Page 71 of Riding the Waves

He nodded, while giving her a baffled smile. “Okay, hun.”

“It must worry you,” she said. “That I’ll hurt him like I did last time.”

Martin’s eyebrows drew together. “He’s a grown man. If you and he are thinking of getting back together I assume he knows what he’s getting into.”

“I know it must have seemed terrible to you,” she said, so caught up in her own thoughts that she barely registered his words. “But—”

“What must have seemed terrible?” he said, cutting her off.

“What I did. Marrying Anthony and abandoning Damian like that. It was wrong, but—”

“Hang on.” He interrupted her again, shaking his head. “You think we were upset about you marrying Anthony?”

“Yes.”

He continued shaking his head in a slow movement. “Sweetheart, he left you.”

“What?”

“Damian. He left you on your own with two babies to look after.” Martin puffed out an exasperated breath. “He’s my son and I love him. I didn’t think he could ever do anything to make me disappointed in him, but when he left you with those babies ...” He paused and swallowed hard. “That was wrong.”

“It wasn’t his fault,” Amy said defensively. “Everything was so stressful and I was horrible to live with. I was so worried about money ... he only left because he knew he could make better money back here over the summer.”

“It was still the wrong thing to do.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen what a nightmare I was to live with.” She thought back to one particular argument a few days before Damian had left to go back to Hope Cove. “I took everything out on him. One time I screamed at him so badly. Like a madwoman. He hadn’t even done anything. I just hadn’t slept and Marty had colic. I took it all out on Damian.”

Martin reached for her hand and squeezed it gently. “When it comes to being in a relationship, shouting at your partner when you’re stressed is entirely forgivable. Leaving them when they need you … that isn’t okay.”

“He just felt helpless,” she said, tears pooling on her eyelids. “The only thing he could think to do was to go where he knew he could earn money. He wanted me and the boys to come too. It was me who refused.”

“Of course you did. You had nowhere to live here. It was a completely unrealistic plan.”

“Damian would have found us somewhere. Or I could have just waited for him. He was sending me money immediately after he got back here. I could have waited, not married the first guy who offered to help me.”

“You did what you thought was best for those babies,” Martin said kindly. “There’s no sense in beating yourself up over it now.”

She wiped tears from her cheeks with one hand and squeezed Martin’s hand with the other. “I always thought you and Wendy hated me.”

“What a ridiculous thought. How could we hate a sweet thing like you? We couldn’t have hoped for a better mother for our grandchildren.”

“Now you’re being too nice,” she said, more tears spilling down her cheeks.

“Come here.” Martin got up to wrap her in a hug.

“What have you done?” Wendy called accusingly from the back door. “Have you upset her?”

“No,” Martin said, amusement rattling his voice.

“They’re happy tears,” Amy told Wendy.

“That’s all right then.” She walked over and hugged Amy from the other side. “Can’t beat an early morning cuddle, can you?”

Amy chuckled. “I always thought you hated me.”

The gasp from Wendy was genuine. “Who could hate you?”

“That’s what I said,” Martin put in.

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