Chapter 21 Cherry #3
‘It’s true. I can easily see why he married you.
’ Summer sipped her wine, pacing herself better than Cherry was.
‘And listen, Sean might come from small-town Scotland, but he’s got a worldly head on his shoulders.
This amazing mix of stability and insight.
He has so much love to give, and he’ll be your rock.
I hope I’m not overstepping the mark in saying that. ’
Cherry wiped at her eyes with semi-muddy fingers, then pulled up the hem of her vest to wipe away the dirt. It stung, hearing what Sean had tried to tell her about himself. ‘You’re not overstepping the mark at all,’ she said. ‘Thank you so much, Summer.’
‘Oh, and one very important thing about him that you ought to know…’
This sounded ominous, but the excitement in Summer’s voice suggested otherwise.
‘He can do the lift from Dirty Dancing. Well, his part. If you’ve got good core muscles then he’ll have you up there. In the water… But not many Scottish men can say that.’
Cherry laughed and inwardly thanked Summer for breaking the tension. ‘Ah, didn’t he just keep that one a secret? I’ll need to speak to him about that.’
‘You definitely should. Now, would you like a top-up?’
‘Absolutely, I would.’
And as they were going for the bottle, a streak of different ginger weaved through the flowerbeds. Long-haired, sleek and curious, sniffing at the new array of plants.
‘Oh! A kitty!’ Summer shimmied on her stomach towards the cat, hand outstretched. Immediately, it came to her. ‘I wonder where it’s from. It’s skinny and so matted. Have you seen it here before?’
‘No, never.’ Cherry remembered her dad chasing away several strays from his allotment, despite her protestations to adopt them. ‘Could it have been dumped?’
‘Possibly.’ Summer scratched at the cat’s chin, and it took the affection with ease. ‘People tend not to drive down here to dump their cats, although I wouldn’t put it past some arseholes.’
‘I’ll text Sean and ask if he’s seen it before.’ Cherry picked up her phone, attaching a picture of the cat to the message.
CHERRY: There’s a stray cat here. Big ginger floofster. You know it?
A few minutes later, Sean replied.
SEAN: Aye, Meowchel J Fluff. He stops by sometimes.
She relayed the message back to Summer, who laughed.
‘Ask him if he’s ever put a paper collar on “Meowchel J Fluff”.’
SEAN: No, I thought it belonged to Drumlinnie Farm. They have a lot of cats.
‘Should we feed it?’ Summer would hopefully know what to do.
‘It looks young but hungry.’ Summer examined the cat as she showered it with neck scratches. ‘We should try it with a paper collar first to establish if it has an owner. But let’s give it a little something, just in case.’
Cherry texted Sean.
CHERRY: I’m going to feed it that tin of salmon in the cupboard. I’ll get more later.
She went inside, fixed a bowl of salmon, taking care to remove the bones, and came back to the patio, where the cat shot straight to the fish.
Sean replied with a GIF of a man shaking his head.
SEAN: Salmon doesn’t grow on trees, you know.
Cherry shot back a laughing emoji.
CHERRY: What? I can’t ignore a hungry pussy, can I?
The answer came instantly.
SEAN: Absolutely no fucking comment.
By this time, the cat had devoured the food.
‘He’s clearly starving, right?’ Cherry hoped Summer knew more about this than she did.
‘Maybe,’ said Summer. ‘He’s young, so it’s unlikely to be thyroid. I’ll make him a collar. Do you have some paper, a pen and a wee bit of tape?’
‘Hang on, I’ll get some from inside.’ Throwing back the last of her wine, Cherry ran into the house and over to the printer. Where she came thundering to a halt.
Oh my God!
Sitting right there on the printer was the marriage annulment form she had filled in a few weeks ago. But now there was an added envelope. And, on the front, written in a handwriting that could only be Sean’s, the address of a local solicitor to send the form to. Plus, a stamp.
Fuck me. Smart move, Butler.
And now it was hers.
Cherry reached to the printer to steady herself. This was not what she was expecting. Not at all. The annulment was turning into a game of will, with Sean almost certainly testing her.
It should have been simple. Stick the form into the envelope and post it.
But this wasn’t simple at all.
Dread curled behind Cherry’s ribs. If she made her move, that would be it. Marriage over. Goodbye Sean.
Lovely, lovely Sean. The man she’d seen forever with across that shimmering ballroom.
The god in a kilt who made her feel safe and protected and the centre of his world.
The huge-hearted man who was loved and cherished by so many.
He had chosen her right back, and now he’d essentially given consent to sign it all away.
Was it the ginger wine, or did her husband’s gesture make her feel like throwing up?
‘You alright in there?’ Summer’s voice floated in like hot honey from the garden.
‘Yeah, coming.’ Cherry folded the form and slipped it into the envelope. Lifted it to seal it, an action she’d carried out hundreds of times in her life.
But not this time.
Leaf flapping open, she dropped and abandoned the envelope, grabbed a sheet of paper from the printer tray and headed to the kitchen drawer for some tape.
And when she thought she’d had the biggest surprise of the day, what was in there threw her even further.
Oh, bloody hell! He didn’t? Cherry wanted to sob and laugh at the same time. Oh, Sean, you wonderful human.
She blinked hard. The tears would flood her face if she didn’t force them back and concentrate on the cat. Grabbing the tape and a pen, she slammed the drawer closed and, pulse still ricocheting from what oddly felt like a run-in with a bear, took them out to Summer.
The cat was rubbing up against Summer’s legs when Cherry stepped out onto the patio.
‘If no one claims him,’ Summer said, ‘you could get him checked over by Nate and then adopt him as your family pet.’
Cherry considered the sweet, affectionate creature. It broke her heart that someone would abandon a cat like this, although the idea of adopting him warmed her to the core. Sean and her sitting in this garden, a little cat sniffing at the flowers and chasing butterflies.
‘That would be lovely.’ Her mind drifted momentarily to everything she had seen inside the house. ‘Really, really lovely.’