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She fiddled with the tray of cupcakes, arranging them in lines of individual colours and then had to figure out where to put the solitary rainbow decorated one. The vibrant design had been one of the most popular with both the girls and the boys.
‘Becca?’
‘All right, it was me. Not now, but at high school. You remember what an outsider I was. Sabine used to be in the cool group. All the popular girls. It’s not a big school so they came from different classes and sat together at lunchtime. I think they did ballet together after school. Sabine and Brittany and a couple of other girls. All rich and pretty and with boys drooling all over them. I’d almost forgotten.’
‘You wanted to be drooled all over? Or do ballet?’
‘Yuck, no. The guys were jerks anyway. Most of them.’
Morgan grinned. ‘You liked one of them.’
‘Of course not.’ His speculative look disturbed her and she hoped he didn’t remember her crush on him. It had started long before he took any notice of her. How embarrassing to be stuck on one guy your whole life. She could sense heat rising up her throat, warming her cheeks. ‘Maybe one or two. Andrew Maiden was nice. You’d remember him. He was the one in Dan’s class.’
‘Where is Dan? I expected him to be here for the working bee.’
‘He works at the organic farm with Thackery on the weekend.’
‘In Bialga all week and on the farm on the weekend. You mustn’t see much of each other.’
‘He’s usually home for tea.’
Morgan placed his cup on the bench with the other discards. ‘You said you used to be jealous. But you aren’t now?’
Becca started stacking the cups. ‘Why should I be? I’ve got everything I need. Besides …’
‘Besides …?’
‘Look what happened to them. I thought they had a charmed life and poor Brittany died at sixteen and Sabine …’
She stumbled to a halt and heat washed up her cheeks again.
‘What about Sabine?’
‘She was injured in a car crash. A few years after Dan and Brittany’s accident. A drunk hit her and her boyfriend on the bridge and they all ended up in the river.’
Morgan scanned the crowd for Sabine. ‘She looks great now.’
‘Yes, they were pulled out quickly. The drunk driver was killed. He drowned.’
‘What happened to the boyfriend?’
‘He went back to university. I don’t know what happened afterwards. I understand he went overseas.’
‘Is she with anyone at the moment? Husband, boyfriend?’
With a quick lift of the chin to hide the pain, Becca focused on his face. ‘Are you interested?’
‘Maybe. Does she teach primary or high?’
‘High. She also does tutoring after school.’
With what seemed like an effort, he dragged his gaze back from the attractive teacher. If Morgan was going to use her as a dating app it was going to be far too painful. ‘She rarely dates, so you have an open field.’
‘Thanks.’ It was said almost absently. ‘I’ll catch you later. I want to talk to you about Gabby.’
***
Morgan headed for the playing fields to let Gabby know he’d kept his promise to come, but found he was caught up with conversations with people who’d known him years ago. It was gratifying how many people remembered him, considering he’d hardly been back since he graduated from grade ten and went away to boarding school for the last couple of school years.
