Page 59 of The Summer Swap

“Why didn’t he tell Trisha how he felt?”

“He tried. She wouldn’t listen. She couldn’t get past that affair. And the thing that made it harder for him was that it wasn’t even serious to begin with. Maybe if it had truly meant something, if he’d been in love...” Theo shrugged. “I don’t know. But it was just a fling. I’m not defending him. Just telling you his side of the story. He said he didn’t know why he did it. Life seemed to be rushing past him. Trisha was always busy. He felt lonely. That’s probably difficult for you to understand.”

Feeling lonely?

Her mouth was so dry she could hardly speak. “No,” she croaked. “Not so difficult.”

“But a bit sad don’t you think?” Theo gave a tired smile. “He still loved Trisha.”

She’d never heard Theo talk like this before.

“He didn’t love Candy?”

“For a while he thought he did. She came into his life at a low point. She paid attention to him. Made him feel attractive and interesting. I’m not blaming her, obviously. He made the choice. He was responsible.”

Jeff had been attentive. Jeff had made her feel attractive and interesting.

She was bathed in a sweat of horror.

She felt pathetically relieved that she hadn’t gone ahead with the affair. Nothing had happened. She’d had a few lunches with a man who wasn’t her husband. That was it.

She took a large gulp of wine. “If he regretted it, why did he marry Candy?”

“Trisha told him it was over. That she’d never forgive him. He was trying to build a new life.” Theo ate his asparagus and then put down his knife and fork. “Did you know that he and Trisha were seeing each other again?”

“No. I didn’t know that.”

But it explained a great deal.

She thought of Trisha sobbing at the funeral, distraught. She’d made a speech about Michael, saying nothing but good things and Kristen had wondered where all the anger and hurt had gone, and how Candy would feel hearing all that. It had been a while before she’d discovered that Candy wasn’t there. When she’d said that she didn’t “do” funerals, she hadn’t just been talking about the organization.

“The week before he was killed, he and Trisha had agreed that they were going to get back together permanently. They were going to get married again. He’d bought her a ring. He showed it to me.”

Their main course was delivered to the table and Kristen watched as he boned fish with surgical precision.

A ring?

She didn’t know any of this. Why didn’t she know? Why hadn’t Trisha told her? Come to think of it, why hadn’t Theo mentioned it?

“What about Candy?”

“That was over.”

Kristen was struggling to keep up. “Michael told you all this?”

“Yes. We used to talk a lot. Lately he was happier than I’d seen him in ages. Since before breaking up with Trisha. He said it felt like a fresh start. As if they were on the edge of major change.”

She was stunned to discover that Theo knew so much personal detail about Michael. That they’d obviously had many conversations and he hadn’t once mentioned it to her.

She poked at her own fish, trying to work up an appetite.

Michael and Trisha had decided to get back together.

Michael had bought her a ring.

It explained why Trisha had been so upset at the funeral. She and Michael had been on the cusp of a fresh start.

Life had a sick sense of humor. It would show you your dream, then snatch it away before you had a chance to live it.

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