Page 48 of A Seaside Escape
Chapter Nine
Mallory didn’t see or speak to Greg at all for the rest of the week. When Friday came around she was dreading seeing him. She drove to his house with Ruby. With more than a little trepidation, she knocked on his door at five as he had instructed.
The door opened, but it wasn’t Greg who answered. ‘Hello, can I help you?’ A woman, about the same age as Mallory, stood there in front of her. She had long black hair with blue streaks that fell, tied in bunches around her shoulders. Her big blue eyes were lined with thick black kohl and her lips were stained bright red and stood out starkly against her pale skin. She had nose and lip piercings and a tattoo on her left wrist of a series of Celtic symbols. She was Scottish, like Greg.
‘Erm, is Greg here?’ Mallory asked, a little bemused at the girl’s attire. She was wearing what looked like one of Greg’s T-shirts and little else.
Realisation spread across the woman’s face. ‘Oh yes, sorry. You must be Mallory. I’ve been hearing all about you. And this must be Ruby? Come in, he’s just upstairs.’ Mallory followed her inside. ‘I’m Trina by the way,’ she announced but Mallory didn’t much care.
Greg came down the stairs. He too was almost naked apart from his black jeans hung low on his hips. God, he reallywasdefined. She now saw that he had a tattoo stretching halfway across his toned and muscular chest that she hadn’t seen before. He certainly looked good for thirty-seven. He was smiling as he walked over and slid his arms around Trina’s waist.
‘Oh hi, Mally, have you brought Rubes for me?’ he enquired, all smiles. A complete contrast to the mood he had been in when they last met.So mercurial.Mallory couldn’t help but think it all a little contrived.
‘Erm, yes but if it’s not convenient anymore, Ron said—’
‘No, no, don’t be daft! We’re happy to have her, aren’t we Trina?’ Trina nodded enthusiastically; hanging on Greg’s every word. ‘We’ll take good care of her, don’t you worry. She’ll have great fun with Angus, won’t you girl?’ Ruby wagged her tail excitedly at his voice.
Mallory let go of Ruby’s lead and the little dog ran to Greg. Tears stung the back of Mallory’s eyes and she turned to leave as quickly as she could.
Greg followed, thankfully without Trina in tow. ‘Hey, Mally, are you okay?’ he called after her. ‘Shewillbe fine you know,’ he said reassuringly as she stopped at her car without turning around.
‘I know that. I’m just going to miss her.’ She wasn’t entirely sure that missing Ruby was the reason for her tears.
Greg walked over to her with his feet bare. ‘Look, I wanted to apologise.’ He tilted her chin so that she would look at him. ‘I was an arse, yet again, last time we spoke. I don’t know what was wrong. But I had a few days away and met Trina, she’s nice, eh?’ he enthused.
‘Oh yes, she seems delightful,’ she answered rather sardonically.
‘Aye, I had a lot of thinking to do, but it’s done and I’m over it now.’ He opened his arms as if to show her the evidence. She looked at the tattoo on his chest; it was a series of foreign-looking words. She figured it out to be a Gaelic phrase but had no idea what it said.
‘Good for you.’ She smiled, trying to be genuine.
‘Aye, well there’s no point wanting what you can’t have, eh?’ He smiled, glancing back to the house.
‘No, no point at all,’ she agreed, but wasn’t sure exactly what he meant. ‘I’ll be off then, I’m staying at a hotel near the airport with the Buchanans tonight and then we fly early morning.’
‘Well have a brilliant time, eh? And don’t worry about this place. We’ll all still be here when you get back.’
‘Great… see you in three weeks then.’ She forced another smile and went to climb into her car.
‘Don’t you have a hug for your bestie, eh?’ he chuckled, holding his arms open. Reluctantly she stepped into his arms and accepted his embrace. He was surprisingly warm despite his lack of clothing. He did the thing that men do when they hug; he patted her back roughly – she was clearly ‘one of the guys.’ She pulled away and got into her car.
She glanced up at Greg who now looked confused; his frown creating a crease right between his eyebrows. She waved and drove away. Greg simply stood and watched her leave; one hand raised and the frown ever present.
*
July 2015
The flight was long and she tried to sleep but failed and ended up reaching in to her bag to take her eReader out. Her hand brushed over the small box she had been issued by the crematorium so that she could bring some of Sam’s ashes home to his mom. Once she had handed over the box, Renee clung to her and cried, thanking her for being so understanding and telling her that she was going to plant a tree in the garden beside the one she had planted for her husband. A fitting tribute for a man who had loved nature.
It was good to be back in Canada; back in Sam’s old room where she felt a closeness to him.
Renee had put framed photos of the two of them together around the place. There was a vase on the top of Sam’s dresser that Renee had been filling with fresh flowers every couple of days.
Her first week had been a little emotionally draining. The family had showed her some home movies of Sam and Ryan as kids. She got to see his dad and was surprised how alike they were. Photo album after photo album was piled up on the floor and they sat around thumbing through pictures that Mallory knew Sam would’ve hated her to see. She could imagine him sitting there, hiding behind a cushion as his mom cooed about how handsome her sons were.
She had cried a lot in the bed where she and Sam had made love. At night, she hugged the pillow that Sam slept on and felt sure she could smell him even though the linens were freshly laundered.
She had put Greg and his weird behaviour/midlife crisis out of her mind mostly, apart from the odd brief call to check on Ruby, and had joined in the family outings and meals. It felt good to be surrounded by a real family again. It had been so long and she had missed it.
