The Night She Died by Deirdre Palmer

Author:Deirdre Palmer [Palmer, Deirdre]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781805083009
Published: 2023-12-03T16:00:00+00:00

Layla left just after seven on Saturday evening. It was a cheerful goodbye, with cheek-pecks all round and no attempt on Melody’s part to pressgang the girl into giving a date for her next visit – assuming there was to be one. It was so easy, in fact, that Reece found himself holding his breath as the sound of the car’s engine faded into the distance, and Melody returned to the kitchen to handwash the best tea plates and put the remains of the chocolate cake away in the tin.

She turned to smile at Reece as he followed her into the kitchen.

‘Such a lovely girl. She seemed really happy. Do you think she’s happy, Reece?’

And the way she spoke, with her shoulders in the right place and her forehead smoothly untroubled, caused him to exhale with relief.

‘Yep, I’d say she’s happy,’ he said, giving Melody the firm answer she needed. ‘Would you mind if I went and did some marking?’

‘Of course not. I’ll finish clearing up, then I might pop outside. It’s such a gorgeous evening.’

Leaving Melody standing dreamily at the sink, Reece went through to his study. A pile of coursework scripts lay on the desk. He favoured them with no more than a glance before sitting down in the shabby old chair to gaze out of the window. Mel was right; it was a beautiful evening. The sun slanted across the yard, glowing rosily on the brickwork and turning the feathers on the solitary chicken within sight to a rich red-gold.

His eyes lifted to the horizon, where the trees stood dark and still against a cloudless sweep of cerulean sky.

Layla would be well on her way home by now. He pictured her in her sleeveless pink shift dress, brown arms extended to the wheel, the lower portion of her thighs exposing themselves as she operated the pedals. And here again came that feeling, rushing upwards from his feet to take his breath away, the same impossible feeling he’d had earlier when they were in the kitchen together. His mind went into overdrive as he fought to suppress his body’s natural reactions. His daughter’s friend, for goodness’ sake! What was he, some kind of perv?

The logical part of his brain flagged up the likely reasons: grief, stress, worry, an imagined moment of intimacy after too much wine. All that, yes. All that. Reece nodded as if there was an audience he needed to convince as well as himself.

But it wasn’t that straightforward. Another part of his brain was conveying a different message. Wanting something he could never have was a game, an enjoyable, harmless fantasy, so why shouldn’t he indulge it? Christ knows, he’d suffered enough, and it wasn’t as if he intended to do anything about it in reality. In a way, it made life easier for him as far as Mel was concerned. There’d be less pressure on him to wean her away from Layla if he, too, wanted the girl to keep coming here. And when, eventually, the visits stopped, he would deal with it then, not before.

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