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“Is what weird?”
She waved her hand around. “This.”
Ryan looked around. “Ah, no. It’s a bit too open for me, but you need that in this climate.”
Georgie giggled. “I’m not talking about the house.” She studied him for a long moment. “You don’t feel even slightly strange to see your ex with her new husband?”
Ryan shrugged. “No, not really. Why would I?”
Georgie’s brow furrowed in a thoughtful frown. “No reason, I guess, if you don’t have any of those left-over relationship feelings for her.”
“I don’t.”
“So my next question is, why stay friends?”
Ryan considered her question. “Because I like her and we have a lot of history together.” He took her hand in his, toying with her fingers. “Does it feel weird for you?”
“Not really, no. I feel like I’m staying with your sister, if I’m honest. It’s just that not many divorced couples who don’t have kids together would voluntarily stay in touch. It’s fascinating.”
“Aye, a psychological study, to be sure.”
Georgie smiled at that. “How long have you been divorced?”
He thought about it for a moment. “Around seven years. I’d just opened the clinic.”
“Red or white, Georgie?” Sharon asked, stepping through the wide bifold door, holding a wine bottle in each hand.
“White, thank you.”
“Merlot for you, Ryan.”
“Thanks. We’ll have it up there,” he replied when she went to bring it to them. Pulling Georgie up, they moved to the table and sat down. It was laid out with wraps, cherry tomatoes, spinach, fetta cheese and tzatziki.
Sharon took Andrew his glass of wine then joined them at the table. “You’ll have to excuse the bugs,” she said as she waved a moth out of her face. “I can’t spray them, for obvious reasons.” She rolled her eyes at her husband, who just grinned at her while he moved the meat around on the barbecue. “Now, Georgie, Ryan tells me you’ve recently moved to Blessed Inlet, which sounds lovely. What is it that you do there?”
“Oh, I…um, well, I…”
“She’s going to be running a rehab center there with her brother,” Ryan put in, not sure why Georgie hesitated.
“Wow, that sounds amazing! Is that how you two met?”
Ryan waited, giving Georgie a chance to respond, but she was strangely tongue tied. Suspecting that it might be because she didn’t want to discuss the accident and her recovery, he said, “No. She came to visit a friend who works at the artist’s colony there.”
“Oh, lovely,” Sharon replied. Georgie slipped her hand in his where it rested on the table and he gave it a comforting squeeze. “And how’s the painting going? You’re still doing that?”
“Yes, here and there, when I can.”
Andrew brought a platter of sizzling barbecue lamb to the table and the conversation stopped while everyone assembled their wraps.
“This is delicious, thank you,” Georgie said after taking her first bite.
“You’re welcome,” Andrew replied.
“So Andrew, what’s your favorite part of your work?”
“Oh god, don’t ask him that, Georgie, it’ll set him off,” Sharon teased. “You’re about to hear all about land lobsters on Lord Howe Island.”
Andrew grinned at his wife. “I’ll try and control myself.”
