Chapter 57 #2
Oliver suddenly got her meaning. He stared at her a full minute. ‘You’re not saying what I think you’re saying?’
Bridie grinned. ‘Oh, yes.’
‘Are you sure?’
She linked her arm in his. ‘I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.’
From behind them came the sounds of the fire engines and ambulance departing, driving slowly along the promenade in the other direction.
Oliver halted. ‘Don’t you want to inspect the damage?’
Bride shook her head. ‘Not now. I’ve got more important things on my mind. She raised her eyebrows at him suggestively.
Oliver raised his eyebrows too, the look on his adorable face saying he didn’t catch her meaning. She rolled her eyes at him.
‘Oh, oh, I see.’
They exchanged another smile. As they did so, Bridie caught sight of the old run-down cottage next door to the theatre as they passed by. ‘What do you think Jack will do with the cottage he was going to move into?’
‘You mean that one next door to the theatre?’
Bridie nodded.
‘I expect he’ll go back to his original plan of doing it up and selling it on for a profit.’
‘Do you think that’s what they’re discussing now?’ Bridie asked. Jack and Jade were standing outside the run-down cottage deep in conversation.
Oliver shook his head. ‘I have no idea. And you know what? I don’t care because that house has got nothing to do with us, and besides, right now I’ve got more important things on my mind …’ He took Bridie’s hand and held it to his lips, kissing the back of her hand gently.
Bridie actually trembled at his touch. ‘Let’s go,’ she said eagerly. She didn’t want to waste another moment.
‘I thought we were going home now,’ said Jade.
‘Me too,’ Milo said. ‘Why are we standing here?’
Jack smiled at them. ‘I just wanted to show your mother something.’ Jack turned to Jade. ‘I bought this cottage to do up and sell on, but then I was going to live there when I thought you were divorcing me.’
‘What that old thing?’ Jade said, turning her nose up.
Milo ran over to the house, and peered through a dirty downstairs window.
‘I hope you don’t expect me to live there now,’ Jade said.
Jack cocked his head at Jade. ‘But I thought you just said you didn’t care if you were left with nothing as long as you have me?’
‘But I do have you, and we have our nice house.’ Jade glanced at Bridie who was walking along the promenade hand-in-hand with Oliver. ‘But Bridie hasn’t got a home of her own.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘We weren’t nice to her, either of us. What I did on social media, and you going after her theatre. I think she deserves an apology – and something more.’
‘You’re not suggesting we give her the property?’ Jack said, taken aback. He couldn’t believe it. Jade would never have just given away anything in the past, not unless it had some financial benefit to her. She would certainly not have given Bridie something for free.
‘I wouldn’t want you to give her the property in that state. I expect you to do it up first.’
‘What?’
‘You heard me, Jake. It needs renovating, new kitchen, bathroom, windows – whatever it takes.’
Jack swept her in his arms. ‘You really have changed.’
‘And so have you. I thought you’d be jealous when you saw them together just now. But you’re not.’
‘No, I’m not. Not one bit. Because I have you. But …’
‘But …?’
Jack glanced their way. ‘I think they were always meant to be together, from the very beginning, but I … I got in the way.’ He looked at Jade. ‘I know Bridie. She won’t accept charity. And she certainly won’t accept the property from me.’
‘So, gift it to her, anonymously.’
‘What?’
‘Yes, like the mysterious benefactor who gifted her the theatre next door. That could work. If she finds out later that it was you …’
‘Us,’ said Jack, grinning at her.
She returned his smile. ‘All right, us, then we can say it’s an early wedding present.’
‘A wedding present? But she’s not getting married yet.’
‘But she will.’
Jack glanced at Bridie and Oliver.
Jade looked over at them too. ‘He’s been her knight in shining armour, the guy who has waited for her all his life. It’s so romantic. But because of you, she never saw what was under her nose, the guy who truly loved her and would make her happy.’
‘You don’t have to tell me that,’ said Jack miserably. ‘I know what I did.’
‘We understand each other, Jack. We were meant to be together. We should have got together in high school, but you went after Bridie just because your best friend showed an interest, and you treated it, treated her, like a competition, because he wanted her, you had to have her. And when she came back here after years away, you slipped into your old ways, seeing Oliver’s interest in Bridie. ’
‘Yes, it’s true,’ Jack admitted. ‘And I was unhappy, we both were, in our marriage, and I thought … I thought she loved me, and I could love her.’
Jade sighed. ‘I became very jealous when I found out how much time you’d been spending with her at the theatre, when I wanted you to spend time with me.’
‘I’m sorry, Jade.’
‘I know you are.’
‘The cottage,’ said Jack looking up at the property. ‘It’s for both of them isn’t it. Recompense for getting in the way.’
Jade nodded ‘That’s right. They deserve their happy ever after, Jack.’ She took his hand, and they both turned to look at Bridie and Oliver disappearing into the distance along the promenade. Jack said, ‘They’ll love it there, their first home together, I’m sure.’
‘So, am I. It’s next door to Bridie’s favourite place, after all. Now, talking of home, lets return to ours, shall we?’
Jack, Jade and Milo turned in the other direction, and headed home.
As they walked along the promenade, hand-in-hand, Bridie suddenly had a thought. ‘Where will Isobel stay tonight?’
‘I think Jack has organised a hotel room.’
‘Oh, yes. Isobel mentioned that.’ Bridie remembered. She also recalled Isobel had said something about inviting her to live with him. She presumed he’d meant in the cottage next door to the theatre where he had been intending to live if the divorce had gone ahead.
Bridie glanced over her shoulder and saw something she hadn’t expected. Isobel was walking hand in hand with Reggie along the promenade in their direction, a few yards behind them.
‘What are you looking at?’ Oliver asked, glancing behind him too.
‘Love that has stood the test of time.’ She turned her gaze on Oliver.
He returned her smile. She guessed he thought she was referring to their relationship, how long they’d known each other, and how Oliver’s love for her had never wavered in all those years apart.
Although it was true for them, she was thinking of Reggie and Isobel.
Oliver said, ‘Some loves never die.’
Bridie looked at him askance. ‘You’re such a romantic.’
‘I can say the same about you, Bridie, with all that talk of love that has stood the test of time.’
They stopped briefly, a little way along the promenade.
Night clung to the beach in pockets of shadow, but the horizon had softened, the hard black line between sea and sky blurring into something gentler in the moonlight.
The air smelled of salt and kelp and possibility.
The world felt paused, as if it were holding its breath.
For a moment, neither of them moved. There was so much history between them it felt almost visible, like a third presence hovering in the soft glow of the streetlamp.
They walked a little further before he spoke again. ‘I owe you an apology. No – more than that. I owe you the truth.’
Bridie stopped walking, thinking that Oliver didn’t owe her a thing. It was quite the reverse.
Oliver halted too, immediately turning to her. The moonlight was stronger now. She could see the lines around his eyes, the raw honesty there.
‘You broke my heart, back then, when you were with Jack,’ he said simply. ‘And I spent years pretending I was over it when I wasn’t.’
‘I know,’ she said.
She studied him, searching for the boy he had once been, her best friend at school, and the stranger he’d briefly become before they’d renewed their friendship, and she’d found love, true love this time.
She asked. ‘Why fight so hard for this theatre, for me, even though you thought we’d never be together? ’
Oliver exhaled slowly. ‘Because I finally realised something. Even though back then you were with Jack, you still left me too, you know, when you went to London. But you didn’t choose the theatre over him – or me.
You chose yourself. And I was too young to understand that loving someone means letting them go to become who they really are. ’
The words landed quietly, but they landed true.
Bridie breathed in, the cold air filling her lungs.
She thought of the theatre, of Isobel, of Jack, and of the community that had caught her when she’d been falling.
Of the woman she was now – bruised, wiser, still hopeful despite herself.
And the man she loved, she’d always loved, standing beside her.
She turned to him and gently touched his cheek.
‘May I kiss you?’ Oliver said.
‘I thought you’d never ask.’
He brushed a wisp of hair away from her face with his fingertips. ‘God, I’ve missed you.’
‘And I, you. I wish—’
He put his fingertips to her lips. ‘Let’s leave the past in the past. No wishing we’d done things differently, that we’d been together all along. We’re together now, and that’s all that matters.’
After they kissed, Bridie glanced over her shoulder and saw Reggie and Isobel still walking towards them, deep in conversation. She imagined they were saying the same sort of thing to one another as they headed to Cobblers Yard too.
After a moment, she started walking again. Oliver fell in step beside her, his hand closing gently around hers.
The promenade stretched ahead, bathed in the glow of lamplight. And for the first time in a very long while, Bridie felt like she wasn’t walking back into the past – or running from it. She was walking forward, to a bright future.