The Runaway Ex

by Shani Struthers

  Richard had paled visibly at her words. “On my own?”

  “Yes, Richard, on your own,” she had repeated. “I’m off. I’m going to Trecastle. Layla’s over from Florence, and I’m damned if I’m going to miss out on seeing her.”

  As she slammed shut her suitcase, he had grabbed her by the arm.

  “Penny, you can’t…”

  He really had looked quite ill at the prospect.

  “I can, and I will.”

  “But you’re her mother,” he had declared, as though it were some sort of astounding revelation.

  “Yes, Richard, and you’re her father. And this—” she had swept her arms wide “—is the twenty-first century. Dads tend to pitch in as much as mums now.” With great contempt, she had added, “Well, some of them do. Good luck, Richard. I’ll see you in a week.”

  As she had stormed downstairs and out of the house, her suitcase in one hand, the car keys in the other, she had called back, “If you’re lucky…”

  “And he didn’t rush after you?”

  It was Tuesday. She and Layla were at the Trecastle Inn, sitting at a table outside as the weather was so nice. Penny was relating a more detailed version of what had happened in Brighton as opposed to the potted one she had managed last night.

  “How could he? I took the car.”

  “Oh, yeah, you said. Has he called you?”

  Penny took a sip from her wine glass before replying. They had opted for the pub’s un-oaked Chardonnay, a better choice than the Pinot Grigio, according to Hannah.

  “He hasn’t stopped calling. And in between calls, he’s bombarded me with text messages, sent regularly through the night too. The baby must have kept him up.” A smile crept over her face at the thought. If she had, it served him right.

  “And are you okay, being apart from Scarlett, I mean? It must feel strange.”

  Yes, it did feel strange, as though she was missing a limb. But it also felt something else. Good would be too strong a word to describe it. She didn’t feel good. But perhaps it was relieved. Relieved to have some time where she didn’t have to think constantly about the welfare of another human being; she only had herself to worry about. Pregnancy included, that hadn’t happened in a long while.

  Layla must have guessed what she was thinking, because she reached out a hand and covered Penny’s with it.

  “Everybody needs a break sometimes, Penny. Even mums.”

  “Especially mums,” Penny replied heatedly. “Anyway,” she continued, not wanting to dwell on the subject any longer, “never mind me. Me is boring. What about you? All this stuff with Tara, it must have knocked you for six.”

  Layla looked fed up suddenly.

  “Yeah, you could say that. The more I think about it, the more strange it seems.”

  “I know Joseph drove her back home, but has he seen Tara since?”

  “He’s texted her, they’ve spoken once on the phone, but no, he hasn’t seen her.”

  “That’s something, at least.”

  “It’s only Tuesday, Penny,” Layla said wryly. “There’s plenty of time.”

  “Well, I think you’ve been very understanding about everything. I’m not sure I would have been.”

  “Penny.” Layla looked at her squarely. “I know you wouldn’t have been.”

  Penny pretended offense. “Are you calling me unreasonable?” she questioned.

  “No, I’m calling you bloody unreasonable.”

  Penny laughed along with Layla, but a part of her did wonder. Was she bloody unreasonable? To leave her baby like that and her husband too? It was only for a few days, but even so…Richard had to work, she knew that. His firm wouldn’t be impressed he’d had to take emergency leave. Perhaps sleep deprivation and ear-bashing over a prolonged period had actually driven her closer to the edge than even she had realized. If she hadn’t left on a voluntary basis, the men in white coats might have been called in and forcibly ejected her—not to Cornwall but to a local asylum instead. There was no doubt about it; she was losing the plot, really losing it. She needed the break. Unreasonable or not, Richard would just have to cope.

  “Hey, look who it is,” Layla said, spying Hannah.

  The third cog in the wheel, Hannah drew up a chair beside Layla. Tom seemed to appear from nowhere.

  “And what would madam care to drink?” he asked Hannah, assuming a waiter’s stance.

  “A glass of white wine, my good man,” she replied in suitably clipped tones.

  “At your service,” Tom continued, tugging at his forelock as he backed away.

  Turning her attention back to them, Hannah smiled widely. “So, here we are, together again.”

  Penny raised her glass as well as an eyebrow. “Surprisingly so,” she said. “What is it about this place that brings us running, huh? First Layla, then me, then…Tara.”

  “We should give it a nickname, shouldn’t we? ‘The sanctuary for lost souls’ or something,” Hannah mused, taking her glass from Tom, who had swiftly returned.

  “And do you?” Layla’s green eyes grew serious. “Think Tara’s a lost soul?”

  Both girls contemplated.

  “Don’t know…”

  “Couldn’t say…”

  “I know you don’t really know her,” Layla persisted, “either of you, but you know what I know, at least. And it is all a bit bizarre, isn’t it—this secret of hers? How Joseph’s the only one allowed to know, for now anyway.”

  “Bizarre?” Penny scoffed. “That’s one way of putting it.”

  “I wonder what the secret is, though,” Layla continued to agitate. She looked at Penny. “We’ve ruled out mass murder, haven’t we?”

  “Mass murder?” Hannah’s mouth fell open.

  Quickly Layla explained their Australia’s Most Wanted theory.

  “Oh, right. I see,” replied Hannah. “I think.”

  All three fell silent as they pondered.

  “Hang on,” said Hannah, straightening. “Point Break was Tara’s favorite film.”

  “Point Break?” Penny didn’t get it.

  “It’s a film with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves in it,” Hannah explained. “It’s a cult film, actually. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it.”

  Penny shrugged her shoulders. She hadn’t.

  “How do you know it’s Tara’s favorite film?” Layla inquired.

  Hannah leaned forward. “When I was going out with Joseph, I remember I fancied watching it one night, and he was like no way. When I asked why, he explained it was because of Tara. She used to play it almost on a continual loop. He was sick to death of it.”

  “I still don’t see what it’s got to do with anything,” Penny interjected.

  “Well,” said Hannah, “what if Tara was not only watching the film but studying it? You know what I mean, gleaning ideas from it. I watched it anyway that night. Joseph worked late or something, or he may have gone to the pub with Jim and Mick.” She paused for a moment, trying to remember. “Anyway, the movie centers round a group of cool dude surfers who perform a series of bank robberies, and Keanu Reeves, who’s majorly hot in the film, is the cop intent on busting them. It was the film that started Tara’s obsession with moving to sunnier climes, apparently. What if she wanted to live the film in its entirety and got involved in a similar sort of group in Oz? What if she’s been busted too, is on the run, and has come home to hide?”

  “If Keanu was trying to catch me,” Penny said with a sigh, “I’d let him.”

  “You know what I mean,” insisted Hannah.

  “I do, yeah, but it’s a bit farfetched, isn’t it?”

  “Oh, and your mass murder theory isn’t?”

  Penny had to admit neither scenario sounded likely. “So, if it’s not about murder or grand larceny,” she said, “perhaps it concerns an affair of the heart?”

  Layla shook her head. “No, that can’t be it. I asked her outright if she’d been involved with anyone special in Australia. She said no.”

&nb
sp; “So, just an affair, then.”

  “Penny,” Hannah hissed.

  Penny noticed fresh anxiety darken Layla’s face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean she was having an affair with Joseph or anything.” Aware that she should stop right now, before the hole she was digging got any bigger, she apologized again. “I didn’t think.”

  “Do you ever?” Hannah mumbled.

  Penny was about to bite when Joseph and Jim appeared, effectively diffusing the situation. Penny was quickly distracted by Jim. She had to admit, he had gotten seriously hunky since the time she last saw him. That whole rock-star thing, it lifted him somehow. His hair was also longer and slightly wilder too. He seemed so confident, so at ease with himself. Must be all that touring Layla said he was doing with his band, 96 Tears. Life on the road had given him an edge.

  “What are you girls talking about?” Joseph asked, pulling up a chair beside Layla.

  “Oh, nothing much,” Layla replied with a brightness Penny could tell wasn’t entirely genuine. “We’re just catching up.”

  “Refills?” said Jim, spying their empty glasses.

  As he took their orders, Penny checked him out once again. Hmm, Team Joseph or Team Jim? It was a hard choice to make. If she were single, who would she go for? Joseph, with his cool, blond demeanor, or the music man? She’d have them both if she could, the thought of which made her giggle.

  “Are you okay?” Layla looked bemused.

  “It must be the wine,” Penny said, forcing herself to behave. “It’s gone straight to my head.” To Hannah and Joseph, she explained, “I’m not used to drinking anymore, you know, since the baby.”

  Jim returned to the table with a tray of drinks. He sat down beside Hannah. Penny felt like the odd one out. Or maybe she was just odd. She certainly felt it—very odd, as in “about to keel over” odd. It was no good; she’d have to go back to Hannah’s and rest up. That sofa bed they insisted she stay on while she was down here was surprisingly comfortable. She couldn’t wait to get back to it, if she were honest, but before she left them all to it, an idea formed. There was no point speculating about the mysterious Tara; they needed to find out for sure why she was here. An old saying popped into her head: “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer,” a saying that suddenly made a lot of sense. Instead of avoiding Tara, they should be getting to know her, gaining her trust so she’d confide in them too this secret of hers, sooner rather than later, ending Layla’s torture.

  Hiccupping slightly, Penny said, “Why don’t we have a gathering, tonight or tomorrow night, at yours, Hannah’s, or at the pub, and invite Tara?” Looking at Joseph intently, she continued, “I’ve heard so much about her from Layla; it would be lovely to meet her.” At this point, Penny winked at Layla.

  “Oh, right, yeah.” Joseph looked slightly taken aback she had asked such a thing. “She’d love to meet you too, I’m sure. I’ll run it by her.”

  “Fantastic,” Penny enthused.

  Quickly she looked at Layla for approval. What she saw, however, surprised her. Instead of a conspiratorial look on her friend’s face and an I know what you’re doing wink, she saw unbridled horror. Confused, she looked at Hannah instead. She was busy staring into her wine glass, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

  Having to hold on to the table to keep herself steady, Penny got up. Her legs felt wobbly beneath her, like they were made out of some sort of spongy cake mixture, not solid bone. How on earth, she wondered, would they support a dignified exit? But exit she must. Layla was still giving her the evils.

  “Erm, I’ll see you all later,” she muttered. “I’m off for a nap. Hope you don’t mind.”

  And with that, she staggered away, eager to avoid the fallout from her suggestion.

  Chapter Thirteen

  WHAT THE HELL HAD PENNY DONE? Invite Tara to the pub with them so that they could get to know her? Layla didn’t want to get to know her. She’d be more than happy never to see her again, to be honest. But, no, that wasn’t good enough for Penny. Penny, in spectacular Penny-style, had instead insisted they all cozy up together at the pub or, worse still, at Hannah and Jim’s flat. There was no way she wanted Tara in Hannah and Jim’s flat, stamping all over her territory, even if it wasn’t her territory, strictly speaking. But hopefully Hannah would see her point.

  While Jim was speaking to Hannah, Joseph leaned into her. “That’s a good idea, isn’t it? What Penny suggested?”

  “Meeting up with Tara? Wonderful.”

  “It’s thoughtful.”

  “Very.”

  “Shall we make it tonight?”

  “Tonight?” she said too loudly.

  Inwardly, Layla cursed herself for screeching. Despite her inner turmoil, she reminded herself to remain cool, calm, and collected at all times. The trouble was, Penny’s mention of an affair between Tara and Joseph had upset her. There was no way she felt up to seeing Tara tonight. She’d stall for as long as possible.

  Noting the look on Joseph’s face, she hurried to explain. “It’s just people will probably need more notice than that. A day or two, perhaps, rather than a few hours.”

  “Good point,” Joseph conceded. “I’ll give her a call later, see when’s convenient.”

  “A call? Why do you have to call her? Can’t you just text?”

  Joseph shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, I suppose. I just thought—”

  “A text will be fine, I’m sure.”

  It was hard to sound nonchalant through gritted teeth.

  “I’ll do it now,” he said, sighing slightly.

  As he punched the invitation into his mobile, Layla tried to un-grit her teeth. It could all be innocent, perfectly innocent. She clung to that thought like a barnacle to a ship’s keel. Even so, Penny and her bright ideas about a cozy get-together. She could slaughter her.

  Draining her third glass of wine, she was beginning to feel blurred around the edges. Lunchtime drinking rarely agreed with her. In this instance, however, the blurring of the lines felt good. Blur might just get her through the next few days, through the cozy meet with Tara. She couldn’t help it. She might trust Joseph, but Tara? Why should she trust her? There was something about her. Actually, there was nothing about her. Despite thinking her canny and furtive when she had first met her, subsequently she hadn’t seemed that way at all. She seemed nice, a regular down-to-earth ordinary girl, which just made it all a thousand times worse.

  “And who are you texting?” Hannah addressed Jim, who was also on his phone.

  “Oh, just a few mates, part of the old Port Levine crowd. I thought it’d be good to round them up too, give Tara a proper homecoming. She was popular in the village, was Tara.”

  Joseph immediately caught on to the idea. “Hey, what about Murray? Is he still around?”

  “Murray?” replied Jim. “Yeah, yeah, he lives down near Newquay now. He runs a surf shop there. He might come up, though, seeing as it’s Tara. I’ll add him to the list.”

  “Be great to see him and Del. He was a laugh, wasn’t he? Do you remember he used to accompany you on harmonica every time you played in The Admiral?”

  Jim rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and I wouldn’t have minded if he could play the bloody thing, but he couldn’t. He kept putting me off my stride. I’ll see if he’s around too.”

  “And Graham, or Gray, as he suddenly insisted we all call him. He used to get really cross if we forgot. He used to think we were doing it deliberately.”

  “Usually because we were.”

  As Jim and Joseph laughed, Layla had to bite down on a wave of emotion. Graham wasn’t the only one they had pissed off. She tried to examine exactly what it was she was feeling. Anger? Yes, there was a certain amount of that. And jealousy? She hated to admit it, but it was in the mix too. Who were Murray, Del, and Gray? What was this world they were talking of? A world that included Tara and Joseph but excluded her? Tara had been popular in the village? You could say that again.

  “Well, that’s the men sorted,” she said,
determined to contribute to the conversation in some way. “What about the women? Tara must have had some female friends surely?” Or was she one of them? A man’s woman? Incredibly, both Joseph and Jim had to think for a minute. So, her instincts on that were right, at least.

  “What about Nico? She and Tara knocked around quite a bit together, didn’t they?” Jim replied at last.

  Joseph nodded. “Have you got her number?”

  “No, I lost touch with her a while ago, but maybe Murray or Del will have it. I’ll check with them.”

  “And Alice, they were good friends.”

  “Yeah, we’ll need to check her whereabouts too.”

  “Wow, it’s going to be some reunion,” Layla interjected once more.

  “Yeah, it will be,” Jim said quite happily, infuriating her more.

  Just what made Tara so bloody popular anyway? What did she have that could make a man drop everything that was going on his life to accompany her back home, just because she wanted him to? That got Jim rounding up their old cronies—cronies who no doubt would drop everything too once they knew who was back in town? Such was the effect of golden girl Tara Mills, a superstar around these parts, it seemed. It was too much. Layla needed to get away from talk of Tara’s adoring fan base, go down to the beach, and let the salt air cleanse her. But she didn’t want to look obvious. When Jim inadvertently offered an escape route, she was grateful.

  To Joseph, he said, “I’ve got band practice in a while, up at Ryan’s house. Do you fancy tagging along?”

  “Yeah, that would be great.” Joseph looked genuinely enthusiastic. Then he turned to Layla. “Unless you want to do something together, that is?”

  “No.” Layla ensured she sounded just the right side of disappointed. “I’ll miss you, of course, but we need to make the most of our friends whilst we’re here. Hannah and I had talked about going for a walk over the headland anyway.”

  Hannah looked up. She also looked startled. “Had we?” she said in surprise.

  “We had,” Layla insisted. “In fact, let’s go, right now, this very minute.”