Page 40 of Summer at the Cornish Garden Café

Ex-Player’s Final Whistle: The Star Who Vanished After the Final Play

From Injury to Intimacy: Ex-player Spotted With Mystery Woman—Is it Love?

No Red Cards Here: Former Footballer’s Golden Balls Back in Play

The last one made bile rise in his throat. What the hell! Why did these damned journalists think they could comment on someone’s life like this? He wasn’t even a so-called celebrity anymore, and this was not what he wanted for his future. Imagine if at some point he had children, and some journalist took photos of them then posted them everywhere? It would enrage him, and he would hate the invasion of his privacy. But what could he do to stop it?

He was swept up in a tsunami of feeling powerless, just as he had been when he’d woken in the hospital bed.

There was one thing he could do and that was to end things with Lena, if they were even real at all or simply Lena’s attempt to sell her book. Then he could hide away again until it died down and make sure he was never spotted again. He hated the photographs of himself that they’d taken, especially the ones of his leg. What kind of monster would do that then paste a big, red arrow over the photo to draw attention to his injury? What was wrong with these people?

‘Oh Thomas.’ Marnie got up and came to his side then wrapped her arms around him. Her bump pressed against him, and he felt the baby kicking. At least the little one was safely hidden inside Marnie’s belly and would be safe for a while yet. ‘Everything will be all right, I promise you. This will go away, and they’ll findsomeone else to pick on. They were clearly just desperate for a story to fill the weekend headlines.’

He closed his eyes and relaxed into her hug, trying to ignore the tears that ran down his cheeks and the sensation that his heart was being torn in two.

Whether or not this was Lena’s doing, didn’t matter. It was a warning of what could happen, and he didn’t want to bring his old life here to this sanctuary, to the place where he felt safe with his family and where he’d thought they were safe from prying eyes. Lena was an outsider, and he barely knew her. She hadn’t even told him where she got her scars from even though he’d asked once. Not wanting to push her, he hadn’t asked again but had hoped she’d tell him. The fact that she hadn’t suggested she didn’t trust him enough to confide in him and that should have been a warning in itself. He had shared with Lena, too much perhaps, and the thought that those things could soon be splattered all over the media sickened him to his stomach.

Just then, his phone started ringing, so he picked it up off the table and saw that it was Lena. He muted it and put it face down.

‘Thomas? You need to speak to her. She’s probably seen the headlines by now. She was in those photos too and I saw the scars on her stomach. She’s been through a lot by the look of it and you need to stick together.’

He shook his head then moved gently out of her hug and stood up.

‘I can’t, Marnie. I just can’t.’

He put his phone in a drawer then headed upstairs to his bedroom, needing to lie down and close his eyes for a bit just to stop the whirring in his brain. This was a sign that he needed toslow down and hide away, to protect himself from the outside world and to forget about falling in love with Lena.

Thomas was like the beast in the fairytale but for him there was no magic kiss to free him from his hideous exterior. He would never be able to recapture the man he’d once been and he shouldn’t have even tried.

23

LENA

Over the weekend, Lena had tried several times to phone Thomas and sent him several messages, but he hadn’t responded. It was a tricky situation for her because she cared about him but also didn’t feel that she had any right to expect anything of him. Their relationship was so new and uncertain, and while she knew he could be deliberately ignoring her, it could also be something else. Perhaps he was busy. He was volunteering at the sanctuary now; he had Fifi to care for, as well as his sister and her family. The last thing Lena wanted to do was add pressure to his life, and so she’d decided to give him some space to deal with everything. This could be nothing to worry about and if not then she would deal with it when she knew what was going on.

She’d had a busy weekend anyway, writing and getting things ready for when she collected Harvey. The thought of bringing the little boy home later made her so happy that she could burst. It had been a long time since Lena had felt properly excited about anything and she was very excited about this. She was going to be a dog mum and to be solely responsible for another creature and it was the best feeling in the world. She would giveHarvey the best life possible and in return, she hoped he would love her back.

This morning, to keep herself busy she’d walked to the café with her laptop and intended on having a working breakfast and then heading home to get her car and go and pick Harvey up. She’d set his new harness and lead out ready and fitted the hammock into the back seat of the car.

‘Morning, Pearl,’ she said at the counter.

‘Hello, lovely.’ Pearl smiled. ‘How’re you doing?’

‘I’m excited about collecting Harvey later from the rescue sanctuary.’

‘I’m sure you are. You’ll have to bring him here when he’s settled in with you.’

‘I certainly will.’ Lena rocked on her feet as her belly fizzed again.

‘What’ll you have?’ Pearl asked.

Lena ordered some breakfast then sat on the green leather sofa and set her laptop up on the table. The Garden Café was one of her favourite places and she could imagine bringing Harvey here with her. He could sit on the sofa next to her while she wrote and she’d order him something dog friendly — Ellie had created a small dog friendly menu — and she’d order for herself then they could eat and watch the world go by.

It was Ellie who brought her food and coffee over and she took a seat at the table opposite Lena. ‘How’re you doing?’ she asked, her eyes filled with concern.

‘I’m OK.’ Lena grinned. ‘Excited.’

‘Excited?’ Ellie frowned.

---