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He chuckles. “You think nobody noticed? But the thing is, they also know you didn’t steal his wife. He walked away from her.” He pauses and studies the floor for a moment. Then he says, “Can I tell you something?”

“Of course.”

“I’ve never told anyone else this. But a week before Jayden left, I saw him with another woman.”

I stare at him. “What?”

“It was on the mainland, in a bar down in Kawakawa. I guess he didn’t expect to bump into anyone he knew there. They were just sitting at a table, talking, but there was something… I don’t know… intimate about the way they were looking at each other, you know?”

I’m so shocked, I don’t know what to say.

“I glared at him,” he continues. “I like Vix, and I knew they were having problems. Everyone knew, it was obvious. She was so unhappy, Mitch, and he was such a miserable bastard. He got up and came over to me. He said, ‘She’s just a friend.’ I said, ‘You’re a fucking arsehole.’”

I give a short, humourless laugh. “Good on you.”

“He said, ‘I don’t care what you think. My marriage was over a long time ago.’”

“Fuck me.”

“I know. I yelled at him that if that was the case, he should do Vix a favour and fuck off out of her life. And he yelled back that he was going to leave next week. I just stared at him and said, ‘What?’ And he said they’d been over for a long time, but he’d been too stubborn to admit it. He said…” He frowns. “He said he should never have married her.”

“Jesus.” I’m deeply shocked. Vix spent years trying to make the marriage work, and in Jayden’s head it was over before it began?

And he was cheating on her? I’m so mad, I could strangle him.

“Yeah,” Bear says, obviously seeing the look on my face. “I was angry, too.”

“Fucking bastard.”

“Yeah. Vix is a lovely girl. He should have been thanking his lucky stars that she married him.”

“So he left shortly after you saw him?”

“The following week. I never knew whether I should tell her. I thought about it, but then her mum died, and it just seemed crass to add that to everything else she was going through.” His brows draw together. “Do you think I should have?”

I inhale, then blow out the breath slowly. It would have made her angry. Would that have helped her get over him? Maybe, but it would also have hurt her like hell. “No,” I say eventually, because Bear’s a nice guy, and I don’t want him to feel bad. “She’s been through enough, eh?”

“Yeah,” he says, relieved, “that’s what I thought.” He looks around the room. “It’d be good to make the place nice for her though. To do something for her. She deserves it.”

“Yes, she does.”

It gives me a physical ache in my chest to think of what she’s been through, and most of it because the guy I was best man for treated her like shit. All this time, I’ve kept my distance because I was trying to give his marriage a chance.

I feel like such a fool. I gave up the chance of happiness with the woman I love out of misplaced loyalty, and anger pools at the bottom of my stomach, white-hot.

But oddly, with it comes a sense of lightness and release. Guilt is a terrible thing. It’s like a toddler who hangs on to his mother’s leg and refuses to let go. You drag it around with you everywhere. But now, all of a sudden, it’s gone. Jayden doesn’t have a hold over me anymore. We’re no longer friends, and after what I’ve just learned, I don’t feel I owe him anything.

Vix and I are both free now. And it’s time to move forward, not look back.

An idea begins to form in my mind. “Could you help me with something?” I ask Bear.

“Sure, whatever I can do.”

I tell him the idea that’s forming in my mind, and slowly, the plan comes together.

*

Vix and I don’t get much time alone. I’m working hard on the flat, and she’s either in the bookshop, sorting books ready for the sale on Saturday, or out around the town, pinning up posters and handing out flyers.