As Weekends Go (Choc Lit) (28 page)

Rebecca dug her fingernails into her palms. ‘I’d be grateful for
any
new client, very grateful, in fact, but I certainly shan’t be dumping Lorraine because you snobbishly now deem her unworthy. She’s your sister-in-law and if you’d ever bothered to take an interest in her shop, you’d see how well she and Will are doing.’

Greg’s expression darkened. ‘Do you know what, Rebecca? I think you should stop lecturing me and start showing me a little bit more respect.’ He stepped into the bathroom and slammed the door in her face.

They breakfasted in silence.

Coffee in the neutrally coloured, airport-style lounge afterwards was an entirely different matter. Sylvia chatted non-stop, dishing out business cards to Rebecca, whilst Greg and his boss talked golf and compared hangovers. Nina and chums bounded in, enquiring after Rebecca’s health as though she were a five-year-old. For someone who’d supposedly been up necking cognacs half the night, Nina looked annoyingly radiant. Full make-up and a bright orange wrap dress.

When Rebecca escaped to the Ladies for a breather, she wanted to thump the walls in frustration. Just as well Abi had finally replied to the juicy text she’d sent her last night. At least it made Rebecca laugh.

Peppered with Oh my words! You’re jokings! and expletives that she’d miss out on an instant debriefing on Rebecca’s return, Abi was beyond gutted. As well as the training workshop she was due to attend on Monday and Tuesday, she and Nick were then off to see Nick’s mum in Southampton for four days. How would she cope?

Rebecca assured her they’d meet up as soon as possible the week after.

The car journey back to Purley, had Rebecca not pretended to fall asleep, would have been unbearable. Instead it flew past, probably because she spent most of it thinking about Alex.

She kept building images in her mind of what his new flat might look like, his family members, including an excitable three-year-old, the best friend he’d talked about. What were Alex’s parents like? How proud must they be of their gorgeous, talented, lion-hearted son?

Her eyes watered beneath their lids at the thought of them all laughing and chatting together. The family Heath. All together in York. The city she ached to return to.

Alex swiped his security key card, pushed open the rear-entrance glass door to his apartment block and strode across the tiled foyer, grateful that he’d come through Monday’s double training session unscathed. His concentration levels had been so depleted in their team five-a-side that he’d been beaten to every ball. He’d be lucky to even make the bench for Wednesday night’s friendly at this rate.

He stopped at the front desk. ‘All right, Theo? Any post or messages for me?’

The concierge smiled up at him from behind the bank of TV screens he was monitoring. ‘No. Nothing so far, Mr Heath.’ He rose from his chair, glancing sideways at the log book, then round at Alex’s mailbox, double-checking it, as though sensing its owner’s inner hope. ‘Were you expecting something in particular, sir?’ He ran a hand over his bald head as he turned back round.

Alex tucked his car key into the side-pocket of his navy blue and white tracksuit bottoms. ‘No. Not really.’ He drummed his fingers on the black, varnished counter. He could smell antiseptic cream and noticed the plaster on Theo’s thumb, probably covering one of the demon paper cuts he’d been waxing lyrical about to his colleague behind the desk when Alex had seen them that morning.

Alex liked Theo. He’d developed a good rapport with him amidst all the toing and froing he’d done, prior to moving in. The guy knew everything about the place, from maintenance to security issues to parking. His co-shift workers were professional and pleasant enough, but Theo was the main man. No fuss. No fawning. Just how Alex liked it.

Great banter, too.

Alex had enjoyed quite a chat with him the previous night, after all the family had left, about Theo’s soccer-mad relatives in St Lucia, and how he and his lady of the manor, as Theo called his wife, were jetting out there in February to visit them.

‘You look troubled, sir,’ Theo said to him now, keeping his voice low.

You’re not wrong there, Alex thought, puffing out his cheeks.

‘It’s in the eyes,’ said Theo, pointing to his own for emphasis. ‘Always a giveaway. Not that it’s any of my business. I only hope that whatever or whoever perturbs you, merits the worry.’

Alex nodded and smiled, no further comment by either party required.

Ten minutes later Alex was sitting eating an apple on his balcony, staring down at the river, watching a bride and groom having their pictures taken on the top deck of a pleasure cruiser, when his mobile rang on the table beside him.

‘All right, Rob?’ Alex answered, thinking it strange that his brother should be calling him mid-afternoon on a Monday. ‘You not at work?’

‘Sort of,’ came Rob’s reply. ‘We had an off-site project meeting in Harrogate. Finished earlier than scheduled so I thought if you were free for a while, I’d take a detour over.’

‘Even though I only saw you yesterday,’ said Alex, fine with it, but instantly suspicious.

‘Yeah, but when both your mum and your wife wear permanently tuned-in radars, it’s impossible to talk. Plus we had a hyper three-year-old chucking himself from room to room. I’m about fifteen minutes away. I can swing back to Leeds if it’s not convenient.’

‘No, it’s fine,’ said Alex. ‘Park underneath, if you like. I’ll let Theo know you’re coming.’ He stood up and walked back inside.

As close as they were, he knew Rob rarely did surprise visits, which meant he must have an agenda. Or he had personal stuff of his own to discuss? Doubtful, given his joyful demeanour yesterday; second baby on the way for him and Ellie; promotion secured at work; training programme underway for next year’s London marathon.

Rob had always been more at ease with showing his emotions. Alex clearly hadn’t covered his own tracks on that score as well as he’d assumed.

This could be tricky.

Alex had known Rob would bide his time. Half an hour or so of small talk whilst the initial coffees were made and drunk, about how Rob’s earlier meeting in Harrogate had gone, and about how funny it had been at Alex’s yesterday when Mum had turned up laden with enough food to feed the entire apartment block.

Ever the diplomat – that was Rob.

Smaller featured and the fairer-haired of the two brothers, he was so like their mother to look at, especially when he laughed, Alex always thought, although height-wise they both towered above her, as did their father.

Now they stood shoulder to shoulder, arms resting on the balcony rail, one in shirt sleeves, one in casuals, faces to the sun, each waiting for the other to speak first.

‘So, who is she?’ Rob finally asked.

Alex wasn’t going to lie to him. ‘Her name’s Rebecca,’ he said, staring straight ahead.

He explained how he’d first seen her in the doorway of her room in Hawksley Manor, continuing, uninterrupted, right up to Saturday’s charity ball, including his late night telephone conversation with her. He wasn’t sure afterwards who was more stunned, himself, for spilling all, or Rob, who appeared to be struggling to absorb it. It seemed like role reversal, oddly cathartic, like the slow-building pressure of the last five weeks had erupted, bestowing upon Alex an overwhelming sense of relief.

His secret was out.

His brother knew about Rebecca.

‘I don’t know about you, but I could do with a beer,’ said Rob, pulling out one of the balcony chairs to sit on.

Alex acknowledged they both needed a minute and duly made his way to the kitchen, returning with said chilled beverages, two glasses and a bottle opener, to hear the verdict.

Rob nudged back the chair opposite him with his foot, remaining silent until Alex had sat, opened both beers and poured them.

‘Cheers!’ they both muttered, chinking glasses.

Rob took a couple of gulps in quick succession. ‘I won’t patronise you by listing all the pitfalls. I’m guessing you’ve pretty much battered yourself about those already. How much do you know about her relationship with her husband?’

‘Enough to know she’s unhappy,’ said Alex, realising straight away, given how long he’d actually known Rebecca, how lightweight in content that sounded. Rob raised his eyebrows, as though substantiating this. ‘It’s just something I sensed from the off, without her having to say that much.’ He thought back to what Theo had said to him in the foyer earlier about eyes and dead giveaways.

‘
What?
Like she was pretending things were great when they’re not?’

‘Yeah, I suppose so. She never slagged him off to me, or anything; it was more the stuff I picked up on, plus what her mate Abi told me. And then meeting him for myself.’

‘Yeah … Shocker, that one, mate!’

‘Too right,’ said Alex. ‘He seemed okay at first, bit OTT with the compliments, bit of a namedropper. He was telling me how his company could be branching into the sports sector, client-wise. He came across as really single-minded, looking back.’

‘Me, myself, I, syndrome?’

‘Pretty much. Don’t forget I had no idea who he was at that point. I thought he said his name was Geoff when he first introduced himself, it was so noisy in there. Then Rebecca came over and he presented her like some sort of prize. Her head must have been all over the place. I know mine was. Aside from that though, something about them didn’t fit.’

‘False togetherness, you mean?’

‘I don’t know, I just think having now met him and knowing what I do, she probably married a very different person.’

‘And now to complicate matters, she hooks up with a loser like you.’

Alex smiled, appreciating the wisecrack. ‘Wouldn’t surprise me if he’s playing her, either.’

‘With the woman you mentioned was at the charity ball? The ex-girlfriend?’ Rob’s expression said it all. ‘Gets better and better, doesn’t it?’

‘
Yep!
’ Alex stretched his arms above his head and let out a sigh. ‘It was their body language, laughing and joking, her grabbing him every five seconds. I know it sounds two-faced after what I’ve just told you, but Rebecca never came after me in that way. It was me who should have backed off, left the nightclub early, or whatever.’

‘She came to see you in Battersea, though,’ said Rob.

‘Yeah, because I asked her to.’

‘She could have said no.’ Rob hesitated. ‘Except …’ he said, ‘you’d already bonded.’

Alex frowned. ‘I saw a bride and groom earlier on. Made me feel like a right tosser, knowing what Rebecca would stand to lose.’

‘Then you remembered
he’s
the tosser,’ said Rob. ‘Her husband, I mean.’

‘I dunno. You rang and distracted me.’

They smiled at each other, both striving to keep the conversational balance.

‘’Course, you know what Mum would say if she heard all this,’ said Rob, swatting away an over-eager wasp trying to dive-bomb his beer.

Alex moved their empty bottles into the shade. ‘I know what she’d say about the married woman part, yeah.’

‘Oh, I reckon she’d quickly realise how important this is to you. You’ve never mentioned anyone much since Stacey. Well, not anyone this serious, anyway. No, I think Mum would say what she always says when there are big risks involved.’

Rob didn’t need to finish. Alex knew. He could hear her voice in his head saying, ‘You can’t help who you fall for, Alex, whatever the circumstances. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be’ echoing the words of his granddad, confirming yet again what he’d known since day one.

‘You really care about her, don’t you?’ said Rob.

Alex gazed out across the glistening river.

He more than cared about her.

Despite feeling better for having discussed Rebecca with his brother, it was eating Alex up inside that he could neither see nor speak to her.

Rob may have listened, understood and accepted even, what Alex had told him, but it was still a big secret.

Delicate. Forbidden. Taboo.

Day and night, Rebecca dominated his thoughts. Mental re-runs of the charity do, as fresh as if she was standing before him: the scent of her perfume, the craziness of her being there, her face when she’d seen him, the small quiver in her voice on the phone afterwards.

He’d tried so hard to slam down the shutters on her, but he couldn’t do it. His desperate longing for her had deepened. He’d had such a busy few weeks, with no let-ups. So many important dates and events, the new season looming, yet he felt like he was standing on the periphery, half-listening, never quite fully present. All those people – family, friends, teammates, agent – none of them knowing about Rebecca. It seemed ludicrous.

Yes, Kenny knew of her, but only the York-related stuff. Alex had flirted with telling him everything. Kenny didn’t even know she’d been at his flat in Battersea. Alex had hardly seen him since Hawksley Manor, although Kenny had turned up to watch his friendly game on Wednesday night. They’d had a quick post-match beer together in the players’ lounge.

What would Kenny honestly have said if Alex had updated him?
‘Think of the scandal, mate, threat to your captaincy, the press, her old man, her living down south.’

So, instead of telling Kenny, he’d sat listening to him enthuse about the forthcoming weekend, about Alex’s next friendly match and about Jermaine’s birthday drinks and which bar they’d be hitting. How good it was that Alex was going, too, and bringing Scott along with him.

Sure, once this coming Saturday’s game was over, especially with Sunday off, too, Alex would be cleared for a good night out, but he certainly wouldn’t be hammering it. Not with a week to go before the new season started.

One piece of news Kenny did surprise Alex with was that he’d taken his long-suffering on/off girlfriend out to dinner for make or break talks and would soon be off to Tenerife with her for a while. Whether they’d survive the flight without panning each other was another matter. Classic case of couldn’t live with or without each other, those two. Still, Alex was pleased they’d get to spend some family time with their son. He hadn’t gone overboard with the praise as he knew how contrary Kenny could be, but it was a start.

Better still, Kenny had apparently not touched any drugs, bar cigarettes, for four weeks, although Alex would reserve any rejoicing on that one for a while.