I smiled wryly. ‘Oh, I asked the questions. Many, many times. I just never got any straight answers.’
‘What were you enquiring about – if that’s not too personal a question.’
It was way too personal, but I’d been the one to unlock this normally secure vault. I had no one to blame except myself for his curiosity.
‘Mainly about my father.’
Henry’s eyes looked troubled, and I suspected he might be regretting following me down this road.
‘What did you want to know?’
‘Oh, you know, the usual kind of things. Who the hell he was? What did he do that was so terrible it made my mother send him away.’ The lump was right there in my throat, making it almost impossible to finish. ‘And why he never came back to see me. Not once. Not ever.’
The kind, compassionate expression on Henry’s face froze, as though he didn’t quite know what to do with so much honesty.
‘All she ever said was that we were better off without him.’
‘That must have been very hard to hear,’ Henry said.
I gave a shrug that failed miserably at appearing nonchalant.
‘Mum said you couldn’t miss what you never had.’
I looked towards the grave as though we were once again in the middle of the same old argument we’d had so many times during my adolescence.
‘No disrespect to your mother, but I think she was wrong,’ Henry said firmly. I turned towards him and was surprised to see the raw emotion on his face. ‘You can, most definitely, miss things you’ve never had. I certainly do.’
His words stayed with me long after he had said farewell and headed off in the direction of Bee’s resting place. I cursed myself for having spoken without thinking. It was obvious my words had torn open a wound in my new friend. The absence of children in the life he shared with Bee was a cruel blow, and even though she was no longer at his side, it was easy to see that it still cut deep.
Chapter Twenty-Five
It had been six days since I’d seen Rhys and yet the heat between us was still intense. I’d felt it in the hand he placed on my shoulder, alerting me to his arrival, and it raged like a furnace when he bent down and lightly kissed my cheek. There was a gentle summer breeze in the air, ruffling the strands of my hair and rustling the leaves on the trees, but it wasn’t enough to cool the flames that still flickered between Rhys and me. It was ridiculous – even molten lava would have cooled by now, but we were still burning.
‘I’m sorry I’m late. Have you been waiting long?’ he asked, pulling out one of the ornate wrought-iron chairs on the park café’s patio.
‘No. My viewing overran, so I’ve only just got here.’
Rhys leant back in his chair, slipping off his sunglasses – even though the midday sun was still high in the sky.
‘It’s good to see you again. You look nice,’ he said, his eyes warm.
‘Nice’ had actually taken three outfit changes and twice as long as I usually spent on my hair and make-up to achieve. I really wanted to say he looked good too, but that wasn’t the direction I was intending things to go today. But privately, I couldn’t help notice how well his black t-shirt fitted the contours of his chest,reminding me a little too vividly of what lay beneath it. It didn’t quite meet the waistband of his jeans, which were riding low on his hips. He’d been at the café less than two minutes, and I’d already caught several glimpses of skin as he reached for the chair, then the pitcher of water on the table, pouring us both out a glass.
I drained half of mine in a single nervous gulp.
He caught me off guard by capturing my hand when I thought he was reaching for the menu. Every nerve ending in my body screamed out in protest when after only a second or two I gently extricated my fingers from his.
His emerald-green eyes went straight to mine with a hundred questions.
Ellie?
I blinked twice. I don’t want to talk about this, mine silently replied.
What is it? Is something wrong?
Nothing is wrong, mine lied.
At least, that was my interpretation of our silent exchange. It’s possible Rhys had an entirely different transcript. Either way, he didn’t try to hold my hand again, which should have made me happy but actually had the exact opposite effect.