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

‘It was because we met up,’ Emma pointed out, ‘but I had such wonderful plans when I was there and I haven’t followed through on any of them.’ She stared miserably at the remains of her lasagne. ‘I planned to talk to Pete about IVF and I haven’t, and my father completely humiliated me and Pete the other day and I never opened my mouth. I’m such a coward.’

‘What happened?’

‘I had some relatives over to my house for dinner for my mother’s birthday, and in the middle of it all, after I’d killed myself coming home from work early and making this special dinner, my father told some people that he had given myself and Pete deposit money.’

‘What?’ asked Hannah, not so much confused by Emma’s tipsy story as astonished by it.

‘He gave us £12,000 when we were buying our house,’ Emma said. ‘I told you about it, remember. But he didn’t really give it to us. He lent it to us, and we’re paying him back. But he told this woman – my parents’ next-door neighbour – that he had given it to us. He made it sound like loads more money, in fact,’ she added bitterly, ‘as if he’d paid for the whole house and that Pete and I weren’t grateful. That’s insulting to Pete.’

‘It’s insulting to both of you,’ said Leonie angrily.

‘No, it’s worse to Pete,’ Emma insisted. ‘He works really hard so we’ll have a nice home and food and everything, and just because we didn’t have enough saved for the house and needed a loan, my father is treating him like some layabout. That’s what makes me so angry – I didn’t say anything to defend Pete.’

And it had rankled ever since, boiling through her body like lava. She was used to being put down by Jimmy O’Brien, but she wouldn’t stand for her beloved Pete being humiliated. Yet she had stood for it. She had said nothing and had let Pete down. The rage burned through her again.

‘It’s hard to say things to your family,’ Leonie said diplomatically.

‘No it’s not,’ Hannah said quickly. ‘You’ve got to stand up to him, Emma. He’s a bully and he’ll never stop.’

Rubbing her suddenly throbbing forehead, Emma said tiredly: ‘Look, can we forget this, please? I don’t want to talk about it, I shouldn’t have brought it up.’

‘But you did,’ protested Hannah. ‘You need to talk about this and do something…’

‘OK, but not now!’ yelled Emma, startling them all. ‘I want to forget about him, right?’

Leonie clasped Emma’s hand gently. ‘All right, we’ll stop talking about it. Hannah, wink at the waiter and see if you can get us some dessert menus. I feel a zabaglione moment coming on.’

It was half two and, feeling deliciously tipsy, Emma crawled into bed beside Pete’s sleeping form and snuggled up against him. Normally, she’d never attempt to wake him if he was asleep, but she wanted to be cuddled.

‘How are ya, Em?’ he murmured, turning over sleepily and putting his arms round her.

‘Fine,’ she said, wriggling down under the duvet to hold his toasty body close to hers. ‘Did you miss me?’

‘Loads,’ he said, burying his face in the curve of her neck and planting a couple of woozy kisses on her skin. ‘Did you have a nice time?’

‘Brilliant. We had way too much to drink and I left the car at Sachs Hotel. Will you give me a lift into town tomorrow morning so I can pick it up?’

‘For you, anything,’ he said. ‘Do you know what, Em?’

‘What?’ She kissed the top of his bald head.

‘I love you, even though you stink of garlic!’

She tickled him in retaliation. ‘That’s to hide the scent of the other fella I was really out with – you know, the six foot four karate instructor. He uses this very powerful aftershave and eating garlic is the only way to throw you off the scent.’

‘I’ll kill him,’ Pete said, his voice getting sleepier. ‘Can I go to sleep now, you wild woman?’

CHAPTER ELEVEN (#ulink_cfb2cad5-ad75-5e4a-9df4-2aaecf85c626)

Waiting for Felix Andretti to phone was worse than waiting for Godot, Hannah decided. When he didn’t ring the day after she’d met him, she took a deep breath and told herself that such a delay was perfectly normal. He was acting cool, not being too eager. It was perfectly understandable. That didn’t stop her jumping every time her phone rang, desperately hoping it was him. She didn’t leave her desk at lunchtime that Thursday, either, asking Gillian to buy her a sandwich instead.

‘I’ve a lot to do,’ she said vaguely, rifling through files and trying to look too horrifically busy to walk the five minutes down the road to the sandwich shop.

She ended up reading the newspaper and doing the crossword while she ate her tuna sandwich and drank two cups of coffee, longing for the phone to ring.

On Friday, she dressed up in killer high heels, a long lean dark skirt with a split up the side and a kitten-soft cashmere cardigan in a flattering bronze colour. She left her hair loose and wore her contact lenses instead of her glasses, in case they might be off-putting. Wearing her matching coral-pink net bra and G-string, she felt highly desirable and utterly turned on. Felix, she decided smugly, was the sort of man to turn up out of the blue and ask you out to dinner. It would kill her to do it, but she’d have to refuse. As she worked, she toyed with the various ways she’d neatly rebuke him for his audacity in expecting her to drop everything.

‘Do I look like the sort of girl who can make a date at a minute’s notice?’ she’d say archly, making him weep with desire and suffering. ‘Sorry, I may be able to fit you in next month…’ She’d hardly be able to wait that long herself, but she didn’t want Felix to think she was desperate.

‘Hannah,’ interrupted Gillian rudely, ‘it’s the man about the dodgy plumbing in the gents’. Don’t forget to tell him about the problems in the kitchen.’ Ripped from her reverie, Hannah applied herself to the task in hand.

‘Going anywhere special, love?’ enquired the plumber cheekily as he stared at the length of Hannah’s shapely leg in her sexy skirt while she showed him into the kitchen.

She shot him a murderous look.

‘I was only asking,’ he muttered and got to work.

Half five came and went with no personal phone calls. Hannah could have wept.

She stood at her desk, morosely tidying up and thinking that she’d certainly hear nothing from Felix now until next week; if he rang at all, that was. The only way he could contact her was at work.

David James emerged from his office, yawning and carrying his briefcase in one hand.

‘Going anywhere special, Hannah?’ he asked, eyes roaming admiringly from her clinging cardigan all the way down to her perilous shoes.

‘I wouldn’t ask that if I were you, mate,’ muttered the plumber, passing on his way out to his van. ‘She’ll have you up on sexual harassment charges, that one.’

He fled past Hannah before she could glare at him.

David grinned. ‘Did he try it on?’

‘Not really,’ she admitted. ‘He got me at a bad moment.’

‘Fancy going for a quick drink to turn it into a good moment?’ David said idly, long fingers drumming the desk.

She shook her head. She was too miserable to be cheered up.

‘Just one, and you can moan to me,’ David pushed.

She began to relent. One drink wouldn’t kill her and while she was talking to David James, at least she wouldn’t be moping about bloody Felix.

‘Call for you on line one,’ yelled Donna. ‘Personal.’

A quiver of excitement rippled through Hannah. ‘No,’ she said to David. ‘I’m meeting someone.’

David shrugged. ‘See you on Monday,’ he said.

Hannah snatched up her phone and punched line one.