Cathy Kelly 6-Book Collection: Someone Like You, What She Wants, Just Between Us, Best of Friends, Always and Forever, Past Secrets

‘I couldn’t eat another bite, I’m stuffed,’ Hannah protested when he tried to give her a third helping.

‘I mashed it myself,’ Danny wheedled, spoon hovering. ‘It’s a special recipe.’

‘You want to see the amount of butter he puts in it,’ Abby remarked. ‘It’s fifty per cent potato and fifty per cent butter.’

‘My figure can do without butter,’ Hannah laughed, patting her belly.

‘Nonsense, you need fattening up,’ David said. ‘Wait till I have you back in the office. I’ll force feed you chocolate biscuits during our coffee sessions.’

Hannah just stared at him. ‘What do you mean?’ she said.

‘You are coming back to work with me, aren’t you?’ he asked.

‘I didn’t know…I didn’t think,’ she stammered.

‘Do you think I’m going to let some other rascally auctioneer steal you away from me?’ he said loudly. Then in a quieter voice, he said: ‘Please, Hannah. We need you…I certainly do.’

Under the table, she reached out and took his hand. He gripped hers tightly.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

‘Don’t thank me,’ he said softly. ‘I’m doing it for strictly selfish reasons.’

Hannah found that she couldn’t speak, so she merely held his hand under the table, only letting go when Claudia arrived back at David. ‘Hello, you scamp,’ he said, sitting her on his knee.

Claudia burped loudly then smiled at him. ‘I know what we’ll do,’ David told her. ‘You come and work for me and your mummy will come in too, to look after you. You’ll be the boss, naturally – a senior agent – and you can help Mummy with her exams.’

Claudia blew bubbles up at him.

Hannah laughed at them both. ‘Usually when she does that, she’s contemplating getting sick all over you.’

David cuddled Claudia. ‘We don’t mind, darling, do we?’

Emma arrived as they were having coffee. ‘Sorry I couldn’t make dinner,’ she said to Leonie before hugging Hannah. She took Claudia from David. ‘Isn’t she beautiful,’ she crooned. ‘Hello, Claudia, I’m your auntie Emma, your mum’s friend.’

Claudia looked surprised and then sicked up a gurgle of white goo. Emma crowed with laughter and Claudia, happy now she’d been sick, started laughing too.

‘Aren’t you gorgeous,’ Emma said. ‘She’s got your lovely hair, Hannah,’ she added.

There was obviously something going on here that she didn’t know about, Hannah thought, surprised; Emma adored children, she knew that. But she found it hard to cope with other people’s children because they reminded her so painfully of her own inability to have any. But here was Emma, laughing and giggling with Claudia, not looking strained or tearful as she held her.

‘You girls go into the sitting room and gossip,’ Doug said. ‘We’ll tidy up.’ He couldn’t resist kissing Leonie goodbye tenderly as she left.

‘Talk about lovebirds,’ teased Emma.

Leonie grinned fit to burst.

‘You’re looking pretty happy yourself,’ Hannah remarked to Emma.

It was her turn to beam. ‘Well, I have some exciting news for you, Hannah,’ Emma began. ‘Pete and I booked in for IVF treatment, we were due to start next month. I’ve been taking my folic acid and doing yoga, you name it.’ She smiled. ‘I was the best prepared, hopeful candidate in the world. And, you wouldn’t believe it…’ She paused.

Hannah waited in disbelief. Leonie was smiling, she knew whatever Emma was about to say next, obviously.

‘I’m pregnant!’ Emma said happily. ‘Six weeks, that’s all. Most people wouldn’t have noticed, I’m sure. You know me, if I’m one day late, I buy a testing kit. But I didn’t this time. I never even thought of it at first but my boobs suddenly got so incredibly sensitive. It was amazing, my own personal pregnancy tester.’

‘That’s incredible,’ Hannah said, feeling the tears of joy in her eyes. ‘I’m so delighted for you.’

‘Thank you,’ beamed Emma. ‘I know what happened. I stopped panicking about it. We were going to have IVF and it was out of our hands. I had hope. I read that lots of people conceive naturally after going through the IVF programme and not getting pregnant. It was a bit like that, really.

‘Elinor, my therapist, says I had lots of unresolved issues that were literally blocking out everything else. Once they were gone, I just got pregnant like that.’ She picked up Claudia and hugged her joyously. ‘I’m so happy, it’s fantastic. The only sad thing is that Mum will never know her first grandchild.’

They were all silent for a moment.

‘How is she?’ Hannah asked, feeling guilty because she didn’t know what had been going on in Emma’s life. She knew that Anne-Marie was much worse and that she had carers looking after her a lot of the time, but that was it.

‘She has her good days and her bad days,’ Emma said. ‘She’s on a new Alzheimer drug and it has helped her, actually. She knows who we all are and she’s much calmer, but she’s going downhill,’ she paused sadly. ‘You have to learn to deal with it. It’s heart-breaking. But I think what’s been happening makes the baby even more special. It’s like we’re slowly losing my mother but gaining another person. Death, rebirth, the whole cycle goes on and on.’

‘That sounds like the sort of thing Abby’s always saying,’ Leonie remarked.

‘You have to become a philosopher when you cope with illness,’ Emma explained. ‘Otherwise you’d go mad wondering, “Why her, why us?” You have to accept it and deal with it.’

‘I’m sorry I’ve been so out of touch with you,’ Hannah said, touching Emma’s hand gently. ‘You’ve been through so much and I wasn’t any help at all.’

Emma patted Hannah’s hand affectionately. ‘We’re friends, we’re not supposed to be joined at the hip,’ she said. ‘It was partly my fault, anyway,’ she admitted. ‘I couldn’t cope with you being pregnant with this little pet.’ She kissed the top of Claudia’s head. ‘That’s a terrible thing to have to admit, but I believe in saying what I think nowadays. Therapy,’ she pointed out, ‘is wonderful for that. The night you had Claudia, when Leonie rang me to tell me, I drank an entire bottle of red wine with misery. I felt so hopeless. So I pushed you out of my life, Hannah. I’m not proud of it but I’m going to make it up to you.’

‘You don’t have to make anything up to me,’ Hannah said genuinely. ‘But I can be of benefit to you. I’ve got some lovely maternity clothes you could borrow.’

‘I can’t wait to have to wear them,’ Emma sighed. ‘I keep turning sideways and looking at myself in the mirror to see if there’s a bump yet. I’m longing for a belly, stretch marks, you name it. I’ve waited so long for this baby. I want to exult in it.’

‘Is Pete over the moon?’ Hannah asked.

‘He’s already decorated the nursery,’ Emma grinned. ‘Only kidding! He’s bought paint, wallpaper and a Disney border, though.’

They all laughed.

‘If you want anyone to stencil an Egyptian motif in the nursery, don’t forget to ask me,’ Leonie said.

‘Of course,’ giggled Emma. ‘Nobody else knows, apart from Kirsten,’ she added. ‘We didn’t want to tell anyone until three months are up.’

‘Claudia needs friends now she’s going to be living here,’ Hannah said, taking the baby from Emma. ‘She and your little mite can be pals.’

‘If it’s a girl, they sure will be,’ Emma said fervently. ‘She’ll need her girlfriends. Where would I be without mine?’

‘Stuck in an Egyptian prison cell for murdering your father,’ teased Leonie.

‘Don’t remind me,’ Emma groaned. ‘Although he’s being very nice to me these days. Kirsten says it’s so I’ll continue doing his washing, but it’s a start.’

‘Maybe we should all go on holiday again soon,’ Leonie said thoughtfully. ‘Doug wants to go away.’