I Did It for Us by Alison Bruce

Author:Alison Bruce [Bruce, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472123855
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2018-01-03T16:00:00+00:00

WEDNESDAY 12 JULY, 2017

It was half past nine the next morning when I saw her again. There was a tap at my front door. She didn’t use the knocker; it was just the sound of knuckles on paint.

I opened up and she pushed past me into the front room. There was tension in her expression but I couldn’t tell whether she was upset or angry or something else.

‘What’s happened?’

‘I don’t know. I just had a feeling, a feeling that . . .’ She tried to stand still but she was too restless. ‘Something was going on last night, wasn’t it? There was a subtext I wasn’t catching.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You know what I mean. Something between you and Matt, like you had a private joke or some secret conversation I wasn’t part of.’

‘No, no. No, you’re wrong about that.’ I held up my hands in an ‘I surrender’ gesture.

I stepped towards her but she seemed panicked.

‘I know he’s a flirt. He always has been, but you’re my friend . . .’

‘Hey, Joanne . . .’ She let me step closer, ‘I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you and I know we don’t know each other very well, but I’m not after your boyfriend.’ Her concern couldn’t have been more misguided. My thoughts flashed back to Jess again and how I wished I could have warned her about Andy before it was too late for her to listen.

For a few seconds, there was no reaction from Joanne. She seemed to be reading my face and I kept very still, meeting her gaze. Finally, she gave a sigh and it was mixed with a small laugh. ‘I didn’t think you were.’ She shook her head as though confirming to herself how ridiculous she’d been. ‘It’s just, I’m a widow with two kids. And, at the end of the day, I have way more baggage than you. I don’t think for a second you’d want to do anything, but you couldn’t help it if he fell for you, could you?’

‘Hey. Where’s that come from?’

‘He didn’t take his eyes off you when he was talking to you.’

‘Well, I think you’re wrong there. Besides, we were talking about the house. He obviously loves the place and he must have wanted you living here.’

‘That’s true,’ she conceded. ‘I have money, enough to buy somewhere outright, but I wanted to settle back in England first and he’s let me stay here rent free for now. I don’t want to rush into it. I was happy to pay, but he insisted.’

‘Well then.’

I said well then as if I was trying to convince her that he was a decent guy when instincts told me the opposite. ‘I do think though, you shouldn’t rush in too quickly. How much do you really know about him?’

‘It’s mostly what I remember from years back but it feels special.’ Her expression softened. ‘It feels like I’ve always known him.’

‘A lot will have happened between school and now.’ I felt like my own mother dishing out the kind of cautionary advice that I never would have listened to.

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