Brick by Brick

Part Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Sammy had become the Queen of hiding her emotions she thought as she walked to the nearest shop with Eleanor the next morning. Corinne and Mike were still asleep, but then she'd left them up with a bottle of wine when she'd got back. They wouldn't drink alcohol whilst they were caring for her baby, but once she was home they visibly relaxed. Corinne spotted her sadness as she walked in.

"Hard?"

She had nodded, far easier to blame her confusion, her sorrow from that dreadful evening on memories of Marcus and the action of his family. Yet in reality she was struggling to fathom what was going on with Joel. He'd lied to her, not that she could blame him. It wasn't a confession she'd have wanted to part with, so she had no intention of telling her friend that snippet.

It all felt so sordid, and in reality what did it matter? Joel meant nothing to her, why should she care if he lied? Or if he was jealous? Though that was harder to deal with, the fact that her husband and his best friend were almost estranged when he died was due to her arrival in his life. That was something she had to think long and hard about. Then there was the fact that Daniel had been so involved, so adamant about it all, he'd warned her that this was the case, who was playing her? Who was pulling all the strings? And why? She hated that she had no idea. And she hated that her quiet uneventful life had suddenly become this mess, this car crash.

Eleanor was awake, looking up at her smiling as they walked through the sunny streets, the photo image of her father, and her heart tugged in a mixture of sorrow and love, Eleanor was Sammy's reason for living.

"You ok baby girl? Shall we go swimming later? You love that hey?"

The gurgle of response made her smile and for a moment she forgot all her troubles.

Joel had a grim headache, the type where you couldn't bear to open your eyes. But it was all self inflicted. When Sammy left he'd stormed off to the members club that Toby had enrolled him at, that was after almost punching Daniel Turner. Then he sat at the bar drinking whisky until the sun started to rise. He was dreadful company and the world seemed to give him a wide berth, and as he sat alone feeling as though his world was caving in, for the first time in a year it wasn't Marcus that was making him sad, that he saw every time he closed his eyes, it was the pale devastated face of his best friend's wife.

Should he have lied? Should he have been more honest? He wasn't sure what to say. All he knew was that Daniel had no understanding or empathy for Sammy, he didn't care and he'd hurt her to get his own way. He knew what Marcus had done, and he knew more. That was why he was manipulating things, he was after something and Joel had a fair idea that he'd find out very soon EXACTLY what he wanted.

He rolled over, face down into the pillows, hoping they would help block out the light, stop the pain that was blinding him. But it didn't. And there is was again, Sammy's face once again haunting him. He'd hurt her, but he had no idea how to make it right.

It could have all been different, everything, but he'd long since accepted that. He remembered the first moment he had set eyes on Sammy. After the trip to the nudist beach, a rather elaborate wild goose chase that took up far too much time and money, they'd settled on one for the smaller Greek islands for a few days. It had been fun, swimming in the tepid azure seas, drinking ouzo, and getting a tan. The islands were full of slim tanned mainly blondes, who only seemed to have packed bikinis. Marcus was beside himself, he'd definitely made up for his sadness at being dumped. He had disappeared with so many women over the two weeks they'd been away, afternoons, nights, and once even after breakfast, each time winking and reminding Joel not to disturb their bedroom. Free easy and anonymous sex wasn't on Joel's agenda, so he'd happily explored the places they were in, fuelling his childhood interest for Greek mythology by investigating the hidden secrets of the places they visited.