Page 47 of Starting Over at Halesmere House
‘I’m sorry. Is everything okay?’
‘I think it is.’ He nodded slowly. ‘In fact, I know it is. I blocked them, something I should have done a long time ago. It was Serena, my ex-fiancée, still trying to play her games.’
‘Games?’
Zac unlocked the phone again and held it up. ‘That’s her.’
A young woman, probably around Zac’s age, was staring adoringly at the equally stunning man standing next to her, arms wrapped around one another. Whip-thin, she wore a white dress with a plunging neckline and slit nearly to one hip, gorgeous blonde hair drawn back from her face.
Serena was one of the most striking women Alice had ever seen and she was very clearly loved up with someone else. No wonder Zac was hurt, hiding out at Halesmere if he’d lost her. And she was as different from Alice as it was possible to be. Alice, with her wind-blown hair, skin exposed to the weather and the waterproofs she wore nearly every day. And she’d never have legs that long, even in killer heels. Her curves didn’t feel quite so luscious now she’d been presented with this vision.
‘She’s very beautiful.’
‘Yes. On the outside, at least. Not so much on the inside.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Alice touched his arm, dark hairs soft beneath her fingers. ‘I know how it feels to be blindsided by something you’re not expecting.’ There were still occasional moments when she’d remember the sight of Gareth stumbling out of their bed, another woman smirking next to him.
‘Thanks.’ Zac placed the phone face down on the duvet, as though that would be enough to delete the image from the device, his mind, his memories. ‘She messaged to say there was an online interview coming up and to let me know they were going to run an old picture of me and her. The interview’s not why she messaged me, though. She likes to touch base every now and then, make sure I’m thinking about her.’
‘Zac, that’s awful.’ At least Gareth had never tried to make a nuisance of himself when they’d split; he simply hadn’t wanted to know once their shared lives had been divided.
‘Serena’s kind of the reason I’m here. We met at a race, and she completely bowled me over; I thought she was incredible. She ran her own marketing company, and worked for another team. We were together from that first weekend, and it seemed like we wanted the same things. A home, a family one day – we even got a puppy and I asked her to marry me six months after we met. I thought it was perfect, that I’d found my soulmate.’
Alice couldn’t begin to compare her own steady marriage to Zac’s life lived quite literally in the fast lane with a woman like Serena. Worlds apart, and somehow theirs had come together for now.
‘We’d set a date for the wedding; it was going to be in Barbados once the season was over. Then I had my accident. Me with my leg in a cast and smashed up, while Serena told everyone how wonderful I was and that I was going to come back even stronger and win next time. At first I tried to tell her how nervous I was about racing again, but she shut me down. I played along, worried I would lose her too if she knew I was thinking of quitting. We postponed the wedding for a year because she said I needed to focus on winning the championship and that was more important. She was all about the future, only it just felt like it was getting further and further away from me.’
Zac tilted his head and Alice rested her cheek against his arm, trying to let him know she was sorry for what had happened, that the relationship he’d thought was forever and his accident had nearly crushed him too.
‘Serena was livid when I announced my retirement after that last race, absolutely appalled, once she’d stopped smiling for the cameras. I realised then that I had no idea who we actually were outside of racing, and she left me that night. Six months later she married another driver and tagged me in her wedding photos.’
‘I’m so sorry.’ No wonder Neil had looked disgusted when he’d mentioned Serena’s name that day after church. Was this why Zac didn’t date, because he’d been so broken by the woman he’d loved and who’d left him for someone who could offer the success and attention she clearly craved?
‘It’s okay.’ He sighed, running a hand through his hair. ‘It’s been over for a long time. Eventually she wanted her half of the house we’d bought and I had to sell it and move in with my dad. There wasn’t much left when I quit racing and I couldn’t afford to buy her out on my own. Not very clever – my dad was always telling me to wise up, in everything. He never much liked Serena.’
‘I’m sorry for what you went through.’ Alice shifted until she was behind him and wrapped both arms around his shoulders. ‘I think you’re pretty amazing, for what it’s worth. And I’m saying that to you as a tree surgeon who drives an electric van, not some hotshot, sexy racing driver.’
‘Thanks, Alice.’ Zac covered her hands with his and she felt him relax as a long breath left his chest. ‘So are you saying you think I’m sexy, but my van isn’t? Or is it the other way around?’
‘Right now you’re leaning against me and letting me hold you,’ she whispered. ‘Which one do you think I meant?’
‘Definitely the van.’
She smiled against his neck. ‘Wrong answer. What happened to the puppy?’ Alice was bristling again at the thought of his heart being broken twice over.
‘She took that too.’ His laugh was brief. ‘It’s okay, I didn’t much like it. I’m not into dressing dogs up in clothes and carrying them around. It didn’t like me either. Barked every time I got within two feet.’
‘Silly dog,’ Alice murmured. ‘Who would want to chase you away?’
‘You did, as I recall. That night in the pub when you said you didn’t want to date anyone.’
‘You said the same thing,’ she reminded him. ‘I understand why not.’
‘Yeah.’ Zac picked up her hand to brush it with his lips. ‘I’m sorry about tonight. The past has a knack of turning up at the wrong moments.’
‘It does. A few months after Gareth and I broke up we were tagged in a post by a charity we’d both supported. An easy mistake, just one of those things. Only he was at the event with his new partner, standing next to her and her two children.’
At the time it had nearly crushed Alice. He’d ended their marriage for another relationship, but not only that, a relationship with a woman who already had children. Gareth had skipped straight past the anguish of their own loss and launched himself into another family, a ready-made one, all beaming for the camera like their own marriage had never existed.
