33. Can’t Protect Her Forever
CAN’T PROTECT HER FOREVER
WILL
Kylie and I emerge from the surf after an hour, and the first thing I notice when we get back to the camp site is that the rest of the women have disappeared, along with Morgan’s car.
At least Annie’s car is still here. For a moment, I’d worried she’d done another runner.
Chris and Jake are putting together snacks for the kids while Aiden and Seth keep the smallest ones, along with Alfie, entertained with a game of tiggy. Lucy and Brandie are sitting in their small camp chairs while watching something on an iPad.
“Where’d the girls go?” I ask, propping my board against the side of my ute.
Alfie comes running over and presses his nose against my hand, urging me to pat him. I bend down to give him a quick scratch behind the ears.
“They took Lis for an ‘intervention brunch’ as Morgan called it,” Jake says, using air quotes.
I shake my head. “Well, that should be interesting…”
“Where’d they go? Do you know which cafe?” Kylie asks, peeling her wet suit off.
I can already see the wheels in motion in her head, and I don’t like it one bit.
“Bug, I think you should probably sit this one out.”
“Nope. I need to apologise to her and also give my two cents as well.”
“They went to Gloria’s,” Chris pipes up, and I shoot him a glare. “What? Lis can handle it.”
“Not entirely sure that’s true, mate.”
He shakes his head and sighs. “Look, as much as Kylie was a little rash this morning, she had a point. We’ve been tiptoeing around Lis for the last few weeks, but that needs to stop. If there’s ever any hope of everyone being able to move forward, then grievances need to be aired.”
I stew over his words while Kylie throws on a dress over her swimmers and jumps in her car, not bothering to say anything further to me. When she gets something in her head, that’s all there is to it.
Really hope Chris is right and Annie can handle whatever Kylie has to say.
“You can’t protect her forever, you know,” Jake adds.
I raise an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He abandons the snack making and walks closer. “I can tell you are two seconds from jumping in your car and going to intervene, but the girls have got this. You can’t always be the one to run to her defence, and honestly, I’m a bit pissed at you right now.”
“What’d I do?” I ask, taken aback.
“I get why you kept this to yourselves when it happened. But after Lis left, you were hellbent on keeping everyone in the dark about what happened, and that’s not fair.”
I gape at him for a moment, before flicking a glance towards Chris. “You gonna weigh in here, too?”
Chris shrugs. “I’m with Jake on this. It was shitty to keep it from us all. But… I’d kind of worked it out myself. I just wasn’t sure.”
Jake turns to look at him. “What?”
“Just a few things that I’ve noticed over the years. And there was a night about four years ago when Will was wasted and let slip a few things after he broke up with Melissa.”
I vaguely remember the night he’s talking about, but have no recollection of saying anything about Annie. It tracks, though. After every failed relationship attempt, my mind always returned to her.
“Couldn’t have clued the rest of us in?” Jake replies.
It’s rare to see Jake annoyed, and he doesn’t appear to be any less pissed when Chris just shrugs again.
“Wasn’t my secret to tell. I figured, at some point, the truth would come out. And I fucking hate gossip.”
“Can I just weigh in here? As someone who has known Annelisa through the years she was away?” Aiden appears to have left the game of tiggy in the more than capable hands of the professional athlete to join the tense conversation.
“By all means, jump on in,” I reply with a wave of my hand, fast losing my patience.
“She’s been a mess for a while. Tara has been trying to talk sense into her for years, but she needed to do things on her own terms. I’ve gotten to know her pretty well over the past few years, and even more so since she’s been back, and I think Will did the right thing in keeping it to himself.
He knows her better than anyone, and it was also his experience as well.
I get that you guys are all really close, but there are some things that happen in a relationship that aren’t anyone else’s business if they choose to keep it to themselves. ”
Jake opens his mouth to reply, but I put my hand up.
“Okay, I’m going to talk now. First, thank you, Aiden.
I’m glad she had someone looking out for her, and that you were there to support Tara while she had to deal with all this shit while not knowing what was going on.
Second, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys.
But Annie was adamant she didn’t want anyone to know when it all happened, and I was just respecting her wishes. ”
Jake shakes his head. “I get why you kept it to yourself back then, but you should have told us after she left. We were all thinking she was this awful person for what she did, but if we’d known what was really going on, we might have all been a bit more understanding.”
I sigh. “I can’t change the past, Jake. Sure, maybe I could have handled it differently after she left, but I told everyone that there was more to it all and that she wasn’t the bad guy.”
Jake and Chris exchange a glance, before Chris runs a hand through his hair while he sighs.
“I guess it’s just… Lis has been like a sister to us our whole lives.
And we’ve spent the last seven years wondering what the hell happened that could have made her just disappear like that.
I get that you were protecting her, I really do.
But you let her just retreat into herself and avoid dealing with all her issues, even before what happened.
And it is not your fault, so don’t think that’s what I’m saying, but maybe it’s time to stop letting her run away from her problems? ”
I look over at Aiden. “Do you agree with them?”
He nods. “Yeah. Not the first part, cause I didn’t know her back then, but I think you definitely need to let her sort this out on her own.
You’ve been protecting her by not telling anyone what happened, which I get, but now that the truth is out…
It’s time for her to face up to what happened and how it affected her. How it affected both of you.”
I let out a long breath and rake a hand through my wet, sandy hair. The three of them watch me quietly while I process everything they’ve said.
“I guess… I’m just worried that if the girls, and Kylie especially, push her too hard, she’s going to disappear again,” I finally ad mit.
A look of understanding crosses both Chris and Jake’s faces, while Aiden shakes his head.
“Trust me. That won’t happen this time. Because she would still let Tara know where she’s gone, and if it came to that, Tara won’t keep her secrets a second time. Because Tara knows Annelisa needs you in her life, and she’s done protecting her as well.”
His answer doesn’t entirely fill me with comfort, but there’s not much I can do about it. All I can do is hope they are right and that Annie can handle the fallout of dropping the truth bomb on everyone.