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

The woman was probably around Hannah’s age but with a modern crop of dark hair and clothes far trendier than anything Hannah ever wore. Hipster lycra jeans, a childish-looking bright T-shirt and a fitted French Connection denim jacket clung to her slender frame.

‘Roberta,’ David said, getting chivalrously to his feet to shake hands with the woman. Roberta wasn’t into handshaking: she threw her arms around him. Hannah watched it all with interest.

‘I thought it was you, David! How lovely to see you,’ Roberta cooed. ‘You’re a terrible man, David James. I invited you to our Christmas party and you never turned up. All my single girlfriends went into mourning because I told them I’d found a gorgeous man for them and then you don’t show, you bad boy.’

The woman was flirting with him and Hannah found herself taken aback. She’d never seen David in that light really. It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought he was attractive. He was. Some women loved that sort of big, solid bloke with the rumpled face and the crinkled up eyes. And he had a commanding presence.

David was the sort of man who made everyone from waiters to managing directors dance attendance on him. He was very calm and relaxed, and treated everyone the same. In control, methodical and shrewd, he saw everything and forgot nothing.

But as a romantic possibility – never. Roberta obviously didn’t agree. She was actually twirling a bit of short dark hair in her fingers. Hannah began to get irritated.

‘We’re thinking of selling up again,’ Roberta said gravely. ‘Perhaps you’d come out and do a valuation for me…’

If it’s like you, honey, it’s cheap, Hannah glowered. Honestly, talk about throwing yourself at a man. What if she’d been involved with David and this cow turned up, ignoring Hannah and flirting like a sex-starved nymphomaniac. She sat there primly, eating her sandwich and pretending to ignore the other woman.

When David finally managed to pry Roberta’s French-manicured claw from his arm, he sat down wearily and rolled his eyes at Hannah.

‘She’s a bit intense,’ he whispered.

‘Not your type, huh?’ Hannah enquired nonchalantly, astonished to find that she actually cared.

‘You can say that again,’ he winced. ‘I sold a house for her a year ago and she’s been on my case ever since. I thought if I didn’t turn up at her Christmas soiree she’d get the hint.’

‘Are you not interested in meeting all her lovely single friends?’ prodded Hannah archly.

His head still bent over his sandwich, David raised his eyes to hers, dark eyebrows giving him an ironic gleam. ‘I’m not interested in them,’ he said, heavily emphasizing the word ‘them’. Their eyes locked, toffee-coloured orbs meeting the shrewd grey eyes that were suddenly warmer than Hannah had ever seen them before.

A laser beam of awareness pierced through her. David fancied her. It was so obvious! How come she’d never noticed before? That was why he wasn’t interested in any other woman the irritating Roberta could set him up with. To hide her shock and confusion, she quickly drank a spoonful of soup. To further discomfit her, the soup went down the wrong way and she began to choke.

As soon as she began to cough and splutter, David threw down his sandwich and started slapping her on the back.

‘Are you OK?’ he asked anxiously.

‘Yes,’ spluttered Hannah, coughing into her napkin. Her eyes had watered madly, so she wiped them and wished she could think of something to say, something to defuse the situation. She didn’t need to. As if aware that he’d stunned her with his revealing statement, David sat back in his seat and resumed eating his sandwich.

‘Roberta’s house was beautiful. A genuine Georgian townhouse. They’d put a lot of money into it,’ he remarked, as calmly as if they’d been discussing business a minute before instead of romance.

Embarrassing subject avoidance was something Hannah was becoming an expert at. She’d had enough experience every time someone asked her how Harry – and later Felix – was. ‘Really?’ she said brightly, as if she was enthralled in what sort of stately pile the nauseous Roberta had lived in. ‘What did it go for?’

They talked business for another fifteen minutes before Hannah said she really should get back to work.

‘Me too,’ said David.

As they reached the office, he touched her arm briefly. ‘Let’s have a proper lunch soon,’ he said. ‘The full works: not just a quick sandwich.’

‘Sure,’ Hannah agreed. She might possibly feel more normal in a week or so and capable of having a meal with a man who fancied her. Right now, she simply wanted to cry over the man who clearly didn’t fancy her.

It was an exhausted Hannah who drove home that night, worn down by the combination of a lingering hangover, a huge workload and Gillian sitting close by with a face like a thundercloud. She’d tried not to think about Felix all day but it had been hard. That afternoon, she had sat in the pine kitchen of a Dalkey cottage while a man and his wife ooh-ed and ah-ed over the cottage’s alpine garden and hardwood deck, and her thoughts had run to Felix. She could just imagine them living together in this house, she realized sadly, gazing around at the pretty kitchen. Two bedrooms with a split-level sitting room that had a mezzanine containing a tiny dining room: it would be perfect for the two of them.

Airy and stylish, wonderful for entertaining Felix’s friends and throwing marvellous dinner parties where guests from their various worlds mingled successfully. She loved the real fire in the bedroom. How nice to light it and snuggle up in bed on cold nights, watching the flames leap up until their own flames ignited…

She parked the car outside her flat, happy to find a space that wasn’t four blocks away for once. It was chilly even for January and she wrapped her red wool coat tightly around herself as she walked to the gate. And stopped. It looked as if someone had transplanted an entire florist’s shop to the garden. At least fifteen bouquets confronted her: giant white lilies trailing greenery, vast armfuls of red roses, with myriad pinks, purples and yellows dotted here and there. In the midst of this riot of stephanotis and blossoms sat Felix, scrunched up on the doorstep and looking as if he was freezing in just his suede leather jacket and jeans.

‘I didn’t want to come to the office so I waited here,’ he said with chattering teeth.

‘You poor love,’ Hannah said instinctively, rushing towards him. ‘You must be freezing. Did you bring all these flowers?’

He nodded. ‘I wanted to show you how much I loved you, and I know you adore flowers. I didn’t know which ones to pick, so I got them all.’

‘Are you here long?’ she asked.

‘Only half an hour. I knew you’d be home soon. Can I come in?’

While he sat with a cup of whiskey-laced coffee and warmed up, Hannah brought her flowers up to the flat, blushing puce with embarrassment when the people in the downstairs flat arrived and stared in wonderment at the blaze of colour in their usually barren garden.

‘Isn’t it more traditional to plant actual flowers and not just leave a load of bouquets out here?’ said the man waggishly.

Once the bouquets – twenty in total – were installed in the flat, most of them in the bath as Hannah certainly didn’t have enough vases for them, she sat down beside Felix on the couch.

‘I didn’t expect to see you again,’ she said softly. It was hard to be angry with someone who’d just brought you twenty bouquets, especially when you’d spent the whole day thinking of them, missing them desperately.

‘I wanted to think of a way to make you see I was serious, Hannah,’ Felix said, taking her hands in his and giving her the full effect of his soulful eyes. ‘I missed you so much…I need you, you’ve got to understand that.’

Hannah gulped. She knew she should say something about flowers being no substitute for trust in a relationship, but the words froze in her mouth. She couldn’t help it: she was so in thrall to Felix, she could refuse him nothing.

‘I know,’ she said, biting her lip, ‘I missed you so much too, Felix. I just can’t let you hurt me again.’

He nodded and kissed her. It was like coming home after years away: lovely, gentle and caring. His mouth was soft on hers. A tender, loving kiss quite unlike the passionate ones they usually enjoyed. When he finally pulled away, Hannah sat with her eyes closed, feeling glorious peace flood through her.

Then she felt something cool on her fingers. She looked down to see Felix sliding a ring on to her wedding finger, a modern gold band with a cabouchon diamond set grandly in the middle. She gasped in astonishment.

‘You will marry me, Hannah, won’t you?’ Felix said, slipping the ring over her knuckle until it rested properly on her slender finger. ‘Say you will.’

Of all the things Hannah had expected, an engagement ring was not on the list. She stared at it, stunned. She’d never owned anything like it: a large diamond had hardly been on her must-buy list. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she breathed. And it was. It suited her slim hand perfectly.

‘Well?’ Felix asked.

Hannah’s face lit up, her toffee-coloured eyes gleaming as if the gods had sprinkled stardust in them. ‘Yes!’

This time, their kiss was the passionate variety, with Hannah only breaking away to warn Felix of what she’d do if he left her again: ‘I’m never going through that again, ever. You hear me?’ she said fiercely.

‘No, no, darling,’ he said, busy undoing the buttons of her work blouse, his lips sliding sensuously down her neck into the soft velvet of her cleavage.

‘I mean it, Felix. If you ever run away on me again, that’s it. Finito. No matter how much I love you, I won’t let you destroy me.’

‘Never, darling,’ he said gravely. ‘Never. I promise, I promise with all my heart that I’ll never hurt you again. I love you too much. Let me show you how much.’

Hours later, satiated with sex and nicely fed, thanks to an Indian takeaway, Hannah lay entwined with Felix in bed, glorying in the sensation of his body next to hers. Only yesterday, the flat had seemed barren and lonely with just her there. Now it was a home: lively, warm and comforting. She snuggled up beside him, listening to his slow, easy breathing. Imagine it: she was engaged to Felix.