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Of course, Gabe chose that particular moment to step out onto the patio with Matt, and my heart clenched painfully. He saw me sitting there, paused for a moment, nodded, then said, “Ally.”
Oh god, oh god, oh god. No more Allegra for me. “Hi.” Hot tears pricked at the back of my eyes and I forced myself to take a few deep breaths.
“You okay?” Emma murmured quietly.
“Sure, I’m fine.”
“Did you and Gabe have a fight, or something?”
“Or something, yeah.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. It’s for the best.” It was weird how something that was supposed to be for the best could feel so fucking awful.
There was no doubt that everyone was giving me sideways looks now, and I was incredibly grateful when Emma said, “I’ll grab you a drink and a snack. We can sit here in the corner and avoid the Walker brothers together.”
“Sounds like a plan.” She came back with two glasses of wine and some cheese and crackers on a plate. Feeling both Zara and Lucy watching me closely, I turned away a little, like the absolute coward that I was. “I thought things looked a bit less awkward with you and Jake, when I saw you dancing at the wedding.”
Nibbling on a cracker, Emma shot a quick look at Jake. “Yeah, they are, a little. This is the most time I’ve spent in Esperance in ten years, that’s for sure, and since we can’t avoid each other, he suggested that we call a truce. We both knew that being so weird whenever we saw each other made everyone uncomfortable, including us. So now we’re like… polite acquaintances.”
“How is that working out?” I asked because I knew this was my future. Years and years of seeing Gabe at these sorts of things, having so much history with him, having to pretend we barely knew each other.
Emma shrugged. “Okay, I guess. Better than it was before, even if we’re still pretending a lot of stuff never happened.”
Maybe that was the trick. Just pretend it never happened.As if I could do that, I thought, glancing at Gabe, sitting next to Elissa, playing with Chloe and Mila.
It wasn’t even an hour later that Gabe said he had to go. I should have been relieved, since the last hour had been excruciating for me, but I wasn’t. He left Jesse still playing with Chloe and Mila, because he was apparently sleeping over at Bruce and Ellen’s with some other grandkids, said a general goodbye, and stepped off the patio and around the corner of the house.
Without thinking about it, I handed my wine glass to Emma and hurried after him. “Hey.”
He didn’t turn back to me straight away and I wondered for a moment if he was just going to ignore me. Then he turned around, his face flat and impassive, and said, “Hi.”
Oh god. Perfect strangers. “You don’t have to leave on my account. I mean, it’s your family, I can—”
“It’s fine. I’m catching up with Matt at the barlater for a beer. Enjoy the party.” He turned away without another word and I watched him walk toward his truck, get in, start the engine and head toward the gate without a backward glance.
But of course I didn’t enjoy the party. At all. So not long after Gabe left, I told Zara I had a headache and was heading home. She saw straight through me of course, but everyone was still there, so it wasn’t like she could pull me inside and drag the whole, sad tale out of me.
I cried all the way home, hating myself for bringing everyone down.
CHAPTER40
Ally
Fucking hell. Banished from my own restaurant. All because I nearly burnt myself taking a tray from the oven, because I wasn’t paying attention and used a damp cloth. Dad was supremely mad about it, and Mom didn’t step in to calm him down, which meant she agreed.
Now I had to find a way to pass the whole night at home on my own. Without crying, please and thank you. No. Impossible.
Curled up on the couch in the dark, cuddling a cushion, I stared up at the ceiling. There was absolutely nothing on television that could hold my attention. I’d already cleaned the place top to bottom three times since leaving Gabe’s on that fateful day. And there was definitely no way I could read a book, since I seemed to have developed the attention span of a goldfish.
I heard someone open my front door and was too listless to even freak out about it. Whoever it was clearly had the code, if they’d managed to open it. Zara.
“Yeah, she’s home, I asked her dad.” Great. Now every fucking light in the place was on. I watched wordlessly as my best friend marched into my apartment with Lucy and Emma in tow, each with an armful of bags, and headed straight into the kitchen. “We’ve got wine, chocolate, and butterscotch ice cream if you want it, but you’ll start with this, first.” She brought an insulated travel mug to me. “Chicken soup. And some bread. Eat.”
Too tired to argue, I took the mug from her and had a sip. It was good, so I took another.
“And the bread.”
