Falling for you

But Jake waited until Juliet was back from the loo and Ed had slunk off in defeat before saying,

‘Hey, Juliet, fancy a wild weekend in Paris?’

‘Why?’

‘Maddy’s babysitting Sophie on Friday and Saturday, so she may as well have Tiff too. That leaves you and me free to do whatever we want brilliant restaurants, loads to drink, fabulous sex ...’

‘Thanks,’ Juliet gave his arm a consoling squeeze, ‘but you’re not my type.’

Behind the bar, vigorously polishing glasses, Nuala said with frustration, ‘You always say that. But what kind of man do you go for? I mean, what was Tiff’s dad like?’

Since Juliet had spent the last five years not elaborating on the subject of Tiff’s father, Maddy didn’t get her hopes up. True to form, Juliet simply smiled her dazzling, enigmatic smile.

‘Oh, he was definitely my type. But he was married.’

‘Enemy on the move, enemy on the move,’ Jake murmured in Maddy’s ear. ‘Approaching at three o’clock ... draw your weapons ..

Flushing, Maddy saw that Kate and Estelle had finished their meal and were heading back through the bar. ‘She isn’t my enemy.’

‘She may not be your enemy,’ Jake whispered wickedly, ‘but I think you could be hers.’

As first Estelle then Kate made their way past them, Kate shot Maddy a look of disdain.

Oh great. Maddy turned away.

‘Blimey,’ Nuala exclaimed as they swept out, ‘did you see her face?’

The door hadn’t completely closed. It swung back open, Kate glared ferociously at Nuala, spat, ‘At least I’m not fat,’ and slammed out again.

Visibly shaken, Nuala clutched the Guinness pump for support.

‘That’s not fair! She took it completely the wrong way. I didn’t mean did you see the ugly scars on her face, I meant did you see the look on her face! And now she’s called me fat,’ wailed Nuala, who was ultra-sensitive about her weight.

Feeling both guilty and relieved that it had happened to Nuala too, Maddy said, ‘Welcome to the club.’

Chapter 7

I didn’t know whether we’d see you again,’ said Kerr. ‘Come on through to my office.’

‘But—’

‘Seriously.’ He took the cool-boxes from her and put them on the floor next to the reception desk.

‘We need to talk.’

Heart in her mouth, Maddy followed him down the corridor and into his office. The desk, she noticed, was strewn with papers and three empty coffee cups. Not naturally tidy herself, Maddy was heartened by the sight of another person’s chaos. Over-organised people automatically made her feel nervous and defensive.

‘Coffee?’

‘Um, no thanks.’

‘OK.’ He paused, sat down opposite her in his swivel chair, picked up a Biro and began to tap it against the edge of the desk, probably because there wasn’t any space to tap it on the surface. Maddy was further reassured by the pen, so few people seemed to own them these days. Computer-only offices gave her the heebie-jeebies.

Kerr was looking on edge, hardly surprisingly under the circumstances. To get the conversational ball rolling, she said, ‘I wasn’t going to come back. I talked to my boss about it – her name’s Juliet - and she said it was up to me, but she didn’t see why your staff should be deprived of brilliant sandwiches because of something that has nothing to do with them.’

Kerr considered this, then nodded. ‘We should have brought the cool-boxes in with us. They’ll be out there helping themselves to all the best ones.’

‘That’s OK, you’ll love the maggot and cress baguette.’ Maddy stopped and laced her fingers together; she was joking and she shouldn’t be. It was inappropriate. Nerves were getting the better of her. Anyway, who was she trying to kid? If she didn’t find him so attractive she wouldn’t have dreamed of coming back. Putting the blame on Juliet was nothing more than a bare-faced lie and she should be ashamed of herself.

The thing was, did Kerr know that?

He looked at her. ‘Why don’t you sit down?’

Relieved, Maddy sat.

‘I’m so sorry about your sister.’ Kerr came straight to the point. ‘There isn’t a day goes by when I don’t think about what happened. I don’ t blame your parents for reacting the way they did. How is your mother, by the way?’

‘She’s fine. Very well.’ They were finally talking about it; Maddy resolved not to cry. ‘She wouldn’t be fine if she knew I was here, talking to you.’

‘Even though it happened eleven years ago? And it wasn’t actually anything to do with me?’

‘Sixty years wouldn’t be long enough for Marcella. You’re a McKinnon and that’s all that matters.

As far as she’s concerned, you’re all beneath contempt.’

Kerr paused, digesting this statement. ‘But I wasn’t even in the country when it happened. I was in the French Alps—’