Page 50 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

‘No, that wasn’t what happened,’ Meadow said, desperate to tell him the truth about Heath but she knew she couldn’t.

‘Then why did you sleep with him?’

She shook her head.

‘I don’t even know what to do with this information right now,’ Bear said. ‘Our lives could have been so different.’

Meadow felt a bitter wave of disappointment crash over her. How could she have been so stupid? He was right, it could have been so different and now it felt like it was too late.

Bear took a step away from her, pushing both hands through his hair.

‘I need to put the webcams up before it gets dark,’ he said. ‘I’ll catch you later.’

Meadow watched him walk away and felt her heart break all over again.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE

It was getting late and Bear was fed up. Some of the webcams had taken a lot longer to put up than he’d thought and he still wasn’t sure what to make of what Meadow had told him earlier.

But he had promised her he would be at the dating event tonight, even if he was going to be late.

He made his way back towards his lodge just as Amelia was heading back to her car. She was the last person he wanted to talk to but she had already seen him.

‘What’s going on with you and Meadow?’ Amelia said, getting straight to the point. She seemed pissed and he wondered what Meadow had been telling her.

‘Nothing is going on,’ he muttered, trying to walk past her.

‘Well I beg to differ, I saw Meadow earlier and it was very obvious she’d been crying.’

Bear felt a pang of guilt like a kick to the stomach.

‘And you’re stomping around here with a dark cloud hanging over your head and a face like thunder, something has happened.’

Bear stopped and sighed, looking out over the sea painted with rose and cranberry as the sun dipped below the horizon.

‘Look, I know I promised Meadow that I wouldn’t interfere with whatever it is that is going on between you two but I can’t sit back and let you make stupid mistakes,’ Amelia said.

‘We had words about something that happened a long time ago.’

‘About Meadow getting pregnant?’

He turned to look at her. ‘Well, I guess that was a small part of it. But a lot of things went wrong around that time, there were a lot of misunderstandings, things we needed to talk about. I’m annoyed she made decisions for me without even discussing it with me.’

‘Bear Brookfield, you listen to me,’ Amelia said. ‘I don’t know what went on between you two eight years ago and, despite my desperation to be kept up to date on all the gossip, I don’t need to know. You know why, because it’s in the past. No amount of getting angry, frustrated, upset or disappointed is going to change what happened. And you were both children. I look back at the person I was in my twenties and I cringe at what a selfish idiot I was. You two were younger than that. The benefit of age, wisdom and maturity is a wonderful thing, so is the gift of hindsight. Life is too short for regrets. We can’t dwell on the past when you need to focus on the things that will make you happy in the future. You and your brothers had a crappy childhood and I wish I had known what was happening so I could’ve done something about it. But neither of you have let that past ruin your lives. You refused to let it define you. The three of you are better men because you were determined to move on from that. Don’t let this thing that happened between you and Meadow eight years ago be the thing that drives you apart. Let it go. Be the better man.’

He stared over the sea again, the rose pink turning to deep purple as the night clouds moved in. He knew she was right. He had overreacted. He remembered what he’d said to Twilight about not judging her on her past and how he was more interested in who she was now, not the person she was in the past. The same should hold true for Meadow. He was in love with the woman Meadow was now and knowing what had happened eight years ago didn’t change that so why had he got so upset?

‘If the lack of communication was the thing that caused so much upset eight years ago then that’s the thing you need to fix now,’ Amelia said. ‘Talk to her, be honest with her. Then maybe you can move forward.’

He sighed. ‘Thanks for the pep talk but I really need to go.’

He moved off towards his lodge. Amelia was right, he had to talk to Meadow. But right then he had no idea what to say.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR

Meadow stood in a large room with around sixty other men and women who were all milling around talking in small groups. She felt completely out of her depth. Although she was always quite happy meeting and talking to the customers at Wishing Wood, initiating conversations face to face with potential matches was always a bit daunting. The speed dating hadn’t felt so bad because she had to talk to the men who arrived at her table, but going up to one of them and starting a conversation felt a lot harder. She’d tried chatting to a few women since she’d arrived here tonight, as that always felt easier, but as all the women here were looking for a man, they weren’t interested in wasting their time talking to another woman.

There were some different men there tonight than at the speed-dating event the night before. She knew Mix n Match were running two groups of people for their events, so each event would take place on two different days. That way there wouldn’t be too many people at one event and people would get to meet different potential matches at each event too.

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