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

‘Not guilty, miss,’ Hugh said honestly.

He gazed straight at Leonie. ‘You’ve the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen,’ he added softly. ‘They’re so blue, beautiful. And I’m having a wonderful time. Honest.’

Leonie’s belly quivered. Or at least something in her nether regions quivered. Maybe it wasn’t her belly after all, but some of the long-since rusted up sexual bits that hadn’t been out of dust sheets since Adam was a lad. Yes, definitely a quiver. She breathed deeply and said: ‘That party at ten o’clock has been cancelled, by the way.’

‘Good. When my friend rings my mobile at nine forty-five pretending to be locked out of his flat, to which, incidentally, I have the only spare key, I’ll tell him it’s OK, you’ve turned out to be wonderful.’

Chinese food had never been more fun. They laughed and talked their way through far too much Peking Duck and Sizzling Beef, until Leonie said she’d have to open all the buttons on her skirt or she’d burst out of it. She couldn’t imagine making such a statement with any other man, but she felt so relaxed with Hugh, it seemed natural. Of course, the second bottle of plonk helped.

‘I’m not really a heavy drinker,’ Leonie said, holding up her glass for another refill. ‘I like wine but it doesn’t take that much to get me drunk.’

‘I hope you haven’t copped on to my fiendish plan,’ said Hugh, dead-pan. ‘I’ve got a van out the back and I’m taking you on to my place to have my wicked way with you.’

‘Not that drunk yet,’ said Leonie, waving a reproving finger at him. ‘The worst I ever was when I was drunk was in college,’ she said, shivering at the memory. ‘It was a medical students’ party and they’d made ferociously strong punch with poteen and God knows what other booze. I mean, I was plastered after about four glasses, and I got talking to this guy who was a gynaecologist.’ She giggled at the memory. ‘Of course, I just had to ask him that fatal question.’

Hugh looked blank.

Leonie leaned forward and lowered her voice: ‘You know, how they can look at women’s bits all day and then go home and make love to their wives or girlfriends.’

Hugh’s eyes were dancing now. ‘What did he say?’

‘I can’t remember. I was too drunk! God, I was embarrassed the next day. People kept coming up to me and telling me things I’d done, all of it terrible. I was mortally embarrassed. The only reason I’d got drunk in the first place was because I desperately wanted to fit in and I thought booze would help.’

‘Your poor girl,’ Hugh said, petting her hand kindly. ‘I am ashamed to say that at the age of forty-seven, I’m not much better. The night of my ill-fated date with Ms Whippy, after she left the restaurant I finished the bottle of wine that we’d only just started and then had three brandies. At least you were a mere child when you did it.’

It was Leonie’s turn to pet his hand. ‘That’s perfectly understandable, Hugh,’ she said indignantly. ‘I’d have had two bottles in misery – or else I’d have pretended to go to the loo, climbed out the window and never gone back out of sheer embarrassment.’

He nodded. ‘Being a grown-up with kids doesn’t make you immune to the same pangs you went through as a teenager, does it?’

‘You’ve got kids?’ said Leonie delightedly. ‘You never told me.’ This was great. A separated man with children was perfect because he would understand how important they were to Leonie.

‘Jane, who’s twenty-one and Stephen, who’s eighteen. He lives with his mother, but Jane lives on her own in a flat near here. They’re terrific,’ he said warmly. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without them.’

‘Tell me everything,’ Leonie said.

Everything involved two more coffees on the grounds that they shouldn’t have any more to drink for health reasons. ‘I’d like to be able to get out of bed for some of the day tomorrow,’ Hugh said, ‘and not be hopelessly hungover.’

He didn’t say why he and his wife had separated three years ago and Leonie didn’t like to ask a question as personal as that. If he wanted to tell her eventually, he would. But he loved talking about his kids; his eyes lit up when he told her all about them.

Jane was ‘beautiful. I don’t know whose side of the family she got it from, but she’s a corker.’ She worked in an insurance company as a clerk. She was very clever and a wonderful artist. ‘I keep telling her to visit galleries with some of her paintings but she won’t.’

Stephen, on the other hand, sounded like a bit of a wild child and was currently saving up to take a year off his business studies degree to travel round the world. ‘Every time he mentions the Far East, Rosemary, that’s my ex, has a fit.’

‘I can understand that,’ Leonie said, sympathizing with Rosemary. If Danny had announced he wanted to travel to the Far East, she’d have had a fit. Only the week before she’d read another article about vulnerable young Westerners getting duped into the shady world of drugs in Thailand through having all their belongings ‘stolen’ by drug gangs, who then roped them in by lending them money and new luggage – luggage with a street value of a few million dollars in hidden heroin.

She recounted the most recent article to Hugh, pointing out that she’d read about young business people who’d never been involved with drugs in their lives ending up in jails thanks to having drugs planted on them by corrupt local police looking for protection money.

‘Nonsense,’ he said. ‘That’s all hype and hysteria in the press. Young people need to spread their wings and travel. That’s what life’s all about. I’m only sorry I never had the chance to do it myself. I’m fully behind Stephen on this. I’ve told him I’ll pay his air fare and give him a thousand pounds when he wants to go.’

Leonie was stunned. If Danny had wanted to take a year off to travel, she’d make damn sure he paid his own way. What was the point of taking a year to mature and broaden your mind if you were relying on hand-outs from your parents to do it? He’d learn nothing about being independent if she was bankrolling him.

‘Wouldn’t it be better if Stephen earned his fare?’ she said tentatively.

‘I have the money, it’s the least I can do,’ Hugh said, his jaw tensing. ‘I’d give my kids anything. Anyway, I helped Jane buy her little runaround, a Mini, so Stephen deserves something to even it all up.’

‘Oh,’ Leonie said, smiling. Guilt money from an over-indulgent father. She’d bet a month’s salary that he’d left Rosemary and was now indulging his children like mad to make up for it.

‘Were they very upset when you left home?’ she asked.

‘I didn’t leave home,’ he said, surprised. ‘Rosemary did. She left me for someone else, but it went sour. Then we decided she should have the family home and I moved out. It made more sense that way as both the kids were still living at home.’

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to be nosy,’ Leonie said quickly. So much for the home-spun analysis, Dr Freud.

‘No, it’s fine. We should get this sort of stuff out in the open so we understand each other. Tell me about your family.’

It was after twelve when they finally left the restaurant after some mild quibbling over who’d pay the bill. Hugh had wanted to pay for everything but Leonie said no, she preferred to pay her own way, thank you very much. They walked to a taxi-rank in silence. Their date had been wonderful and Leonie wanted to see him again, but she didn’t know how to say that without coming across as pushy. And what if she said it and he didn’t want to see her again? The ground would open up and swallow her, she hoped.

They joined the taxi queue but it must have been a quiet night in the city because they were at the top of the queue within minutes. Leonie could see a taxi approaching. Hugh lived in an entirely different direction to her, in Templeogue, so they couldn’t share one. This was goodbye. The taxi cruised to a halt and Hugh opened the door for her.

Disappointment flooded through her. He wasn’t going to ask to see her again. Then, she felt his lips brush her cheek gently. ‘What are you doing next Saturday night?’ he asked.

She beamed at him. ‘Painting my toenails, unless I get a better offer.’

‘You’ve got one now,’ he said, thrusting a business card into her hand. ‘Dinner same time next week. I’ll book somewhere exotic and you can phone me on the mobile.’

The taxi drive home took nearly an hour. Normally, Leonie would have been taut as an elastic band watching the meter rack up the fare with the speed of a slot machine in Vegas. Tonight, she felt as if she was sailing home on a thermal breeze, like a yacht racing around the Caribbean. Inviolate from the pain of everyday life, including huge taxi fares.

She whispered his name to herself a couple of times; Hugh Goddard, Hugh Goddard. It was a nice name and he was a nice man. Mind you, she could see them arguing over how to bring up kids, but then, that was hardly the issue here. She was hardly planning on having any more, so their wildly different views would not matter. What did matter was the way he made her feel. He was funny and attractive, and in his company she felt funny and attractive too. In other words, the perfect match.

‘No, we haven’t set a date, but we want it to be soon,’ Hannah said, holding her hand out as Emma and Leonie bent over and admired the rock. ‘Felix is up in the air for the next few months because he’s auditioned for two series and he won’t know if he’s been successful for ages. Which means,’ Hannah sighed, ‘that we daren’t book anyplace for the reception.’

They were having coffee in Hannah’s kitchen, a hastily convened conference to discuss life, the universe and men.

‘Oh,’ Emma said. ‘I thought Felix would be crazy to hold on to you now you’ve agreed to marry him. I was expecting you to say the pair of you were off to the Seychelles for a beach wedding in the morning.’

‘I’d like that,’ Hannah admitted. ‘I’m not into big family weddings, to be honest, and the thought of a party with seventy elderly relatives I haven’t seen in aeons doesn’t appeal to me. Not to mention what my father would probably do if he got drunk.’ She corrected herself: ‘When he got drunk. We’ll have to see what happens about the wedding. A beach one would be nice…’ she added.

Leonie was in fantasy land. ‘It’d be so romantic, Hannah,’ she sighed wistfully, thinking of Hugh. ‘Barefoot on the beach, coconut trees everywhere and the sound of water lapping the shore.’

Emma didn’t appear quite so happy at the news, Hannah thought. She must be imagining it: Emma was one of the sweetest people she knew. She’d be thrilled to see Hannah happy.

‘Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?’ Emma asked bluntly.

Both Hannah and Leonie gaped at her in shock.

‘You don’t think you’re rushing into it, do you?’ Emma went on. ‘I know you love Felix, but wouldn’t it make more sense to live together for a year and then decide? Just to be sure,’ she added.

‘I am sure,’ snapped Hannah. ‘We were made for each other. I’m crazy about him – ’