Page 64 of Chasing Dreams at Wagging Tails Dogs' Home

Jerking her arm away, she stepped back. ‘Please. I just need some space. I need time to think.’

‘Space? From me?’ He shifted on his feet. ‘I thought things were going well between us?’

‘They were.’

‘Then what’s changed?’

‘Everything.’ Holding the clipboard to her chest, she turned around.

‘Poppy? Speak to me. Explain what’s going on.’

Closing her eyes momentarily, she tried to suppress the anger rising in the pit of her stomach. She knew it was irrational. She knew he didn’t realise what was going on, but there was nothing she could do. She just couldn’t hold it in any longer. Twisting around, she glared at him. ‘This. All of this… the debt, Aunt Flora being in hospital… it’s your fault. You’re to blame.’

She could hear his gasp as he stopped in his tracks. His face falling.

‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. Forget it.’ She waved her words away. She’d hurt him.

‘I… My fault. How is it my fault Flora is in hospital? What debts?’

Looking down at the ground, she kicked at a piece of frozen snow too stubborn to melt, and mumbled, ‘She’d taken out a load of same-day loans. She’s up to her eyes in debt. She was going to remortgage the cottage to pay them off.’

‘Same-day loans?’ Mack rubbed his hand over his face.

Poppy nodded. ‘That’s why she hadn’t replaced the battery in the van. Why she tripped over the jump leads.’

‘But how can you blame me?’

She took a deep breath. ‘She’s in debt because you wouldn’t keep up Gavin’s agreement to discount the vet bills. She wouldn’t have fallen over the jump leads if it wasn’t for you.’ There, she’d said it. She couldn’t have spelled it out any clearer. She turned and began walking away again.

‘Because I hadn’t given the home a discount?’ He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bulging in his throat. ‘I couldn’t. I can’t. You know why I couldn’t.’

Spinning around on her heels, she faced him once more. ‘Do I though? You have the money. More than enough money. You no longer have to worry about providing for your brothers. You know you can. All you needed to do was to give your time up for free and we wouldn’t have gotten into this mess.’ Seeing he was about to speak, she held her hands up in front of her, palms forward, the clipboard knocking her chin as she did so. ‘Please don’t come up with any excuses. You drive around in an expensive car, you were willing to spend hundreds on a stupid little bag for Kerry – hundreds on a make-up bag – and your clients include celebrities. I know you have the money so don’t try to tell me otherwise.’

‘I won’t. You’re right, I do. But you also know why I try to be careful with it. You know my past.’ He spoke quietly.

‘Don’t. Just don’t.’ She’d heard enough. She did know his past but she also knew he had the ability to choose where and how to spend his money and if he could be willing to spend hundreds on a little bag without thinking twice then it was his priorities he had wrong. Nothing else. ‘You have the money. It’s your priorities you’ve got wrong.’

‘Poppy, please?’

She turned away and walked the last few metres towards the storage shed. She could hear the pain in his voice. Perhaps the realisation that she was right? Perhaps just a lack of understanding? She wasn’t sure but she couldn’t turn to face him again. She couldn’t see the hurt etched across his face. The hurt she was causing him.

30

Poppy looked in the mirror and dabbed another layer of concealer over the dark circles beneath her eyes. She didn’t want Aunt Flora worrying about her. She’d already asked why she looked so tired yesterday when Poppy had picked her up from the hospital. Her aunt didn’t need to know that Poppy hadn’t slept again last night.

Putting the concealer back down, she loaded her make-up brush with powder before dropping it halfway to her face. Sighing, she looked down. A fine dust of powder had covered the items on the dressing table, the rest of her make-up, her hairbrush, her mobile… the snow globe Mack had given her.

She picked it up and perched on the bed. She pulled the sleeve of her cardigan over her hand and wiped it, the face powder transferring from plastic to fabric. Gently tipping the globe upside down, she righted it again and watched the tiny balls of ‘snow’ float back down, covering the reindeer with his beady eyes and smiling mouth and the grass around him. Some Christmas this was turning out to be. So much for Mack telling her that it was the season for kindness.

Throwing herself back, sinking into the thick duvet, she pulled Aunt Flora’s crocheted blanket over her head. She missed him.

She held the snow globe above her head, making a little tent under the blanket. She’d felt something for him that day. She’d believed that what they had together could be something special. Why had she let herself feel that way? So quickly? And so soon after Ben? She’d come down to Cornwall to get away from a failed relationship and all the issues that surrounded it, and she’d walked straight into another one. From one failed relationship to another.

She scoffed at herself. What was she even thinking? She could hardly describe what she’d had with Mack as a relationship. They’d hardly known each other. It had been more like a fling. Not even that.

The quiet beep of her phone signalled a message. Wiping her eyes dry, she sat up and picked up her phone, the snow globe still in her other hand.

She rolled her eyes. It was as though he knew she was thinking about him. It was Mack. She dismissed it without reading it. She didn’t want to hear from him. She didn’t want to remember the expression on his face when she’d confronted him. To feel the guilt she did for blaming him. Yes, it was his fault, but it hadn’t been intentional. He hadn’t known what had been going on, just as she hadn’t. None of them had. Standing up, she shoved the snow globe in a drawer and went downstairs.

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