Page 86 of The Little Island Flower Stall
Bella tapped out a reply. Shedidowe Lisa this much.
I’m due for a lunch break in the next hour or so. Can you come to Bay Blooms on the promenade and I’ll meet you there?
Lisa arrived as Bella had asked. Her eyes were puffy and she was pale, and her exhausted appearance was strangely at odds with her bright sundress. Bella’s heart went out to her. It must have taken guts to come here, whatever the reason.
Bella ushered her away from the stall as soon as she clapped eyes on her.
‘Do you mind walking?’ she asked. ‘Only…’
‘You don’t want your great-aunt to overhear?’ Lisa said. She smiled ruefully at Bella’s look of surprise. ‘Rory told me. Of course we can walk, if you like. I won’t take up much of your time.’
‘What else did Rory tell you?’ Bella asked as they headed away from the stall, her pulse suddenly loud in her ears.
‘He filled me in last night after we saw you. Don’t worry – he didn’t give me details, but he did say he’d been spending time with you here. He told me he’d fallen for you.’
‘Oh God,’ Bella replied weakly. ‘Lisa, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know he was?—’
‘I believe you. I’m sure it’s not your fault.’
‘Now I know he’s married, I swear it’s going to go no further. I know what it’s like – trust me.’
‘He told me you’d just come out of a bad marriage too.’
Bella halted on the road and stared at her. Just how much had Rory told her? And why tell her so much?
‘Do you mind if we sit down?’ Lisa pointed to a vacant bench overlooking the beach. She began to make her way over without Bella’s reply. ‘I shouldn’t have come to Jersey,’ she added as she took a seat.
Bella perched next to her. ‘I’m sorry you had to find out about Rory and me the way you did.’
‘In a way, you’ve done me a favour. I didn’t believe it, you see.’
‘Didn’t believe what?’
‘When Rory told me he wanted to leave me a few weeks ago. I thought he must be going through a phase, that he was only a bit fed up. And there was so much else going on with his grandfather and all this family business, I thought he just needed to get it out of his system and then we’d be fine again. Even when he moved out, I thought he’d come back eventually. That’s why I came over to Jersey. I thought I’d surprise him and we’d have such a nice time here he’d soften and he’d realised he still loved me. So I jumped on a flight and here I am. Stupid, eh? It backfired on me. We had a long talk after we left you last night, and I see now he was never going to come back to me.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘So if you and he want to…well, I wish you the best. I won’t hold a grudge.’
‘I don’t want to be with him,’ Bella said firmly. ‘Not now. He lied to me. He lied to both of us – I can’t forgive that. He could have told me about you, but he didn’t.’
‘I suppose he thought he would eventually.’
‘He said that, but he should have done it in the beginning. He should have told you about me too – he didn’t and?—’
‘It made me look like a fool coming here.’
‘No,youdon’t look like a fool. He looks like a coward.’
‘He said you told him that on the phone.’
‘I wasn’t wrong, was I?’
‘He’s like that, you know. Not a coward, but he hates to cause anyone pain. It’s why I…well, it’s one of the things I loved best about him. I expect that’s why he didn’t tell me. He said he would have told me later, once we’d started the divorce. He said he hadn’t intended to fall for someone else so quickly and he didn’t want to upset me.’
‘That worked out brilliantly for him,’ Bella said in a wry tone. ‘You’re not here to plead his case, are you?’
‘I wanted to let you know that I don’t blame you.’
