AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She got to her feet, resolutely pushing her hair back from her face. They both turned at the sound of a car coming up the long drive. Mikayla. She pulled up, got out of the car with a bright, sunny smile. Her long red hair, pulled back in a tight plait, gleamed in the sun. She took one look at Leah and said, “What’s up?”
“I need a cuppa.”
“Let’s go then.”
Callum felt an overflow of love for his sister in that moment. She would definitely be able to make Leah feel better. He stepped away to allow Leah to pass between him and the wall, but she surprised him by stepping up on tiptoe and kissing his cheek. “Thanks again,” she said softly, pulling away and walking towards Mikayla. Whose eyes were goggling a little bit, making Callum smile in spite of the churning in his gut.
CHAPTER THREE
Leah followed Mikayla into the Keeper’s Cottage, where Juniper and William lived. Completely at home, Mikayla led her into the kitchen and switched the kettle on. Then she turned and folded her arms across her chest, surveying Leah carefully. “It wasn’t Callum that upset you?”
Leah shook her head.
“Good. Didn’t think so.” Observing Leah for another long moment, her brown eyes serious, she grabbed her phone from her back pocket, saying, “I think we might need the big guns for this.” She pressed some buttons quickly, holding the phone to her ear as she moved about the kitchen getting the makings for tea. “Juniper. Hey. I’m at yours, with Leah. She needs a bit of tea and sympathy.” She hung up. “She’s on her way.”
Leah felt a rush of gratitude. A naturally private person, trapped in an abusive marriage, she had grown too used to keeping things to herself. Too used to apologizing for what she wasn’t responsible for. Too used to the sense of unearned shame she’d carried out of her marriage. She’d tried to do better in the months since she had moved to Blessed Inlet. Mikayla’s instant and enthusiastic offer of friendship had started her off, but she felt that now it was time to do more, do better. Open up. All these thoughts flowed through her mind as Mikayla made a pot of tea and Juniper came through the front door from the Long House, down the short hallway and into the kitchen.
Her wild, blonde curls confined in a low ponytail and her green eyes probing as she looked at Leah, it seemed that Juniper meant business. “Lighthouse,” was all she said as Mikayla poured boiled water into a handmade teapot. They carried the teapot, cups, saucers, milk and sugar between them as Juniper led the way through the sliding doors, across the short patch of lush grass to the lighthouse. They climbed the steep, narrow stairs and Leah breathed in when they reached the top. What a view. They put the tea things on the wide windowsill.
“Beanbags!” Mikayla exclaimed.
“We brought them up the other night. William wanted to show Billy the stars.”
“He’s such a good dad.”
“He is,” Juniper said with a smile, pouring the tea.
“Hard to believe he’s only been doing the job for a few months.”
Juniper laughed then. “Yeah, I feel like he’s always been there. I dunno, maybe because he was there for the birth and Billy’s named for him.” She handed Leah and Mikayla their cups of tea. “Anyway, enough about me.” She sat down on a beanbag and pulled three bars of chocolate from her dress pocket.
Leah smiled as she took the chocolate. Inhaling deeply, she sipped the tea, bracing herself to start. Mikayla and Juniper waited patiently. She knew if she didn’t want to say anything, they wouldn’t pressure her. Somehow that made it easier. It was time to get started. “So my ex-husband is a ah…”
“Fuckhead?”
Leah nodded at Mikayla. “Yes. We’d been married for a few years when we started trying to have kids. After a year of trying, we started fertility treatment.” Her heart squeezed at the memory. “We tried for three years. It was grueling. And expensive. Not that Scott cared about that, he said. He’s very well off anyway, but no price was too high for a son of his own, he said. But it just didn’t work. All those tests and treatments, and they never found anything wrong. Idiopathic infertility, they called it. They sent us away, saying we just had to relax and it’d happen eventually.” She swallowed some tea, forcing it past the lump in her throat. “I guess he got sick of waiting. I think he’d had a girlfriend for a while. He’d been very stressed with some work stuff and sex relaxed him, he said. Not sex with me, though, because I’m terrible at it.” She tried to will away the self-derision, but it was too ingrained. “So he was forced to look elsewhere. I never stood a chance once he found out she was pregnant. He swears it was an accident, but…” She shrugged. She stared out at the ocean while her two friends listened. There was no mistaking their sympathy. “It doesn’t matter now, either way. And she’s welcome to him, honestly. I’m much better off without him.”
“You sure are,” Juniper said, taking Leah’s chocolate bar and unwrapping it for her. “But what set you off today, of all days?”
“Kikki’s pregnant with their second. My parents are ecstatic. They think the world of Scott and are over the moon at the news.” Mikayla let out a stream of swear words. Leah couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, pretty much.” She took a bite of the chocolate. “It just all hit me at once, I guess. I’m never going to have kids of my own. And you guys have taught me how awful he was to me. But he wins. He gets it all. He doesn’t deserve that, and I don’t deserve this. It just seems so unfair.”
“It is unfair,” Mikayla affirmed.
Leah sighed.
“I’d love to meet him one day.” There was no mistaking the wistful note in Mikayla’s voice.
“Really? Why?” Leah was surprised.
“So I can punch him.”
“Oh. Well, I hope I’m there if that ever happens.”
“Me too.” Mikayla took a sip of tea, watching Leah thoughtfully for a long moment.
“What?”
“Welllll, when I pulled up today, it looked like you and one Callum Sinclair were having quite the moment.”
