Page 63 of All Summer Long

Alice waited to hear what came next, resting her head on the side of her chair to look at her friend.

‘And I think his timing was off. If this had happened three months ago you’d have fallen into his arms. He’s left it too late.’

‘You think so?’

‘I know so. And I’m bloody glad he waited, as well. I bet she’s ditched his sorry ass so he’s come crawling back here.’ Naimh shot Alice a guilty look. ‘Sorry. That sounded as if I was saying you’re second best and you’re not. But then you know that.’

‘Don’t be sorry, you’re probably right.’ Alice fiddled with the pendant around her neck. ‘You didn’t see him today?’

Niamh’s laugh echoed with sarcasm. ‘He’s lucky I didn’t. He’d have more than a drink in his face to worry about if I had. The nerve of him.’ She looked at Alice with a sudden frown. ‘You’re not regretting chucking your drink, are you?’

‘No.’ Alice shook her head, struggling to explain her feelings because she didn’t fully understand them herself. ‘It came naturally. He just seemed more concerned about his performance than he did about me, which just about sums up our entire relationship. But he’s my still my husband, Niamh, on paper at least. I have to hear him out.’

Niamh scowled. ‘I’m worried that he’ll switch on the charm and you’ll cave in. I know how much he meant to you, and I saw how much he hurt you. I don’t want you to go back there again when you’ve come this far.’

‘I won’t,’ Alice said, her feelings crystallising as she voiced them. ‘You’re right. If he’d have come back a few months ago I’d have taken him back. But he didn’t, and now I’m not the same girl any more. This happened,’ she turned and gestured at the Airstream. ‘And the glampsite happened. And this happened, too.’ Alice touched the camera around her neck, then lifted it and took a shot of Niamh raising her glass. ‘I can’t believe I let myself go so long without taking pictures. So much of the world I’ve missed.’

‘And Robinson happened,’ Niamh added to Alice’s list.

‘I was just coming to him,’ Alice sighed wistfully. ‘He’s going home in a few weeks, but I’ll never be sorry that he came, and I’ll never be sorry that we got to spend this long, hot summer together.’

‘Won’t you be sorry that he’s gone?’

Alice closed her eyes and did the same thing she did every time the subject came up. ‘I don’t want to think about it until it happens.’

‘Any chance he could kill Brad before he leaves?’

‘Niamh,’ Alice chastised her friend softly.

Niamh shrugged. ‘Not sorry.’

‘Come on. I’ll walk you home on my way to The Siren.’

Alice sat in the middle of the otherwise empty bar at The Siren nursing an orange juice while Jase let Brad know that she was downstairs. He’d hi-fived her silently when she’d walked in to the pub, and murmured that he’d be there in a heartbeat if she shouted for him, as he put her drink down and went to find her errant husband.

She glanced over at the door as it opened a few minutes later and Brad sheepishly poked his head inside.

‘Is it safe to come in?’

His attempt at humour felt wide of the mark. Alice looked at him steadily, taking in his freshly shaven face, his still-shower-damp dark hair, the shirt she’d given him for Christmas. He looked like the man she’d shared her life with for years, and at the same time like a stranger. He glanced at her juice warily.

‘You’re not likely to throw that one as well, are you?’

‘Quit with the lame jokes and just sit down, will you?’ she said, suddenly weary. She’d had so many imaginary conversations with Brad since he left, and none of them had gone quite like this, nor had they taken place in The Siren for safety. Times really had changed.

Brad scraped the chair opposite Alice’s back on the flagstones and dropped into it, his hands cupping his slightly tilted chin. It was a pose that said look at me I’m gorgeous, rather than I’m looking at you and you’re gorgeous, and the staged element of it set Alice’s teeth instantly on edge.

‘I would have come to you,’ he said, magnanimous.

Alice sipped her juice and knotted her fingers in her lap.

‘Why did you do that last night, Brad?’

He sighed and looked forlorn. ‘I honestly thought you’d like it, Ali.’

Brad was the only person in the world who called her Ali, and the tiniest piece of her heart thawed at the sound of it on his lips. She looked away, out of the window at the deep blue sky and the road stretching away towards the manor. Towards home. Her home, not Brad’s.

‘Did you really think that after everything you put me through one public display of not even very good singing was going to impress me?’

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