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Acid burnt at the back of my throat as I dumped the plate of food in the nearest bin, flung open the side door of the function room and strode outside.
Just a few moments alone, and then I’d be fine.
I headed to the large peach tree in the chapel grounds, most of its leaves now gone with winter settling in. I sucked in several deep breaths, walking a circle around the tree, trying to keep my shit together.
“Tom. Are you okay?”
Rosie, again.
“You’re asking me if I’m okay?” I snarled.
“It’s your first funeral since your dad. At least, that I know of. And I wanted to see how you were.”
She’d remembered, after all this time. After what she’d done to me, to us.
“I’m fucking fantastic, Rosie. Thanks for asking.”
“Excuse me?” She got right in my face, hands on hips, her eyes full of fire.
I loved those deep brown pools of fire.
Hadloved.Had.
“Excuse you what, Rosie?”
She huffed, crossing her arms. “It’s my engagement, isn’t it? Can’t you be happy for me? Is that too hard?”
“I said congratulations.”
Rosie snorted. “You looked at me like it was impossible that I could be happy with someone else.”
I stepped closer, holding her gaze. Rosie didn’t back away. “Tell me something, Rosie. Are you happy you’re engaged?”
Her eyes flared wide, at first with shock, then a flash of sadness, then hard again, fiery.
But not happy.
Low and deep in my gut, something swirled hot.
“Of course I am,” she scoffed. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Then, why does it matter what I think?”
“Because …” Rosie cut herself off, sucking her full lips in, smearing her plum-coloured lipstick.
Christ on a quad bike.Even at a funeral, all these years later, I was still drawn to her lips, wondering what it’d be like to kiss them again.
“Because?” There was only a hair’s breadth between us.
Could she feel this, too? Something hot and tangled, pulling us together. Or I was I making this up?
Her eyes roamed over my face, my lips, my chest, and then she swallowed, breathing hard.
Yeah, she could.
“Because …” Rosie breathed. “Once, you had been my friend.”
That’s when my heart ached anew. But she hadn’t just been my friend once. She’d been a lover, however fleeting.
