She drove on past the sign to the village and followed the bend curving to the left. On her right was a bus shelter in the original old stone rather than a modernised metal structure that would never fit in with a village steeped in history and character. She indicated to pull into the car park of the Heritage Inn, where she’d already booked a room via the facility online. Kind of anonymous, but she knew she wouldn’t be around here for long. She glanced down at her ring finger, which was naked right now but would soon show everyone she was engaged to Jay. She wished they’d had time to go ring shopping so she had it on for the added confidence, as a reminder she’d managed to move on and she’d changed since she left the Cove.
She laughed when the car’s tyres slipped into the same dip that had always been there in the car park of the inn. But maybe it was more nervous laughter than amusement. She hadn’t yet seen The Street, the modest-sized strip of road lined with a handful of businesses – a tea shop, a bakery, The Copper Plough pub, a small shop where locals bought their newspapers, a pint of milk, snacks. She’d traipsed The Street many a time with her parents, many more on her own. And she was already dreading the sting those memories would bring with them, the memories that hadn’t left her but had been dulled as though behind tinted glass when she was away.
The inn looked the same as it always had as she parked next to a beaten-up old Mini. She’d get settled in her room and then brave walking to Barney’s. Assuming he was there, of course. Surely he wouldn’t have gone anywhere else – although perhaps Harvey had taken him to his place to recuperate. Wherever they were, Harvey hadn’t let her know and she was so annoyed she cursed when, mistiming her exit completely, she stepped out from the driver’s side just as a truck swung into the space next to her, its tyres hitting another dip that must’ve formed over the years and sending a shower of mud in her direction, all the way up the legs of her jeans.
‘Seriously!’ She tried to brush some of the dirt off but it wasn’t working.
‘You’ll make it worse,’ came a gruff voice she’d recognise anywhere.
Her mouth dry, she hadn’t expected the confrontation with Harvey to happen quite so soon.
‘It’s been a while,’ was all he said as he strode towards her, his jaw tense, blue eyes unwavering. She suspected those words were almost as hard to get out of his mouth as these stains would be to remove from her favourite jeans.
‘Good to see you’ve finally got a more sensible vehicle.’ She couldn’t resist the jibe, she’d never liked the motorbike he had.
‘More room for my belongings in this,’ he said. ‘You never know though, maybe I’ll get another bike someday.’ She didn’t rise to the bait.
‘You could’ve told me Barney had been discharged.’
‘Sorry, didn’t get around to it. And I had no idea whether you’d even call, let alone show up.’
She bristled but she wasn’t going to have a slanging match. ‘What are you even doing here at the inn?’ She tried again to wipe at the mud on her legs.
‘I was on my way back from the supermarket and I saw you, thought I’d let you know Barney was home. He’ll be glad to see you.’
‘I’ll take my things inside and then head over.’ But Harvey was already walking away. ‘Thanks for telling me the details about his fall, by the way,’ she called after him. She couldn’t stop herself.
He stalked back over. ‘I let you know, I thought that’s what you’d want.’
‘You let me know next to nothing. Barney could’ve been close to death for all I knew.’
‘I think you’re being a bit melodramatic there.’
‘Re-read your own email, you tell me whether you, in my position, would’ve assumed everything was going to be fine.’ When he started to walk away again she called after him, ‘You did it on purpose, I know you did.’
‘I don’t have time for games,’ he called over his shoulder, cocky as you like. ‘It might surprise you that I had other things to think about besides worrying what you may or may not take from my message. Be grateful I even got in touch.’
Ignoring him, she got a tissue from her pocket but it wasn’t much better at removing the mud than her bare hands had been.
He hadn’t finished either. ‘Do me a favour, if you’re going to run off again, at least give Barney the heads up first.’
‘I said goodbye last time.’
‘Yeah, you’re right, you did.’ He’d made his way slowly back over to her, no doubt wanting to keep their bickering between themselves rather than for the rest of the Cove to hear. ‘But I don’t think Barney realised it was goodbye for five long years.’
Face to face with him in the car park, with the Heritage Inn that looked like it could use a good lick of paint on the outside now she was up close enough to see it in detail, she opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
‘Five years, Melissa.’
Her voice came out small. ‘It was never my intention to leave it so long.’
‘But you did.’
‘And wait a minute, what about me? What about how I felt? Doesn’t that mean anything?’ It was as though he believed he’d played no part in any of this. The fact he hadn’t shown up to leave with her as promised had given him a lead role in this show as far as she was concerned. No real explanation either, just that he wasn’t coming, he’d changed his mind.
The sooner she got back to Jay and her own life the better.
‘I called Barney often,’ she said defensively, unwilling to let the argument go. ‘I wrote to him, sent postcards.’
