He coughed and gulped from his beer can. ‘Laurel was shrieking, scared and angry. Then bloody Amie, she capered round the front of Laurel and got hold of her top and yanked it up. I was stupefied. I couldn’t compute what was happening. Laurel screamed louder so Amie grabbed her bra and pulled that up, too. Laurel was exposed.’ Another of those dry coughs. ‘I didn’t decide to hold on to her. I didn’t decide I was part of what Amie had just done. I just turned into a doofus, staring at her naked boobs.’ Self-loathing rang in his voice. ‘Then suddenly it dawned on me what the hell I was doing and I … let go.’ He covered his eyes. ‘Laurel ran away, crying. Amie was giggling. Jonny and Ruben had stopped laughing. They’d realised before I did what a shitty thing we were doing.’

He drank down all the rest of that can of beer and opened the next. His tone became dull and flat again. ‘I finished with Amie that night. She acted all hurt and shocked. I said I didn’t want anything to do with someone like her. She scratched my face. I welcomed it, like a punishment. Like a badge saying, “I’m not like you, Amie Blunt” even though, unfortunately, I was. I felt sick.’

Grady felt sick, too. ‘What happened when you apologised to Laurel?’

Mac shook his head, lips folded inward into a wretched line, as if he were fighting tears.

Disbelief seared through Grady. ‘You didn’t ever apologise?’ he demanded furiously.

‘You think she’d come anywhere near me?’ Mac asked, brow furrowing incredulously. ‘I called her name once, when I saw her come out of the village shop, and she ran – literally ran. I felt like such a shit.’

‘You were a shit.’

‘I know.’ Mac groaned. ‘I’ve been haunted by it. I wanted to try again to apologise that morning we called at The Nookery. That’s why I asked to talk to her alone.’ Mac ran his fingers into his hair and tugged at it.

Grady felt as if the foundations of his life were crumbling. ‘First you told me that was about Aspirations Week at school, then about Amie’s bullying, and now you’re finally admitting it was because of what you did. You’ve lied and lied to me.’

‘Yep,’ Mac admitted quietly. He clenched his fist against his leg. ‘I’m sorry. You must be disappointed in me, Grady. I was drunk and stupid. I never intended any of it to happen and felt shittier and shittier when I saw how upset you were when Laurel blanked you. I hated myself. I straightened out and went to uni like Dad wanted. I never again treated a woman with disrespect. I never let myself get drawn into the mob mentality. I only ever drink moderately.’