Page 26 of The Island in Bramble Bay
‘You could have told me, Maggie, when you found out. It’s just the secrecy… I can’t be in a relationship where there are secrets.’
‘No, I know, Charlie. But you and I, well we hadn’t really broken the ice when I found out and then by the time we were together, nothing else had happened so I just hadn’t thought to tell you. Honestly, I know how important it is to be straight with each other. I promise you, I was going to tell you today once I got back from the meeting.’
Maggie waited to see whether Charlie was going to forgive her. If he wasn’t ready to, she thought it was probably more to do with something that was going on with him rather than that he had an actual issue with her not telling him about the lodges. Now that she’d explained, Maggie didn’t think Charlie had any reason to hold a grudge. Saying it all out loud had clarified her feelings and she knew she hadn’t deliberately deceived Charlie. As far as she could remember they’d never had a conversation where she’d had the opportunity to tell him and then omitted to.
‘Okay,’ he sighed, ‘So what is actually going on?’
‘The Trust want to build some holiday lodges on Bramble Island. At the moment that’s all it is, an idea. They have picked out two areas, one around here in the wood and the other on the south side, around from the Scout campsite.’
‘And you don’t know anything else?’ He had shifted so that he was facing her, a positive move, Maggie thought. A sign that he was thawing.
‘At the meeting this morning, they reviewed the pros and cons of each area and went through what needs to be covered by the environmental study which I’m doing part of.’
‘So it kind of depends on your study?’
‘It’ll be part of a bigger study but it gives us a chance to highlight anything we feel needs treating sensitively so anything you can add to that, about any stand-out tree specimens in this part of the wood would be great.’
Charlie took her hand in his. ‘Honey, I’m so sorry.’ He brought her hand to his lips and peered at her over the top of it with a puppy-dog expression. ‘Are we okay?’
‘Yes, we’re okay.’ But could she be in a relationship that was already sending her on an emotional rollercoaster?
22
CHARLIE FELT WRETCHED. Although he’d felt wronged by Maggie, he realised that actually he had been the one in the wrong. He should have allowed her to explain instead of storming off like a complete idiot. If she hadn’t come to find him, he’d still be in the middle of the wood taking it all out on Josh. And she shouldn’t have had to justify herself to him over something that had happened before they were together.
His reaction was more to do with what had happened with Jessica than anything else, and recognising that only made him feel worse about being so awful to Maggie. He needed to tell Maggie everything, what had happened with Jessica and High 5, but it was hard to think of those as things that had happened to him. It seemed so long ago and — because he’d broken all ties, he knew very little about how things had ended up once he’d left. The first contact he’d had from anyone in the Valley was from Jared, thanks to his parents keeping schtum about where he was.
Maggie had left to go back to the office and he headed back to where he’d been working with Josh.
‘Hey, Josh. I’m sorry I gave you a hard time earlier. I had something going on and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.’ He held his hand out to shake Josh’s.
‘Don’t worry about it, mate. Trouble with Maggie?’
Charlie smirked, ‘More like she was having trouble with me.’
Even though they had made up, Charlie still worried that things wouldn’t be back to normal between them and that he should try explaining to Maggie why he was so screwed up about people lying to him. It was the least she deserved.
After he and Josh had cleared up and packed the tools away, it was after 6 pm. Charlie headed to Maggie’s cottage knowing that she would have left the office already. They hadn’t made any plans to see each other but he didn’t want to go home without seeing her, just to make sure she was okay.
Having knocked on the front door and there being no answer, he poked his head around the side of the cottage and saw Maggie sitting on a garden chair which she’d dragged down near the water’s edge where she was sipping a glass of wine. She was looking out to the harbour, lost in her thoughts, her chestnut hair being gently tugged by the breeze every so often. It took Charlie’s breath away to think that she was his; how had he managed that?
He strolled down to where she was sitting, hands in his pockets, feeling a little awkward. The crunching of the shingle under his feet gave him away and she turned, smiling when she saw it was him. Thank goodness.
‘That looks like the perfect end to the day,’ he said, trying to be light-hearted and feeling suddenly optimistic given that she looked pleased to see him.
‘It is, grab a glass from the kitchen and join me.’
He headed back to the cottage and picked up a chair for himself on his way back.
‘Maggie,’ he began, ‘I know we started to talk about this earlier but I need for you to know some things. Stuff which might go some way to explaining why I overreacted.’
‘Okay, but there is stuff I could tell you too about why I hadn’t been that forthcoming in the first place. We’re probably both as bad as each other.’ She smiled and leaned across to give him a quick kiss. ‘You go first, then.’
‘It’s hard. It seems like someone else’s life now.’
‘Maybe that makes it easier, like telling a story about someone else,’ she said gently.
He told her everything.
