Your Secret's Safe With Me by Rosie Travers

Author:Rosie Travers [Travers, Rosie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crooked Cat Books
Published: 2019-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

Pearl could hardly contain her excitement as I prepared to get ready on Saturday evening. There were only so many times I could send her packing from my door. Eventually it was easier to relent and let her sit on the end of the bed.

She couldn’t resist the opportunity to advise on my clothes, ‘so that’s what you bought that dress for…’; my hair, ‘up, darling, definitely suits you better up’; and my shoes, ‘has to be heels, darling, wedges will never do’.

Freddy’s party attire consisted of black drainpipe jeans, Converse, and a badly tie-dyed T-shirt.

Nev was on the drive at the dot of 7.30pm to deliver us to the van der Plaast residence. It was a cloudy evening with a distinctly damp nip in the air and probably not the summer party weather Kimmi had been hoping for. Fairy lights were strung from the trees that lined the van der Plaast’s impressively long driveway.

There was no sign of the party girl as we drew up outside the house – vast, modern, and clad in trendy grey clapperboard. A bouncer, baring a startling resemblance to Nev although they didn’t acknowledge each other in any way, directed us to the back of the house where the party had spilled out onto the terrace.

The garden was a stark affair compared to Rivermede’s lush natural wilderness. Max had opted for the minimalist look, with lots of ornamental stonework, slate, and gravel.

A passing waiter offered Freddy and I a glass of champagne, but Freddy’s eyes were already searching the crowd. Kimmi was in the pool room, glass bi-fold doors pulled back onto the terrace.

‘You don’t have to keep me company,’ I told him. ‘Go on, run along and play.’

‘You sure?’ he asked hopefully. ‘I expect there’s some older people here somewhere that you know. Look, there’s Marguerite.’

It was somewhat of a relief to spot a familiar but hardly friendly face. By her side, JJ pretended he couldn’t see me. The junior Robshaws stood chatting with Natalie and Pete. There was nothing like a teenage party to make anyone over twenty-one feel very old. If nothing else, we had our age in common. I wandered over. If it wasn’t for the fact that Rita was wearing another of her trademark all-in-ones, and JJ looked uncomfortably out of place in a simple grey suit, I might have thought guests had been asked to come in fancy dress. Pete, presumably in an attempt to blend in with the teenagers, was in leather trousers and sported a newly-acquired goatee beard, while Natalie was dressed as a wasp. Not many people could pull off horizontal orange and black stripes.

‘We didn’t know you knew Max?’ Rita greeted me.

‘I don’t,’ I admitted. ‘Freddy is friends with his daughter.’

‘Have you come along to act as chaperone?’ JJ sneered.

‘Oh no, I had my own invitation,’ I replied.

Right on cue, a muscular tattooed arm draped itself around my shoulders like a predatory python. ‘I met Becca on a little walk the other day,’ Max said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.