Ed was sitting watching Ice Cool Chew-Chew Mints dive into a vast blue plastic swimming pool filled with iced water—to illustrate, of course, how refreshing they were. They had already done seven takes, and the Ice Cool Chew-Chew Mints were all very pissed off.
It was, however, making Ed smile. Which was nice, because not a lot had made him smile lately. The last take had been pretty much perfect, but as Ed watched the Ice Cool Chew-Chew Mints being fished out of the swimming pool, he thought he might make them do it all over again just for a bit of fun.
“Once more from the top,” Ed shouted, nodding to Trevor with a barely concealed smirk.
Orla slid into the seat next to him. “There was nothing wrong with that, Ed Kingston. You’re doing this for spite.”
“Half of them were late this morning,” he said. “They’re paying for it now.”
“In spades,” Orla said as she watched the Mints form a shivering queue to jump in all over again needlessly. Ed settled back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest.
“Are things okay between us?” she asked.
“Yes,” Ed said, eyes still on the Mints.
“You don’t mind that I’m in love with your little brother?”
Ed shook his head. “No. Not at all.”
“Or that I’m taking him halfway across the world?”
“No.”
“Is that because you were never really in love with me?”
Ed looked at her. “Would you mind if that were true?”
“Yes,” she said sadly. “A little.”
Trevor was loading more ice into the water and making sure that the bobbing polystyrene penguins were all the right way up. The Mints were jumping up and down in a vain effort to get warm.
Orla studied his profile. “Neil’s a lot like you.”
“He’s not,” Ed said. “Neil’s nice. You’re better off with Neil.”
“He’ll do well in Hollywood.” Orla stretched out, lifting her hair. “I’ll make sure he has lots of work.”
“Good,” Ed said. “Good.”
“There’s a job still open for you,” she said. “If you want it.”
Ed shook his head again, more emphatically. “No. I need to be here.” Harrison Ford will have to wait. Possibly forever.
Orla touched his arm. “How is Alicia?”
“I don’t know,” Ed said, realizing that he was fed up with hearing secondhand reports. “But I’m going to find out.”
“She’s a very lucky woman, Ed. In a lot of ways.”
“Yeah,” he said. She must be slapping her thighs and thanking the Lord for chemotherapy. But he knew what Orla meant. She was lucky that she was going to survive. Lucky that she’d been blessed with three beautiful children. And he was a lucky man. Lucky to have loved Alicia. Lucky to still have the chance to tell her. It had just taken him a long time to work out quite how lucky he was. Perhaps too long.
Reluctantly, the Mints were inching their way along the diving board, jostling fractiously as they went. Despite himself, Ed started to grin again.
The Mints were launching themselves into the ice-cold water, splashing and scattering the polystyrene penguins and polar bears strewn on the surface.
“I did love you, Ed,” Orla said softly.
But he was laughing too hard to hear her. Or if he did, he chose to ignore it.