Page 101 of Lime Tree Hill

Tayla inhaled a shaky breath and handed Prue a brown paper carry bag. The evidence. “Your jacket and underwear.”

She peeked into the bag. Frowned. “Um, these aren’t mine.”

Tayla scanned the Pacific once more, her hands clenched in her pockets, the brisk wind making her eyes water. “Oh? Maybe they’re CeCe’s.” She took the offered bag from Prue, the paper cold in her hands.

“Nothing happened between us. Honestly.”

Prue’s declaration sounded sincere. Tayla relaxed a little. But then, why hadn’t Mitch told her he’d invited his ex to stay?

“That night, at CeCe’s birthday, I knew Mitch and I had reached the end of the road as soon as I saw the way he looked at you. When you guys were dancing, he couldn’t keep his eyes off you. I was so jealous. I didn’t even care that he was married. How screwed up is that?”

Tayla frowned.What way?

“I said some nasty things to him as well, and he shot me down. More or less told me my narcissistic personality would ruin my life. When I said I still loved him, he blew me off.”

“Weren’t you with someone then?”

“Yes, Otis.” She smiled. “Solid, dependable Otis. He took me home and put me to bed, but I was so drunk, I puked all over the carpet. Anyways, the next day, I phoned Mitch to apologize. Whenhe didn’t pick up, I locked myself in the bathroom, curled up on the floor and cried until I had nothing left. Otis was mad as hell when he found me, and we ended up having a massive fight. He wanted us to be exclusive, and as usual, I couldn’t commit. Turns out, self-sabotage is a mean bitch, one I know only too well.”

Tayla settled her gaze on the horizon again, her hands rubbing together for warmth. “You don’t have to tell me this.”

“Please, I want to. I didn’t stay with Mitch because I wanted him back. I needed to talk to him, to explain. Why I cheated, why I didn’t want kids, and why I ended up drowning my sorrows in booze every day.”

Prue reached down, picked up a shell and ran her thumb and forefinger over the smoothness. “I lost a baby…when I was just sixteen.” She threw the shell toward the waves, but it landed at her feet. “Fell pregnant to a boy from school. I thought we were going steady. Of course, he ghosted me after I told him. My little boy died inside of me at thirty-three weeks. I had to be induced. Turned out, he had a rare congenital deformity that affects the lungs.”

Swallowing hard, Tayla reached for Prue’s hand but didn’t speak, allowing Prue to finish her story.

“I can’t go through that again.” Prue stopped, closed her eyes briefly, and took a deep breath. “When you hold your dead baby, a part of you dies as well. And the loneliness, the grief… Nobody has your back, in your mind anyway. My family and friends carried on regardless, as if he’d never existed. People said it was for the best. It let everyone off the hook.”

“Except you,” Tayla murmured, still holding Prue’s hand.

Prue sniffed back a tear. “Yeah, except me.”

“I’m so sorry. That must have been devastating for you.”

“I’d never told Mitch, not until that day when I stayed at Lime Tree.” Prue pulled a tissue from her pocket and blew her nose. “At first, I didn’t think he’d let me stay. But you know what he’s like…such a softy underneath. He talked about you. A lot. Said you read books together. That made me sad. I wish he’d read to me.”

Tayla viewed Prue with newfound compassion. She loved it when Mitch read to her before bed and had sometimes wondered if he’d done so with his other girlfriends. Obviously not.

When Tayla met Prue at CeCe’s party, she’d been quick to make assumptions about her, unfounded assumptions possibly. As Mitch had said, maybe Prue wasn’t a bad person underneath.

“Mitch is a wonderful man,” Prue continued. “He’s a hopeless communicator at times, takes things for granted, but when he’s in your corner, he’ll be there through thick and thin. He loves you, just like Otis loves me. But we have to allow it. Have to let them in—you know what I mean?”

Tayla nodded. Prue was right, but now, the point was moot.

“We can’t let our fears hold us back,” Prue said. “Otherwise, what will we have in the end? Dissatisfaction? The certainty that we never did enough? Someone once told me I should dare to succeed. And that’s my new focus.”

Tayla blinked to stop a wayward tear from falling. “Thank you. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to bare your soul to a stranger.”

“I don’t see you as a stranger. You have a kind soul, or you wouldn’t be here. And I don’t want your man—not anymore. I wasn’t enough for him. I wish I could say I let him go a long time ago, but…well, it’s only been a blink.”

They sat in silence while a couple and their dog walked past.

“Otis asked me to marry him the other day.”

Tayla shot her a sideways glance. “Did you say yes?”

“No. I’m not ready yet. Maybe one day. I’m still struggling to fit into my own skin. Do you understand?”

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