Page 86 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

Heath shook his head. ‘Yeah and that was my fault.’

Meadow frowned in confusion. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Do you remember that night you came home drunk after that group dating event a few days ago?’

‘Yes of course.’

‘Well you started texting Bear, well AstralSurfer. You told him all about your first and only experience with Henry.’

Meadow gasped. ‘No! No I did not. I have never told anyone that.’

But even as she said it she knew that wasn’t true. She’d woke up the next day with the absolute certainty that she’d told someone.

‘Well alcohol loosens those lips, you told Bear everything. He came to me ready to punch my lights out because he thought I was the scum who lied to you to get you into bed. I had to tell him the truth.’

Meadow felt tears prick her eyes. ‘Heath, I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s OK, really.’

‘No it isn’t. We promised each other we’d never tell anyone.’

‘I promise you I wasn’t angry. I was more concerned about you.’

‘I can’t believe Bear knows, Amelia knows too and she said she suspected he knew, but he never said anything.’

Meadow swallowed the lump of emotion in her throat. All her worries that Bear would treat her and Star differently if he knew were completely unfounded. He’d gone camping with Star, played with her, his love as strong as it had always been. And his relationship with Meadow had obviously deepened in the last few days too, despite knowing her deepest secrets.

‘He never said anything because I made him promise not to. You were always so worried about my brothers finding out, unnecessarily it seems. In the beginning you were scared they wouldn’t accept you into the family if they knew the truth and later you were scared about them finding out the lie. I always knew they would have taken you in, just like I did. They love you. Well, Bear more than River obviously. But I knew you’d be upset that you’d told anyone and that Bear of all people knew, so I convinced him to hide it from you. Bear logged in to your Connected Hearts account and deleted that whole conversation and then I persuaded him not to tell you that he was AstralSurfer just in case you did remember telling him. He only found out that night that you were Twilight Rose and he wanted to tell you who he was but what you told him made it really awkward for him to come clean. I suggested that he just stop messaging you as AstralSurfer and he would slowly fade away and then you’d never need to know. But that didn’t happen.’

‘He said he wanted to be there for me as a friend,’ Meadow said, her voice choked. ‘But he kept quiet about who he was just so I wouldn’t be upset by my own stupid blabbermouth?’

Heath nodded.

Meadow groaned softly. ‘Even when we had that stupid row about him lying to me, he never told me why. Even then, he was trying to protect me.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Christ, I need to talk to him.’

Star stirred and Meadow curled herself tighter around her.

‘Go and see him before breakfast,’ Heath whispered.

Meadow nodded. ‘I think we need to tell River and Indigo too, I don’t want them to have to worry about a premature birth with their baby. I mean, premature births can happen for many reasons but genetics is one of them and they shouldn’t carry that extra burden of worry unnecessarily. And as Bear and Amelia know, it’s only right that they do, too.’

‘I agree.’

‘I am sorry that this has all come out.’

‘Please don’t be, it doesn’t change anything.’

‘You’re a good man, Heath Brookfield.’

He smiled. ‘I’m the best.’

Meadow laughed and then stifled it in her pillow.

She closed her eyes and crossed everything she had that Bear would forgive her.

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