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

On Friday evening, she got home from her walk to find Doug’s Jeep parked on the drive.

‘Doug’s here!’ yelled Mel unnecessarily as Leonie arrived.

‘Great,’ lied Leonie. She hated facing him but there was no option. Fixing a bright smile on to her face, she went into the sitting room where Doug was watching television with Danny.

Doug immediately got up. ‘I need to talk to you,’ he said.

‘Sorry, can’t,’ Leonie trilled. ‘I’ve got a date with Hugh,’ she lied.

‘No you haven’t…’ began Danny.

Leonie silenced him with a killer look.

‘About last week, I’m so sorry, Leonie. Caitlin turned up and I had to talk to her…’

‘Fine,’ Leonie said brightly, backing out of the room. ‘Whatever. I have to go. Bye.’

She ran to her bedroom and slammed the door shut. Then she fell on to the bed, mindless of the fact that she was still wearing her filthy walking clothes, and burst into tears.

He phoned on Saturday.

‘Say I’m out,’ Leonie whispered.

‘She says to tell you she’s out,’ Danny told Doug.

Leonie rolled her eyes. Tactful it wasn’t. Well, it might give him the message that their friendship was over, Leonie decided. If Doug was going to be superglued to the nauseous Caitlin for the rest of his life, Leonie didn’t want to have to witness it.

On Sunday, she was walking Penny when she spotted Doug’s Jeep coming down the road. Frantic to avoid him, she leapt into a nearby field, to Penny’s delight. The sheep in the field looked horrified. ‘We’ll only be here a moment,’ Leonie reassured them from her hiding place just inside the gate.

Life went on as usual. Abby enquired why Doug hadn’t been round to dinner since they’d got back from America.

‘I don’t know,’ Leonie lied. ‘He’s busy with a painting, I think.’

Abby gave her mother a knowing look. ‘And you expect me to believe that?’ she said.

Leonie groaned. ‘Not you, too. It’s like being on Oprah and being advised by the audience on what to do with your life.’

‘You’re not happy, Mom,’ Abby said. ‘Anybody can see that.’

‘I’m tired, Abby, that’s all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to put some washing in the machine.’

Another week limped by. Leonie was on auto pilot for most of it. It was her weekend on in the surgery and on Saturday, the place was jammed with clients and shivering animals. Leonie was monitoring a neutered rabbit when the phone rang for Angie.

‘Keep an eye on the rabbit, will you?’ Leonie asked Louise. ‘I have to get Angie.’

She went into the second surgery and stopped dead. There, holding a quivering and howling Jasper on the examining table, was Doug. He looked harassed, his hair was windswept and he was wearing his walking clothes. He looked tired. Too much sex, she thought grimly.

‘What’s wrong with Jasper?’ she asked immediately.

Recognizing his old friend, Jasper wagged his plumy tail weakly.

‘Poor love,’ she said, stroking his head.

‘He’s hurt his paw. The dew claw has been ripped away from the flesh.’ Angie was preparing to numb the area.

Jasper howled with the pain and howled even louder when Angie approached him. She had that vet smell, Leonie knew, the smell all dogs hated.

‘There’s a phone call for you,’ Leonie told her. ‘Mrs McCarthy, about her cat. It’s urgent.’

‘Right. I’ll be back in a moment.’

Angie left the room.

‘Why have you been avoiding me?’ Doug asked quietly.

Leonie wouldn’t look at him. She kept her head facing Jasper, who had stopped howling but was pleading with her to let him get out of this horrible place.

‘I haven’t been avoiding you,’ Leonie said sharply. ‘I’ve been busy with my life, the way you’ve been busy with yours.’

‘I haven’t been busy,’ Doug replied. ‘I’ve been lonely and depressed. There’s been nobody dropping round at all hours making sure I take my vitamins or dragging me out of the studio to get some fresh air. Nobody to invite me to dinner and feed me home-made lasagne. Nobody to laugh with and talk to.’

Leonie found she’d been holding her breath. She exhaled slowly and shakily. ‘What about Caitlin?’ she asked. ‘The love of your life has come back, you don’t need boring old me to make you coffee or talk to. You’ve got Ms Wonderful to do that with you.’

Before he could reply, Angie swept back into the room. Jasper whimpered again.

‘Sorry about that,’ she said, staring at Leonie, who was very pale around the mouth.

‘I must go,’ Leonie said and ran from the room.

She hid in the loo for a few minutes until she was sure she had overcome the desire to cry. Then she went back to look after the rabbit. They were short-staffed today and there were so many animals to keep an eye on; she couldn’t leave it all to Louise and Helen.

She’d just closed the rabbit’s cage a few minutes later when Angie appeared, followed by Doug and Jasper, who was panting happily and holding up his front paw which was now expertly bandaged.

‘You’re not allowed in here,’ Leonie yelped. ‘Jasper’s better now. You should go home.’

Angie took Jasper’s lead from Doug, who advanced until he was standing very close to her. She could smell the distinctive scent of oil paints and there was a smudge of yellow ochre on his shirt.

‘You can fix his paw,’ Doug said, ‘but you can’t fix my heart.’

Leonie stared tremulously up at him.

All the nurses were watching. Even the animals in the cages were interested. Watching humans having a heart-melting drama was more fun than watching the nurses approach with injections and rectal thermometers.

‘Doug, what are you on about?’ Leonie said, desperately trying to control her emotions.

‘You – I’m on about you. You’ve been avoiding me for two weeks. You won’t go for walks with me and you never come to the studio for coffee any more.’

‘This is hardly the place to talk about it,’ she squeaked.