Page 74 of A Summer Scandal

‘What else do you suggest?’ Lucy said, her voice rising. ‘I was foolish enough to think he’d moved on with his life, but he’s not that kind of man. He’s vindictive. I can only think that he found that photo of me in the local paper on the internet and tracked me down. He has to win, and I’m not going to hang around and let him get to Charlie.’

‘Where is Charlie?’ Vi asked.

‘He’s in my room,’ Beau said, shaking his head. Lucy leaving was obviously news to him as much as anyone else, and Vi could see him getting more and more furious.

‘I can’t believe the fucker was in your house,’ he said. ‘You should have called me.’

Lucy looked distressed. ‘And put you in danger too? While I’m here, none of you are safe. He’s small-minded, vengeful. I spent enough years living in fear of him to know that he’ll try to get at me through anyone he thinks I’m close to.’

‘This isn’t the right thing to do, Lucy,’ Cal said. ‘If you go, you’re letting him win.’

‘And if I stay, he might kill me. Or worse, Charlie.’

Vi looked at Lucy. ‘And if you go, he still might. You’ll be forever looking over your shoulder. You can’t live like that, it’s intolerable.’

‘Don’t you think that’s how I’ve lived since the day I left him?’ Lucy scrubbed her hands over her face, resigned. ‘Charlie was in the house when he came, Vi. When I think what could have happened to my boy …’ She trailed off, stony-faced, determined.

Vi didn’t know what to say, how to help, but she couldn’t let Lucy deal with this on her own.

‘No,’ she said, standing up. ‘Come and stay with me at the Lido for a few days, just while we think what to do.’

Beau shook his head. ‘You stay with me.’

Cal looked at Beau, aware that he was renting a one-room studio. ‘It makes more sense if you stay at mine,’ he said, glancing back at Lucy. ‘I’ve got more room.’

‘Look, all of you, stop,’ Lucy said. ‘I can’t involve you all like this. It’s my problem, and I’m dealing with it.’

‘You’re our friend, Lucy,’ Vi said. ‘And we want to help. You don’t have to handle everything on your own any more.’

‘Run, and he’ll run too,’ Keris said.

‘Stay, and I’ll make sure the bastard regrets rearing his ugly head within a hundred miles of you. You’ll be free of him for good,’ Beau said, crossing to stand beside Lucy, almost comically tall beside her five-foot-nothing frame.

Vi watched Lucy’s shoulders drop, and then she crumbled, starting to cry. Keris jumped up and ushered her over to sit between them on the chaise, and Beau hunkered down on his haunches and put his hands on her knees.

‘Look at me,’ he said. ‘I’m practically the Hulk.’

‘You don’t know what he’s capable of.’

‘And you don’t know what I’m capable of,’ Beau said. ‘I grew up around a man like him. I know his kind, I’m not one bit scared of him. Stay and I’ll protect you.’

‘We all will,’ Vi said, squeezing Lucy’s shoulders. ‘We’ve all got your back.’

Slowly, Lucy nodded. ‘You’re the best friends I’ve ever had,’ she said.

Beau looked up at Cal. ‘Looks like you’ve got yourself some lodgers.’

‘Have my place instead,’ Keris offered. ‘I’ll just move into Grandpa’s spare room for a while.’

And so it was set. Lucy, Charlie and Beau would move into the ground floor of the Lido, and her friends would throw a ring of steel around her until her cockroach ex-husband crawled out from beneath his rock, at which point Beau would take great pleasure in crushing him beneath his boot.

They settled into a routine of sorts over the week that followed. Lucy had told Charlie just enough for him to understand the gravity of the situation but not scare him witless, and Cal and Beau worked it out between them so one of them was always visibly present on the pier during the day. It bonded them all more tightly together in a strange way, with the exception of Melvin and Linda who were away in Arizona on a couple connection retreat – whatever that was.

On Friday morning, they held a final run-through of the plans for the Good Sex awards the following evening.

‘So all you really need to do is be on hand just in case there are any logistical questions from the event management team. They’ll arrive here by twelve o’clock tomorrow. They’re like ninjas – trust me, by four o’clock they’ll have the pier Oscar ready.’

Vi nodded. The awards hadn’t really inconvenienced her at all. Beau was right about the event company – they’d been on site earlier in the week measuring up, and having met them she was rather looking forward to seeing what they were going to do. There were to be a dozen round dinner tables set out along the pier and live music, professional caterers and a compere to run the evening. Fireworks had been planned as the grand finale, a spectacular sight to round off what would hopefully be a wonderful night.

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