Chapter 13 #2
Ellie nodded. She didn’t have any choice but to accept his explanation.
Do any more digging and she’d find herself giving away her own secrets.
Besides, if he was really telling the truth, she’d only embarrass herself by suggesting otherwise.
He’d spent years in America, likely had numerous relationships in the meantime, so why did she think he’d gravitated towards Meadowfield?
Because it reminded him of her? Ha, he was probably as shocked to see her here as she was to see him.
She chewed on the corner of her lip. This conversation they were having was supposed to have cleared the air, and yet, now, the atmosphere between them felt muddier than ever.
She needed to steer the conversation into safer waters if they were going to thaw the frost between them.
Walking towards the stairs down from the decking to the garden, Ellie lowered herself onto the top one and balanced her coffee mug on her knee.
As much as her first instinct was to turn her back, head back inside and spend the duration of the time they were both working here as far away from him as possible, she knew it wouldn’t be as easy as that.
Plus, she didn’t even know what he was doing out here or how long it would take.
Imagine if he was replacing the whole decking area!
He could be working here for months! ‘I can’t imagine much research needed to be done when you looked at moving to Meadowfield.
I remember we searched the internet for days when we got home after our holiday here. ’
Sitting down next to her, Murray chuckled. ‘I remember that. Plus, we’d spent ages perusing the local estate agent windows.’
‘Yes, that’s right. Deciding which house we’d buy if we had the money.
’ She smiled sadly. She’d really believed they’d base their future here, buy a house, get married, have children.
The whole happy-ever-after. That’s why, three weeks later when he’d dropped the bombshell about his move, she’d taken it so hard.
‘A little thatched cottage with a wrought-iron gate and a front garden bursting with flowers. That’s what you wanted.’ He glanced at her, searching her eyes. ‘From what I saw of your cottage when I dropped you off the other day, you got it.’
Shifting slightly under his gaze, Ellie shrugged. ‘Kind of. I’m only renting it, but it is thatched and it does have a wrought-iron gate. It did have a beautiful garden when I moved in, but that’s kind of gone to pot at the moment, much to my neighbour’s disgust.’
‘How come? Not as green-fingered as you always wanted to be?’
‘More like too little time.’ She took a sip of her coffee.
She wanted to find out about him. Ever since she’d seen him here, all the questions she’d wanted to ask after he’d left, all the questions which had formed since and had been tugging at the recesses of her mind for years, had resurfaced, screaming to be heard, to be answered.
But now she actually had the opportunity to ask them, they’d flittered away and seemingly hitched a ride on the back of the slight breeze which was stirring the thin spidery branches of the willow tree.
‘Too busy planning amazing weddings.’ He nodded as though he knew the answer.
‘Some of that, yes.’ But that wasn’t the only reason.
The main reason was that recently she’d done everything she could to keep out of the cottage whilst Rick had been about.
She hadn’t coped well with the stony atmosphere between them, so she’d snapped up any chance of visiting new venues or staying late at the office.
Leaning his elbows on his knees, Murray looked out across the garden, seemingly focused on a blackbird fluttering between the willow and one of the hedges. He glanced down at her hands wrapped around her mug. ‘And your own wedding? You planned that too?’
‘Ha, the chance would be a fine thing!’ She held her left hand up and wriggled her ringless fingers before clamping her lips shut and closing her eyes.
That was her stock answer when clients asked her, which nine times out of ten they did, but she hadn’t meant to say that to him.
‘Sorry, I mean, no. In fact, I’ve recently split up with someone. ’
‘Ah, I’m so sorry.’ Looking at her, he grimaced. ‘I’ve gone and put my foot in it, haven’t I?’
Shaking her head, she smiled. For some reason, she didn’t want him to think she was pining over Rick. Nothing could be further from the truth. ‘Not at all. To be honest, things between us ended months ago, we’ve just been living together until the rental agreement was up.’
‘Ouch! Now, that’s tough, living with an ex, and that’s coming from someone who did it for two months.’
‘You did?’ He was single then. Or, of course, he could be talking about an ex before the relationship he was in now.
If he was. She glanced at his left hand.
No ring. But he was a carpenter, he wouldn’t wear his ring to work.
Plus, she didn’t care. It was none of her business, and she wasn’t interested, anyway.
She quickly looked away, embarrassed that she’d even glanced at his left hand.
‘I did. Just before I moved back home from America, actually. And it was tough, so I understand and sympathise. I’m assuming you’ve got your cottage back to yourself now?’
‘That’s right. I have my cottage.’ She omitted to add that that was all she had, and that Rick had cleared her out of all belongings. ‘I’m sorry to hear that too.’
‘Thanks.’ He took a long gulp of coffee before placing the empty mug on the step beside him. ‘Although it was for the best. Things have a funny way of working out, don’t you think?’
Ellie frowned. Did they? She thought back to just a few days ago, in the space of twenty-four hours, she’d lost her job, Rick had moved out and taken most of their things with him and she’d run into the one person who had broken her heart.
Yes, she supposed they did have a funny way of working out.
But she had a feeling her ‘working out’ was nowhere as positive a spin as Murray’s was on the saying. ‘Is that why you moved back?’
‘Because me and Jenny split up?’ He shrugged. ‘No, I was ready to move back, regardless.’
What was that supposed to mean? He would rather have moved countries than try to stay in his relationship? Well, that was what had happened to them, hadn’t it? So maybe she had understood that correctly. ‘And she didn’t want to? Move back, I mean?’
‘Sorry, that probably sounded harsher than I meant it to be. We’d been having a rocky time of it for months before we made the decision to split.
We did mull over the idea of trialling a long-distance relationship, but we both knew that wouldn’t work.
We both knew the relationship had seen out its time, so we decided to go our separate ways.
’ He pulled a face. ‘That does sound harsh, doesn’t it? ’
Pulling one knee up beneath her, she shifted so she was facing him. ‘No, it doesn’t. In fact, apart from the affair, that’s pretty much what happened between myself and my ex.’
‘The affair? He cheated on you?’ Murray widened his eyes.
‘Uh-huh. I mean, I’m not one hundred per cent sure he was seeing her whilst me and him were still okay…
’ She curled her forefingers around the word ‘okay’ as she wasn’t sure that was the best description for her and Rick’s relationship.
Certainly not in the latter years, anyway.
‘But he was seeing her whilst things were falling apart and when we were living together but separately. You know, seeing out the terms of our tenancy. And I didn’t know about it. ’
‘Wow. How could anyone have an affair behind your back?’ Murray shook his head in disbelief. ‘I’m so sorry that happened to you.’
Ellie bit the tip of her tongue to prevent herself from replying something along the lines of ‘much the same way someone plans their future with me and then runs off to another country’.
Instead, when she did speak, she did so quietly.
‘I don’t really blame him. Things hadn’t been right for a good long while. ’
‘That’s no excuse. It’s never right to start seeing someone else behind your partner’s back.’ Murray shook his head vehemently. ‘No excuse.’
‘Thanks. I didn’t actually find out about her until the day he moved out.’
Sighing audibly, Murray shook his head. ‘I really am sorry.’
Shrugging, she forced a smile. ‘Hey, it wasn’t you who had the affair.’
‘No, but…’ Letting his voice trail off, he looked off into the distance once more.
Frowning, Ellie searched his face. Hoping his expression would tell her if the ‘but…’ was referring to him leaving her or if he was still just talking about Rick’s affair, but his eyes were hooded and he had that glazed expression on his face again, much the same as the one he’d had when he’d come running out of the gate yelling at her to move her car.
What had happened in the years he’d been away?
Something had. ‘Life can be trying at times.’
‘You can say that again,’ Murray muttered under his breath, his eyes still focused on something further down the garden.
Picking up her coffee mug again, she twisted it in her hands.
She should be getting back to work, Laura might have finished with the family she was helping.
Although it felt wrong to leave him as he was.
He’d seemed so happy when he’d been on the phone earlier, and now, after talking about their dismal relationship statuses, he looked as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
She needed to – no, wanted to – say something to lighten the mood.
‘Now, there’s one certain secret about Meadowfield which we didn’t unearth in all our hours of research.
One particular fortnightly event which isn’t spoken about until you’ve moved here in case it puts you off. ’
Looking back at her, Murray blinked before smiling. ‘Oh really? What have I been missing?’