AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Trust that Mary Howard to get front and center,” she heard Mrs. L say as she passed behind her.
“Yes, we’re all proud of Ted. He and I have been friends for some time. I like to think I’ve helped him a great deal with the lodge,” Mary Howard was saying.
Moving in behind Bas, she listened for a while as one after the other, locals told the reporter that Ted was a popular figure in town and they were grateful to him for the lodge.
The locals always backed another local, no matter if in private they didn’t feel that way. Mandy had seen it time and time again. Ted was considered one of them even though he hadn’t been born here.
She looked between Bas’s shoulder and the man next to him and saw two people. She thought they were Ted’s family. The father looked like him, even though his hair was gray. Beside them was the man she’d seen in Tea Total that day weeks ago. Ted had gone outside to speak to him.
This must be Anthony Hosking.
“Hello.”
Mandy looked at the man who had moved to stand beside her.
“Hello.”
“Sorry about the invasion.” His smile was genuine. “My brother dragged me away from the hospital to come on this little junket. I told him they could have three days and no longer.”
“You’re a Hosking?” He did have the look of Ted about him, but he was smaller.
“I’m the youngest one.”
“You’re a doctor?”
“Nurse, actually. Do you know Ted too?”
“Yes.”
“How is he?”
“Ahhh, he’s well. When did you last see him?”
“Five years ago, but we talk. I miss seeing his face though.”
Mandy may be angry with Ted for a lot of different reasons, but she wasn’t going to stop him reuniting with his brother… well, this one anyway. She made the decision to act, and hoped it was the right one.
“Come with me.”
Chapter 33
Ted sipped the coffee and wondered why he was hiding in Mandy’s kitchen. He’d been raised to this kind of life. Media, interviews, and smiling on cue. So why was it a struggle to contemplate now?
Because everything changed with Emily’s death.
He ran a successful business, had enough money to last him two lifetimes, and rarely turned away from a challenge. Yet the thought of facing his family had him cowering in this kitchen.
He was pathetic.
Mandy had every right to be angry with him, as did his friends. Ted hoped he hadn’t blown it with everyone, because this town was his home now and he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. The thought of not seeing Mandy again was something he never wanted to contemplate, even though because he was a gutless coward he’d put her in the friend zone.
He felt differently about her, but wasn’t willing to do anything about it. She scared him, that was the fact, plain and simple. Everything about his feelings for her were not comfortable, so he’d done what he always did when a person got too close and pushed her away.
He heard the bell on the door of Tea Total, and then there she was. Mandy, looking sweet in a knee-length skirt and white T-shirt. Her hair was up in a messy bun. She’d schooled her face into that emotionless facade he now knew she hid behind when she was unsure.
So sweet. He wanted to grab her and hold her, and this time he wouldn’t let her go. He felt it again, the burning indigestion in his gut.
“Ted, someone is here to see you.”
