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He sighed. “Okay, yeah. I guess that makes it difficult. But I can’t believe this is happening. I’m so angry with him right now.”
“You should be angry—that’s perfectly okay. But I know you’ll come around and forgive him. In the meantime, I have nowhere to stay. So I’m going to live with Pa on the island for a while.”
“Isn’t that what Dani’s doing?” Harry arched an eyebrow.
“Yes, she is. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to her about it. I’d like to be the one to tell her my plans.”
“Fine,” he said. “Apparently we’re a family who keeps secrets, so why stop now?”
She shook her head. “Don’t be like that. I’m not keeping anything from you or from her. I need to be sensitive to my timing with Dani—that’s all. She’s going through a lot right now.”
“I figured,” he replied. “She hasn’t told me anything specific, but I can tell she’s unhappy. I think it’s a good idea for her to move to the island and get some perspective.”
Bea pulled back to regard her son through new eyes. “When did you get to be so wise?”
He grinned, reaching for a box of noodles. “I’ve got an amazing mother who taught me everything I know.”
Four
Bea had avoided talkingto her friends in Pennant Hills about her upcoming divorce and the sale of her house, but she had to face them at some point. The house had an enormous SOLD sticker pasted across a sign in the front yard. She was living on cardboard furniture. And recently she’d bowed out of every social and civic commitment she’d made.
She’d left the Parents and Teachers Association — it made sense, considering Harry hadn’t been at the high school in months. But she’d been reluctant to let it go. So many of her friends were members, and she’d been part of the association in some shape or form for eight years. It was a portion of her life she’d enjoyed and didn’t want to give up. But it was time.
The catering contracts she had in place, she’d sold to another local caterer who was happy for the business. Then there was her volunteer position taking care of rescue dogs at the RSPCA. She’d miss it there. She knew everyone so well and loved spending time grooming and walking the dogs, giving them the love they hadn’t received when out in the world. But she couldn’t keep the volunteering up from Coral Island, so she’d handed in her notice.
So many accounts to close and commitments to bow out of, but she’d finally come to the end of her busy preparations. Her last task was to meet her friends for lunch and tell them what’d happened in her life since the anniversary party twelve weeks earlier. She called them her closest friends, but now that her marriage was over, she had to admit that she felt fairly blasé about the friendships.
They were part of her marriage — the wives of Preston’s friends. She’d spent so much time with them over the years — attended dinner parties at their houses, played golf, worked out at the gym, volunteered at school with them, and attended church alongside them. But were they really friends? She hadn’t called a single one of them to tell them what Preston had said, or what he’d done. And she dreaded their lunch together.
She missed having real friends — people who didn’t care which street she lived on or how big her house was, but would be there for her when things got tough. Friends like the ones she’d had in high school on Coral Island. She’d left them all behind when she went away to university and hadn’t kept up contact with them over the years. Another regret for her to bury alongside the many others that were rising to the surface of her mind as she considered what she’d sacrificed for Preston and his life goals. It turned out the sacrifices had all been in vain. If only she could have a second chance at life, she’d do so many things differently.
She recalled the time her school friends had helped her sneak out of the house so the four of them could attend a party her dad definitely wouldn’t have approved of. She slept on the second floor, so they’d used a ladder from the tool shed, pushed it up to the side of the house, and climbed up to tap on her window. Penny had brought a dress from her mother’s closet, Evie had carried lipstick and blush in a bumbag around her waist, and Taya had driven.
They hadn’t stayed at the party long. It turned out to be something of a letdown with adult men drinking and smoking as they ogled the girls from across the room. Instead, they’d headed to the beach, where they’d all gone skinny dipping in the warm, dark ocean and had laughed and squealed in embarrassment when Taya hid all their clothes behind a rock and they’d had to search for them in the dark.
The beach was deserted, so they’d lain in their underwear on the sand looking up at the stars and swapping stories about their hopes and dreams for the future. It was right before her mother had died, when life still seemed so full of promise. Not long after that, everything had changed. Bea wondered where the memory had sprung from—she hadn’t thought of that night in years. It was one of her favourite memories, but it’d been buried by the pain of loss that came soon after.
The golf club was the perfect place to host her farewell lunch. She’d met the same group of friends every Friday during school terms for coffee after a round of golf for years now. Even though the ladies she met weren’t the type of women she’d ever have imagined she’d become friendly with, it was good to get out in the sunshine and fresh air and then sit to talk over the various aspects of their lives.
The drive up to the clubhouse was picturesque. Sweeping greens with the occasional gum tree, and a hedgerow that lined the circular drive. Bea stopped at the valet parking and handed her car over to the attendant. Then she walked into the clubhouse, adjusting her blue silk scarf so it hung perfectly over her white-and-grey suit.
Susan, Beth and Annie were already there waiting for her. They’d ordered her a cosmopolitan and were halfway through theirs when she hugged them each and took a seat.
“It’s about time we all got together again,” Annie said, raising her glass in a mock toast.
They all agreed and took a drink. Then gave their lunch orders to the waiter. Bea asked for pot roast. She hadn’t done much cooking lately and was craving a homestyle meal.
They chatted about the weather and their gym attendance, family dramas and neighbourhood conflict.
Finally, Beth spun to face Bea with a half smile on her face. “You’ve been very quiet, Bea. What’s going on in your life?”
Bea cleared her throat. “I have something of an announcement.”
“Oh?” Susan leaned forward in anticipation. She was an accountant, married to a CEO, and always dressed as though she was attending a business meeting. They lived in a mansion a few streets over from Bea’s house. They had one son in high school and Susan took the role of mother very seriously, making sure to ferry him to after-school activities every single day without fail.
“Preston has asked for a divorce.”
“No!”
