What Women Want by Fanny Blake

Author:Fanny Blake [Blake, Fanny]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781250001030
Publisher: Griffin
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Bea could barely contain herself as she climbed into the Peugeot and slammed the door. ‘Well, what did you make of him?’

‘He’s hot,’ said Kate, incurring a mild tut of disapproval from Paul as he flicked the key in the ignition. ‘And Ellen obviously adores him, but he’s got his work cut out with Em.’

‘Not my type. Too flash for me. But that’s not what I meant. Did you find out anything about him?’ Bea leaned forward as far as she could without the seatbelt throttling her, keen for a decent post-mortem on the lunch.

Kate imagined she could feel Bea’s breath on her neck but she kept looking straight ahead. Her brow furrowed. ‘Like what?’

Now that she’d met them together, she felt it would be disloyal to tear into Oliver behind Ellen’s back. If Ellen wanted to throw in her lot with him and he made her happy, that was good enough for Kate. Outside the car, the streets were slick with rain. A bunch of teenagers yelled and shoved each other at the gateway of a park; pedestrians trudged home, heads down against the rain; a stray dog ran in front of them, dodging between the parked cars at the side of the road.

‘Well, like anything,’ Bea insisted, thrown backwards as they rode a speed bump. ‘He was so cagey. Every time I asked him about where he lived in France, what he was doing about looking for a job, what he was interested in – all those things – he virtually stone-walled me, then headed the conversation off in another direction.’

‘He wasn’t very keen to talk about himself. I agree.’ Paul was thoughtful as he waited to turn across the road that ran up to Alexandra Palace. ‘Maybe . . .’ he paused for effect ‘. . . he’s got something to hide.’ He turned quickly to give Bea a conspiratorial smile.

‘Don’t be silly. You heard what we talked about,’ said Kate, on the defensive. Suddenly she didn’t want to tell Bea about seeing Ellen wiping off the lip-gloss or taking smaller than usual helpings. She was sure to attach more significance to them than they probably deserved.

‘No, I didn’t. When I was talking to Em, I was very careful to block him out and concentrate on her. I got a feeling things weren’t good between them.’

‘You should have been there when we arrived,’ said Paul.

Kate poked him in the thigh. ‘I thought you didn’t want to be involved!’

Ignoring her, Paul related what had happened when they’d arrived at the house and Kate’s subsequent rescue mission.

‘There you are. See?’ said Bea, almost gleefully.

‘No, I don’t see,’ Kate said. ‘I thought he was lovely and I’m really pleased to see Ellen so happy.’ She turned round in the hope that Bea would understand that, as far as she was concerned, this was the end of the matter.

But Bea completely ignored the look, if she noticed it at all. ‘There’s something odd about him that I can’t put my finger on.

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