss her and for her to kiss him right back. But suddenly here was his ex-wife and the spell had been thoroughly broken.

‘Hello, Thomas,’ said Andrea, coming up to them. She immediately leant in to give Tom a brush on his cheek with her lips.

‘What are you doing here?’ asked Tom.

Andrea ignored his question and looked at Lucy instead. ‘Hello. Who are you?’

‘Lucy Conway,’ she said, her mouth almost numb with shock. ‘I work atThe Cranbridge Times.’

‘How nice for you,’ she said.

Lucy glanced from Tom to Andrea, sensing the tension in the air.

‘Well, perhaps I should go,’ she said, looking at Tom.

She longed for him to stop her leaving. To tell Andrea to push off and leave them alone. But he seemed frozen to the spot.

Lucy sighed. ‘Well, goodnight.’

As she walked away, she heard Andrea say, ‘Your staff work late, don’t they?’

Lucy managed to stop herself looking back at the couple as she walked across the bridge to Riverside Lane. There was a chill in the air and she wrapped Tom’s jacket around her to keep herself warm. It felt like only seconds ago that he had been about to take her into his arms. What did Andrea want? Hadn’t she hurt him enough?

Lucy walked around to the back of the lane to let herself into the apartment. All was quiet. Molly must have gone to bed and taken Keith with her, she thought.

She slipped off her flip-flops so that she could cross the wooden floors in her bare feet.

Having brushed her teeth and taken off her make-up, she went into her bedroom and softly closed the door.

Still hugging Tom’s jacket around her, she couldn’t stop herself from peeping out through the window. She could see the couple in the inky darkness. They were still standing where she had left them. She strained at the open window, trying to catch a gist of what they were talking about, but she couldn’t hear anything.

As she looked properly at them once more, she realised why they had stopped talking. Their heads had merged in the darkness, their shadows entwined together. They were kissing, she thought, utterly horrified. She couldn’t believe it. Not Tom. Not her Tom. But their heads were touching, that much she could tell, and the sight of them burned deep inside her with pain. She gasped in horror before flinging the curtains closed. But the image of them merged in the darkness was imprinted on her heart.