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Jess waved her off and retreated to busy herself behind the counter, calling over her shoulder,“You three dinnae want an old lass cramping yer style.”
I watched her with worry as she lifted a heavy tray of mugs from the washer.“Should she be doing that alone?”
June chuckled.“Try and stop her and you’ll get a swat on your behind for the trouble.”
Heather stirred a cube of sugar into her tea.“She only works three days a week now, her daughters handle the rest of the business.”
I nodded, pouring out my own tea. It was wild how much this felt like old times, like I’d blinked and the last eleven years had flown by. Then I met their expectant eyes across the table. Perhaps notexactlylike old times.“What?”
Heather waved a hand.“Oh, I don’t know. How about the factApril Sinclairis sitting across the table from me and it feels bloody strange.”
“Please don’t call me that.” I cringed.
As though our words had conjured this exact scenario, I caught the flash of a phone in a woman’s hand a few tables down, camera pointed in my direction. I kept my focus on my friends and smiled through the small intrusion. If she was going to take a photo, lord let it be a good one.
“But you areApril Sinclair.”
I shook my head.“Sinclair is just a stage name, you know that.” Sinclair was Elsie’s maiden name and at nineteen, I’d thought it sounded a lot more sophisticated than Murphy.“Legally I’m still April Murphy, and with you I’m just April.”
“Still bloody strange though,” she muttered.
It was an odd feeling to be so changed in the eyes of the people you’d grown up with, when to yourself, you were still the same girl who’d waitressed in this very café every Wednesday after school. I imagined it felt a lot like when Alice went to Wonderland and ate the cake that made her grow five times in size. Her fundamentals stayed the same but she was ultimately different, an oddity among the people who used to be her friends. It was why I’d stopped visiting. I hated the pointing and whispering, the way a walk through the village with Elsie would turn into a circus show where everyone wanted to weigh in on all the choices I’d ever made, like they had the right to an opinion.
Did it make me sound like a poor little famous girl? Probably. It was the life I chose. The life I wanted. But my feelings were still my own and they were as valid as anyone else’s.
Still feeling their scrutiny, I plastered on a grin, searching for any change of subject.“Heather, your hair looks incredible, when did you change it?”
She smoothed a hand over the shoulder-length white-blonde strands, her smile brittle.“About six months ago.” She’d been naturally blessed with poker-straight chestnut locks that I’d never seen her cut above her waist.Thiswas a dramatic change. June put a supportive hand on her shoulder as she blew out a breath.“Mike and I split almost a year ago.”
“What? Why?” I looked to June, then back to Heather, waiting for one of them to laugh. They didn’t.
Heather shrugged miserably.“I guess he didn’t love our life—didn’t love me enough. He moved to Australia, software programmers are‘in demand’out there it seems.”
I shook my head, taking a moment to process, to align this narrative with the teenage boy I’d known. Mike and Heather were high school sweethearts, he’d worshipped the ground she walked on. I remembered the day he left for university, the way he openly wept in front of all of his friends and promised to phone her everyday. He’d stuck to it too. And he’d left her.
Another thought dawned.“What about Ava and Emily?” Heather had twin daughters, they had to be at least six years old by now.
“He FaceTimes them once a week. He keeps asking me to let them spend Christmas over there… I haven’t made a decision yet.”
“And you don’t need to,” June cut in.“He’s the one who left, he doesn’t get to make demands. If he wants to see them he can get on a damn plane himself.”
Heather nodded.“I know, that’s what Mal keeps saying.”
My neck prickled at the mention of Malcolm, Heather’s older brother. Heather had three older brothers, Mal being the youngest male in the Macabe family. Callum was the eldest, followed by Alastair. Now, this was where things got a little complicated and a lot awkward because Alastair had at one time been engaged to Juniper (Island Life at its finest) when they’d both lived in Glasgow. That was, until six years ago, when June was forced to return to Skye after her father’s sudden heart attack and remained to help her mother run their small B&B. Alastair had chosen—somewhat brutally—to remain in Glasgow. Not only had it left June heartbroken, it had inevitably caused a rift between my two friends when Heather couldn’t completely disparage her brother.
I’d hated being so far away and somehow still caught in the middle. I’d raged for June, threatened to fly to Glasgow and relieve Alastair of his balls myself. But, deep down, a guilty little part of me had understood. Life on a remote island wasn’t for everyone. Alastair’s actions had been cruel, but wasn’t it kinder to end it quickly than spend years building a life with someone, one foot always out the door?
Seeing June comfort Heather now, I had no doubt those old wounds were firmly behind them.“Heather, I’m so sorry for bringing it up, I had no idea.”
“I should have told you, I’m just embarrassed I guess.” She planted her face in her hands and snickered.“I’m a thirty-year-old single mother working two jobs, it’s not exactly the life I dreamed of.”
June pointed her tea cup in Heather’s direction.“You are killing it, mama.”
I clinked my cup for June’s.“Hear, hear. You are without a doubt the hottest single mother I’ve ever seen.” I got my desired reaction when she giggled, tossing her blonde hair dramatically.
“Okay, okay, we’ve circled the topic enough.” June banged a manicured hand off the table.“It’s your turn, April. What are you doing here and how long are you staying?”
I pretended to think, tapping a finger off my lips.“Umm… I have no idea and again, I have no idea.”
