Second Chances: Novella One by Jo Briggs

Author:Jo Briggs
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Daydream Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Evan

As Evan’s car emerged from behind the electric gate at the end of his driveway, and waited for an opportunity to join the moving traffic, a couple of photographers popped up out of nowhere and started snapping photos of the alarmed occupants. Swearing, Evan wanted to get out and make them delete the images, but Layla persuaded him to just drive on.

“God damn it!” he swore again, pounding the steering wheel in frustration.

“Why are you letting it bother you so much? You must get photographed all the time.”

“I have my reasons,” he said tightly, and Layla did not ask anything further.

Evan could not think of anything worse than having a photograph of Layla and him leaving Winster House together being sold to a national tabloid for tomorrow’s edition; not because he wasn’t proud to be seen with her, but he was wary of a particular person seeing it and being spurred on to make even more blackmail threats before he had a chance to tell Layla everything.

He had chosen to take her to a popular oyster bar and seafood restaurant, which was a half-hour drive away to the east along the Lincolnshire seafront. A two-star Michelin chef ran it.

When they pulled up outside the eatery, Evan sent Layla in ahead of him, excusing himself to make a quick phone call to his cousin, Adam Williams, who was his right-hand man. Titled Head of PR, Adam was much more than that when it came to the day-to-day responsibilities of Evan's company and personal life. He also got rid of any problems.

“Adam, paps were outside the house, and managed to get some pics of Layla and me, as we were leaving in the same car. Can you see what you can do to get them buried?”

“Layla..?”

“Long story, short – she is staying at my house while Ava is in hospital.”

“I’ll see what I can do, but no promises. A photo of you two is bound to be in high demand after all this time,” Adam replied. “I might not be able to persuade all avenues not to publish it.”

“Just buy me a few days until I can put some damage limitation in place.” Hanging up and switching the phone to vibrate, Evan joined Layla inside the restaurant.

Each of them ordered a starter of Evan’s favourite dish of oysters in a chill coriander dressing, with a main of her choosing, the king prawns and scallops. In between the courses, he could not stop touching her. Entwining his large fingers around her slender ones had a way of calming all the lack of control he sometimes felt.

With the dinner plates cleared away, and both of them having polished off half a bottle of red between them, Evan plucked up enough courage to see if a less-guarded Layla would give any answers to the least probing of his long list of questions.

“So now you have stables, I hope you feel comfortable enough to take Pepper? She was a gift to you, after all,” he suggested while trying to assess her reaction to such an idea.

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