Read The Next Season (novella) for Free Online Page B

together for the last two, so this was the logical next step as far as he was concerned. Of course he’d expected her to say yes. He’d even gone to the effort of measuring her finger while she was sleeping, and having a ring made that was identical to one she’d gushed over in a catalogue a few years earlier. When she’d started to cry, he’d thought they were happy tears and had been about to kiss them away, when he’d seen the expression in her eyes. Then the word ‘no,’ quickly followed by ‘I can’t’, had slipped from her lips and the bottom had dropped out of his world.
    Zoe cocked her head to one side and raised an eyebrow. ‘Do you really want me to go over it?’
    Of course he didn’t, not when the end of their own relationship had been eerily similar to the end of his and Melissa’s. He shook his head and then looked down at the sand, unsure what the hell to do or say next.
    â€˜Wanna sit for a while?’ Zoe asked, surprising him as she patted the sand beside her. ‘I’ve had a pretty crappy couple of months too as it happens, and I’ve heard that misery loves company.’
    He let out a half laugh and loosened his grip on the leash. ‘Don’t tell me you proposed to someone and they turned you down too, hey?’
    â€˜No.’ She shook her head. ‘I moved in with someone, spent all my life savings furnishing his house and then found out he was two-timing me with my boss.’
    â€˜Ouch.’
    â€˜Yep. Pretty much. So now I find myself with no job, no money and no roof over my head anymore. Suffice it to say you don’t have a monopoly on crappy.’
    He found himself sinking to his knees beside her. Eeyore followed, making a satisfied oomph sound as he flopped onto the sand between them.
    â€˜So that’s why you came home?’ Shaun asked.
    She smiled sadly. ‘In a nutshell.’
    They sat in strangely comfortable silence, staring out at the ocean as the sun began its descent into the Indian Ocean. No matter how many times he’d watched the sun set, the bright oranges and purples and yellows and blues left him awed every time. For a while all he could hear was the noise of distant traffic, the waves coming and going and Eeyore’s contented snoring. He glanced sideways and saw Zoe’s fingers absentmindedly raking up and down the dog’s back. He knew from experience how good her touch felt.
    As if she felt his gaze, she turned her head to look at him and said, ‘So, how come you ended up with Eeyore in the split?’
    He reached out and ruffled Eeyore’s ears. ‘Even though Melissa named him, he was my dog. I found him on the side of the highway a couple of years ago. Someone had left him tied to a post with a note that whoever found him could keep him.’
    â€˜Aw. Thank goodness you came along.’
    â€˜Yeah.’ He chuckled. ‘Melissa thought I was crazy to pick up a stray, but we connected on the drive back into town. I felt like he trusted me, and I couldn’t stand being the one to let him down again. He was about five months old then, so not quite fully grown but a total hurricane. Within a couple of hours of him moving in, it became obvious that he’d probably been dumped because his owners couldn’t handle him. He tore our house apart and every one of Melissa’s shoes to shreds.’
    Funny, Shaun had been all apologetic back then. He’d replaced all her shoes and gone out of his way to train Eeyore into the mostly well-behaved dog that he was today, but now he kinda wished he’d let him ruin her entire wardrobe.
    Zoe leant over and took Eeyore’s giant face between her hands, her fingers disappearing in the rolls of silky, soft flesh. She spoke to him like he was a baby. ‘I don’t believe a nasty word he says about you, scrumptious.’
    Eeyore opened one eye, moaned and then closed it again.
    Shaun