The Registrar's Convenient Wife by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy [Hardy, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780263184570
Published: 2015-09-11T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘ARE you sure you’re doing the right thing?’ Ally asked.

Claire smiled. From the moment she’d called Ally at the crèche and asked to meet her in the coffee-shop just down the road from the hospital after work, she’d known that her best friend would interrogate her. And she had her answers off pat. ‘Yes. Eliot has to be able to offer Ryan as much as his mother can: a stable home with two parents.’

‘But if you’re not in love with each other...’

‘I’ve been there, done that, and got my fingers burned,’ Claire reminded her. Though even Ally didn’t know quite how far Paddy’s betrayal had gone.

Ally dipped her chocolate swizzle stick in her latte. ‘And you don’t think you’re going to get burned this time round? Come on, you can’t base a marriage on friendship. There’s got to be attraction there as well.’

Claire simply shrugged. Of course there was. But how could she act on that attraction? She wasn’t going to be Eliot’s wife for always—only until the custody issue had been resolved. For all their sakes, they had to stick to friendship, a marriage in name only.

Ally finished her chocolate and gave Claire a knowing look. ‘I heard Ryan telling Jed that you were holding hands with his dad when you went to London. That’s not what friends do. So are you going to tell me what’s really going on?’

Claire spent a very long time on her own chocolate swizzle stick. Ally waited patiently. In the end, Claire gave in. She should have known she couldn’t hide it from Ally. ‘All right, I admit it. I find him attractive.’ Everything about him. His face, his eyes, his mouth, his body, the way he smiled, his sense of humour—everything. To the point of having X-rated fantasies about him. Fantasies she knew she could never, ever live out.

‘But you don’t think he feels the same way about you?’

Yes. No. Maybe. She didn’t know. ‘It’s complicated. Like I said, I’m marrying him to help him out. As his friend. Temporarily, until he’s got custody of Ryan assured.’

‘I see. And you think you’re going to be able to convince a judge this is a real marriage when you’re really just good friends.’ It was a statement more than a question.

‘We have to.’

‘And then you’re going to get divorced.’

‘Yes.’

Ally frowned. ‘It doesn’t make any sense. And what about Ryan? What happens to him when you get divorced?’

‘I’ll still see him. Still be his friend.’

‘And when Eliot finds someone else?’

She’d been trying not to think about that. Not to feel. Because although she knew it would be the right thing for him, to find someone who could give him everything he needed—someone who could give him everything she couldn’t—it was a day she dreaded. The day when she would have to smile and smile and wish him all the best, when inside her heart would be shredding into tiny irreparable pieces at his loss. ‘I’ll fade into the background. Gradually. So Ryan doesn’t get hurt.

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