Page 11 of Riding the Waves

“I have twins as well.” Lizzie smiled gently. “The girls are just a bit younger than your boys. We also have a little boy. Nathan.”

“Wow. You’ve got your hands full.”

“Things are getting easier now,” Lizzie said. “We definitely had a few years of complete and utter chaos.”

Amy gave her a knowing smile. “That’s exactly the right word. It’s absolute chaos with twins, isn’t it?”

Lizzie nodded slowly but firmly. “I hope you don’t mind me saying, but you must’ve been very young when you had the boys.”

“I was pregnant when I was finishing university,” she told her. “It wasn’t planned. I was twenty-two when the boys were born.”

“That must’ve been hard.” Lizzie’s voice was so full of understanding that it sent a surge of emotions bubbling up in Amy’s chest.

“Yes.” Her throat constricted around a barrage of pent-up sadness and stress.

Lizzie shifted to sit up straighter. “Are you okay?”

Nodding madly, Amy tried to hold back the tears, but her eyeballs stung and her chest felt so tight she could barely catch her breath. “Sorry,” she said, her strangled voice making her words barely discernible. “It was really hard …” Her throat tightened further, and she felt as though she was losing control as tears streamed down her face.

“It’s okay,” Lizzie said, the sympathetic cadence of her voice causing Amy to cry even more. “We all have those days when everything feels too much.”

Unable to get control of herself, and mortified by her outburst, Amy stood, muttering about needing a minute before she rushed inside. In the bathroom, she pulled a wad of tissues from the box beside the sink and did her best to staunch the flow of tears. When they wouldn’t stop, she closed the toilet lid and sat down.

She wasn’t someone who cried easily, and she felt completely embarrassed at losing it in front of Lizzie. Her attempts to stop the tears failed, and in the end she dropped her head to her hands and let them come.

The stupid thing was, she didn’t even know what she was crying about. Or maybe she did, but she couldn’t narrow it down to one thing.

There were several different ways that she’d made a mess of her life.

CHAPTER 6

“I’m so sorry,” Amy said when she finally ventured out of the bathroom to find Lizzie standing by the kettle.

“Don’t be.” Lizzie tilted her head. “I just wasn’t sure whether to stay or go. I don’t want to intrude, but I thought I could make us a cuppa. Or if you want me to go, that’s fine too.”

“A cuppa sounds great,” Amy said, leaving Lizzie to navigate the kitchen since she didn’t know where things were yet herself. “I must seem like a disaster,” she said, pushing her hip against the corner of the table. “I swear I hardly ever cry.”

“Sometimes it sneaks up on you,” Lizzie said kindly while she poured hot water into two mugs.

“I’m probably more stressed than I realised. I split up with my husband six months ago, and I feel as though I’ve been moving on autopilot ever since. I wanted to make things as easy as possible for the kids, which means putting on a brave face and ignoring my own feelings most of the time.”

“How long were you together?” Lizzie handed her a mug of tea and they moved back outside.

“We were married for six years. We got together when the boys were six months old and were married before they turned one.”

Lizzie raised her eyebrows but refrained from commenting.

“I know. It was fast.”

“How long were you and Damian together?”

Amy pursed her lips. “On and off for about three years. I met him after my first year of uni when I was in Hope Cove with a friend for the summer. We had jobs at the golf club.” She smiled to herself. “I thought it would just be a holiday romance, but we kept in touch. He came to visit me at uni a few times. The next summer I came back to Hope Cove again.” She shrugged. “It was all a bit of a whirlwind.”

“Did you split up before the boys were born?” Lizzie asked cautiously.

Sadly, Amy shook her head. “I’m surprised he hasn’t told you all about how I left him for someone else, with no warning.”

“I don’t know anything about it. I only recently got to know Damian since the girls have been getting into surfing. Max has known him since they were young, but I think they were more acquaintances than friends.”

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