Our Kind of Love by Victoria Purman

to be at a wedding so soon after her own had imploded. Lizzie had talked her through her tears, helped fix her make-up and led her outside and back to the wedding reception with whatever shred of dignity she had left.
    Then Joe had asked her to dance. Thinking about what had happened after that sent a shiver darting through her breastbone.
    ‘Dan will be so thrilled to see you.’ Lizzie grabbed Anna’s hand, pulled her across the front lawn to the front door of a modest, green beach shack. Lizzie pushed open the front screen door and announced, ‘Look who I found!’
    Dan stood in the kitchen, a tea towel slung over one shoulder and a cheese knife in his hand. At the sound of Lizzie’s voice, he looked up and a wide grin lit up his face. The adorable man who’d been her first boyfriend sauntered over to Anna with outstretched arms.
    ‘Anna.’ He embraced her in a bear hug, rocked her from side to side, and lifted her off her feet.
    Anna gave Dan a brief squeeze and eased herself out of his arms. She wasn’t sure how Lizzie would take it if she hung on to the man and sobbed her heart out. Which is what she still felt like doing occasionally. But she was an ex-girlfriend and there were boundaries she would respect.
    Dan and Lizzie stood before her like a perfect tableau of beachside living at its finest. Lizzie wore a sarong loosely knotted at her waist and a white singlet top. Dan wore multi-coloured boardshorts and a black T-shirt. Both of them were barefoot. Relaxed was not the word she would have used to describe them. They hadn’t simply taken a chill pill. They’d swallowed an entire bottle. When she took a closer look at Dan’s face, she noticed contentment in the warm brown of his eyes and in the set of his mouth, something that had been missing for so long. She was so glad for him that it was back. And it clearly had a whole lot to do with the woman who was standing next to him, reaching out to lightly stroke Anna’s arm with a sympathetic and knowing smile.
    ‘To what do we owe this pleasure?’ Dan asked.
    Anna found comfort in St Christopher. ‘I don’t know really. I jumped in my car an hour and a half ago and I seem to have ended up right here, out the front of your house.’
    ‘Anna, what’s going on?’ Dan peered down into her eyes. Immediately Lizzie was at her side, a reassuring arm around her shoulders.
    And then it all came out in a torrent. ‘I’m going crazy, that’s what’s going on. I didn’t know where else to go. Alex is at the house with a moving truck picking up his things and I couldn’t be there.’
    Dan held up a hand. ‘You mean you didn’t trash all his stuff?’
    Anna swallowed hard. ‘I thought about it, believe me. But I decided leaving was a better idea. He wouldn’t have been safe around me and so many sharp knives. So,’ she sucked in a steadying breath, ‘I got in the car and kept driving and I couldn’t seem to stop anywhere. Anywhere but here.’
    ‘You’re always welcome,’ Lizzie whispered. ‘You know that.’
    ‘ Mi casa es su casa ,’ Dan said.
    Anna managed a laugh and slapped his arm. ‘That’s Spanish, you idiot.’
    ‘You’re not Spanish?’ Dan winked at her.
    ‘What would I do without you guys?’ Anna hugged them both, long and hard. ‘I still haven’t told my family yet. But they’re going to get the picture pretty soon when they see half the furniture missing.’
    ‘How the hell have you managed to keep that a secret from your family? Especially from your sister,’ Dan said with a knowing smile. ‘You know you can’t hide this forever. They’re gonna twig.’
    ‘I know, I know.’ Anna pressed her palms over her eyes. What would they think of their daughter and sister and granddaughter now, the smart, capable woman who was so scared of telling them the truth? ‘I just need time to think about exactly what to say when I break their hearts.’
    A few hours later Dan and Anna were deep in conversation in the living room and