She hadn’t seen him since he had returned from his ill-fated trip to London. He had shut himself up in his apartment and taken to his bed. When she’d phoned him he’d given monosyllabic answers, when he’d actually bothered to answer his phone, that was.
She had been as sympathetic as she could and tried to persuade him to go to his counsellor when she sensed depression was taking hold but he wouldn’t listen to her and told her he’d deal with it in his own way. She knew he was utterly devastated by the episode with Leon and she grieved for him, but hiding in his bedroom eating cereals and watching trashy daytime TV programmes was not going to mend his broken heart or his shattered equilibrium.
Now Hilary’s patience was at an end. Jonathan was the one who had sourced the Grants as clients. He could either tell them he was pulling out or get up off his ass and get back to work. She had phoned him three times the previous day and he hadn’t taken her calls and that was when she had made up her mind to confront him. She’d taken the spare set of his keys that he always left in her house and driven over to tackle him.
She saw his mobile phone on the coffee table in the sitting room and realized it was flat. He probably hadn’t even got her messages. The charger was on his desk in his office so she plugged it in and went into the kitchen and brewed up a pot of fresh coffee. God only knew how many of his own clients he’d let down in the past three weeks. He’d need to pull his socks up and make a grovelling apology to them if he wanted to keep them, she thought crossly, flinging dirty dishes into the dishwasher and wiping down his counter-tops.
‘Leave that. I’ll give Svetlana a call and get her to come and blitz the place.’ Jonathan came into the kitchen in a towelling robe, drying his hair.
‘It needs it,’ Hilary said shortly. ‘Jonathan, we’ve been friends and business partners for a long time and I don’t appreciate you not taking my calls . . . on both a friendship and a business level.’ She glared at him.
‘Don’t be crotchety. I just didn’t want to talk to anyone,’ he moaned. ‘I was so shattered I just wanted to curl up in a ball and escape the world. I’ve had Mam on my back for a week.’
‘That’s not good enough, Harpur. You’ve built up a first-class business. You should be ashamed for allowing it to start sliding down the tubes all because a little creep did the dirty on you and turned you down. It happens to us all and we have to get over it.’
‘It’s OK for you!’ he burst out heatedly. ‘You don’t have a clue what it’s like! You have Niall and the girls. You don’t come home to an empty house every night. You have someone to put their arms around you. I don’t! I’m lonely, Hilary. LONELY! Every time I think I’ve found someone I get dumped and I feel totally rejected and that there’s something wrong with me.’
‘That’s because you’re too needy, Jonathan. And that’s not easy to say because I love you and you’re my friend,’ Hilary said quietly.
‘Needy? Me?’ He was shocked.
‘There are worse things than coming home to an empty house,’ she said firmly. ‘Coming home to someone who isn’t right for you. Coming home to someone who doesn’t want to be with you, and who stays with you because they feel they have to! Coming home to someone who’s with you because you keep them, and provide very well for them, and if you didn’t, they wouldn’t stay. Do you really want a relationship like that? The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence,’ she pointed out.
‘I know all these things. I tell myself them, but, Hilary, what’s so wrong with wanting to share my life with someone?’ he demanded.
‘Nothing, nothing at all.’ She slipped an arm around his shoulder. ‘Just be patient and the right one will come eventually, but don’t throw away everything you’ve built up because of someone who’s completely unworthy of you.’
Tears filled his eyes. ‘I won’t, Hilary. Thank you so much for saying that.’
‘I said a lot, what in particular?’ She smiled at him and gave him a comforting pat on the back.
‘That Leon was unworthy of me,’ Jonathan gulped.
‘Well he was, totally, and he was a fool to throw away a relationship with you. So don’t ruin it all because of him.’
‘OK, I won’t,’ he declared shakily.
‘Good, and do yourself a favour.’
‘What’s that?’ He smoothed some gel into his hair.
‘Make an appointment to see Hannah. She always gives you a great perspective on things and you know you always feel better having talked to her.’
‘I suppose,’ he said dubiously. ‘She’ll only repeat what you’ve just said.’
‘Excellent,’ said Hilary briskly. ‘Then it might just sink in.’
Jonathan flicked his towel at her ass. ‘Ha ha!’ he said, but he was smiling.
‘Oh look, it’s the Parthenon!’ Jonathan exclaimed as they drove up a ruler-straight drive lined with cypress trees and surrounded by immaculate manicured lawns.
‘Stop it! Don’t make me laugh when we’re inside,’ Hilary warned him.
‘Good God, is that a turret?’ he exclaimed. ‘And look at the circular glass window! Windsor Castle with a touch of Notre-Dame. Hard to know exactly what era this is
