“Do you have a special someone?” Mrs. Payton asked.
“No.” Lisa shook her head.
“Well, when you find the one, hold on tight. Don’t waste a single day not talking because of some silly fight, and never be too proud to say you’re sorry.” Mrs Payton stared wistfully at a handsome gentleman in a picture frame. “You never know how long you’ve got. Brian passed away five years ago. I miss him every day.”
“Maybe you’ll meet someone else,” Lisa said. Her grandmother became a widow at the age of sixty-five. Ten years later, she introduced her new ‘boyfriend’ to the family. They were great together.
“No, he was the only one for me.” Mrs Payton picked up the picture frame, and Lisa felt the ghost of a breeze as if Mr Payton had joined them in spirit.
All she needed now was for a black cat to come running into the room, and she’d really lose her shit. A cold shiver ran up her spine, and she stood, eager to get out of there. “Okay, I better be off. Just be careful when you move your bedside table.”
Mrs Payton set the photo down. “I’ll walk you out.”
As Lisa drove to her next job, Mrs Payton’s words played on repeat in her head. Never be too proud to say you’re sorry.
Lisa wasn’t too proud to say she was sorry, but she wasn’t the one who needed to apologise. “Shit,” she cursed herself.
Bella had tried, and what had she done? Shut her down and followed up by spraying her cat, and then Bella. Perhaps she did have some apologising to do.
Chapter 9
Fuming, Bella strode inside and grabbed a towel. She pulled off her wet clothes and dropped them in the laundry basket. How dare Lisa Barnett hose her down and terrorise her cat.
Yes, Bella had been trespassing, but other than the ladder lying on its side by the garage, she hadn’t touched a thing. Threatening to send her cat home with his tail between his teeth had been the last straw.
Bella would heed Lisa’s words and stay on her side of the fence. She’d tried to make nice, and that hadn’t helped. Somehow, the years between them seemed to have hardened Lisa, and although Bella loved that Lisa wasn’t a girly-girl, she didn’t do heartless.
Sure, Lisa had always had a take-charge personality, but there was a fine line between being assertive and arrogant. Today she’d crossed that line.
After changing into some dry clothes and putting a load of washing on, Bella went in search of Max. An hour later, with a heavy heart, she stared blindly out the kitchen window. Where was he? A scan of Lisa’s backyard and the neighbour’s yard on the other side yielded nothing. Bella’s throat was hoarse from calling him, and she didn’t know what else to do. What she did know was she wouldn’t be going out as planned.
If he came home and she wasn’t there, he might never come back. She dialled her old school friend’s number and waited.
Hannah picked up on the third ring. “Hello.”
“Hi, it’s me, Bella.”
“Hey, what’s up?”
“I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to make it today.”
“Oh, boo. The girls were so looking forward to seeing you.”
“The girls?” She frowned, hating the sound of that.
“Yeah, you know—Janine and Karen. I told them you were back in town and they can’t wait to see you. Isn’t it exciting?” she practically squealed.
Bella cringed. She wasn’t looking forward to seeing any of them, really, but Hannah had been so excited about catching up, Bella couldn’t say no. Maybe they’d changed over the past ten years. Become more tolerant and less spiteful.
“My cat’s gone missing.” Her stomach plummeted. “I don’t want to go out in case he comes home.”
“You always were such a softie. What a shame that lezzy chased you out of town. Our group was never the same without you.”
Anger bubbled up inside Bella. “She didn’t chase me out of town. My father got a new job and we moved.”
“Oh, yeah. I remember. I think.”
Bella had told Hannah during one of their few telephone conversations after her family had moved. Grief-stricken over the entire incident, Bella had done nothing to nurture her friendship with a group of girls who apparently were never the same without her—something she had a hard time believing.
“I have to go. Maybe some other time, okay?”
“Oh, in case you were wondering, that lezzy’s still in town. The stupid bitch still thinks she’s a boy.” Hannah scoffed, her voice full of derision. “I’ve seen her driving around in a van for some electrical company.”
It’d been ten years since Bella had seen Hannah, and it was clear she was yet to grow up.
“And that makes her a boy how?” she asked, no longer afraid of upsetting Hannah and losing a couple of friends who were never really friends. Not the kind she’d wanted, anyway.
Bella had known that all along, but as a teenager deeply in the closet, she’d let her loyalties lie at the wrong feet—something she regretted to this very day, despite being sprayed with the garden hose.
The way Lisa had sucked in a breath, her gaze locked on Bella’s wet T-shirt, was a sign Lisa wasn’t immune to the attraction between them. She was just hard-headed enough not to admit it.
And hurt.
Yeah, that too.
“When you see her, you’ll know what I mean,” Hannah continued. “She’s even got short hair like a bloke.”
“Oh, right. Silly me.” Bella slapped her forehead even though Hannah couldn’t see her. “Okay, I think I’ve got it. All women with short hair think they’re men, and all men with long hair think they’re women?”
“Except Jon Bon Jovi.” Hannah chuckled.
Rather than pick up on Bella’s sarcasm, Hannah had immediately defended her teen idol. Back in 1995, Hannah had an impressive collection of Jon Bon Jovi’s albums, and she’d probably added to it over the last ten years.
“What’s up with Melissa Etheridge?” Bella tried another approach.
“What do you mean?” Hannah asked.
“She came out as gay two years ago, but she’s still got long hair.”
“Well, she must be one of those pretty girls who dates butch women. You know, so they know who’s the man and who’s the wife.”
Bile rose in the back of Bella’s throat. This was definitely not a friendship she wanted to rekindle, and she was angry with herself for staying on the line for so long. All this conversation had done was make her sick to her stomach.
“Oops, I’ve just spotted my cat. Gotta go.” Bella hung up without waiting for a reply. Her heart jumped into her throat when she realised the lie could come back to bite her.
She’d used her cat as an excuse not to go out, and she’d obliterated that excuse by saying he was home. If only it was true.
She headed back outside and did one more round of the neighbourhood. Half an hour later, she trudged home with her heart in her throat. After wallowing in self-pity for far too long, she grabbed a notepad and thick black pen and made a sign to hang up on the noticeboard at the corner dairy and some smaller ones to poke in letterboxes.
At least that way, if anyone spotted Max, they’d know who to ring.