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

Emma quietly thought that Felix sounded not unlike Harry, the free spirit who’d broken Hannah’s heart when his desire to be different, exotic and to face everything on his own terms meant he’d dumped her unceremoniously to travel to South America. But she said nothing. Hannah was so determined not to get hurt by a man ever again, she’d be careful: Emma was sure she would.

Leonie, meanwhile, was misty-eyed with the romance of it all. Down to earth in so many ways, she lost all sense of reason when it came to love, Emma realized.

‘What did he say in the beginning and how did he get talking to you when it was Mr James he’d come to see?’ Leonie asked breathlessly.

Hannah explained how she was changing clothes and had her skirt practically at waist-level when Felix had sashayed into her life and they all roared with raucous laughter at the thought.

‘I’d hate to see the sort of guy who’d come marching into the surgery if I was struggling out of my uniform and into a little sexy number,’ Leonie joked. ‘Probably the local vicar with his poodle, neither of whom have strong hearts. They’d both collapse.’

Emma gave her a gentle shove. ‘What are you like?’ she said. ‘You were the star of the show in Egypt. I hope you’re not going to get all negative now you’re back home.’

‘Only kidding,’ Leonie said quickly. ‘I’m in a very positive mood, honest. Now Hannah, give us more dirt on the studly Mr Andretti.’

Hannah didn’t need any more prodding. Besotted with Felix and still reeling from the heady effect of meeting him, she couldn’t stop herself from talking about him. With anyone else, she’d have maintained her usual composed demeanour, but with Leonie and Emma, well…they were real friends, not colleagues or relatives or any of the people with some ulterior motive for friendship. She could trust them, so she let herself go.

‘I thought you were off men at the moment,’ Leonie teased after another fifteen minutes of how beautiful Felix was and how stylish he looked and how he had that long-limbed grace that reminded Hannah of leopards in the wild…

Hannah bit her lip. ‘I was, but you have to take opportunities when they’re presented to you. And he’s so presentable. You’d love him, Leonie. He wanted to come here tonight, you know.’

‘You should have,’ Leonie sighed. ‘He sounds amazing. That’s probably as near to a man as I’m ever going to get – meeting your Mr Wonderful and touching his suede jacket when we shake hands.’

Hannah immediately felt sorry for wittering on and on about Felix. ‘It was only a bit of fun,’ she said hurriedly. ‘I’ll probably never see him again. I’m getting all worked up over nothing. And I did say I was concentrating on my job and not going to get involved with a bloke ever again.’

‘You can’t limit yourself when it comes to true love,’ Leonie declared. ‘You have to go with the flow when the time is right. I said you were mad to decide never to get involved with a man ever again, didn’t I, Emma?’

‘You did. But tell us your news, Leonie. She has something thrilling to tell,’ Emma added to Hannah.

‘Well,’ Leonie hesitated, ‘it’s nothing compared to Brad Pitt II.’

‘Tell us,’ hissed Hannah.

‘OK, I’ve put an advert in the personal section of the Evening Herald.’

‘Yahoo!’ yelled Hannah loudly.

‘Well done,’ said Emma in delight. ‘What did you say, when’s it going to be in the paper – or have you got any replies yet?’

‘I’ve brought the advert with me,’ Leonie said, fishing it out of her handbag. ‘It was a nightmare writing it, I can tell you. I mean, how do you describe yourself?’

‘Vivacious, funny, glamorous blonde…’ said Hannah immediately.

‘…seeks man to be good to her because she’s got a gentle soul and deserves love,’ finished Emma.

Leonie blushed. ‘You’re so sweet, both of you. I wish I’d had the pair of you to help me write it. My friend Angie from work helped or I’d never have done it.’

‘Give us a look,’ demanded Hannah.

Together, they pored over the handwritten copy of Leonie’s ad:

Statuesque bloude divorcée, early forties, loves children and animals seeks warm-hearted man with-hearted man with GSOH for friendship and maybe relationship. Box No 12933.

‘It’s going in the paper tomorrow for three days,’ she said.

‘Are you excited?’ Hannah waved the waiter over to them.

‘Scared and excited,’ Leonie admitted. ‘Half of me is totally thrilled and the other half is scared stiff.’

‘At least you’ve done it,’ Emma enthused. ‘That’s the important thing.’

‘I may as well confess,’ Leonie said, ‘I only got the nerve to actually put the ad in because of Ray, my ex-husband. I couldn’t really tell either of you on the phone because the girls were always there when you rang, but when the kids came back from America, they were all wound up because their father is getting married again. Which is great,’ she added quickly, in case they thought she still carried a torch for her ex-husband. ‘It’s just that…’

‘It made you feel as if there was something deeply wrong with you because you don’t feel you’ve moved on and he has,’ Hannah said shrewdly.

Leonie nodded. ‘Ray and I were never really meant to be, I know that and he eventually accepted it, but we went through a lot together, what with the kids and everything. It’s an important bond and I care for him. But I always thought I’d survive better than he would, to be honest.’

She remembered how, to begin with, she used to feel so guilty for separating because at least she had the kids and she’d been the one who instigated the break-up.

‘I thought he’d be lonely,’ she added ruefully. ‘Now he’s the one who’s got his life together and I haven’t.’

‘You have a great family and a job you enjoy,’ protested Hannah. ‘That’s getting your life together. Having someone to share it with is a bonus, but that’s all. I heard that by 2050 or something, thirty per cent of people will live alone. That’s normal.’

‘So says the woman who’s been lit up like a lighthouse all evening because of a glamorous Spanish actor.’

‘That’s not serious, it’s just fun,’ Hannah insisted.

‘What’s she like, this fiancée?’ asked Emma, sensing there was more to this than met the eye and knowing the deeply self-critical Leonie would care a lot if Ray’s new partner was stunning to look at.

‘A knock-out,’ Leonie said drily, confirming Emma’s hunch. ‘Mel adores her and had scores of photos of them all. She’s my age, not some bleached-blonde bimbo or anything. She’s a lawyer and the exact opposite of me: elegant and slim with short dark hair, no make-up, and she looks amazing in jeans and casual polo shirts. Classy, basically.’

‘You’re classy,’ Emma said with fierce loyalty.

‘I’m not putting myself down,’ Leonie interrupted. ‘She’s just in another league.’

‘You’re only imagining it,’ Hannah said and rapidly ordered another round of drinks.

‘I’ll show you the photos some time. She looks like the sort of girl who was probably asked to be a model when she was seventeen but turned it down to go to Harvard because she’d prefer to be earning a fortune as a brilliant lawyer instead of doing lipstick commercials.’ Leonie stared into her empty wine-glass gloomily.

‘She’s probably crap in bed, then,’ Hannah insisted. ‘The type of woman who thinks making love with the light on is the last word in perversion.’

‘Yeah,’ Emma added, ‘the sort who thinks oral sex is talking about it! There has to be a fatal flaw in her. Nobody’s perfect.’

After ages discussing exactly what could be wrong with the outwardly lovely Fliss – ranging from venereal disease to a sex-change operation transforming her from a male tennis player named Alan – the threesome finally left to hail a taxi and find a nice restaurant before the lack of food sent the wine straight to their heads. On Baggot Street, they went into a little Italian place and got through two bottles of wine with their lasagne, pizza and a wonderful carbonara that Hannah declared the best thing she’d eaten since she’d been to Italy.

‘I’ve never been to Italy,’ Leonie said dreamily. ‘I’d love to go.’

‘It’s wonderful,’ Hannah said, ‘but it’ll be a long time before I go away again. I’m completely broke after Egypt.’

‘Egypt was great,’ Leonie said.