8. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Goddamnit , Lara was early. Normally she tried to time it better but today she’d been fired up, turning what should have been a slow saunter in the afternoon heat into a quick determined stride. She’d been too distracted by her own thoughts to realise her pace, until she’d looked up and found to her chagrin that she’d made it to the school gate with ten minutes to spare.

Ribbonwood Primary School was a mere freckle on the map, a tiny country school with two whole handfuls of children to keep the doors open. There was absolutely no reason to act as though it were a gauntlet.

Lara looked at the collection of other mothers already clumped together at the gate and held in her sigh. She straightened her spine and tossed back her hair as she arrived alongside them .

“Afternoon ladies,” she injected just enough steel into her tone to remind herself exactly how few fucks she gave that the next ten minutes of her life were about to make her feel like they were the ones trapped in the playground again.

As per absolutely usual, Lara was greeted with a full round of silence. A couple of the women exchanged sideways glances like the audacity of Lara Bennett greeting them was beyond their belief. Addie Armstrong gave her a solid glare to which she returned a broad glowing smile. Lara kept walking and took up her usual position, leaning back against the opposite gate post from the rest of the group and neatly crossed her bare legs at the ankle. There was a subtle rearrangement of bodies, closing her out.

“Hi Lara,” one soft voice ventured back. Lara blinked. Natasha Gabrielli didn’t normally deign to speak with her. She was tall and willowy, a perfectly put together wisp of a woman, married to the eldest Gabrielli brother. She’d been no fan of Lara’s at any point over the past half-decade that they’d had their daughters in the same class. Lara gave her a short nod, unclear as to what the fuck had brought that on, then turned her attention to her phone.

She texted Sadie. Mum life was far easier when her best friend was at her side.

Where are you? Gang’s all her e

She added a photo of a flock of screaming seagulls. Her phone rang immediately.

“I’m running late,” Sadie said as soon as she picked up. Lara felt several sets of eyes close in on her as she held her phone up to her ear. She hesitated.

“Okay baby,” she made her tone go sultry. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

There was a pause, then Sadie spluttered out a laugh at the other end.

“Can you stop fucking with the fine mothers of the PTA long enough to pick my daughter up too?”

“Oh, stop being so bad .” Lara tucked her hair behind her ear. “Your wife might overhear us,” she stage-whispered. She heard a gasp of outrage from across the gate as she wrapped a long strand of blonde around her finger, her teeth sinking into her lower lip.

“You’re such a shit.” Sadie groaned. “Listen, can you please just take Frankie back to the store with you? I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Play nice with the grownups for like, a minute, for fuck’s sake.”

“Mm, I can’t wait,” Lara breathed and Sadie snorted and hung up on her .

Lara looked up at the other mothers, not a one pretending they hadn’t been leaning in and trying to listen to Lara Bennett’s sexy phone call. She delivered them all a solid wink and the smile that fell out of her was genuine. God, this whole thing was so ridiculous.

Addie was just opening her mouth to snap something when everyone’s attention turned to the arrival of a newcomer. Lara swallowed excess saliva all of a sudden. This one was adamantly not a Ribbonwood school mum.

“Well, hey everyone,” the cause of Lara’s annoyed distraction on her walk to the school that afternoon announced her presence. Ollie was slightly breathless, her olive skin glowing in the sunlight and her dark hair tumbling down her back. For fuck’s sake; more Ollie Gabrielli was absolutely the last thing Lara’s week needed. “Long time no see.” Ollie’s tone was cheerful and friendly.As the mum squad all turned to coo and greet her, Ollie clocked Lara.Her easygoing gaze sharpened slightly, fixing on Lara’s face like she was taking in every single element. “Hey Lara,” she added, her warm brown eyes holding fast to her own.

Lara cocked her head slightly in short acknowledgement and to absolutely everyone’s surprise, Ollie separated from the group and came to stand beside her.

“How old’s your kid now?” Ollie asked conversationally, like they were friends. Lara just stared at her, expression flat. Why was this happening exactly?She and Ollie Gabrielli were not now and never had been friends. “You’ve got a daughter, right?” Ollie pressed on. For a second Lara fought competing urges. Did she freeze out her biggest high school enemy or simply enjoy the befuddlement of the pack of wolves at the other gate?

“Actually, I’ve got eleven children now,” Lara decided to pick both. “They’ve all got different fathers. At least, most of them anyway. Right, Addie?” she smiled sweetly. Addie flushed red at the insinuation. She had a habit of clutching her husband possessively whenever they crossed paths with Lara, which…had Addie even seen her husband? Lara was not interested - had tried to tell Addie that - but the belief had been enough to make Addie bristle and freeze her out for years.

“Wow, you’ve been busy,” Ollie’s voice was awed. Lara saw a little spark in her eyes as she leaned into the story, her elbow resting atop the stone gate post Lara leaned on. “Kept your figure though,” she raised her eyebrows, her voice studiously casual. Lara gave her a sharp look. Ollie’s gaze might have passed as innocent to the other school mums but Lara knew better. It had been barely twenty-four hours since the golden girl of Ribbonwood High had last run her eyes over Lara’s body.

She had to admit to herself that it had been satisfying, seeing hunger flare in the eyes of her old nemesis.How extraordinarily delicious to be the one to get under her skin after all this time. It was a lot to balance though.Lara had felt it like a punch to the stomach yesterday afternoon when she’d looked up to see Ollie Gabrielli, of all people, less than two feet away in the middle of her store, stock still and staring at her.Ollie had appeared nothing less than gobsmacked, as if it were her and not Lara who’d been quietly minding her own business only to get slapped in the face by the past.

Ollie had been both instantly unmistakable and wholly changed at the same time. She’d stood there, all long tanned legs and long toned arms, still holding her easy athleticism into her thirties, only now she looked expensive. Gone were the ponytails and sports kit, instead her glowing skin was offset by a tiny pair of linen shorts and a short-sleeved white button-up that looked both soft and casual as it fell from her body. Lara estimated the ensemble at approximately the price of a full fortnight’s pay for most folk in Ribbonwood. With her gleaming dark hair effortlessly tangling around her shoulders she’d looked like she’d wandered in from an Instagram marketing campaign for luxury leather boots, all fake country and natural beauty. God, how infuriating.

She looked equally good now in the afternoon sunlight, practically exotic amongst the drearily familiar Ribbonwood faces and Lara was relieved when the bell sounded and children began streaming from the two classrooms.

Tilly and Frankie took their sweet time, her daughter too grown now to run and fling herself into her arms, the way one of the small, dark-haired Gabrielli girls did to Ollie. The little girl giggled and glowed as Ollie hugged her. Another squeal of excitement rang out, this one adult, as Audrey Coleman arrived at the school gate and also flung herself into Ollie’s arms. Lara tried not to wince. Aside from Sadie, Audrey was one of her few school-gate allies and something of a friend. It grated to see her so warm and familiar with Ollie, tactile in a way she’d never be with Lara.

Of course, she belatedly remembered, Audrey and Ollie had been best friends back in high school, both of them sporty and academic. For a moment Lara felt dizzy. This moment, right here, could be transplanted back in time by something like eighteen years and be completely unchanged: Audrey and Ollie giggling together; a gang of girls off to the side gossiping and freezing her out; and Lara, standing on her own. It quite literally took her breath away.

For a sharp, sobering moment, Lara quite despaired. Her high school self had held on by imagining this was all one terrible blip in what would soon be a whole new life. To think that she could experience everything she had in almost two decades and somehow nothing would change?

“Hey mum!”

Lara blinked to clear her vision and her daughter grinned up at her. The neat braid Lara had given her that morning was in disarray, there were stains on her previously clean school uniform and she was dwarfed by the giant backpack she was wearing, like an absolute nerd. Lara had never seen anyone so perfect.

“Hey kid,” she remembered how to smile as she cupped her daughter’s face. Frankie bounced up behind her and whooped when Lara gave her the news she was coming with them and Lara’s real life - the one that existed completely outside of what Ribbonwood’s eyes saw - kicked back into gear. She remembered, as she walked out the gate, that when it truly came down to it, she didn’t give a fuck. Not a single one .

“You off?”

Lara’s head snapped up. Ollie Gabrielli had paused her chat with Audrey to catch Lara’s eye.

“Yes?” Lara apparently had to answer the fucking obvious as she tried to leave. Audrey smiled and gave her a goofy little finger wave, still bright with the joy of reuniting with Ollie. A small flash of anger hit Lara’s bloodstream. If Ollie Gabrielli hadn’t materialised back in Ribbonwood then Lara wouldn’t be having full-on flashbacks to high school right now. She made her mouth smile back at Audrey and started following her daughter into the street.

“Lara,” Ollie spoke again and god help her, Lara stopped. She raised her eyebrows questioningly, waiting to hear what Ollie had to say. Ollie looked back at her, her eyes curious, like she was working out a puzzle. Then she grinned, her mouth almost a smirk at her satisfaction with making Lara wait. “See you round,” she said warmly.

Lara shook her head. Nope. They weren’t doing this. She looked Ollie dead in the face and rolled her eyes. Head held high, she walked away.