Falling for you

Kate reddened. Startled, Maddy said, ‘Actually, there are some things I’m quite happy not to know about.’

‘Oh, don’t be so boring.’ Eagerly Nuala turned her attention back to Kate. ‘You slept with him, didn’t you? I can tell.’

‘Look,’ Kate shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot, ‘this isn’t—’

‘Oh my God, I’m right, aren’t I? You really did!’

‘Please,’ Maddy protested, but Nuala was unstoppable now.

‘You lucky, lucky thing,’ she gasped excitedly, slopping drink all over her sleeve. ‘I wanted to sleep with Jake but he turned me down – damn, I’m so jealous! What was he like?’

‘Hello? Excuse me,’ Maddy’s voice rose, ‘but I really don’t want to hear this.’

‘Just whisper it then.’ Nuala gave Kate a nudge. ‘I mean, I’m assuming he’s fabulous.’

La la-la,’ Maddy sang loudly, her fingers jammed in her ears.

Hurriedly, Kate said, ‘Dexter’s going to hit the roof if I don’t get back to work.’

Clearly Kate wasn’t about to spill the beans. Some people were just plain selfish.

‘OK, some other time. We could try that new club down by the train station on your next evening off, have a real girly night out.’ Giving Kate a nudge as she turned to leave, Nuala added, ‘But he is fabulous, isn’t he?’

‘Kate, get over here,’ Dexter bellowed. ‘I don’t pay you to stand around doing bugger all.’

Back behind the bar, Kate snapped, ‘And there’s no need to yell at me.’

‘I thought I was rescuing you.’ Dexter’s voice softened.

This only served to remind her of Jake calling her a damsel in distress. Pushing past Dexter on her way to refill the ice bucket, Kate said coldly, ‘Well, don’t.’

Chapter 34

Was this sad? Was this the kind of thing only truly pathetic people did? Was it really so wrong when it brought her so much comfort?

Well, OK, maybe not so much comfort, but beggars couldn’t afford to be choosers. Any tiny crumb of comfort going was better than none at all.

Squinting in the darkness, Maddy held her wrist up to her face and peered at her watch. Ten past two in the morning and here she was, sitting in her car at the end of Kerr’s road, gazing up at the unlit windows of his flat.

She would have been here earlier but Nuala had stayed up until midnight and Jake hadn’t gone to bed until almost one o’clock. Maddy had been forced to wait until they were asleep before sneaking out of the cottage, climbing into her car and driving – hopefully not in a deranged, stalker-like fashion – into Bath.

Oh, but now that she was here she really did feel better, just knowing that Kerr was less than fifty feet away from her. These were his windows, that was his car parked outside, there was his very own dark blue front door .. .

She wasn’t doing anything wrong, Maddy reminded herself; this was a harmless coping mechanism, nothing more. OK, so she’d promised Marcella she’d never see Kerr again, but nobody had said anything about not seeing his front door.

Behind her a set of headlights swung round the corner into the road. Guiltily, Maddy sank further down in the driver’s seat and waited for the car to pass.

When it did, she caught her breath. Now why on earth would a police car be patrolling a deserted backstreet at this time of night? Honestly, when you were desperate for a passing policeman you wouldn’t find one for love nor money, yet here were a pair now, tootling around in the small hours, avoiding the city centre where they might actually be needed.

As the patrol car reached the end of the cul-de-sac and swung round, Maddy tugged her purple baseball cap further down over her face. A horrid thought was unfurling like a tapeworm in her brain –

surely not ... oh bugger, don’t slow down, no, nooo0 .. .

The car pulled up directly in front of Maddy’s Saab, so that their bumpers were almost kissing.

Lucky bumpers. Mortified, Maddy watched the door open and a skinny beanpole of an officer unfold himself from the passenger seat.

Bugger bugger bugger.

In response to his hand gesture, Maddy unwound her window.

‘Would you step out of the car, sir?’

Bugger.

Slowly Maddy did as he asked. Standing there in her jeans, sweatshirt and trainers, a good foot shorter than the gangly policeman, she mumbled, ‘I’m not a sir,’ and took off her baseball cap. Her blonde hair slithered down past her shoulders.

‘My apologies, miss.’ Was the gangly policeman’s mouth twitching? ‘Um ... may I ask what you’re doing?’

Marvelling at the way your Adam’s.. apple bobs up and down, mainly. Aloud, Maddy said, ‘Just sitting in my car, officer. Is that against the law?’

‘Do you live in this road?’

‘Well, no.’

‘So why exactly are you here?’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake.’ Maddy sighed. ‘It’s for personal reasons, OK?’