“I’m not hungry.” He winced. “Sorry, that’s really rude. I can come down and eat with you.”
“Don’t feel you have to. If you want to go to bed that’s fine. If you’re sure you’re not hungry?”
He slipped off the stool at the breakfast bar. “I just need to sleep. Make yourself at home, won’t you?”
Keira’s stomach felt as though it was lined with stones as he disappeared up the stairs.
Cooking and eating alone was a let-down and she’d lost her appetite anyway. She contemplated calling Mel but suspected that chatting things over would only make her feel worse. After pouring a glass of wine, she was about to take it onto the beach to watch the sunset when Noah’s phone began to vibrate on the kitchen counter.
Checking who was calling was instinctive, and she was hit by another stab of jealousy when she saw it was Seren. She’d been nothing but kind to Keira, but the call brought out the green-eyed monster nonetheless. She couldn’t help thinking that Seren should have assumed they’d gone to spend time alone and therefore shouldn’t be calling to interrupt. Or maybe that was exactly what she wanted to do.
Swiping to accept the call was probably a stupid move, but she did it without thought.
“Hi,” she said, moving the phone to her ear. “It’s Keira.”
“Oh. Hi.” Her confusion was clear. “Is Noah there?”
“He wasn’t feeling well so he went to lie down.”
“Okay. Never mind.”
The ensuing silence was uncomfortable, but Keira wasn’t in a hurry to end the call. Asking Seren for advice felt oddly tempting, but she was also aware that sharing their relationship problems with her could be a very bad idea.
“I probably shouldn’t have answered his phone,” she said cautiously. “But I saw it was you … and I thought maybe I could ask …” She paused and took a breath. “Did you notice that Noah was in a strange mood today?”
“Yes. That’s why I was calling. I wanted to check he’s okay.”
“I’m not sure if he really had a headache. I got the feeling he just wanted to be alone.”
“I got that impression all day,” Seren said on a sigh.
Keira’s stomach twisted uncomfortably. “We had a conversation last night about where things were going between us and I think I may have annoyed him. He was hot and cold with me all day … but mostly cold.”
“It’s not you.” Seren’s voice was laced with sadness. “Has he talked to you about his dad at all?”
“Not really. He mentioned he’d died.”
“Yeah. Just over two years ago.”
“How did he die?” Keira asked quietly as she wandered through to the living room.
“He drowned. Someone found his sailing boat bobbing around with no one onboard. The whole island went out searching for him … his body was found two days later on a beach on one of the outer isles.”
A lump formed in Keira’s throat and she sank onto the couch. “That’s awful.”
“The whole family was pretty traumatised. It hit everyone hard.”
“I can’t imagine going through something like that. It must have been terrible for you all.” Her thoughts flicked to that morning when they were snorkelling. “That explains why Noah was panicking about us staying close to the boat today. He lost sight of you for a minute and was pretty freaked out.”
“Going out on the water might not have been my best idea,” she said. “But it’s the boat race that unsettled him. He hates it. I was often an honorary Treneary for the family race. We had so much fun – all of us out in the boat together. We’d get competitive and would annoy a lot of the islanders because we won so often.” Her gentle laugh was tainted with sadness. “Since Terry died, Mirren tries to jolly us along, but Lowen refuses to join. Trystan and Noah go along with it to please Mirren. There’s only Kit who actually enjoys it.”
“I wish I’d known. I spent all day assuming Noah was in a bad mood with me. It probably made it worse having me here.”
“I doubt it. I think going out with the seals helped keep him distracted for a while.”
“Is there anything I can do, or should I leave him alone? He didn’t even eat dinner so maybe I should take him some food up …”
“He doesn’t eat when he’s upset. There’s not much you can do I’m afraid.”