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“It’ll be a piece of cake, actually. I’ll make sure Mik comes with me.”
“That’s evil and I love it.” She sobered again. “It could also mean criminal charges. They haven’t had enough evidence to go down that road, but this changes it. He could go to jail. How would you feel about that?”
“He should go to jail. I’m fine with it.”
The waiter approached the table and they stopped to give their orders. Spaghetti marinara for Leah and a salad for Georgie. Leah felt she should have ordered something more substantial but didn’t feel comfortable suggesting it.
“So, what’s Brandon up to these days?”
A dark shadow passed over Georgie’s face. Leah felt a shiver of foreboding before Georgie answered. “I don’t know. I…I think he might be dead.”
Leah gasped. “Oh, Georgie, I’m so sorry.”
Georgie pressed her lips together, nodding wordlessly. Then she took a deep breath and a sip of wine. “He went backpacking through southeast Asia a few years ago with some friends. It was a bad crowd. They’d been doing a lot of drugs. One day I got a call from the embassy in Thailand. He’d overdosed and was in the hospital. That’s all they knew. No idea what condition he was in.” She paused, taking another sip of wine. “Anyway, he called me a few weeks later, but the line was really bad. I couldn’t make out what he was saying. That’s the last time I spoke to him. So, yeah. I think he might be dead.”
Leah was crying. She remembered Georgie’s twin brother. He was a bit useless, sure, but also sweet, charming and kind. She was devastated for him. And for Georgie.
Georgie wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I mean, I don’t know for certain. I couldn’t get the authorities to look into it. So, he could just appear one day and say, “Hey, George, can I borrow your car?”She laughed, but it was empty. Leah didn’t get the impression Georgie believed what she said. Not one little bit.
She thought about it for a long moment. “And you aren’t seeing anyone?”
Georgie scoffed. “Who’d want me, Leah?”
“What do you mean?”
Georgie looked away. “I’m pretty banged up. It’s not pretty.”
Leah didn’t know what to say to that. Then another thought occurred to her. “So that means that you went through all of those surgeries by yourself.”
“Yeah,” Georgie said with a shrug.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“No, but still.”
“Enough about me. Tell me how the fuck you ended up pashing Callum Sinclair on a street in Blessed Inlet, of all places.”
Leah recognized the change of subject for what it was, but let it go. Now that they’d reconnected, she would be able to make up for all the lost time. Plus, she really needed to talk to someone about Callum. So she told Georgie everything. From when she first moved to Blessed Inlet and made friends with Juniper and Mikayla. To seeing Callum at the Blessed Inlet Music Festival. He had just come back to town, after being away for two years. Leah had had no idea that Mikayla was the sister of the man who had swept her away all those years before. She paused as the waiter came with their meals. As she talked, looking back to when she’d first arrived in Blessed Inlet, she couldn’t believe how far she’d come. She’d been so cripplingly shy at first, but slowly, patiently, Callum had drawn her out.
“So it was me posting the video that made you break up?” Georgie asked when Leah finally got to the end of her story.
“Yes, but it’s better now, because it’s out in the open.”
“I’m so sorry. It was just making me so mad. Seeing all that shit they were saying about you. I wanted to make him look bad for dumping you for a lingerie model.”
Leah laughed. “It’s okay. It was driving me a bit crazy not telling him, but I just didn’t know how to bring it up after so much time had gone by.”
“What are you going to do now?”
Leah took a deep breath. “I’m going to go back. But first, I’m going to make sure my mum is definitely going to be able to visit me. I don’t want to leave her here with Dad anymore. I think he’s a bit scared of me now, but I just want to be sure.”
Georgie’s eyes widened. “What, you stood up to your dad as well?”
Leah nodded. “It was easy, once I realized that he has no power over me. But he does over Mum, so I have to be careful.”
“I’m so happy for you, Leah.”
