Page 80 of The Damaged Hearts Bargain

“Jesus,” breathed Rosalee. “You’re right, it does. And it would all mean… it’d mean that we’ve all been wrong. That Cal was right all along and… We’re not bad people Lucy.”

“I know that you’re not,” Lucy said. “You’ve all welcomed me with open arms, the whole town. But I can see where things got all mixed up as well. And I think that maybe we should try and put things right.”

“How?” Rosalee asked.

“About that,” said Lucy. “I think I might have an idea. It’s big and flashy, but it’ll be noticeable and have people talking the right way.”

“Big and flashy? You sure that’s what’s needed here?” Rosaleeasked doubtfully.

“People like to gossip about the negative, not about the positive,” said Lucy. “If we’re going to get the truth out there then we have to do it with a splash otherwise everyone will ignore it.”

“What do you need?” Rosalee asked.

“Um, I need that big blank wall facing the road,” Lucy said.

“You…. You what?”

Lucy explained and a wide smile started to stretch across Rosalee’s face.

Chapter Thirty Three

Cal sealed up the final box with tape. “You really didn’t have to come.”

“I’m fully aware of that,” Syd said, picking the box up and stacking it on top of the others. “However, I do have a big truck and all you’ve got is a little motorbike, so I’m not sure how you were planning on moving any of this stuff.”

“Less of the little,” Cal said. “And I was planning on renting something or renting someone I suppose.”

“Wait, you can rent people here?” Syd asked. “Small town life is weird.”

“You know what I meant. Like a removal service or… or a cleaning service or something.”

“Well, I figure three trips to the tip should do it, we’ll get rid of all this stuff, come back and run a vacuum cleaner around and then you should be fit for the estate agent.”

“Except the vacuum cleaner is in one of those boxes ready to be thrown away,” Cal said, wiping her forehead with her arm.

“I’m not unpacking them again,” Syd said. “And I need to be back in the pub by tomorrow morning, so I don’t have all day.”

“It’s fine. Rosalee from the pub will let me borrow hers. At least I think she will.” Cal had been studiously avoiding the pub all week. In fact, she’d been avoiding the entire town all week.When Syd arrived the day before, she’d driven them both over to the next town to get something to eat and pick up cleaning supplies.

“Great. Let’s get this stuff loaded into the van then,” said Syd.

The day was as hot as ever and Cal couldn’t help wishing that just for once they could be having a typical English summer, complete with rain and cooling winds.

“I’m not going to get to meet her then?” Syd asked as they were piling boxes into the back of the van.

“Who?”

“Lucy, obviously.”

Cal stopped what she was doing and put her hands on her hips. “And why exactly would I go around introducing all my exes?”

“So we can gossip about all your flaws,” said Syd. “Anyway, I’d have thought that you were still friends. You’re friends with me.”

“Well, we’re not.” Not that they weren’t friends. They were… complicated. As much as Cal tried to stay on the good side of the women she’d dated, there was something different about Lucy. It just… it hurt. More than Cal had expected.

She thought she was doing the right thing for Lucy. Thought that taking her broken self out of Tetherington was the best thing to do. But that didn’t mean that she didn’t get a searing pain in her chest every time she thought about Lucy’s smile.

“You know the problem with you?” Syd said conversationally.

---