One Last Wish: A heartbreaking novel about love and loss by Harper Ella

Author:Harper, Ella [Harper, Ella]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781911420453
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2017-02-27T05:00:00+00:00

Rosie

‘Lovely day,’ Lily said, shielding her eyes from the sun.

‘Amazing,’ Rosie agreed.

‘Great to see the kids playing so nicely together.’

‘Absolutely.’

Lily cleared her throat. ‘Not enjoying the small talk?’

‘Not remotely,’ Rosie answered dryly. ‘Don’t do it, Lil. It’s as bad as going to one of Emmie’s friend’s houses for a playdate and the parents not having a clue what to talk about because they’re so busy not talking about Emmie’s tumour.’

Lily sat back in her garden chair and removed her sunglasses. ‘Sorry. It’s just really…’

‘Awkward. I know.’ Rosie took a seat next to her at the garden table, wincing as the hot wrought iron from the chair connected with the skin below her shorts. ‘Maybe we should have cancelled.’

‘No way. It’s Emmie’s birthday.’ Lily nodded towards the kids who were shrieking as they bounced on a trampoline together. ‘They’re having a whale of a time.’

‘At least someone is,’ Rosie said gloomily.

Nate was inside cooking a huge roast dinner – in his element, in other words. Not necessarily the best thing to cook on such a gloriously hot day, but Emmie had requested roast pork. And she was the birthday girl, so roast pork it was. Jamie was keeping him company, which was code for ‘drinking beer whilst Nate cooked up a storm’ and the two of them were locked away in the kitchen as though very important business was going on.

Rosie was glad of the respite. Things were so highly-charged between herself and Nate right now, it felt as though a bomb might explode in their faces at any second. They weren’t talking and they could barely look at one another. Their bed truly did feel as though a boat could be driven between the pair of them right now.

They had decorated the house in silence last night, putting up streamers and sparkly decorations. Nate had blown up a pile of metallic purple balloons without saying so much as one word and Rosie had iced a rather lopsided cake alone in the kitchen. She had always made her own cakes for family parties and had one made for the parties Emmie used to have for her friends. Nate was the expert cook and baker, but Rosie insisted on making Emmie’s birthday cakes, even if they were rather homemade-looking. In the old days, Nate would have been in the kitchen with her, dabbing his fingers in the icing, making jokes about her weird sponges. This year had been significantly different. Very quiet and very lonely.

Feeling empty and lost, Rosie remembered wondering how she hadn’t actually heard the poignant sound of her heart splintering, because it felt very much like it was happening so loudly inside her body it might ricochet around the house.

Lily sipped her iced water, unaware of what was running through Rosie’s mind. ‘God, I wish that was wine, but it’s my turn to drive. I’ve – I’ve never seen you two like this. Not… like this.’

‘I know.’

Rosie felt despondent. Something had happened to her and Nate. Something really bad.

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