Winter Wishes by Ruth Saberton Page B

behind. What had seemed like a lot of fun on a Saturday night in a Plymouth club had looked very different in the cold light of the working week. Once the initial rush of excitement had worn off, Tara had been drumming her fingers in boredom on his black marble worktops while Anthony had been driven to distraction by Morgan’s need for order and his distress when a routine was broken. Right now he was probably driving to work in his Ford Focus and heaving a sigh of relief that she was gone. Tara was interested to find that this idea didn’t hurt in the slightest.
    Was she really a hard and unfeeling bitch, as Danny had once accused her of being? Tara explored this idea gingerly. It was the emotional equivalent of probing the gap where a tooth has been extracted: she wasn’t quite sure what she’d find and whether it would be painful. She’d moved in with Anthony very quickly, uprooting Morgan from Polwenna Bay in the process. Tara had been prepared to make a whole new life with this man but now, and with the twenty-twenty vision that always came with hindsight, she could see that she’d simply been running away. Anthony, with his shiny car, shiny shaved head and shiny house on a shiny new estate in the city, had been a distraction from the car crash of her marriage. She’d been looking for an escape and he’d seemed to offer it.
    No, Tara decided, Anthony hadn’t been her Mr Right; he’d only been Mr Right for Now . Her rebound from Danny. Her stupid mistake. She’d only been thinking about her own anguish and the driving need to put as much distance between herself and her failed marriage as possible. Maybe a foolish part of her had even hoped that Danny would be eaten up with jealousy and come tearing after her. Even when Anthony had driven her away to Plymouth she’d pulled down the passenger sun visor and kept a lookout in the vanity mirror, just in case the Tremaine Marine truck should come racing after her. The disappointment when it hadn’t had been like a physical blow.
    So making Danny jealous didn’t work. Neither did pretending she didn’t care. The same went for yelling back at him. Tara had slowly and painfully come to the conclusion that nothing she ever said or did would change matters. All she could do now was be here in Polwenna Bay, and hopefully with time Danny would remember the way he used to feel about her.
    Provided nobody else came along, that was.
    Tara pushed this thought firmly aside. She was still Danny’s wife, on paper anyway, and the mother of his son. For the moment that would have to be enough as she worked out how to build a life here again for her and Morgan. Maybe that life would eventually involve Danny – she certainly hoped so – but right now Morgan had to be her priority. She couldn’t put him through more changes. Change wasn’t good for a child with his specific needs. The educational psychologists were already concerned about Morgan, and Tara was well aware that what he needed most was stability. Having his family around him and the security of a small school again were further reasons for coming back to Polwenna Bay. She had to make this work, for Morgan’s sake.
    Squaring her shoulders, Tara walked into the kitchen. Apart from Summer, who was stacking the dishwasher, the room was unexpectedly empty.
    “You’ve just missed Alice and Morgan,” Summer explained when Tara expressed her surprise. “Alice has taken Morgan to the church to help her with the flower arrangements – although to be honest he was more interested in taking photographs of the stained-glass windows. I’ve no idea where Nick and Issie are, but I think Danny’s down at the marina with Jake.”
    “Oh.” Tara was deflated. Her spray-on skinny jeans, tight sweater and carefully applied make-up were going to be totally wasted on Summer and the family cat. She wished now that she hadn’t bothered at all; compared to Summer, who was currently make-up free and clad in simple yoga pants and a