No Way to Say Goodbye - Anna McPartlin [63]
He worked on it for four years straight, only returning when his nephew had died on a swing. Ivan had missed most of Ben’s life and was shocked into deciding that he wouldn’t miss the lives of his own children. He came home, bought a large house, a small boat, a number of properties in Cork and a few stocks and shares. He’d made it, and initially his wife seemed happy. After years of sustaining family life alone, her husband had returned. It should have been good. It wasn’t. They were strangers, having grown up apart. Their break-up was assured but he hung on to the love they had once shared, desperate not to lose the kids he’d only just regained.
Sam had been surprised that his relaxed friend had once been a risk-taking daredevil, but to Ivan commercial diving had only ever been a job. Of course he’d have been lying if he didn’t admit it was an adrenalin-charged and exciting way to earn a living – life-threatening activity usually is – but he didn’t miss it. Diving had been a means to an end. He liked to fish, and diving for a few years, then making the right investments, would ensure that he could do just that for the rest of his days.
It was just a shame he’d lost his family in the process.
Penny sat in her living room, music blaring. If she had been more like Mary it would have been in tune with her mood but she wasn’t – so, despite her desperation, Britney belted out “Hit Me Baby One More Time” while she slugged back a bottle of white wine. Red would have left tell-tale marks but white, if not her favourite tipple, didn’t betray her.
She had attempted to get out of attending Ivan’s barbecue to no avail. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He was in the mood for celebration and he felt it was as good a day as any for his friends to get to know his new girlfriend. Penny felt a little unwell, and the cause of her illness was jealousy, an unattractive quality she often battled.
However, her main reason for trying to escape Ivan’s party had less to do with his new girlfriend and more to do with Mary bringing Sam. She had avoided the American since her drunken attempted pass – she was monumentally embarrassed by it, and felt cheap and dirty and exposed whenever she thought about it. He had rejected her and had looked at her with the kind of horror reserved for circus freaks. In his eyes she had transmogrified into something grotesque.
The next morning she had awoken hating herself, but within hours and in the company of a stiff drink she had mentally dumped her self-loathing on Sam. After all, who the hell did he think he was? If Adam hadn’t abandoned her, she wouldn’t have looked at him twice. He fancied himself. It was then she decided he was an arsehole and a jumped-up arsehole at that. She didn’t want to see him – she’d have to make polite conversation with him. She couldn’t believe he and Mary had become friends over the past number of weeks. It was as though they’d done it to spite her. Just when she needed her best friend most, some stranger rolled into town and stole her away.
She finished the dregs of the bottle. It was the least she deserved.
Mary and Sam were up early so that they could fit in a few hours’ tree-tagging before they headed to Ivan’s. It had been the third afternoon in a row that Mary had joined Sam in his quest to find his grandmother’s message.
At first he had been reluctant to share his pastime with his neighbour, but when he discovered that half the town was surmising he had some form of autism that related to trees, he explained himself to Mary.
Mary had grinned.
“What?” he’d asked, expecting sarcasm.
“Nothing.”
He was freaked by her inane grin.