Daniel waved a cheese and pineapple stick at him in greeting. ‘This is the best party ever, mate. There’s a Black Forest gateau in the fridge for later, too.’ His eyes glazed a bit as he mentioned the rich chocolate dessert.
Luke shook his head. ‘Yeah, if you’re five maybe.’ He hadn’t meant to sound like a miserable git, but damn it, he’d had it all laid out in his head how the weekend would proceed, and she’d put the kibosh on it by buggering off to her dad’s. So much for not sulking.
His friend gave him an appraising look. ‘What’s crawled up your arse?’
Sighing, he shook his head. ‘Nothing worth worrying about. Come on, let’s party!’
And they did, Butterfly Cove-style. It wasn’t just the buffet that was nostalgic; Mia and Kiki had lined up a host of old favourite games. A very competitive pass-the-parcel saw Richard expelled from the circle for holding on to the gift-wrapped box for too long. Musical chairs proved little short of carnage – Luke wouldn’t be the only one to bear a few bruises come the morning. And the current game of statues looked to be going the same way. Insults and outrageous comments flew from those already disqualified as they tried to sabotage the handful of people remaining.
‘Been skipping those gym sessions again, Spud?’ Aaron cat-called him. Git.
Luke gritted his teeth against the urge to suck in his stomach and held still. Apparently not satisfied with his failure to distract him, Aaron crouched down to the puppy at his feet and gave him a little push in Luke’s direction. From the corner of his eye, he watched Tigger scamper over to sniff at his shoe. Don’t you dare… The puppy shuffled his rear end, and Luke’s nerve broke. Scooping Tigger up before he could even think about cocking a leg, he carried the little dog out of the teashop and plonked him down on the ground. Aaron’s laughter followed him out of the door and he span around, checked the kids weren’t looking, then flipped his big brother a rude gesture before pulling the door closed behind him.
A cold wind whistled through his long-sleeved T-shirt. Shivering, he stepped out of the shade and into a patch of sunlight, enjoying the autumn warmth while the puppy scampered and sniffed from place to place. The door creaked behind him and he glanced round to see Madeline slipping out to join him. Even with her cheeks flushed from the games, her hair hung in an immaculate curtain against her cheeks. Hooking an arm through his, she smiled. ‘They’ve broken out the Twister mat so I thought I’d hide out here with you.’
‘I’m not hiding.’ His automatic retort earned a small sniff of disbelief. ‘Well, not much,’ he conceded.
Mads tugged on his arm. ‘If we go for a stroll, we’ll both look less like we’re hiding.’
Keeping to the sunny patches, they took a turn around the garden. Luke kept a weather eye on the puppy as he gambolled from bush to bush, tail wagging like he was in seventh heaven.
‘So, have you spoken to her?’ The foul mood which had settled over him blew away on the freshness of the breeze, and might have stayed away had Madeline only kept quiet.
Luke sighed. He could act the fool, pretend he didn’t know who she was talking about, but what would be the point? It would only postpone the inevitable. ‘I planned to, this weekend.’
‘Ah.’ Madeline loosened her hold on his arm to adjust the length of twine holding some flopping stems to a stake. ‘We should have cut these back last weekend, but they’re too pretty.’ Tightening the string did no good, and the wilting flowers continued to droop. Crouching down, she gathered a handful of them. ‘There’s a pair of secateurs in the shed. Get them for me, will you?’
Irritation itched beneath his skin. ‘That’s all you’ve got to say to me about the situation? One bloody syllable and now we’re on to Gardener’s World?’
Sitting back on her heels, Madeline raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she stared up at him. ‘There’s a roll of green sacks in there too. Fetch them as well, there’s a good boy.’
Luke stomped across the lawn towards the shed and yanked the door open with more force than was strictly necessary. Damn it, he needed to stop being so damn touchy over everything. He should be grateful if Madeline had nothing else to say on the matter of him and Nee. She’d stuck her nose in enough with his brother’s relationship, and Daniel’s before that. Luke didn’t need her help, didn’t need anyone else’s help. He just needed to talk to Nee, clear the air and everything would be fine. He’d decided to forgive her, so there was nothing else to be said about it.
With a deep breath, he swallowed his temper and returned to Madeline’s side with the tools, and a pair of flowery gardening gloves he’d found on the shelf. ‘Thank you, darling. Hold these, will you?’ She nodded towards the limp stems.
Crouching beside her, Luke did his best to keep the shiny toes of his brogues from sinking into the wet soil of the flowerbed. He grasped the flowers where she indicated, holding them taut whilst Madeline snipped them short. She moved on to the next cluster, and he trailed at her heels, doing a damn good impression of Tigger. ‘I’ve decided to forgive her.’
‘That’s nice, dear.’ Madeline deadheaded a few more blooms, chucking the discards in the sack he held open for her. ‘What exactly are you forgiving her for?’
He frowned. What kind of game was she playing now? ‘For leaving me, of course.’
‘Of course.’ She moved to the other side of the bush, snipping as she went. ‘I thought you said you hadn’t spoken to her since the wedding.’
‘I haven’t.’ Luke huffed out a breath. ‘Look, Madeline, coy doesn’t suit you. Just spit it out, will you?’
Straightening up, she dropped another handful of beheaded flowers into the sack, then met his gaze. ‘If being coy doesn’t suit me, then being a fool suits you even less. It’s not much more than a month since you couldn’t bear to be in the same space as Nee. You’ve not spoken to her since, and yet you’re happy to forgive and forget?’
He ground his teeth. ‘I love her.’
‘And Richard loved me, but I still wanted to throttle him when he went behind my back and got a vasectomy. He did it for the best of reasons, and that just made it so much worse. I tried to swallow my resentment and anger with him, and it almost destroyed us.’
If a fly had chosen that moment to buzz over he’d probably have swallowed it, so low had his jaw dropped. There were few certainties he’d stake his life on: the sun rose in the East, Marmite was revolting, and Madeline and Richard had the happiest marriage in the world. To hear her speak of such things shook him to the core. ‘You always seemed so happy together.’
‘And we are, darling, but things might have been different if I’d carried on trying to ignore the elephant in the corner.’ Madeline rested a hand on his chest. ‘Richard hurt me, whether he meant to or not. With the noblest of intentions or not, he hurt me. If I hadn’t found someone to talk to about it, I don’t know where we’d be. Certainly not as content as we are now.’
Her hand pressed hard over his heart for a couple of beats. ‘Nee hurt you. Whatever her reasons. And if you don’t acknowledge that, it’ll fester away and eventually poison everything.’ She lifted her hand, returned it to brush a few spots of dirt left behind by her gardening gloves, then smiled at him. ‘You mean the world to me, and I want more than anything for you all to be happy.’
A scratchy feeling rose in his throat, and Luke had to swallow around it. ‘I know, Mads.’ He shut his eyes briefly against the feelings her words stirred up. ‘I’m scared. Scared I won’t be able to cope with the truth. When I saw her, I knew I’d do anything to get her back and it made me so angry – at myself, not her. It just kept going round and round in my head, so I decided to ignore it instead.’ He laughed. ‘I’m an idiot.’
Madeline patted his arm. ‘We’ve