his once fair hair had turned white overnight – the night his wife left. With his cheekbones set high on a ruddy face, and light blue eyes framed by wrinkles, you could see that he had been an extremely good-looking man in his youth. His thin frame was, however, proof of his broken heart never quite mending.
‘I just gave Billy coffee and cakes for the pair of you.’
‘Thanks, love. What do I owe you?’
‘Don’t be silly. If I can’t buy my old dad a coffee sometimes, then what’s the world coming to?’
Joe put his thumbs up to Billy to shut the metal ferry gates ready for departure. ‘Why aren’t you working today? What’s going on?’ he asked his daughter. But before she could answer, a black and white Smart car screeched in, nearly knocking Billy over in its rush to take the eighth and final space on the ferry. ‘Now I am confused,’ Joe went on. ‘It’s market day, after all – and yet look, Star is here, too. All at the last minute, mind.’
Kara sighed with relief at her friend’s arrival, since Star was not known for her timekeeping.
Joe checked his watch again. ‘OK. We need to get going. I’ll see you on your way back.’ Respecting her silence, he placed his hand on her arm. ‘I love you, Kerry Anne.’
‘Remember to eat those doughnuts, won’t you?’ Kara ordered. She was forever trying to feed her dad up. She then headed over to her best friend’s car and climbed in.
‘All right, Mr M?’ the pretty, long-haired, blue-eyed blonde shouted out to Joe from the car window. He lifted his hand to her and headed to get behind the wheel of the Happy Hart.
Knowing that Star wasn’t the best driver, Billy pointed to the DON’T FORGET TO PUT YOUR HANDBRAKE ON sign and shouted down the float to them: ‘Ladies. Hope you’ve got yours hard up?’
Joe Moon shook his head in disbelief.
‘No, but I bet you have.’ Star laughed, then turned to her friend. ‘Ready?’
Kara made a little groaning noise. ‘As I’ll ever be.’
Chapter 5
Billy blew exaggerated air kisses to them both as Star revved her little car’s engine and they drove off the ferry, heading towards the road that ran through the centre of Crowsbridge.
Steren (Star) Bligh had been Kara’s best friend since primary school. It had been a sheer coincidence that a girl with a name meaning Star should partner up with a girl called Moon – and so far, it had proved to be a match made in heaven. Later on, a dream came true for them both when the unit next to the florist’s became free and Star was able to set up shop as STAR Crystals & Jewellery and move into the flat above with her seventeen-year-old daughter.
‘Did you see Lydia this morning?’ Kara asked, worried.
‘No. I deliberately kept out of her way. I heard her rattling on about how tired she was and I didn’t want her to ask me any questions in case I said the wrong thing.’
‘Tired?’ Kara scoffed. ‘That’s the first time in five years she’s had to get up to go to the flower market.’
‘Well, that’s a good thing,’ Star said. ‘It’s about time she remembered how much you do for her.’
Kara screwed up her face. ‘I’m so sorry to pull you off your stall at such short notice, but my work van is so recognisable, and, well … I just need you with me today.’
‘This is where having a daughter when I was still at school does have its advantages. And you know how much Skye loves working my market stall on her own.’
Kara pulled one of the bottles of water she’d bought earlier out of her bag and wedged it in the holder by the gear stick. ‘For you. Nice dress, by the way.’
Star was wearing one of her trademark flowery maxi-frocks. Her long, poker-straight hair, so fair it was almost white, was pushed back with a silver hairband with a tiny diamanté butterfly clipped to it. Dangly silver seahorse earrings finished her look.
But Star wasn’t having any of Kara’s small talk. ‘Why today, Kar?’
Kara suddenly gestured frantically for Star to pull over. ‘We can’t be getting there early.’
As they parked in the lay-by just up from the ferry, Kara began to explain. ‘Today, because, well …’ She sighed.
‘Take your time,’ Star said kindly.
‘You’ve told me to leave him so many times, but you did also say that it had to be the right time for me and