Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Shit. I’d already said that, hadn’t I?
Bollocks.
Stephanie sighed, tucking her dark hair behind her ear. “Thank you. Although I admit, I sometimes wonder if I’m sorry myself.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m not quite sure it’s sunk in yet.”
“It’s okay. Grief takes time. You don’t have to do it on anyone else’s schedule.”
She glanced at me. “Your grandfather recently passed, didn’t he? So, you understand. I’m sorry.”
I smiled. “Thank you. It’s not quite the same, but I suppose I do get it. Kind of.” I hesitated. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t understand why you’d like to speak to me.”
We approached the beach, and she sighed again, perching on the wall that separated the promenade from the beach. I followed suit, sitting down a foot or so away from her, and setting my coffee on the wall next to me.
“It’s weird, I know.” She glanced at me before looking out at the water. “He was found at your bed and breakfast, wasn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“By you.”
I nodded. “Unfortunately.”
“I want you to know that I don’t think you did it,” Stephanie said softly, her voice drifting almost as if the words were stringing themselves together. “You had no reason to do anything.”
I pressed my lips together.
“He went to your grandfather’s wake, didn’t he?”
“He made me an offer for the B&B,” I confirmed. “I told him I wasn’t interested, but he was pretty persistent, and it wasn’t the nicest conversation.”
She nodded, still looking out at the water. “I’m not surprised. He’s been after that place for a while, and your grandfather always refused to sell. I think he told Declan he’d report him for harassment if he didn’t stop.”
My lips twitched. That sounded like Grandpa.
“We spoke that day, and he said he hoped he’d get it now your grandpa wasn’t here. I told him not to bother you so soon after his death, but he was a stubborn bastard. I’m so sorry for any pain he might have caused you.”
I reached out to her and touched my fingertips to her knee. “Please don’t worry. I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now.”
She looked down at my hand then up at me, a sad smile curving her lips. “I don’t know how to feel. I hated him so much and couldn’t wait to get the divorce over so I could live my life, but he was still my husband. I loved him once.”
“I heard you were divorcing. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You weren’t the one cheating on me and trying to swindle me out of my fair share.” She laughed, but it was hollow, and she finished it on a sigh. “Oh, gosh. I’m sorry, Charlotte. Here I am, a complete stranger, unloading my trauma on you.”
“It doesn’t sound like you’ve got anyone else to do that with,” I said kindly.
Another laugh, and this one was a little brighter. “Not really. I’m not from here, but you probably can’t tell anymore.”
“I don’t know. There’s a hint of… uh, I want to say Welsh, but I’m not great with accents.”
“I was raised in Wrexham, so on the border, but I went to school in Wales so I’m bilingual,” Stephanie replied, pushing her hair behind her ear. “I was only eighteen when I met Declan, and I married him a year later.”
Oh.
I was right. She wasn’t that much older than me. One of the ladies at ceramics had said they’d been married for just over ten years, which made Stephanie in her very early thirties.
Given that Tierney was well into his fifties…
I just about resisted the urge to shudder.
Not that I was against age gaps. Age gaps were fine, even ones that were as big as theirs, but she was so young when they met that I couldn’t help feeling as if it was somewhat predatory.
“I worked for him in his North Wales office,” she continued. “My parents warned me about marrying such an older man, but I was smitten.”
Ah.
A forty-something year old man seducing his eighteen-year-old office assistant? That’d be the reason it felt somewhat predatory.
“I should have listened to them, of course,” Stephanie continued. “And now… here I am. A place I barely know anyone because my husband was horrid to half the town, no family, and I’d say no friends if it weren’t for Shane.”
“It sounds horrible to say it, but you wanted to start your life without him. You can now,” I said, picking up my coffee.
“If only. As far as I know, Declan had no will. I get everything. I don’t want to run his business—I’d sign it all over to Alan, but he doesn’t want it either. That’s his business partner,” she added. “He’s been arguing with Declan for months over retiring and having Declan buy him out, but he was a tight-fisted bastard and never wanted to give anyone what it was worth.”