Dawn pulled into the parking space at Pittsford waters, a place she hadn’t visited since the kids were young. Terry was already standing behind his Land Rover with a border collie by his side. He gave her a little wave and came towards her as she got out.
The doors of her car clicked to lock as she walked away.
“Well, good morning.”
“Good morning.” She looked him up and down.
“This is Ralph,” he said as the dog walked over to sniff her trainers.
“Hello, Ralph,” she said, patting the dog.
“Don’t think I’ve seen you in running gear before.”
“You neither. Suits you though,” he said, nudging her. “You ready to go?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said, beginning a slow jog. “If I go too slow, feel free to jog off ahead. At sixty-two years old, I know my own pace. Don’t want to be aching tomorrow.”
“And the same goes for you, of course,” he remarked, smiling a lopsided smile.
Matching each other’s easy pace, they turned the corner onto the lake’s path. Ralph jogged along ahead of them happily.
“Mitch seems nice,” he said.
“I don’t know him too well, but I’m getting that impression too. I wasn’t sure about him at first. Although, that was because he was keeping secrets about the wedding planner and about you, I assumed he was a dishonest person.”
“He went to a lot of trouble to contact me, you know. To get those photos for you.”
“I bet he did.”
She picked up her pace a little, and Terry followed suit. She knew he still had plenty of fuel in the tank.
“He invited me over for dinner tomorrow.”
“He told me. Are you going?”
“Will you be there?”
“I will.”
“Then so will I.”
“I think he wanted to thank you for coming with the articles. And maybe introduce you to my son, Troy.”
“It’ll be nice to meet him. If you don’t object, of course?”
“Of course, I don’t. You’ll like Troy, he’s a character and a half.”
They jogged up a hill, and despite herself, Dawn gave herself an extra push.
“So, what have you been doing with yourself all these years?” she asked him, beginning to feel the strain.
“Less than you’d think. I moved from London to Kettering, where I bought a house.”
She looked at him then. “A woman?”
“You could say that.” He chuckled.
As they jogged, they joked and laughed easily. Talking about memories of Paris and the mistakes they’d made since. They stopped to walk at the 10km mark.
Terry breathed heavily, his hands on his knees. Dawn carried on walking. He caught up with her.
“Look at you! Not a hair out of place. I think all that talk of being sixty-two was to throw me off my game.”
She nudged him and laughed. “You’re kidding, I’m knackered.”
“I’m an old man too, you know.”
“Not as old as me, Terry.”
“I’m not that far off, c’mon.”
He’d walked her to the car and turned to face her. “This has been really nice.” He said smiling. He leaned in to kiss her cheek.
“It really has.” She smiled back. She knelt down. “Nice to meet you too, Ralph,” she said in a baby voice. Terry grinned. Ralph jumped up and licked her face.
“Ralph, you big flirt,” he joked. “He gets more action than me these days.”
“I’m sure he does.” She laughed, walking away. She felt contented and safe being around him. It was like she was suddenly younger, desirable again. He’d always had her on a pedestal, and she never knew why.
As she slid into her Audi, she looked back at him. He was standing at his car, the door open, watching her, a soft glint in his eyes. She closed the door and started the engine, butterflies swarming her stomach. She flicked on Radio 1 and when she glanced into the wing mirror, she realised she was still grinning. As she left Northampton, she sang along to Ed Sheeran, as she made her way back onto the A6. She slipped into the middle lane around an eighteen-wheeler lorry, remembering something she hadn’t thought about in a long time: how she used to picture her perfect relationship.
She remembered the vision she used to have of them cuddled on the sofa watching bad TV, a fireplace blazing beside them, jogging by a lake laughing and joking, eating, drinking, and connecting, and she realised that someone had somehow slipped into the image of that blurred out figure in her mind. Now all she could see in its place was Terry Mack.
She laughed at herself for being an old fool and decided that after dinner the next night, she shouldn’t see him for a while. She knew she was fantasising about being with him because of all of the old emotions of Jane that were being evoked. They had long ago been put to bed and she couldn’t go making an idiot of herself now, at her age. She was a proud woman and she’d done just fine without a man for the last twenty years.
***
After a great night with Terry, Troy and Mitch, Dawn argued with herself a lot, but decided not seeing him would be for the best. She spent the next few weeks busying herself; she cleared out the old studio and did some painting. Painting led to drawing skirts and tops and suits. She took Mia and Jake out to the park, then on to Gallone’s ice cream parlour, before visiting the horses by her house. She picked up a handful of magazines and went home, where the kids had fallen asleep in her bean bag chairs after such an eventful day. She made herself a cup of chamomile tea and flicked through the magazines from her bag.
Most of them were fashion magazines, but it hadn’t been an accident that she’d picked up The Look. When she’d opened it, she had seen Terry’s face in a small circle on the first page, beside some editor’s notes about spring bringing with it new life, and she felt hopeful. Inside, he’d also written an article on Kate Middleton’s public display of affection to her prince, and an article called Twelve Ways a Dog Can Strengthen Your Relationship. At that she’d laughed at the irony, remembering Terry and Ralph jogging by her side. She grabbed an apple from her fruit bowl and took a bite, glancing over at her beautiful grandkids sleeping peacefully. She sucked in a breath, feeling her lungs fill fully for the first time in so long.