She caught him by surprise when she pushed him away. “You can stop acting for your audience now.”
Pretending he didn't know what she was talking about, he turned to look out the window. “Goodness. All these people.”
“You're sick.”
He rolled his eyes. “Ava, stop being so touchy. It's a bit of fun. What better way to brighten up dreary lives than to put on a free show starring two of Hollywood's finest?”
“You are so full of yourself.”
“Calm down, I'm joking. Ava, please don't make a big deal out of it. I apologize.”
He looked contrite, but then again, he was a good actor.
“May I go upstairs and get dressed now?”
“Of course.”
She ran up the stairs wanting nothing more than to wash her face, but there was a lineup for the bathroom, what with everyone getting ready for their night out. Lola told them she'd stay with the elders, so they could enjoy themselves. Auntie Vi called her “a little darlin'.” As much as she would've liked to have gone, Aunt Vi was content with her private audience earlier. No one wanted her to fall and break her other ankle.
As she waited, Ava saw how much this night out with Hayden meant to them. It made her feel small and foolish. He flew all this way to make her family happy and they were. She had to make this sacrifice. She'd explain it to Seamus. Hopefully he'd understand.
When six o'clock arrived, Ava was in a limo. They went out on the town and everyone had a wonderful time. Hayden was the life of the party and her family was in love with him. They couldn't believe how thoughtful he was. He'd hired a trio of musicians and he danced with all the ladies and the young girls. The looks on their faces told Ava it was worth it. She was one and they were many. How often did something like this happen to them? When she danced with Hayden herself, everyone clapped.
That night, as they drove home, she genuinely meant it when she thanked him. This time he was sweet, kissing her cheek chastely. “The gig in New York this September will be wonderful. You and I playing lovers. Great typecasting, don't you think?”
She nodded.
“Take care of yourself. And if you need me for anything, I'll be back on the next plane. I'm going to miss you, beautiful.”
He held her close and she let him, then he kissed her hand and said goodbye. She got out of the limo and walked into the house. It was midnight.
He waited until ten.
The day before Seamus had imposed on Colleen yet again, asking her to take the kids for the night. She gave him a bit of a look, but knew better than to ask what he had planned. It was the usual sort of day at work, nothing too exciting happened; near the end of his shift, he caught a drunk driver. Nothing gave him more pleasure than pulling the bastard off the road.
The day done, he hurried home to give the place a quick tidy-up, telling himself she wasn't going to come back to the house with him, but if she did, he didn't want to embarrass himself.
After a long hot shower and time spent trying to figure out what to wear, he finally chose a white denim button-down shirt and a pair of jeans. He threw on a brown leather jacket at the last minute and slapped on some of the cologne Colleen gave him for Christmas. Looking at himself in the mirror, he was satisfied. He wanted Libby to know that he'd made an effort.
For the last half hour, Seamus sat in a kitchen chair shaking his leg nervously. When he couldn't stand it any longer, he hopped in the car. Gooseberry Cove wasn't far away. He pulled down the narrow rutted road and parked to one side. He got out, locked the doors and walked along the grassy cliffs, looking out over the huge black rocks where waves broke in spectacular fashion, white foam flying into the air.
Seamus loved it here. It was quiet and away from everyday life. The blue sky was full of enormous white clouds and as he sat on one of the grassy knolls, he watched the gulls swirl about in the air. He was lucky enough to spy not one but two eagles, so high up he could hardly make out their white caps. It was a blustery day, but as the minutes passed, the wind died down a little and he didn't have to squint against the on-shore breeze.
The first hour he waited, he laughed to himself, because the Libby he knew was always late. It was comforting to know she hadn't changed. They would agree to meet and inevitably he was left to cool his heels. When he first went out with her, he'd panic and think she wasn't coming, but after a while, he came to know all her excuses. There was a chickadee that followed her and she didn't want to leave it. A spider was building a web. There was a rainbow shining in the sky and if she were a rainbow she'd want someone to stop and look at her. The best one was the day she told him she'd found a snake run over by a car and all its babies were drying out in the sun on the hot pavement, so she had to take them to a shady spot, hoping they'd live. She was close to tears when she told him.
The second hour, he was concerned about her. What if someone gave her a hard time about meeting him? He didn't think she'd tell anyone, but maybe someone found out. Then he wondered if she had an accident. She wasn't used to these narrow back roads anymore.
The third hour, he worried that he'd pushed her into something she wasn't ready for. He was an idiot for calling her up while he was drunk. What kind of impression did that make? She was being polite, that was all; didn't know how to tell him to leave her alone. She always was a big softie.
The fourth hour, when the sun had long since disappeared behind the horizon and the stars came out; he concluded that she didn't want him. She left him again. How many times did he have to be told? If she wanted him, she'd be here. He looked around the isolated landscape. He was alone. Wasn't that proof enough?
Seamus was angry by the time he reached home, more at himself than at her. What a complete fool he felt. She was famous. Libby was someone else now. He was her high school boyfriend, a first love hankering after something that wasn't real. He was in love with a memoryâthe memory of a girl laughing in the surf on a moonlit night, her hair dancing around her face as a gown of shimmering white flew around her.
Seamus got out of the car and went in the house, throwing his keys on the table. Off came his jacket, tossed over a chair. He went to get a Coke, but grabbed a beer instead, downing it as he stood in the light of the fridge. He tossed the can in the sink and grabbed the rest of the six-pack and took it into the living room with him. He switched on the TV and drank steadily as he flipped through the channels.
The local evening news came on. At the end of it there was a fun story about how famous actor Hayden Judd shocked the residents of Glace Bay by showing up unannounced, to escort his girlfriend, local sweetheart Ava Harris and her family to dinner. A reporter asked a few of the excited citizens on the street if they had a chance to have a quick glance at the handsome leading man.
Two women, one with a hair full of curlers, nodded enthusiastically. “He was bee-uu-tiful,” one of them said. “Ain't that right, Theresa?”
“My gawd, he looked right good. Good enough to eat.” Theresa grabbed the mike. “He almost ate the face off her, so he did.”
The reporter asked, “Off who?”
“That there Ava Harris, eh. They was smoochin' up a storm. I never saw the like of it. It was somethin' awful.”
“There you have it,” the reporter said. “A live witness account of⦔ Seamus clicked off the TV angrily and stared at the black screen.
Eventually, he got up and took his last two beers out on the deck. He finished them in about three swallows before he took the cans and hurled them as far as he could into the night, grunting with the effort of it.
Then he fell back into a deck chair and stayed there until the sun came up.
Ava got up at the crack of dawn. She put on a pair of old jeans and a hoodie belonging to her niece Vicky, piling her hair up loosely with a clip and pulling the hood over it. She grabbed the car keys and tiptoed out of the bedroom after leaving a note for Lola saying she'd be back in a couple of hours.
Careful to close the door quietly behind her, she hopped in the car and drove out to Catalone. She had a general idea of where he lived and knew that one of the locals would be able to point her to the exact house. But she was nervous to approach anyone in case they recognized her. She had to risk it.
In the end, she went to the Albert Bridge gas station and asked the young fellow who worked there if he knew where Seamus O'Reilly lived. He wasn't sure, so he went into the store and asked someone, coming back to tell her it was a house on the edge of the beach and that she couldn't miss it. It had a big deck in front and it was grey with blue shutters.
Ava thanked him and went on her way. She found it quickly and it was just as they said. It brought a smile to her face because Seamus always told her that if he ever shingled a house, he'd never stain it because he liked a weather-beaten look. The house looked like a large fisherman's shack. She liked it very much.
It was difficult to be there, because it was above the beach. Their beach. But she had to see him and explain. She couldn't leave it one more second.
Pulling up behind the car already in the driveway, she got out of the rental and walked towards the house. Her sandals crunched on the gravel beneath her feet. She wasn't sure which door to go in, finally choosing to walk up on the deck. There, Seamus was sound asleep in a deck chair, curled up, with his hands tucked under his arms. He looked frozen. Ava didn't know what to do at first. She didn't want to scare him, but his lips looked blue. The morning was cold.
She approached him, taking a moment to gaze at his sweet face. How she loved that face. He looked like a little kid. She touched his arm gently and whispered, “Seamus.”
He never moved. She shook his sleeve a little. “Seamus, wake up.”
God. Maybe he'd frozen to death in the night, she thought. She started to panic and raised her voice. “Seamus, please. Wake up.”
He bolted out of the chair, seemingly unaware of his surroundings. “Wha? What is it?”
“It's me.”
He looked at her with his eyes half closed. “Who?”
“Libby.” She pulled the hood off her head.
His face registered shock and then he started to shiver uncontrollably.
“Please, Seamus. We have to get you in the house. You're freezing.” She took his arm and steered him towards the door. He looked at her as if he still didn't understand exactly who she was or why she was there. “Is this a dream?”
“No. I'm quite real. Let's get a blanket around you.” She pulled him through the door and made him sit in an armchair. She grabbed an afghan off the couch and put it around him. “I'm going to get you something hot to drink.”
He stared at her.
She soon had a kettle boiling and after a search through the cupboards, found some tea. Then she went into his bathroom and looked under the sink for a hot water bottle. She found one and filled it with hot water from the tub. Next, it was on to his bedroom where she opened bureau drawers looking for socks. She grabbed a pair and finally pulled the comforter off the bed and dragged it into the living room behind her.
Back in the kitchen, she filled a mug with the hot tea and added a little milk. She took everything back into the living room. Without saying a word, she handed him the hot water bottle and then tucked the comforter around him. Off went his shoes and on went another pair of thick socks. Then she passed him the tea.
“Put your hands around it and you'll get warm. Be careful, it's hot.”
He took a drink and then two. After a few minutes, his lips lost their blue tint and his cheeks turned from white to red. She sat on the ottoman in front of him.
“Seamus, I couldn't come to you yesterday. I'm sorry. I wanted to. I wanted to very much.”
He looked at her and took another drink.
“Why were you out on the deck? Please tell me that wasn't because of me.”
He cleared his throat. “No, of course not. You're not that important.” She winced.
“I had too much to drink and fell asleep that's all.”
“Oh.”
“You didn't have to come here.”
She looked away. “No, I guess I didn't.” She took a deep breath and stood up. “Anyway, I'm glad I did, because maybe I saved you from pneumonia, if nothing else.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Sure. I should get back home. Can't leave Lola alone with three patients for too long. She'll have my hide.”
Ava walked to the door. “Take care of yourself, Seamus.”
She had her hand on the knob when he said, “Heard about your boyfriend on TV last night.”
She didn't turn around but she heard him get out of the chair. “Yeah, it was all over the news, how Hayden Judd came into town to neck up a storm with his girlfriend, a certain famous actress. Imagine kissing in front of a whole crowd of people like that. Did you get off on it?”
She turned to face him. “It wasn't like that.”
“Wasn't it?”
“No. If you'd let me explain⦔
“There's nothing to explain. You said you'd meet me and you didn't. Instead you made out with your boyfriend in front of the whole town. A real public way of saying, get lost Seamus. I just wish you'd had the decency to say it to my face.”
Her breathing became shallow. “I wanted to get to you. You have to believe me.”
“I don't believe you, Libby, because actions speak louder than words.”
“Think what you want, then.” She turned to go and tried to open the door but struggled with the lock. In those few moments, he came up behind her, grabbed her shoulders and turned her around.
“You were supposed to be kissing me last night.”
“Leave me alone.”
“Just tell me why. Why do you leave me?”
“I don't want to leave you. I've never wanted to leave you.”