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‘I’m not ready to go back,’ said Hannah quickly. ‘I need some space for a bit. And Jess is right; I really don’t think Rob and I are going to work out.’
‘Well then, you know what to do,’ said Trish. ‘We’ll be here, we can help you find the right person whenever you’re ready.’
Hannah nodded, thinking about how nice it would be to sleep in her own bed. She wasn’t due back at work for another two weeks, so she could give the house a belated spring clean, clear out the rest of Graham’s stuff. Maybe do some work on the garden. Actually, a bacon double cheeseburger and someReal Housewiveswouldn’t go amiss either. Graham thought it was mindless trash TV and insisted he was allergic to bacon, even though he’d eaten about eight of his mother’s pigs in blankets last Christmas and lived to tell the tale.
The other women said nothing, watching her carefully.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘I’m coming home.’
Jess and Trish both smiled in relief as Gaynor clapped her hands. ‘Good decision. I’ll book a ladies’ doubles court for Thursday night, get you back where you belong, kicking all our arses.’
‘I’ll be there,’ said Hannah, waving at them all before ending the call. Up to now she hadn’t thought about going back to Surrey early, but now it felt like the right place to get her head in order and properly process everything that had happened. She and Luke and her mum could talk about the whole situation with her dad and make a fresh start as a family. She could get back to work, throw herself into the summer plan with Sam at her side to keep her sane. She could get over Rob and get on with her life.
Hannah stood up and stretched her tired limbs, then hoisted her rucksack onto her back. She took a deep breath, then pulled her phone out of her pocket and deleted Rob’s number before she changed her mind. Her hand shook a little and her heart started to race, so she opened and closed her fists and took deep breaths until she felt calmer. One final glance at the vista of mountains under a cloudless blue sky, then she picked her way down the slope towards the car.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
‘You all right, Reverend?’ sneered Olly, punching him in the shoulder. ‘Glad to be back? Missing your girlfriend? What was her name again?’
‘Fuck off, Olly,’ Rob muttered. ‘You’re incredibly boring. You know that, right?’
Olly grinned. ‘Yeah, but at least I don’t have to suck Mark’s dick to keep my job.’
‘You’re pathetic,’ said Rob. ‘Just leave me alone.’
Olly barked out a laugh, then swaggered off to annoy someone else. It was lunch break from coaching, and Rob had taken himself away from the group to sit on his own by the bar on the terrace. He turned his back and hunched over his phone so he didn’t have to make eye contact with Shauna, an incredibly fit woman who was part of a group of eight women from Glasgow. She’d been flirting shamelessly with him since their first session two days ago, and at some point between now and the end-of-week party on Friday he was going to have to make his lack of interest extremely clear because she definitely couldn’t take a hint.
He stared at Hannah’s WhatsApp page, wondering if he should break the seal and write something. Her profile picture had disappeared for some reason, which made him feel a bit sad. It was the only picture he had of Hannah, other than a photo of her and Keith holding the Club Colina tournament cup from two weeks ago, which was pinned on the noticeboard in the clubhouse under a printed header saying ‘This season’s winners’. He’d almost written her a message a couple of nights ago, when he couldn’t sleep and found himself staring at her smiling face at nearly four in the morning. Then her timestamp had said she’d last seen her WhatsApp at midnight, but now the time was gone too. Maybe she’d changed her settings so he couldn’t stalk her?
‘Rob?’ said a soft, male voice that definitely didn’t sound like Olly. Rob turned to find Luke standing a metre away, his arms wrapped round his skinny body. Dan shuffled awkwardly a little further away, his fists buried deep in the pockets of his pastel green shorts.
‘Hey, Luke,’ said Rob, standing up to greet him. ‘I didn’t realise you were still here.’
‘Got back from Dad’s this morning,’ said Luke. ‘We thought we’d stay for a couple more days before heading home, make a proper trip of it. Can we catch up for a beer later?’
‘Course,’ said Rob. Luke had less of his mother’s colouring than Hannah – he looked like a skinnier version of Barnaby. But the tilt of his chin, the way he held himself upright and made eye contact – that was just like his sister.
‘Where’s good for you?’ said Luke. ‘We don’t have any plans this evening.’
‘Let’s go to the Luna Lounge,’ said Rob, spotting Olly across the terrace, breaking his neck to see who Rob was talking to. ‘It’s a nice bar just down the hill; it will be pretty quiet on a Tuesday.’
‘OK,’ said Luke. ‘What time?’
‘Six?’ said Rob. ‘I’ve got a private lesson at four, so I’ll be done by five.’ It was the second of four private lessons Shauna had booked for this week, because apparently her lust for Rob had no price tag.
Luke nodded and smiled softly. ‘See you then.’ He mooched off towards the hotel with Dan in tow; Rob watched them lean their heads together to chat as they walked, then Luke briefly reached out to squeeze Dan’s hand as they laughed together. It made Rob’s heart hurt watching them like that, and he realised that a beer with Luke later was the closest he was going to get to Hannah until she got in touch to say goodbye.
‘Where’s your mum?’ asked Rob, half-expecting Luke and Dan to still be trailing Elena and Graham, along with a whole host of other family members they’d picked up along the way. Maybe a long-lost sister or a weird cousin.
‘She came with us to see Dad, then got a taxi to the airport,’ said Luke, taking a sip of his beer.
‘How did the family reunion go?’ Rob asked.
Luke shrugged. ‘It was OK. Pretty intense, but we talked about lots of stuff. There was a lot of crying and hugging.’
‘Well, that’s a good start. Any big drama?’
Luke sighed. ‘Loads, but nothing we didn’t already know. Mostly stuff they should have talked about at the time, really. Dad said sorry for the affair about a thousand times, and Mum apologised for not being stronger when the church leaders moved in on her. The whole situation was really fucked up.’ Rob nodded but said nothing, giving Luke the space to keep talking.
