Chapter 22 Sean
Sean
Behind Sean, the front door clicked shut, the serenity of Kinshore almost ringing in his ears after the noise of the past few days’ travel. It was the perfect welcome home, although there was one thing he’d like more. One thing he’d thought of constantly whilst away.
No sign of her, though. Not standing making toast in those denim hot pants he loved, or dancing to country music whilst dunking a tea bag in a cup. And certainly not waiting to kiss him and let him tear her clothes off like he’d imagined for most of the journey home.
Dropping his bag, Sean moved to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water, downing it in a few gulps. Only then did it come to his attention that the patio door was slightly open.
He slid the door open and, for a second, forgot to breathe as the sight of a transformed landscape hit him, including slender soil-stained legs bathing in early-afternoon sunlight and equally filthy feet resting on an old garden chair.
Standing unnoticed, he took her in. From behind, covered in dirt, his wife was still the most captivating woman he’d ever seen. He let out a long, low whistle.
‘Woah! What happened here?’
As Cherry glanced back, joy and delight shimmered in her eyes. ‘Oh, hi!’
‘Did you do this?’ Sean moved to the edge of the patio, drinking in his newly made-over garden. The answer could only be yes, unless she’d hired a gardener, but she looked like she had been in amongst it.
‘Maybe,’ she teased. ‘With a little help from my new friend, Summer.’
He spun back. ‘Summer? Summer Munro?’
‘Yes, she works in the garden shop. Speaks very highly of you.’
‘I speak highly of her, even higher now that you’ve both turned the place into the Garden of Eden. I’m speechless. I mean, as speechless as I get, but you know…’
‘You like it?’ Cherry brightened.
‘Aye. It’s incredible.’ He stepped onto the lawn, then stopped. ‘Can I go here with my shoes on?’
She laughed. ‘Of course you can. It’s grass, not diamonds.’
Sean did a little dance on the lawn. ‘Check out this normal-sized grass… And all these plants that aren’t weeds… You’ve got honeysuckle!’ He walked over and called to her from the fence as if she weren’t the one who had put it there. ‘Honeysuckle!’
‘Yes, like at your mum’s house.’
This caught him off guard for its thoughtfulness, and all he could do was stare at her. He thought of her constantly, but to know it might be mutual moved him more than he could say.
‘There are bird feeders and a birdbath.’ Cherry pointed to the rowan tree in the right-hand corner where the bird paraphernalia was set out. ‘This place is going to be a wee winged creature’s paradise.’
‘Did the wee winged creatures vandalise this one already?’ Sean stared down at the unassembled birdhouse sitting on the patio.
‘No, I ran out of steam and into the ginger wine. I thought you might like to put that one together.’
‘Ah, okay, I’d love to... Ginger wine?’ He pulled a chair up next to Cherry’s. ‘The psycho juice Patsy makes? I’ve nearly had my stomach pumped on more than one occasion from drinking that.’
‘The very same. Would you like a glass?’ She lifted the bottle. ‘There’s still some left.’
‘I’ll stick to beer, thanks. Maybe you should too since I don’t have time to take you to A it was comfy.’
‘Sure, a love swing for me and myself. Thanks, Cher.’ He segued from this into the topic that was at the front of his mind. ‘By the way, did you see I put out a stamped envelope for the annulment form?’
‘Oh, did you?’ The cutest rosy blotches, which he could have kissed, bloomed on Cherry’s cheeks as she stared at him almost too intently.
Sean grabbed the tennis ball on the end of the line – he needed all of his faculties for this. ‘Aye, about two weeks ago. I’m amazed you haven’t noticed, given that you put the form there in the first place.’
‘Sorry.’ She deflected her sights to the patio doors as if someone was about to walk through them. ‘I did see it.’
‘Good. Are you fine to post it then?’
‘Sure, I’ll do it tomorrow.’
He stepped closer to the pole. ‘Only if you want to.’
Cherry’s baseball cap shielded any subtle eye movement that would betray hesitation. There was nothing on the rest of her face. This is what you got for marrying a poker player. But something told him to stop this line of inquiry. After all, her not posting it was what he wanted.
‘So’ – he prepared to serve – ‘we’ve managed to qualify for an annulment based on not consummating the marriage. Tell me, how the hell do they prove if you’ve slept together or not?’
‘I’m not sure they can.’ Cherry rolled her shoulders. ‘Guess it’s like lying in court – you’re breaking the law if you do it.’
‘Right, well, we’d better continue to keep our hands to ourselves. But be warned, Paradise, if you can’t, then you’re paying for the divorce or you’re stuck with me.’ He swung the ball round the pole in her direction.
She grinned. ‘I promise to keep my hands and all other body parts off you. Wouldn’t want to commit perjury, after all.’
Sean would happily risk perjury when his wife looked the way she did, her breasts bouncing lightly as she braced like a tennis player batting the ball to him.
Those tanned, smooth legs, the low-cut vest and the hair swinging in a ponytail under the baseball cap.
Who cared about a little lawbreaking when your wife resembled a poster girl for very adult Swingball?
‘I’ve got a top line-up for the tourney so far.’ She jolted him back to reality.
‘Oh, aye?’ Sean tried to think about poker. It wasn’t easy.
‘Yes, Connor is confirmed, which is freaking awesome, as is Campbell Duff.’
‘Well, as much as I think he’s a knob, he is a huge star, so even better.’
‘Sean, you should probably know something…’ Cherry’s tone dipped a little alarmingly. ‘Campbell Duff and I used to date.’
Fucking what? He whacked the ball hard. ‘Seriously? When?’
‘About ten years ago, before he was a massive star, but we were in the gossip mags and stuff.’ She kept the game going, like she didn’t want the whole focus to be on this conversation.
‘I don’t read the gossip mags. Was it serious? Where did you guys meet?’
‘He liked to go to edgy poker games in the back of pubs. I met him in Shoreditch, and we dated for about a year and a half. The nature of his work and my work is the reason it ended, and the reason it lasted.’