Falling in Love Again (40 page)

‘I know already,’ he had said quietly.

She thought she did too. But she needed to make sure. And this was one way of doing it.

Jules sniffed. ‘Well I hope you’re sensible and don’t do anything stupid. You lot are pretty good at messing up your lives.  Just look at Aunty Caroline.’

‘Actually, Caroline has a new man.’

‘Really?’ David and Jules both looked at her.

Alison nodded. Now wasn’t the time or place to say that, in fact, Caroline had gone to meet Bruce who was still racked with guilt over his wife – especially after his grilling by Simon/Hugh – but also with grief because he’d lost Caroline too. It was early days but maybe – who knows – something might happen.

‘Right,’ she said briskly. ‘Time I was off or I’ll miss the plane.’

David picked up her bag. ‘Hang on. There’s a wrong name on the label. Who’s Ali?’

‘I am.’ Alison smiled shyly. ‘I’ve decided to change my name. Alison is too sensible. Ali sounds far more adventurous and that’s what I’m going to be from now on.’

They both looked at her as though she’d taken leave of her senses. Well, they’d just have to deal with it, like the group had said. ‘I need to do this,’ whispered Alison/Ali softly. ‘I never did it when I was your age. In fact, there were lots of things I didn’t do.’

Jules frowned. ‘Like this crazy uni course you’ve signed up for?’

‘Exactly.’

On the way to the airport, she and David talked about practicalities. The ups and downs of selling the house and downsizing to another part of the country – she’d always fancied living by the sea. That was one option. The other hung in the air between them. Being on her own was no longer as scary as it had been a year ago. She could do it. If she chose.

Departures was full of teenagers saying goodbye to their parents, with the parents on the home side of the red tape. She was the only adult with a backpack.

‘See you in four weeks time,’ said David as he kissed her goodbye.

She nodded.

He kissed her again. ‘I’m really proud of you, Alison. It was an amazing idea.’

‘Ali,’ she gently corrected. ‘Actually it wasn’t my idea. It was Ed’s.’

‘Bye!’ She waved gaily from the other side as she made her way to Security.

Like Karen said, it wasn’t a bad idea to keep your husband guessing. Especially when you didn’t know yourself.

ED

His secret was out. Not surprising really. Everyone at work was talking about it. Ed knew that from the way they shut up at the water cooler every time he tried to join in the conversation.

And now September’s father had summoned him to dinner.

‘He’ll have me on the menu,’ he told September when she despatched the summons.

‘No he won’t silly.’ Yet her voice was quieter. Not the nice peaceful kind of quiet he had grown used to. But a slightly scared quiet that unnerved him.

So much so that he needed to talk to someone about it. Nancy? She was never in nowadays. Only her answerphone. Something else he needed to talk about but not yet. The Kid? Who was he kidding? Besides, his newly-found son seemed to be getting on better with Jamie than he did. The two had been out clubbing and drinking, and doing whatever twentysomethings do, on several occasions now. He was almost annoyed with himself for having introduced them.

Karen and the others? They’d already given him advice at the last meeting and he didn’t want to bother them any more. Given the circumstances, there was probably only one other person who might understand but frankly, he wasn’t sure if he was brave enough.

Oh what the hell?

‘It’s clear isn’t it?’ Claire looked up from a wodge of swatches she was examining. ‘You’ve got to be open. Honest. Yourself. Push me to the window, can you? These wheels seem to be stuck on something.’

He did as instructed without making a fuss. One of the best things to have come out of the last six months was being with Claire again. Not in that way. But in the other. The one which had brought them together in the first place; the ability to talk to each other.

‘There’s no need to take the piss.’

She raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m not.’

‘Aren’t you? All that honesty stuff? If I’d known you were pregnant, I’d have suggested we got married.’

‘Precisely. And that wouldn’t have been honest because you’d have done it for the wrong reasons. Which was why your father did as he did. But this is different, isn’t it? You’re older now. You love September who is, I have to say, not only lovely but possibly a match for you.’ Claire’s mouth curled mischievously. ‘I like her. She gives as good as she gets.’

‘So what do I say to her old man when we go for dinner.’

‘I told you.’ She patted his hand like a naughty boy. ‘Tell him the truth. Tell him she’s pregnant, you want to marry her, and that she won’t. Now be a good boy and wheel me into the bedroom. I’ve got to get dressed for a date. And don’t worry. I don’t expect you to look.’

By the time he got to the house, Ed was shaking with nerves. It was a warm summer day and he’d made the mistake of wearing a jacket over his shirt.

‘Don’t dress up,’ September had said but it was all very well for her. She wasn’t the sacrificial lamb pleading for mercy. Did barristers have the power to hang you, he wondered?  Don’t be so silly. Of course they did. His father had always gone on about how he’d been fleeced in the past.

‘Edward.’

It took Ed a couple of seconds to register first that he was being called Edward – something that no one had called him since prep school days – and second that September’s father had answered the door. Somehow he had expected September but now as he followed his future father-in-law (who was he kidding?) through to the kitchen, he began to wonder where on earth she was.

‘Gone out.’

Alastair looked at him impassively over the corkscrew. ‘I told the girls to go out so it was just the two of us.’

So he did plan to hang him then.

‘White or red?’

Ed felt as though his throat was constricting. ‘White. White water, that is,’ he croaked.

Where had that come from?

Alastair didn’t appear to notice as he opened the Aga door and dumped a casserole in the middle of the table. A barrister who cooked. A barrister who could tell his women folk to go out for the evening. A barrister whose daughter he’d got pregnant. Ed wanted to run. Would have run if September had been any other kind of girl.

‘I lover – I mean love – your daughter and she’s pregnant and I want to marry her.’

There. It was out. But Alastair didn’t appear to have heard. Instead, he was staring very intently at the silver spoon he was holding and which he was sinking into the bubbling mixture of meat and cheese and pasta.

‘And I don’t eat meat either.’

Alastair nodded. ‘I know.’

He put a steaming plate, piled high, in front of Ed.

‘I can’t eat it.’

‘And I can’t let you marry my daughter.’

Be honest, Claire had said. Be yourself.

‘But I love her.’

‘Precisely.’ Alastair was calmly eating now, huge mouthfuls as though daring him to start himself. ‘I love September’s mother. And that’s why I’ve never married her.’

‘You’re not married?’

It came out like a squeak.

‘Why try to mend something if it isn’t broken?’ He had put his knife and fork down now. ‘I see too many broken marriages in my job. Yes, I still wanted to marry Betty but she was the one who said no. As it is, she was right. We’re still as happy – happier in fact – than the day we met. And we have four fine daughters.’

‘Do you mind if we live together?’

‘Of course I mind if you live with my wife.’

He hadn’t meant that.

Alastair beamed. It was almost more unnerving than when he frowned. ‘I know you didn’t. And of course I don’t mind if you live with September.’ His brow darkened. ‘But if you make her unhappy. If you so much as dare look at another woman, I will . . .’ He stopped flourishing his spoon and plonked it in the dish in front of him as though stabbing the dish just as he might stab Ed. ‘I will never allow you over this doorstep again. Agreed?’

‘Daddy!’

The front door opened and four beautiful girls rushed in. September flew to his side as gracefully as her protruding bump allowed. ‘Is it sorted, Daddy?’

Alastair nodded as though he had just dismissed a case. ‘I think so. Isn’t it, Ed?’

And even though Ed knew he should be scared, he felt a funny kind of peace. One he hadn’t felt for a long time. ‘I think so, sir.’

‘Good.’ He wiggled his eyebrows. ‘Welcome, Ed, to The Family.’

KAREN

Karen curled up on the sofa, her head in his lap. She had never felt more contented or happy in her life. The psychic woman had been right when she’d said she would know what to do when it came to decision time.

‘I feel the same,’ he said.

‘Sure?’ She looked at him. ‘Even after what I told you about still being married?’

He nuzzled her neck. ‘Surer than anything I’ve felt in my life. As you said, you can get a divorce. Besides, I think you needed those years – and your group, too – to help you finally cut those ties with Paul. I understand that.’

He was amazing!

‘Of course, it doesn’t mean that I have to move in . . .’

‘No, I want you to.’

‘And you’re sure Adam will be all right about it?’

She nodded. ‘I’ve talked to him and Hayley. They understand. It might take time but  . . .’ She stopped, remembering Doris’s words. She had to put herself first was what she really wanted to say but it sounded selfish when you said it out loud.

He tightened his arms around her. ‘I know they will always come first.’ He grinned. ‘Even though Adam's not a kid any more. Don’t say it! He'll always be a kid in your eyes.’

She nodded.

‘And what about . . ?’

His name hung in the air between them. She’d had to remember Doris’s words when it had come to dealing with Paul too. That’s what her mother-in-law had meant. She knew that.

‘I think it helped that Doris left him the flat. He’s got a job, too. And a new girlfriend, according to Adam.’

‘How do you feel about that?’

She’d asked herself the same question. It was odd that Paul had moved on so fast after she’d gently explained that she simply couldn’t try again with him. That too much had gone on, but that she’d always be there for him. As a friend. As the mother of his child. But that over the last few weeks, she’d come to realise there was someone else she’d felt fond of.

‘Mixed.’

She looked up at him. She and Clive had decided right from the start they needed to be honest.

‘But you’re still sure about me?’

There was a flicker of worry in his eyes that she wanted to kiss away.

‘Course I’m sure.’

‘Good.’ His lips moved down on hers just as he was about to say something. It sounded like, ‘Because Alison said, before leaving, that she’d take me back if I change my mind.’

Did she now?

His eyes twinkled. ‘Actually, she said that if we didn’t get together, I’d be making a big mistake. By the way, I forgot. There was a phone call when you were upstairs just now. A girl who sounded a bit panicky. You’d better ring her back.’

Not now . . .

‘No, really.’ Clive handed her the number and the phone. ‘It sounded urgent.’

‘Hello? My name’s Karen. I believe you rang . . .’

Please don’t let it be another problem. And if it is, nothing to do with Hayley or Adam or . . .’

‘Are you the divorce lady?’

‘I am but actually . . .’

‘I’m sorry to bother you. We spoke last year. You might remember. I’m the woman whose number you put in the paper by mistake and I kept getting calls for your group.’

How embarrassing! ‘I do remember. And I’m sorry about that but  . . .’

‘So I kept your number, just to pass on to anyone else who rang by mistake and now . . .’

There was a catch in her throat. And somehow Karen knew exactly what the girl was going to say next. She could see her now. Sitting on the floor of her sitting room, clutching the phone like a lifeline.

‘Now something has happened in your life and you need to talk to someone,’ Karen said quietly.

‘How did you know?’

‘Just a feeling, love.’

‘Are you still running the group?’

‘Am I still running the group?’ Karen repeated, more as a question directed at Clive than anything else.

He nodded, drawing her onto his knee and nuzzling her neck at the same time. ‘I wasn’t sure but if you’re interested . . .’

‘So are a couple of others I know,’ interrupted the girl. ‘And a man in my office whose girlfriend’s just chucked him. We’re in a bit of a state, to be honest.’

Of course they were. But not for long with any luck.