Page 31 of Happy Days Ahead in the Cornish Village

‘What do you think he wants?’

‘I… I don’t know.’ What could Lyle want? Why would he have travelled all this way to see her? He hadn’t messaged or rung since he’d received the divorce papers, so what could have made him drive down here? Unless that was it, the divorce papers, unless he hadn’t wanted to text or call but to speak face to face. But how had he known where to find her? West Par should have been the last place he’d expect her to be. ‘He must have got the divorce papers. I’ll go and talk to him.’

‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’

Megan turned back to Flora. She could see the concern etched across her face and it took her a moment to realise she was nervous of Lyle. Another insight to the man he had become.

‘I’ll go and speak to him. Tell him to leave.’

Flora rolled her shoulders back, determination replacing the nerves. ‘No, lovely. I’ll go and tell him you don’t want to speak to him.’

Megan smiled. It felt good to have someone who actually cared about her. Since moving away from her hometown and living with Lyle, she’d never had friends who would have gone out of their way to grab her a loaf of bread, let alone face her ex for her. She just couldn’t imagine anyone from the social circle she and Lyle had shared would have cared enough to make any such effort.

‘Thank you, but I’ll go. He won’t leave until I speak to him, anyway.’

‘Well, I’ll come with you then.’ Flora walked towards the door as Megan’s phone pinged to life.

Megan shook her head and held it up, the screen showing Lyle’s message:

Need to speak to you. Lyle.

‘I won’t be long.’

‘Right, well, give me a hand signal or something if you need me to come over.’

Nodding, Megan pulled the door open and stepped back into the humidity of the afternoon sun before closing it firmly behind her.

As she made her way across the courtyard towards Lyle, she could feel his eyes boring into her. This wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation, but one she needed to have nonetheless.

When she was within a few steps of him, she stood still, leaving the gate between them. Lyle looked as though he’d aged about ten years since she’d last seen him, the day she’d walked out. His eyes were dull and dark grey circles clung to his skin underneath them.

‘Hi,’ she said.

‘Megan.’ Lyle nodded, pushing himself away from his car and straightening his back.

‘What are you doing here?’

‘I had a feeling you might ask that.’ Turning, Lyle opened his car door, took something from the door pocket and held up an envelope. ‘I received this yesterday.’

It was the divorce papers. ‘You knew they were coming.’

‘Umm, I suspected they might. I had hoped they wouldn’t. I had hoped you’d have seen sense before speaking to a solicitor.’

‘Seen sense?’ Megan clasped her hands in front of her and rubbed at the callous on her thumb, likely caused by the amount of digging she’d been doing these last few days. ‘This isn’t some silly argument, Lyle. You knew I was leaving. You wanted this too.’

‘Wanted this?’

‘Yes, after all that happened here—’ she waved her hand behind her encompassing Wagging Tails ‘—you said the same to me. You said you wanted a divorce.’

‘What you did, going behind my back with Andy to jeopardise my career, was unforgivable, yes, but I never once said I didn’t want our marriage to work.’

She narrowed her eyes.

‘How could our marriage survive that? You’ve changed. You’re not the man I married.’ She shook her head, remembering the day she’d walked out. ‘Besides, you made it clear you wouldn’t change. You even said you didn’t regret what you tried to do to this place. Sally could have been really hurt after falling down that hole you dug in the field.’

‘The field was mine. Still is until I can sell it. She shouldn’t have been trespassing.’

‘She was rescuing a dog who had got through the fence that you sabotaged.’ She curled her hands into fists. She could feel the anger coursing through her body. How could he still not see that it had been him in the wrong?

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