of the wardrobe. “You’re acting like a silly girl,” she said, dusting off her hands as if she had just completed a job well done.
Outside the house she found it was a perfect coastal day, bright and sunny with a light breeze. Clouds moved at speed overhead, and out near the horizon they lingered gray and heavy, offering the promise of rain. It was hard to ignore the old lookout behind her, the place she used to go to with Tom. The last time she’d climbed those steps to the lookout, it had made her knees ache. Was it so stupid to go there now? Pausing on the road, she stopped to look back over her shoulder, her gaze traveling up the green hill toward the small building on the top. What stopped her? A sense of regret, perhaps, or even foolishness. Whatever it was, she continued along the road instead, reminding herself again that it was pointless to revisit the past.
With her plans for the day in ruins, she stopped at the café and ordered a cup of tea, then sat to drink it at a small table overlooking the water.
“What are you doing sitting out here?”
Elizabeth looked up to see her oldest friend, Francine, just coming down the road with a newspaper tucked under her arm. Francine took her time thanks to a recent hip replacement. Balancing her weight on the table, she set her stick aside and lowered herself into a chair.
“Just an early-morning cuppa,” Elizabeth said. The thought of admitting the real reason she was sitting there made her cheeks blush. Heat spread across her face, so she loosened the zipper on her fleece.
“Don’t often see you wasting time like this,” Francine said as she helped herself to a sip of Elizabeth’s tea. “Why aren’t you painting?”
“Oh, you know.”
Francine shook her head, waited for an answer.
“I just didn’t fancy it.”
Her friend’s eyes widened with surprise. “What have you done with my Elizabeth?” Francine chuckled before looking out to the clouds on the horizon. “I would have thought a storm like that would have soon sparked your interest. What’s up with you? Is it something to do with Kate again?”
Elizabeth loved Francine, and in all the time she had known her she hadn’t changed at all. There might have been a few more wrinkles, but her hair was still dark chocolate brown and her lips as red as strawberries. Even her manicure was perfect. They had nothing in common really, if you thought about it, but had shared a lifetime of highs and lows. Like a couple of sisters who bickered something rotten, they would have defended each other to the end. Elizabeth had learned early on that Francine was to be depended upon, and she had never forgotten it. But although Elizabeth had told her some of her deepest secrets, Francine knew nothing of her ongoing connection to Tom and the gifts he left each year.
“Well, Kate’s still not talking to me, but it’s not that.”
“So, what is it then?”
“It’s Tom,” Elizabeth said.
Francine thought for a moment, but the name needed no introduction. “Thomas Hale?” she said with a smile. Elizabeth didn’t like that smile one little bit. “Now there’s a name from the past. What about him?”
Was she really going to admit to this? Francine would think it silly, wouldn’t she? Any lasting connection they had could be reduced to a concentrated version of life, forty-nine wishes that never really came true. It all seemed a bit daft, now that she was preparing to say it aloud.
“It’s the anniversary of the day we first kissed. That day he took me on a boat to the Brisons.”
Francine smiled at the memory. “Never took you as the nostalgic type. What made you think of that now, after all these years?”
Elizabeth shook her head. Suddenly it felt hard to breathe, and she knew she just had to say it. “I think about it every year.”
Francine glanced down at her hand, brushed her thumb against her wedding ring, loose on a thinning finger. “A love that never disappeared, eh, even if he did.”
“Something like that.” Francine reached out, took Elizabeth’s hand in her own. “You think I’m silly, don’t you?”
Memories of the past made Francine chuckle. “I’ve always thought you were silly, Elizabeth, but it’s got nothing to do with you loving Tom.” Her smile showed that she was joking. “I wonder if he still thinks about you too. I bet he does.”