Goodbye to Dreams

by Grace Thompson

  He was smiling, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. There was something he wasn’t saying. She felt uncomfortable, unsure of what was coming next. Did he want to be treated as someone for emergencies only? How ridiculous that sounded. But he couldn’t be about to ask for something more of their relationship, not after all this time. She stood up and moved the kettle over the fire and said brightly, ‘Cocoa and toast all right? I’m starving!’ They ate, and talked about many things, but she was left with the uneasy feeling that something needed to be said. But not tonight, she pleaded silently. Too much had happened, and she couldn’t cope with more shocks or disappointments.

  The next morning, as they began preparations for opening the shop, Willie came and told them that he’d received the first orders from the beach traders.

  ‘Another summer begins and I hope it’s a better one for you two than the last,’ he said.

  It was unusual for Willie to make personal comments and they smiled at him. ‘We hope your summer is as perfect as the last one, Willie,’ Ada said. ‘For you and Annette and your son.’

  ‘I don’t think you can ask for more, can you?’ Cecily added. ‘You have a loving wife, a beautiful son and hopefully another child by the time Christmas comes again.’

  ‘And what of us?’ Cecily asked, when they were alone.

  ‘We’ve come full circle. The two of us here alone and neither sure how this year will end for us.’

  ‘Phil will be home. You know how it will end for you.’

  Ada shook her head. ‘Phil won’t be the same person that I married. Who knows how he will feel about me, about our marriage. He can’t talk to me, face me, and he might still feel that way when he comes home. I might be staying here longer than you expect. You and me running the shop just as we always dreamed. No Dadda to interfere. We had our wish there, but it hasn’t been the dream we’d imagined, has it?’

  ‘Van facing up to the truth of who we really are and our friends supporting us. We’ve said goodbye to many hopes and dreams. Dreams have been just that, ethereal, fanciful dreams. But we’ll cope and be happy, because that’s who we are: two women with a chequered past and a doubtful future, but a good business and some wonderful friends.’

  ‘True friends and that’s more than many can say.’

  ‘And who knows, Phil might want our marriage to continue.’

  ‘And Peter, dear Peter, as long as he’s in my life I won’t complain.’ She was certain that Danny was no longer in her life; he was just one foolish dream. Perhaps Peter would make her forget him, make the foolish hope of a happy future with Danny Preston go away, drift into nothing more than a bad memory. She didn’t discuss her dreams of a life with Peter. Dreams are ethereal things, easily shattered.

  ‘Next New Year,’ she said, ‘we’ll be laughing with the rest. Happiness is just around the corner, for us both.’

  By the Same Author

  Time to Move On

  The Runaway

  Facing the World

  Gull Island

  Copyright

  © Grace Thompson 2011

  First published in Great Britain 2011

  This edition 2012

  ISBN 978 0 7090 9972 7 (epub)

  ISBN 978 0 7090 9973 4 (mobi)

  ISBN 978 0 7090 9974 1 (pdf)

  ISBN 978 0 7090 9239 1 (print)

  Robert Hale Limited

  Clerkenwell House

  Clerkenwell Green

  London EC1R 0HT

  www.halebooks.com

  The right of Grace Thompson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988