Too Good to Be True by Sheila O'Flanagan

Author:Sheila O'Flanagan
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 141651001X
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2004-12-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

PATCHOULI

This is an earthy and sensual oil

Ben was sitting at the kitchen table, his laptop open in front of him. He was supposed to be looking at sample brochures which their advertising company had e-mailed to them, but instead he was surfing the Web. He’d been in touch with his solicitor about getting a divorce, and to his horror, Gerry Buckley had told him that under Irish law he’d have to wait four years before he was eligible. He’d argued with Gerry about it, saying that surely the fact that he’d married in a sleazy U.S. ceremony counted for something, and the solicitor had sighed and said that yes, it had counted as a valid marriage. He’d told Ben to check it out with the relevant government departments if he liked, which was why Ben was fruitlessly surfing the Web. Somehow, though, he seemed to keep getting wedding sites instead of divorce ones. He’d even managed to access the site of the Chapel of Everlasting Love and had stared at a photograph of a newly married couple standing outside its arched doorway just as he and Carey had done a few weeks earlier. He’d stabbed at the keyboard to get rid of the picture, but had only succeeded in crashing the computer instead. He’d just logged on again and typed the words “quickie+divorce” into his search engine when the doorbell rang. He logged off before going to answer it.

“Hi, Ben.”

Leah looked lovelier than ever. Her dark hair was pinned loosely at the back of her head in a style he’d always liked. Her eyes looked dark and soulful, lashes long and black.

“Leah.”

“Can I come in?”

He opened the door a little wider and she walked through to the kitchen.

“Working?” She nodded at the open laptop.

“Yes.”

“Sorry to interrupt you.”

He shrugged.

“I called the shop and Freya told me you were out. I tried here on the off-chance.”

“What do you want?”

“To see how you’re doing.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Are you?”

“Of course I am.”

She smoothed her perfectly shaped eyebrows. “I also wanted to say that I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have gone to the party, I shouldn’t have said the things I said to” — she hesitated — “to Carey, and I certainly shouldn’t have let you kiss me.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “She had her own agenda that night.”

“Oh?”

He shook his head dismissively. “Nothing.”

“Freya is mad at me,” Leah said. “She thinks I deliberately tried to sabotage your marriage.”

“The thought had occurred to me too,” said Ben dryly. “Though I don’t think anything you did really made any difference. It was probably doomed from the start.”

“I didn’t mean to make things worse,” Leah told him. “I know I might have been a bit over the top, but…”

“You said you wanted to make me suffer,” said Ben.

“Oh, come on!” She looked angrily at him. “That was in the heat of the moment. That was when you’d slept with me a week earlier. Of course I wanted to make you suffer.”

“You have,” said Ben.

“Although from what you’re saying, it’s not all my fault.

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