The girls spent the rest of the day at the cottage in Rose’s workroom. She had been glad to be able to go straight to the car when Abby went in for Muffin and even more delighted to see Morag’s car was nowhere to be seen anymore.
At the cottage, she had been teaching Abby about illustrating whimsical creatures and magical forests, watercolour and the use of inks and pens in her work; together, they had been creating some little art pieces for Abby’s room. Magical Unicorn and princess-style pictures in soft tones and muted colours.
There was something relaxing and healing about sitting side by side in silence and painting, the companionship of another artist in the way her aunt and she had sat as a child. She realised in that tiny moment why her aunt loved bringing her here, and it pained her to think of her again. She had got so good at pushing it away. Forcing the memories down until she could deal with the pain, but today she felt more able to let them linger for a moment. Reminisce and remember her. Picture her sweet face and long, flowing dark hair that she loved to wear down; it still hurt a lot, but not in the heart-wrenching, breath-stopping way it had after the funeral.
She watched Abby, engrossed in her painting, her eyes scanning the way her brush flowed on paper, the gentle tilt of her head and the innocent chew on her lip and felt an overwhelming maternal surge.
Rose had never had a sister. She had two brothers she rarely saw, but she had never had someone she loved to death the way she loved this girl. Not since her aunt. Not in this way. A real friend but something more. A sisterly protective love. She knew she would beat down walls to look after her no matter how things ended with her brother.
Abby felt her gaze and glanced up, smiling at her. There was something in that trusting look, the eyes full of affection, trust and happiness and mutual love, that instantly broke her. Out of nowhere, the sob flew from her throat, and the tears fell like a waterfall that had just erupted from a damn, and she could not contain it.
Maybe it was the meeting with Rob’s father and his words. Perhaps it was having no one to talk to about this and bottling it up for days. Maybe it was allowing the thoughts of her aunt to overwhelm her at that moment, making her fragile, or perhaps it was the exhaustion from lack of sleep and a hellish night, but whatever reason, it came crashing out like an eruption, and she could not stop.
* * *
Two hours later, calm and curled on the couch, surrounded by screwed-up tissue, Rose sat with a snuffly nose and puffy eyes. Her skin was sore from repeated wiping, and she was cradling a cup of cocoa as Abby sat perched on the arm of the chair, watching her studiously. The picture of calm wisdom despite the fact Rose had told her everything.
Abby had not flown into a rage, angry at the lies and the deceit or betrayal of both brother and best friend. She had not stormed out or cried and gone off on one. Instead, she hugged her friend and let her talk and sob until there was nothing more to say. Nodding and stroking her hair, she had told her she knew something was going on deep down between them. Gut instinct. Knowing both of them well enough to see the subtle signs, she wasn’t mad at either of them. She was hurt, but she understood why they hadn’t told her; Abby admitted it would have been used as a weapon the first-time Morag riled her. She was just glad she finally knew. She finally had the whole picture instead of hopeful suspicion and half-guessed facts.
‘What now?’ She watched Rose take sips of her soothing drink, a look of compassion on her beautiful face, but Rose shrugged.
‘I try and get over him, I guess.’ Even saying it aloud hurt.
‘I can’t believe it had been going on that long, and I had no clue, looking back though, it’s so obvious. Rob has been unusually happy the last few weeks, overly nice and loving, and well, he was just damned more fun to be around. Until this past week, that is... He’s back to being a crabbit arse. I could arrange her disappearance.’ Abby broke into a wide grin and winked, that same wink bestowed earlier by her father. ‘You know how much I love that wretch, and well, we are rich enough!’
Rose smiled, feeling lighter and drained. She shook her head.
‘If it’s meant to be Abby, then she wouldn’t be an issue. He would make it work. I would have made it work. It wouldn’t have ended the way it did.’ She needed to accept partial blame for this. It was not all on him.
‘No! He wouldn’t have let her come between you if he loved you. He would have been honest from day one and made you feel like you mattered more than she did. He’s an arse and a half for how he handled this.’
‘You know it’s not that simple. Morag is his friend, and she is fragile. Despite everything, all my pain and tears... He was only trying to be a good guy, Ab’s.’ Rose nudged Abby with her foot to pull that scowl from her face. ‘It’s not his fault that Morag’s unwell. He just got into a place he couldn’t get out of so easily, and I stupidly agreed to play along. I thought I could handle it... I thought it would be different, and he just needed a little time.’ Both girls sighed loudly.
Abby looked down at her feet, curled on the couch, equally frustrated, seeing the situation from Rob’s viewpoint and trying to empathise.
‘Maybe not being with you will change things, Rose...? He seems...’ She was grasping the air for the right words. ‘Different!’ She huffed, ‘I don’t know! With him, it’s always hard. He’s not easy to read and always keeps everything close to his chest, but he’s off; moods and general air around him. Since he came back, he is just so agitated, jogging way more at night than ever before. Spending a lot of time in his office, he is narky as fuck and seems to lose his temper way too easily with me lately. More so than ever before.’ She slid down into the couch a little more, her feet mingling with Roses. ‘Knowing what I know now, I would say he’s hurting... In that manly, quiet, strong-faced guy, kinda way! You know, when they act cool and don’t care shit! I’ve never seen Rob broken-hearted, but I’m guessing it looks like this.’ She laid her head on the arm of the couch and pulled a fluffy cushion between her knees.
‘Maybe...But it doesn’t make me feel better, Abby. It doesn’t change how things are, how impossible it is to try again.’ Rose smiled gently at her friend, pulling the cushion from her and cuddling it herself. All this talk of Rob had her heart aching badly, and she wanted nothing more than for his arms to be around her right now.
‘Maybe not right now, it doesn’t, but Rob is hardly the type to sit back and let things he wants slide away.’ Abby stretched her arms out into the air and exhaled as she pushed her limbs.
‘Maybe that’s the problem...? Maybe he didn’t want me enough? Maybe, despite thinking I would be different than those other women, he just realised I wasn’t, and it was just another casual fling.’ A tear rolled down her cheek, her insides aching, and Abby pulled her over into an almost headlock embrace and patted her back, meaning she was pulled forward almost to lie on top of the girl. It was incredibly uncomfortable and awkward.
‘Don’t ever say that! Any guy who did not want you with his whole heart and soul is a fucking moron. Brother or not, I’ll slap his big dumb head into...’
‘No!!’ the sudden spring backwards sent them both flailing, close to the edge of the couch and grasping to stay upright, sheer panic on Rose’s face.
‘You CANNOT! I repeat, CANNOT let on that you know anything, Abby. Promise me? If he knew I told you after promising, I would tell no one...’
‘Heck No! That idiot brother of mine deserves no loyalty now, Rose. You’re done with him, and your promise ended when you broke up! You already told me my dad knows, so it’s okay for him to tell someone, but not you? How is that fair then? It’s not, and I am so severely pissed at him.’ Abby was back to scowling, scrambling to sit up and sit rigidly.
‘You can’t hate your brother on my account, He loves you, and you love him. You adore him! I don’t want this to affect you, Abby, to come between you.’
‘I don’t hate him. I’m mad at him. I’m severely raging at him for letting this happen. For you getting hurt... It’s HER I hate!’
They both sat silent and broody, looking at one another, with minds whizzing, gears and wheels turning. A smile slowly broke out on the younger girl's face that started to take over, reaching her mischievous glittering eyes.
‘What?’ Rose knew that look only too well and sighed suspiciously. The plan-hatching smirk! Abby licked her lips, looking smug.
‘What does every wronged heroine do in every chick flick and soppy book since the start of time when the hero breaks her heart?’ She beamed knowingly.
‘Cry and hide in her mansion, looking beautifully distressed and eating ice cream?’ Rose sighed hopefully, knowing full well Abby was plan forming in that quick head, and she probably wouldn’t like it.
‘Screw that! Shut up and err, NO... They spruce up. Push up their boobs and get out there, acting like the world’s their oyster and way more fish in the sea!’ She exclaimed triumphantly as she thought she had just found the cure to cancer.
‘I’m not ready to go fishing, Abby.’ Rose said flatly and returned to picking fluff from her dress.
‘You’re not going to be fishing, my empty-headed love...It’s never about getting under a new man, is it? It’s about getting over one! It’s about torturing the old one!’ Abby prodded her annoyingly on the shoulder to get her undivided attention.
‘You lost me.’ Rose just blinked, deadpan.
Abby jumped up onto the arm, perching her butt rather tediously for emphasis and leant in with a wickedly childish smile
‘You look amazing, right? Swan about carefree and non-broken-hearted. You see him, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, whatever’...It drives him crazy. He will pine over you and long for what he has lost; if you look brokenhearted, then he feels better, right? … Because he knows you’re in as much pain as he is, and it makes him feel better. You look over it, act on it, and he goes into a meltdown. Starts acting like a crazy fool to get you back and maybe finally dump the redhead in the river.’ Abby all but licked her finger and sizzled it in the air as though she had found the answer to all her prayers. Rose was not so sure.
‘And you learned this from where? A Danielle Steele novel? This is real life, Abby, and he’s not some dim-witted moron who would fall for games like that. I don’t play games and don’t want to start now.’ She got irritated and started clearing the sea of tissues and empty mugs. This was what having a childlike best mate was really like.
‘He’s male! They're all pretty typical from what I’ve seen.’ Abby huffed, annoyed that her plan was not met with smiles and thumbs up.
‘At the grand old age of nineteen may I add!’ Rose shuffled her off the arm and started rearranging cushions distractedly. Trying not to be moody with her best friend.
‘Shut up, old fogey. I’m sure I know as much as your twenty-seven-year-old ass!’
‘Look, I’m tired, Abby. It’s been a hell of a week and a hell of a day. I can’t think about this right now and want to stop. Turn on a movie, we will raid the freezer for ice cream, and you can crash in my bed tonight.’ She glanced at her watch, seeing the late hour, and hoped this would appease her. She also didn’t want to face the night alone in an empty bed when feeling this fragile.
‘Okay, okay, boss.’ She smiled. ‘But I get to pick, though, and this is not the end of the conversation! It’s just to be continued!... I need to text that ass and tell him I’m staying!’
Rose sent her a mock-pained look as the girl slid out her phone from her bag and rolled her eyes.
‘Only thirty new messages from Duncan. Jeez, that boy is in love!’ Her cheeks tinted red, and delight shone through, despite her mocking him.
‘It’s going well then?’ Rose had an armful of trash and crockery as she moved to the kitchen to discard it. ‘I think he will pull out a ring in no time!’ She jested.
‘You think?’ Abby looked hopeful, then brushed it away, making jokes about him just being her ‘hoe’ of the minute and nothing more than a toy boy. Rose wasn’t fooled and saw the look on her face when she typed replies to him and ended them with a dozen kisses. Moments later, she came through to join Rose in the kitchen, both simultaneously nosing in the freezer, searching for that elusive ice cream
‘Asshole asked if I wanted to be picked up.’ Abby butted in while moving around food in the freezer.
‘You mean Rob?’ Rose sighed, hating that even his name on her lips caused her heart to contract bitterly.
‘I mean what I said. And I told him NO. That were getting a stripper and some vodka shots, and later you’ll be eating ice cream off his six-pack.’
‘ABBY!’ Rose sent the boxes of frozen food she was moving aside, flying everywhere.
‘He said to have a nice time!’ Abby giggled and scooped down to retrieve the boxes and bags.
‘You actual brat! I thought you were serious for a minute.’ Rose’s elevated heart rate was not seeing the funny side just yet.
‘What do you care what he thinks...? His loss!’ Abby shrugged. ‘If he’s stupid enough to lose you, he deserves to be tortured.’
‘You told him the truth, though, right?’ Rose ignored those last comments.
‘I told him we’re having a girly night in, and I’m staying, okay?’ Rolling her eyes and mocking a huff, Abby elbowed her friend gently. Rose, relieved, nodded and bopped her on the head with the now-located strawberry ice cream.