Two Days in Biarritz (35 page)

“This place is good for me if you like it. We could always go straight from the market and have something to eat if it suited you?”

“I have to try and get someone to take the kids. I’ll text you.”

He stood up. It was refreshing to meet a nice decent guy who wasn’t caught up in the trappings of big business and his own importance. Can I walk you to your car?”

“I won’t be able to drive but I’ll walk up the hill.”

“Then let me walk you home?”

“Why not!” Annabel felt like a teenager again and shivered as they walked out into the cool night air.

“Are you warm enough?” Gary asked. “I could lend you my jumper.”

“I’m fine thanks. The minute I start walking I’ll be roasting.”

Annabel walked with her arms folded slightly. She took small steps that slowed down the pace of their walk. Every now and again the side of their arms brushed off each other.

“Where is your house?”

“Up at Summit Green.”

“I know those houses. Very nice. Your husband must be a high flyer!”

“He likes to think of himself as one anyway.”

“Do you see yourself getting back with him?” he asked earnestly.

Annabel shook her head. “To be honest I have been unhappy for a long time. It’s amazing how everything changes when you change one thing in your life. I started the stall and then Colin started sleeping with the
au pair
because I was around less and then I told him to leave and now my life and the people in it are all unrecognisable compared to only a few months ago. I put a lot of it down to turning forty.”

“It’s a great age, isn’t it?” he nodded his head. “I think you only start to find yourself at forty.”

They reached the Green in twenty minutes and Annabel stopped and turned around to face him when they came to the gates of her house. “This is me!”

“Now I know where you live, you won’t be able to escape me!”

“Oh dear, I’m caught then,” she said with a grin. Then she braced herself as the tension between them rose.

Gary
leaned forward and closed his eyes as he placed his lips on hers. Annabel felt tingles shoot up her spine. His mouth tasted so sweet and she was transported to another world. He reached out and gently rested his hands on her hips, holding her like a porcelain doll. When he removed his lips she couldn’t move. She wanted more.

“I’d better go. You don’t want the kids to catch you kissing a strange man!”

How thoughtful of him, Annabel pondered. “You’re right.” She licked her lips. “I’ll see you on Sunday then.”

“You will,” he said dreamily. With a wink he turned on his heels and set off, back down the hill.

Annabel hid behind the large gated pillar that led to her house and watched him go. She felt like a teenager who had been kissed for the first time and was watching the boy of her dreams disappear at the end of a summer night. But she was no teenager and neither was Gary. She had responsibilities and children must remain her priority. These new experiences were becoming too much to handle and she was wondering how she was going to cope with her new single life. If only she had Kate back in her life. Kate would be able to tell her exactly what to do. She had to talk to her.

Chapter 1
9

Kate was glad to be home. Her stay in hospital had been longer than she expected. She rested her feet on the stool that Fabian placed in front of her.

“You can stop fussing over me,” she said. “I’ve another four months to go. You’ll be worn out at this rate!”

“I was there, you must listen to the doctor
, chérie.”

Kate felt uncomfortable that her dear friend was sitting on his hunkers at her feet – waiting on her like a handservant.

“Fabian.”

He looked up and arched his eyebrows which made his nose look even more like an eagle’s beak.

“Thank you so much. I don’t know what I’d have done without you these past couple of weeks.”

Fabian stood up slowly, looking down at Kate with his head hung like a scolded schoolboy.

“I have something to tell you while you are in such a good mood with me!”

Kate tilted her head in surprise. She wondered what it could be.

“While you were in hospital I was here with the boys one day… I answered the phone.”

Kate frowned slightly. She wondered what he was up to. She could always tell when Fabian had a plan or scheme.

“Annabel phoned and I told her your news.”

“Fabian, I don’t want to talk about her. You know what she did with my father and she was chatting him up only days after my mother’s funeral.”

Fabian sat down on the couch next to Kate putting his hand on hers in an effort to calm her.“I am your friend Kate and I would not tolerate anyone who upset you but I think she has a lot to say to you and it would really help you both.”

“I’m not interested. Why would I want to talk to her? I have enough on my plate.”

Fabian gave her hand a tight squeeze. “Her marriage has finished.”

Kate was shocked. Did her father know this? “Has it anything to do with my father?”

“No, her husband was in bed with the
au pair
.”

Kate felt a pang of sympathy for her friend. Annabel had little experience of making it on her own and she felt genuine concern for how she must be coping. “Does my Dad know? Is it anything to do with my father?” Panic rearing up in her voice as she spoke.

“Relax,
chérie
,” Fabian said softly. “She has a new boyfriend. She will be opening a café with your father but it is strictly business.”

Kate’s brows furrowed. She wanted to believe Fabian. “What did she want?”

“To come and see you. She would like to spend some time with you before the children go back to school.”

“But that would mean next week!”

Fabian nodded.

“I don’t know Fabian. I still feel very raw around her.”

“It is totally up to you,
chérie
. I said I would say it to you but didn’t think you would call.”

“Am I that stubborn?”

Fabian raised his eyebrows and looked around him as if an imaginary fly needed swatting. Kate rested her hands on her stomach and looked down at them.

“Okay I admit defeat, I will call her.”

She missed Annabel. They had always been there for each other. Maybe it was time to make the peace. Annabel had made several attempts to talk to her after Biarritz and the feud had gone on long enough. She decided there and then that after tea that evening she would call Annabel Hamilton.

* * *

At eight o’clock, Annabel heard Colin turning the key in the hall door, as if he hadn’t moved out. Annabel felt slightly unnerved but realised that it was best to say nothing for the children’s sake.

“Hello girls,” Colin said as he walked into the television room.

Taylor and Rebecca looked up with a mixture of surprise and delight. “Hi, Dad.”

Sam came bounding in on hearing his father’s voice. He had been waiting all day and was wearing his new
Chelsea kit. “Hi, Dad, fancy a game of football outside?”

Colin frowned as he looked at his son’s shirt. It wasn’t what he considered suitable clothing.

“Have you got those new golf clubs I left you? We could do a bit of putting if you like?”

Sam nodded. He didn’t want to play golf. He never liked it. “Thanks Dad, they’re great.”

“You’re welcome,” Colin smiled smugly. He wasn’t used to quality time with his son but since he had left home things had improved in their relationship. Sam had wanted to live with him but that was out of the question. He didn’t have time in his busy schedule to look after a young boy.

Annabel was surprised when Colin said that he would baby-sit. It was Meave who had suggested it. She walked dubiously into the kitchen where Sam and Colin were swinging their clubs.

“Hi, Colin. Thanks for babysitting.”

“I’m spending time with my children. You don’t baby-sit your own children,” he said squarely.

“Of course,” she replied. He still managed to throw comments that had the same effect as a whip cracking. “I’ll be back about twelve.”

Sam and Colin returned their attention to the ground where their gazes were fixed on a
Ping golf ball.

She went into the TV room and kissed the girls on the top of their heads before grabbing her bag and dashing out the front door with a mixture of concern and relief.

* * *

Kate picked up the phone and started to dial Annabel’s number. She didn’t want to think too much about what she was doing. The phone at the other end
of the line rang out for six rings. She was about to put it down when a voice answered.

“Yes,” Colin said.

Kate hated the way he answered the phone so abruptly. But what was he doing there if they had split up? Maybe Fabian had made the whole tale up.

“Is there someone there?” the voice said sharply.

Kate didn’t want to speak to Colin so she hung up. She was disappointed that her attempt to make peace had been such a failure. At least Annabel didn’t realise it was her on the phone. Maybe she should think about what she was going to say more thoroughly.

She picked up the phone and rang
Ireland again, but a different number this time.

* * *

Annabel parked at the entrance to St Anne’s Park. It was halfway between her house and Gary’s flat which she had yet to see. Butterflies started flitting around her stomach at the prospect of seeing the tall handsome man. He was patient with her and tolerant of her need for discretion and secrecy. The last people she wanted to hurt were her children and, even thought they were adjusting a bit better to the new living arrangements in the house, she knew that they didn’t need to deal with a new man in their mother’s life.

For Annabel,
Gary was her secret saviour. He gave her the strength not to falter when her mother chastised her for asking Colin to leave, and gave her a reason to take time out for herself. At first she had hoped they would get to see each other often but things weren’t panning out as she had expected. Still, she was happy for now with the few short hours that they managed to steal together whenever they could.

A tall broad-shouldered silhouette grew larger as it neared Annabel’s Jeep, then
Gary tapped on the window. With haste she released the lock on the door and let him in. Gary slid onto the passenger seat and leaned over towards her, planting a delicious kiss on her lips. The wait had been worth it already.

“Hiya, gorgeous!”

“Ditto,” she sighed, licking her lips.

“Ah, Ghost! Not one of my favourite movies,” he grinned cheekily.

“I wasn’t quoting a movie, silly.” Annabel said, poking him playfully in the ribs.

“You’re too cute!” he said.

Nobody had called her cute since before she left primary school. She loved it.

“Fancy coming back to my place?”
Gary suggested casually.

Annabel was delighted. She had been starting to wonder what
Gary was hiding in his flat – or even worse, who!

“Great,” Annabel started the engine and took the car out onto the
Clontarf Road. She drove up the tree-lined Griffith Avenue with an air of anticipation.

Gary
sat back snugly on the seat, giving directions until they came to a beautiful red-bricked Victorian villa.

“This place is lovely,” said Annabel.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” Gary warned as the car stopped.

Once they got inside she knew what he meant. The leafy gardens and austere exterior hid a labyrinth of interior walls that made up eight flats. It had been some time since the landlord had invested in any sort of maintenance on the building. Some of the wallpaper they passed as they trod the stairs to the top floor looked like it had been there since the seventies.

Gary opened the thin plywood door to the attic room. The frayed carpet covered in large yellow swirls continued from the landing into Gary’s living room. As Annabel looked around she discovered that this was also the kitchen and the hallway.

“I like
open-plan living,” Gary said lightly, in an effort to cover over his embarrassment at the pokey surroundings.

“It’s very cosy,” Annabel walked over to the floral printed settee and brushed her hand along the back of the cushions.

“That’s a nice way of putting it!” Gary replied. “It’s also very small. Sit down and make yourself at home!”

Annabel obeyed and tried not to grimace as the spring on the settee went ping on taking her
weight. She had a clear view of Gary as he frantically searched through the cupboards one by one.