Page 22 of Wedding Bells By the Creek

Ed walked home without a backward glance at the hotel. He was still struggling to believe what had just happened. Stephanie was back in the Creek. After all these years. In the weeks after she left, he had hoped and dreamed that she might come back. For months he had whispered her name into the darkness of the night, and yearned for her. And he’d cursed her too. Before he finally just stopped thinking about her. Deep down, he’d come to accept that he would never see her again. The lawyers had placed the ads in the newspapers because that was what the law required. Ed had accepted the possibility that she might contact him. He had been prepared for a phone call. Or some contact via the lawyers. Just to get the paperwork done.

It had never occurred to him Stephanie would show up back in the Creek.

And he had no idea how he was supposed to react.

To have her reappear like that. With no warning. Just as he and Helen were about to have dinner.

Helen?

His steps faltered and at last he turned to look behind him. The hotel sat, as it had always sat, on the junction at the centre of town. The social hub of his small world, with its windows shining brightly into the night. And in that hotel were two women. His wife and … Helen.

The lights were on in the rooms on the top storey of the hotel. Helen was in one of the rooms. A part of him wanted to go to her. But he couldn’t. How could he explain to her what he didn’t understand himself?

Instead he went into his house. His computer sat on the kitchen table where he’d left it before going to the pub. He opened the lid and powered it up. He’d been talking to Scott such a short time ago. Maybe he was still online. He deserved to know.

‘Hey, Dad. What did you forget?’

‘Scott …’ Ed hesitated, not quite sure how to break the news. After Steph’s disappearance, Scott had spent years looking for her. He’d failed. Scott was going to be as shocked as he was by Stephanie’s sudden appearance.

‘Dad … something’s wrong?’

‘Scott, this internet this is great … to be able to talk like this. But I just wish I was there …’

‘Dad … what is it?’

‘Scott, it’s your mother.’

‘Mum? What about her? Have the lawyers found her?’ Scott’s face faltered as Ed struggled to find the right words.

‘Dad? What is it? Is she—’

‘No. No. She’s fine, Scott. It’s just – well, she’s here.’

‘There? In Coorah Creek?’

Ed nodded.

‘She came back? She swore she never would.’

‘I know. She just turned up. I walked into the pub this evening and there she was.’

Ed watched the emotions crossing his son’s face. The rift between father and son, caused by Stephanie’s desertion and the lies he’d told, had taken thirteen years to heal. Ed didn’t want anything to break their newly forged bonds … least of all the woman who had broken them apart all those years ago.

‘Are you all right, Dad?’

That was a very good question. ‘I’m not sure. It’s all a bit of a shock.’

‘She knows about the divorce?’

Ed nodded. ‘That’s what brought her back. She saw one of the ads the solicitors took out.’

‘Surely she’s not going to fight you on this!’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Do you …’ Scott was hesitant. ‘Dad, are you still going through with the divorce? You don’t want her back, do you? After everything that’s happened?’

And there it was. The question Ed had been trying to avoid since the moment he saw Stephanie in the bar.

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