Read Online Wanderlust by Natalie K. Martin - Free Book Online Page B

store. Even the cars were shared here and as long as they were returned with the same amount of petrol they’d been picked up with, there was no problem with taking one. They weren’t Maserati’s or Ferrari’s, but they had four wheels and an engine, and were reliable enough for the most part. He took the key to the blue pick-up truck and stopped at Penny’s on the way back to the bungalow. She was watering the plants dotted around the porch and she smiled, straightening up when she saw him.
    ‘You off?’ she asked
    He nodded and threw the keys up into the air before catching them again. ‘Yep. We’ll only be a couple of hours, I think.’
    Penny pulled a face. ‘Why so short?’
    He shrugged. ‘I could just do with an early night.’
    ‘Is everything okay?’
    One of the first things Alex had noticed about Penny was that she rarely missed anything. She could sniff out the slightest whiff of a lie simply by detecting small facial expressions and changes in tone. He knew she had a daughter back in England and maybe that was why, because the only other person he knew with such an acute bullshit radar was his mum.
    ‘Yeah, fine. Just stuff from back home, that’s all.’
    ‘Marie?’ Penny tilted her head to one side. Alex hesitated to reply and she smiled. ‘I haven’t seen that look on your face since you first told me about her.’
    He scratched the back of his neck. He’d told her about Marie a few days after he’d arrived. Penny was so easy to talk to and non-judgmental, that it had simply fallen from his mouth before he’d even had the chance to think about it.
    ‘She sent some more messages and they were…I don’t know.’ Alex shook his head. ‘They were strange. One minute she was pissed at me, the next she was asking where I was because she was thinking of flying out for a holiday. Her last message was a photo of her in a club, saying she wished I were there. I don’t know what I’m supposed to think.’
    ‘She’s hurt, Alex,’ Penny said, putting the watering can down on the floor. ‘It’s going to take some time.’
    ‘We were only together for a few months.’
    ‘Time isn’t relevant in situations like this.’ She sat on one of the chairs and crossed her legs before patting the empty one next to her. Alex obeyed and joined her. ‘You know, Alex, sometimes you can meet someone for the shortest of times and forge a bond so strong it’s as if you’ve known each other a lifetime.’
    It wasn’t a concept he was unfamiliar with. His parents had met at the age of seventeen and were still together to this day. The difference was that their love was real, whereas anything that might have even resembled love with Marie was almost certainly chemically induced.
    ‘You upped and left without telling her. It’d be selfish to think she wouldn’t be hurt by that.’
    Alex sighed and looked at the ground. ‘I know. I just didn’t know what else to do.’
    ‘Look, I’m not saying you’re a bad person,’ Penny said softly, placing a hand on his bouncing knee. ‘In fact, I think the opposite is true. I can see how this whole situation is playing on your mind and even though the way you left was questionable, it was the right thing to do. Otherwise you would have ended up just like her.’
    He played with the keys in his hand. ‘I just thought it would have died down by now, that’s all.’
    ‘Problems will always catch up to you sooner or later.’
    Alex nodded. ‘I know. I’m going to have to call her. And soon.’
    ‘Tonight’s not the night to do it. You’re going to go to this party and have fun. You’ve worked hard since you’ve been here, you deserve it. There’s a beautiful girl in that bungalow looking forward to a night out and you don’t want to keep her waiting. Go, have fun, and make sure you look after her.’
    She left him on the porch and he looked over at the light shining from Selina’s room before heading back to the bungalow. Just as he took the steps to