Stirred with Love (26 page)

‘No, they don’t.’ Chloe shook her head, at the same time remembering Ben’s year out in Spain. ‘There’ll always be something I can do without a degree.’

‘Maybe, but you won’t earn mega bucks like your brother.’

‘Money isn’t everything.’ Chloe rested her back on the armchair and pulled up her knees. ‘I don’t want to be stuck in an office atmosphere all day. I like it here.’

‘Well, I for one think that’s sensible,’ said Lily. ‘There’s no point in doing anything you’re not happy about.’

‘Thanks, Lily,’ said Chloe. ‘It’s nice to have someone on my side.’

‘Whoa!’ Kate raised her hand. ‘You misunderstand me if you think that I want you to go. Of course I want you to stay but it has to be your choice.’

‘I
know
.’ Chloe had that bothered look on her face again. ‘That’s what I’m afraid of.’

The following evening, after her shift had finished, found Chloe in one of those A to B moods, where she’d got into her car at point A and was driving on autopilot to point B without even realising that she was in control of a vehicle. Her mind kept trawling through last night’s conversation. She manoeuvred her car into a designated visitors spot and switched off the engine. Looking up at the building in front of her, Chloe’s heart began to race.

She made her way through the now empty reception area, past the photocopier that loved to chew up her college work, past the faded settee in the waiting area that she’d fallen asleep on many times and on to the end of the corridor. Her stomach flipped and momentarily she felt sick as she caught a glimpse of her Dad through the frosted glass. She knew he’d still be here, even so late.

‘Chloe!’ Graham’s face was a fusion of misunderstanding and pleasure at seeing his daughter standing in his office doorway. ‘I hadn’t expected to see you today.’

Chloe ran towards him and threw herself into his arms.

‘What’s the matter? Has anything –’

‘I’m sorry, Dad,’ she sobbed, ‘but I have to let you down.’ Chloe wiped at her eyes as she tried to explain what she knew he wouldn’t understand. ‘I can’t do it, Dad. I can’t go to university this year. I’ll do it next year but not this year. I want to stay at the coffee shop with Kate and Lily. I’ve enjoyed working with them so much and I don’t want to leave them. And Lily isn’t well. I can’t leave her now.’

Graham hadn’t been expecting this. Where was his work shy Chloe that he thought would hate waiting on people and washing dishes?

‘You can’t stay at the coffee shop!’ he said. ‘You have to be realistic about these things. It was only a summer job, a bit of fun but now you need to settle down and start studying again.’

Chloe moved across the room and slumped down in a chair. Reluctantly, she took the cotton handkerchief he offered, knowing she had no choice but to hear him out.

Graham sat down at his desk and rubbed his hands over his face before putting one on each arm of the chair. Chloe inspected her nails while she waited for him to speak.

‘I thought you were happy to go to university,’ he said finally.

Chloe shook her head and folded her arms. ‘No,
you
thought I’d be happy. I’m only doing what you want me to do.’

‘That’s because I’m older and wiser and know what’s best for you.’

‘Not necessarily,’ she said under her breath. A little too loudly, she realised as she watched the expression on his face darken.

‘Do you think I would have got all this,’ he swung his right arm out, ‘if I hadn’t done well at college?’

‘Maybe,’ she huffed.

‘The answer is no. My degree gave me somewhere to start. I know it doesn’t help me now but it enabled me to learn the ropes. That’s when I set up on my own.’

‘I only want to take a year out!’

Graham looked long and hard at his daughter before shaking his head. Feeling the hackles rise up on her neck, Chloe turned away from his powerful stare.

‘I know you, Chloe. Once you’ve made up your mind to do something, I won’t be able to stop you. I know you won’t go to university now, but I’m damned if I’m going to make it easy for you. You’ve obviously come to get my blessing. Well, I’m not going to give it to you.’

‘You make it sound like I’m getting married.’

‘You know perfectly well what I mean.’

Holding in the tears on the brink of falling again, Chloe realised there was no point in saying anything else. She stood up abruptly.

‘Fine, have it your way. I’ll go to university just to make you happy.’

‘Oh, please.’ Graham sat forward. ‘You’ll do as you feel fit anyway. But I have to say, I’m extremely disappointed in your attitude. I thought you’d be more of a grown up about the situation.’

‘I am a grown up!’ Chloe retaliated, her cheeks nearing the same shade as her hair. ‘So I think it’s about time you started to treat me like one, instead of keeping me as your little Chloe. I’m eighteen, Dad, not eight.’

The glass shook as she slammed the door on her departure. Chloe marched back out of the building and got into her car. She’d driven back to her house and was in the kitchen before she allowed herself to cry.

‘Kate Bradshaw, will you please concentrate! If you don’t watch what you’re doing, you’re going to lose your footing and fly off the back of the treadmill. You’ll be going out with no one this weekend then.’

Kate turned to Lucy who was running on the next treadmill to her. ‘I’m sorry,’ she smiled. ‘I can’t help it. My mind keeps wandering.’

‘More likely, you’re thinking of where Will’s hands may be wandering to,’ Lucy smirked. She slowed the machine and began to walk at a fast pace. Kate decided to join her. It would be easier for her to concentrate that way.

Lucy wiped her fringe out of her eyes. ‘Why have you got to wait until Saturday? From the look on your face, you’re missing him already, and from the amount of texts he’s sent you, so is he.’

‘He’s working back at home for most of this week.’

‘So was he staying over when he was visiting the solicitors?’

Kate nodded. ‘He used to live in Somerley. He moved to Warbury about ten years ago. When we went out, he stayed over at his dads. His mum died in summer and he’s helping to sort things out.’

Kate had learned all this over the course of her past few dates with Will. Their conversation had been so natural. She’d found him so easy to talk to, that she’d told him all about Nick and her pending divorce. Will hadn’t seemed bothered about it, a fact Kate was glad about.

‘You’ve gone off in a dream.’

Kate looked across at Lucy and grinned.

Lucy held up her hand. ‘Don’t say sorry again, you’re driving me mad.’ She switched off the machine and turned to get off it.

 ‘Well, I know one thing for sure, Kate Bradshaw,’ Lucy interrupted her thoughts. ‘This one’s more than just a fling.’

‘What do you mean?’

Lucy rolled her eyes to the ceiling. ‘I’m telling you, he’s brought a sparkle to those blue eyes of yours. I think you could be falling for him, already.’

When she felt a little calmer, Chloe made coffee and took it through into the conservatory. In the empty house, she sipped the hot drink while she stood looking out over the garden. The wind tried its best to rip the remaining leaves away from the trees while she wished she was back in Somerley. It was strange, but this room didn’t feel like her sanctuary anymore. Damn her dad and his stupid principles. How dare he make her feel like a child!

A few minutes later, the kitchen door opened behind her. Chloe turned to see the only person that could make things worse: Maddy.

‘Hi, Chloe,’ said Maddy. Along with a smile, she wore a beige delicate-knit jumper above dark trousers. Thrown around her neck was a multi-coloured swirl of brown silk. ‘I was surprised to see your car outside. How are you?’

‘Absolutely marvellous,’ Chloe replied sarcastically.
Please don’t let her stay. Please let her go upstairs and have a shower or something. Then I can leave without having to talk to her.

All hopes of that were dashed when Maddy took off her jacket and placed it over the back of a kitchen chair. She flicked on the kettle before joining her in the conservatory.

‘I suppose Dad’s called you,’ Chloe accused. She sat down in the leather settee, hurled off her boots and pulled up her feet.

Maddy nodded. ‘He only wants what’s best for you.’

‘So what did you say to him?’ Chloe snapped.

‘I told him to let you go,’ Maddy replied, not at all put off by Chloe’s attitude. ‘I said it was time that you made your own decisions, your own mistakes and your own rules.’

Chloe frowned as she watched her go back into the kitchen. For a moment then it sounded like Maddy was siding with
her
. That couldn’t be right, surely?

Moments later, Maddy sat down in the wicker chair opposite. ‘When I was your age, I fell in love with a guy called Martin Shaw.’

Chloe couldn’t help but snigger. ‘Isn’t that one of
‘The Professionals’?
’

Maddy seemed surprised she knew of them.

‘I’ve seen it on digital TV.’

‘Oh, right. Well, he wanted me to move away with him and start a new life. All
I
ever wanted to do was open my own clothes shop, eventually design my own label and have a chain of stores.’ Maddy looked over at Chloe who, although pulling her face in disinterest, was listening intently. ‘I know, I know. Call me naive, but I was only your age at the time. Before I met Martin, I was hell bent on doing a course in business studies. He persuaded me to move to Newquay with him.’

‘So what happened?’ Chloe tried, and failed, to act disinterested.

Maddy looked at her with a twinkle in her eyes. ‘I got pregnant by the bastard. He didn’t want to know. I moved back home and my parents looked after Connor while I worked in a pub.’ Chloe looked surprised but Maddy laughed it off. ‘It took me years to get back on my feet again. That’s why it’s only now that I have a successful business under my belt.’

The penny dropped. Chloe thought she’d been reeled in hook, line and sinker.

‘You’re going to tell me you went back to college, aren’t you,’ she snapped again.

‘Yes, but at night time. It was easier to fit around Connor.’ Maddy put down her drink when she realised she hadn’t made herself clear enough. ‘Look, what I’m trying to tell you is that you can do both. You want to keep working and Graham, your dad, wants you to keep studying. So go to work during the day and study for one or two nights a week. It’s easier to fit in. It might take a bit longer to get where you want to be but you still get there. And trust me, it’s much more satisfying.’

All of a sudden shame flooded through Chloe. Kate had told her to give Maddy a chance but her pig-headed nature hadn’t allowed her to back down. She’d had no idea that life had been so tough for Maddy, mainly because she’d never bothered to find out. To her, Maddy was always there as a threat, ready to steal away her dad at the first opportunity. All Maddy had ever done was try to get on with her. All Chloe had ever done was make life as uncomfortable for her as possible.

Her coffee finished, Maddy stood up, chancing a smile at Chloe. ‘He’ll come around,’ she said. ‘I can’t understand why he’s being so stubborn. It’s not as if you want to give up and go to live in Newquay with someone you hardly know!’

Chloe warily reached for Maddy’s hand as she walked past. ‘Thanks,’ she said softly.

The kitchen door opened again. ‘Oh no, it looks like my two favourite women are ganging up on me. It’s not fair, two onto one!’

Chloe shared a conspiratorial look with Maddy before turning her attention to her Dad standing in the doorway. The first thing she noticed wasn’t that he’d changed from his work suit into his jeans. It was that he was wearing a smile. The smile, she remembered so well, that told her he wasn’t annoyed with her anymore.

‘You shouldn’t creep up on us like that,’ said Maddy. She gave Chloe’s hand a squeeze before letting it drop, ‘when it’s obvious that we’re still talking about you.’ She kissed him lightly on the cheek before turning back to wink at Chloe.

After Chloe and Maddy’s tête-à-tête, Graham insisted on taking them out for dinner. Chloe realised it was much better to be a part of things and not sitting on the sideline trying to spoil the mood. There was no mistaking the relief on his face as she hugged them both goodbye and they promised to pop in and see her at work in The Coffee Shop.

‘I’m not sure that I want you to stay anymore,’ Kate had mentioned when Chloe had gathered them both in the living room to tell them the news. She moved onto the settee next to her. ‘I don’t like people who keep changing their minds all the time. The next thing we know
you’ll
be off back-packing and leaving us in the lurch.’

‘Well, I’m pleased that you’re staying,’ said Lily, even though she knew Kate was teasing Chloe. ‘I’m so glad I’m not losing my, how do you say it, ‘diva’.’

‘I’m not a diva!’ Chloe yelled as Lily’s paperback rose up to hide her teasing smile. ‘Well, okay, just a little bit of one. But, stroppy diva or not, you’re too attached to me now.’

‘Anyway, like I said earlier,’ Kate wasn’t going to be ignored, ‘I’m not sure I want you to stay now.’

Chloe threw her a look of insolence. ‘What are you wittering on about, woman?’

Kate winked at Lily. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about that man you interviewed as Chloe’s replacement?’

‘Ah, yes,’ Lily joined in with the joke. ‘You’d better ring him up, Kate. It’s a shame, but we have our diva back – I suppose it’s a small sacrifice to make.’

Before her next date with Will, Kate was having a hard time controlling herself. It was weird to think that she’d only known him for a short while, yet as soon as they’d gone out on a date, she had begun to miss him every second he was away. No matter how many phone calls and text messages had flown back and forth between them, it hadn’t been enough. Her stomach went all peculiar whenever she thought of goodnight kisses, the smile spreading wider each time she remembered how he’d teased her with his tongue. Just those few kisses had brought back feelings of lust that had been buried in her sexual archives many years ago. She ached to see him in the flesh.