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“City folks. Here for business, not pleasure.”
“Pity.” Moira’s gaze drifted over the tables and lingered on the guys at the bar. “Not much choice, is there?”
Her brown eyes had a wistful look and Bonnie wondered if there’d been a guy in the army who she’d left behind when she’d chosen not to return for another tour of duty. She was older too, but they’d been friends at the tiny local dance school and kept in touch over the years. “You had plenty of choice in the army. What happened?”
“None of them wanted me.” Moira mimicked a soulful look, which looked odd on her freckled, usually smiling face and lifted her almost empty glass. “To new pastures. Or old in this case.”
Trudie leaned forward. “You’re coming home?”
Moira nodded. “I’m heading to Scotland with the national dance troupe for August. Once it’s over, I’ll be home for good, working with Dad and helping at the dance school part time.” She tipped the last of her drink down her throat. “What about you, Bonnie?”
“I’ll probably head back to Canada.”
Trudie widened her eyes. “But I heard Xander’s home.”
“Why does everyone say it like it matters to me?”
Moira exchanged a look with the other woman. “Because it does?”
Bonnie swallowed her snappy response when she spotted Tamara hovering near the door. “Tamara’s here.” She waved and the younger girl responded with a smile and began to weave her way among the tables.
She saw Trudie send a querying look at Moira.
“I invited her to join us because she doesn’t get out much.”
Moira laughed. “You’re still the same, gathering up the stray chicks and tucking them under your wing.”
“I’m not. Look, I have my reasons, but I can’t explain now.” The girl was almost there.
*
It had workedout all right as they ate their meals. Tamara was shy at first with the older women, but interested in Trudie’s wildlife rescue work. She had studied at the dance school until her pregnancy, too, so they weren’t exactly strangers. The town wasn’t big enough for them not to be familiar faces.
Bonnie was pleased to sit back and enjoy the flow of conversation without having to make too much effort. Moira kept casting her speculative glances. She probably thought she was tired because of Xander. Which was true, but not in the fun bedroom games way. Moira and Trudie were the only ones who knew for certain about her on-and-off physical relationship with Xander.
Trudie had known Xander back when he was a little kid at the Appleton’s. Sometimes Bonnie wanted to ask her what it was like, but it brought shadows to her friend’s eyes, so she let it lie. The older woman had been in her teens when the commune folded under a cloud of scandal, so she probably remembered too well.
As if she read her mind, Trudie shifted closer, leaving the others to talk about the dance school. “You’ve seen Alex… Xander, since he arrived home, I suppose.”
“Yes. He’s in and out a bit, but he’s been spending time with his grandparents.”
A faraway look blanked Trudie’s eyes. “He was lucky to have them. I never thought he’d get over what happened.”
“What happened? I don’t understand.”
“Sid, the guy who took him to Byron, wasn’t a good guy.”
Bonnie remembered what Xander had been like when he got back. “Xander was skin and bones, like they’d starved him.”
“Or worse. I always used to blame their mother. Looking back, I can see Chrissy probably wasn’t thinking straight at the time. It wasn’t a good scene. The place might have been all about free love and flower power when Honey Appleton’s mother turned the place into a commune in the seventies, but sixteen years ago, the guys like Sid were only interested in drugs and sex. They kept everyone under their thumb. It wasn’t pretty, the methods they used.”
Not knowing what to say, Bonnie rested her hand on Trudie’s wrist.
The other woman grimaced. “It’s all history now. Well and truly over.”
Bonnie suspected it wasn’t altogether over for Trudie. The shadows in her eyes made more sense now, with the glimpse she’d given her into the past. Xander’s past too. He’d never talked about it. His focus stayed firmly in the present and on the future.
A buzz of noise at the nearby stage dragged her attention away from the conversation. Moira nudged her and Bonnie finally figured out what the other woman had been anticipating. The O’Brien brothers were playing and since Xander had declared he was spending the evening with his old mates, she could expect to see him too.
