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‘Oh. So—’
Amelia cut him off angrily. ‘I don’t want to pick up the pieces of what I left behind. Quite frankly, it’s not worth putting back together again.’
He scratched his chin. ‘What made you change your mind?’
Amelia turned away to pour a glass of water and compose herself. ‘I didn’t want to leave . . .’
‘Okay.’
As their eyes met and he took a step towards her, Amelia didn’t trust herself not to throw herself into his arms.Why was he so good-looking?Instead she kept talking. ‘That’s not to say he’s a bad guy or anything. He has lots of redeeming qualities, but he’s also a cheat.’
Fergus’s eyes widened. ‘Oh God. I’m sorry.’
‘Why?’
‘I’m sorry, Amelia. You don’t deserve any of this.’ He shook his head and dropped down on one of the stools. ‘You don’t owe me an explanation.’
‘It’s okay.’ She sat opposite him. The frisson of excitement from earlier had totally evaporated. ‘You’ve been a friend to me and I should have told you I was leaving for the mainland . . . It was all unexpected and I wasn’t thinking straight.’
‘It’s nice to have you back,’ he said stiffly.
‘Anyway,’ she said, not letting his words register. ‘You seemed to have your hands full.’ She didn’t want to tell him that the arrival of his girlfriend hadcompletelyunsettled her.
‘She’s not my girlfriend.’
Crikey, he could read her mind. ‘Who?’
‘Kelly.’
‘I see, well, she seems to think that she is. And you weren’t exactly pushing her away. Not that it’s any of my business.’
‘I know, but I felt I owed you an explanation, and then . . . Well, I wasn’t expecting to see you with him. Yourhusband.’
She sighed. ‘Fergus, you don’t owe me anything.’
A confused look flitted across his face. ‘Okay then . . .’
As she looked at him, more memories of what happened at the Christmas fair came back to her. His twinkling eyes — and not because he’d been Santa — the scent of his aftershave, his smile and the way his lips had twitched when they’d stood underneath the mistletoe . . . ‘Anyway,’ she said awkwardly. ‘Thanks for coming over.’
‘Okay,’ he said flatly. ‘I’ll see you around.’
Amelia gave him a tight smile. ‘See you.’ She wondered if they would ever get back to the way they’d been before all of this had happened. Somehow she doubted it. But she put that to the side. She needed to focus on herself for a while and she was relieved to be back.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Edie swept the driveway of imaginary leaves as Fergus thundered back up the path towards the van. ‘Everything okay, dear?’
‘Great.’
She took a breath. ‘Just give her some time.’
He forced a smile but his eyes were sad.
She knew he was feeling vulnerable. ‘Do you want to chat?’
He hesitated. ‘Kelly and I saw each other for a while but we had broken up. She is not my girlfriend and I’ve made that clear to her and Amelia.’
Edie’s frown softened a little. But Fergus appeared to be on the verge of tears.
