Ashley shifted uncomfortably. She felt as if she’d peeped through a gap in the curtains into Joanna’s real world. “I suppose life happens, and then we end up taking a different path. That’s what has happened to me. My mom died, I couldn’t get my head around college even if I could have afforded it and then I got—”

“Pregnant.”

Ashley felt her face grow hot. This was the moment she’d been dreading. Joanna was going to ask her about the baby. And if she told her the truth, the whole unvarnished truth, Joanna would throw her out.

She felt a sense of desolation, followed by panic. She didn’t want Joanna to throw her out. She wanted to stay here with the pool and the privacy and Joanna’s quiet, calming company until she’d figured out what to do.

But that wasn’t the adult thing to do, was it? No one was going to come along and fix things for her. She was going to have to fix things herself.

Feeling sick, hands shaking, she took a deep breath.

“Joanna, there’s something I need to—”

“Not now.” Joanna lay back against the lounger and picked up her book again. “We’ll talk about it another time.”

“But—”

“I know we need to talk, but it can wait.”

Could it?

She’d braced herself, finally, to tell Joanna the truth. Was this a reprieve, or an extension of torture?

She wasn’t sure.

10

Melanie

Mel waited until Greg’s car pulled out of the drive, and then pulled a basket from the cupboard in the kitchen. She knew that if she’d told Greg what she was planning to do, he would have tried to stop her. If she wanted to see you, she would have called. He’d loved Joanna, too, of course. They’d all grown up together. But Greg was more accepting of the fact that life was complicated and people changed. He didn’t need an explanation for everything, but he didn’t understand how it felt to lose a friendship that she’d thought would last forever.

Mel wanted an explanation.

Even after so many years, she wanted one, which was why she was going to see Joanna. And yes, the thought of it made her feel sick and light-headed, but she needed to know.

She’d been planning it all week, since she’d first seen that tiny figure sitting up on the rock in the far distance. She’d known, even without being able to make out the features, that it was Joanna. She’d felt it.