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“Right, cowgirl, let’s go to summer club.” She follows me out and down the stairs. I’d packed her bag over breakfast so we slip our jackets on and lock up.
Beau races to the car, her toy hanging in her hand. “I'm a yee-haw!” she declares proudly.
“Are you all buckled up?” I call back, and she nods in the mirror. “Next stop, summer pony club!”
The club is well into the swing by the time we arrive. Many children are enjoying activities or are out in the garden.
“Morning, Claire. Beau has brought her toy pony along today.”
“Oh, she is lovely. Beau, maybe we can find other horses for you to play with and we can groom them?” With little encouragement, Beau takes the other lady's hand. Grace soon appears, so I head to work, feeling better about her being in the club. I know the shop is the best thing for Beau and I, it’s our future, but I can’t help the mum guilt I'm confronted with when leaving her. I’ve started to take Beau a little later each session so I could miss any other parents, namely one. Cam wasn’t there again, and I’m glad to avoid him. It’s a short car journey to the shop. Keeley is popping in at some point today to go over a few bits with me. Until then, I plan to sort out their contracts and print paperwork off.
The new bell above the door dings. I wasn't expecting to hear it soon, at least not until opening. I'm balanced up high,arranging stock. “Sorry, we’re not actually open yet,” I call breathlessly from the back. Keeley isn’t due for a while yet.
“I know.” That voice. Deep. Confident. I jolt on the stool and grip the shelves for support.Cameron.“Can we talk?” He sounds gruff now, serious.
I tighten my hands on the shelf. “Just a sec.” Closing my eyes, I count backwards from ten to collect myself. I smooth down my dress and check my reflection on the blank screen of my phone. Cameron is patiently waiting for me when I step out from behind the back. I keep the counter between us, needing the distance from him. He’s wearing gym shorts and a sweat-stained top. Even damp and hot faced, he looks gorgeous. His appearance surprises me, or at least my reaction to him does. I stare at the counter and clear my throat. “What’s up?”
My response rankles him, his calm, controlled mask slipping as he scowls at me. “What’s up?” He laughs, then shakes his head as though I'm the unwanted punchline to a bad joke. “Honestly, Holly, I never thought I would see you again. I never suspected you’d return home.”
Home. It was my home until he tainted it.
His hands slap down on the counter, startling me and pulling my thoughts back to him. He frowns out of the window, and I follow his eye line. I expect to find his wife waiting outside, but the green for once is empty. He gives another humourless laugh, then looks back, and it instantly puts me on edge. The look in his eyes is no longer warm. I still remember the look on his face when he noticed me at the village fete and he’d come over. “For years, I planned what I would say to you.” His tan cheeks flare with colour; he’s embarrassed by his admission. “I wanted to say so much,” he confesses hotly, yet the heat in his eyes no longer shows the desire I was used to as a love-stricken teenager. Now, it’s replaced by anger.
At me!
If anyone is to be mad, it’s me. For years, I too thought of what I would say to him, yet I'm speechless now.
“And now that you're here, I’ve realised I no longer have anything to say to you because it’s not worth it,” he mutters scathingly.
“Excuse me?” I scoff.
His eyes regard me with something like disgust. “I mean, after all these years, surely it’s done.” He says it in a way that seems like a question, but it isn’t voiced as such. So I don't reply. I'm not giving him any ammunition. I want to tell his cheating arse to go to hell, but I don’t. “We’re both adults now. We’ve moved on.” He shrugs, and my mind goes straight to his wife, his beautiful wife, who is absolutely nothing like me. “We live in a small village, so we are likely to bump into one another. I’d rather us clear the air and be civil.”
“For a moment there, it didn’t feel very civil to me,” I bite through a tight smile, which he reciprocates with one of his own. God, the arrogant prick. He’s even more full of himself. How awful for him to have been screwing two girls; it must have caused him some damage. My eyes flash with all the unsaid words, and he sucks in a deep breath. I can see he is ready to say more, but I don’t let him. “I'm here for Beau, to give her a decent life and upbringing. I have been nothing but polite. If anything, you just made this more awkward,” I snap. Tears burn my eyes, and I narrow my gaze, refusing them access to run free.
“Holly, if awkward came up and slapped you on the back of the head, you wouldn’t know it,” he grits, and I somehow laugh. Who the hell is this man?
“Cameron, I don't even think you know what you want. One second, you're saying let’s brush it under the carpet, and in the next breath, you’re condemning me for something that y—” I stop. I'm not getting into this. The time for arguing about his indiscretion is long gone. “—for something from years ago,” I sayinstead, and his jaw locks. “If you have something to say, just say it!” I snap.
His chest inflates and, for a moment, I think he is about to unleash hell on me, but he grips the side and shakes his head. He sags inwardly and deflates before my eyes. The bristling man is gone and in its wake is someone who looks defeated. “You’re not worth it,” he whispers. I'm glad he isn’t looking at me because I physically flinch at his harsh admission.
No, I won’t cry. I blink back the hotness in my eyes and lift my chin. “You made that clear enough a decade ago. Thanks for stopping by and being civil,” I grate and turn, leaving him standing in the shop alone. It’s a few minutes before I hear the doorbell chime again, and only when I know he’s gone do I drop down in my office chair and stare at the wall.
How dare he come here to my place of work, my business, and demand we be civil? Nothing about his temperament was civil. What small polite interaction we’d had before now is moot. He stuck a massive spanner in the works!
He cheated!
I don't care how young we were; he was old enough and mature enough to know what he was doing. He deceived and betrayed me. I have half a mind to storm out of the shop and have it out with him and I nearly do. I make it across the floor and have my hand on the door when I see him striding around the far corner and stop. This is best. It’s clear that neither of us can be friends. Not after that. Maybe this is easier. We can keep our distance and go about our days, move forward with our lives, without contact. There are other places he can go for coffee. Cameron Stone can take a leap and jump, for all I care. I secretly hope his wife doesn't like my arrival. I hope she gives him shit about it. It’s probably why he was so pissed. Maybe she is giving him a hard time and he is taking it out on me. Whatever the hell his problem is, it's not my business. He can forgetabout me being polite to him! I may have been a quiet and shy teenager, but he has yet to meet this Holly. I stomp to the coffee machine and smack a cup down, wishing this thing poured wine out instead. “The absolute gall, stupid, arrogant prick!” I mutter under the loud spray of the machine.
“Who is a prick?” Keeley asks, dumping her bag on the counter.
I scream and whirl round. “Oh my god, shit, you scared me!”
“Sorry.” She winces. “Are you okay? You look mad.” She smiles at me cautiously.
“Yes, sorry,” I sigh. “Bad morning, coffee?” I say, trying to dispel the anger from my body.
I go through Keeley’s contract with her and give her a full tour of the stockroom, upstairs, and the office. I talk about my ideas for the shop and ask her to read up on a few books, giving her a few to take with her. “It just helps to sell if we all know the books, some I haven’t read, but what we do know will aid in supporting purchases.” I smile, seeing her apprehension.
