Читать книгу Cathy Kelly 6-Book Collection: Someone Like You, What She Wants, Just Between Us, Best of Friends, Always and Forever, Past Secrets - Cathy Kelly - Страница 36

Doug insisted on driving Leonie to the airport to pick up Mel and Abby.

‘I can’t take you away from your work,’ she said, knowing he was close to finishing an important painting he’d been working on.

‘I was in at the start of this Delaney family drama and I want to be in at the finish,’ Doug said. ‘Anyway, I need to go into town to see my friend with the gallery. If you come with me, we can have lunch and then go to the airport, killing two birds with one stone.’

‘If you’re sure…’ Leonie hesitated.

‘What are you like?’ he demanded. ‘I’ve said I’m sure. Unless you want Hugh to go with you?’

‘No,’ mumbled Leonie. She still hadn’t said anything about Hugh and the break-up to Doug. She felt so foolish. Doug would be horrified to think that Hugh wasn’t interested in the twins. He adored them and he wasn’t even dating her. Leonie shuddered. It was appalling to think she’d gone out with a man who didn’t care for her children.

‘See you at half eleven tomorrow then,’ Doug said.

She almost didn’t recognize him when he arrived the next day. In all the time she’d known Doug, she’d never seen him out of his shabby old jeans and lumpy jumpers the colour and consistency of wet cement. Today, he looked startlingly different. His wild auburn hair was tamed and brushed neatly back, and he wore a dark grey suit with a deep blue shirt that looked incredible with his hair. A sober steely grey tie completed the ensemble. Leonie stared at the urbane man about town in front of her. He looked so polished and elegant. You’d hardly notice his scars now: they were fading wonderfully. Ever since Leonie had read about the vitamins and minerals which help the body heal, she’d been forcing Doug to take a handful of tablets every morning. He joked that he rattled when he walked, but they, or something, were certainly working on the scars.

‘I’m not welded into my old work clothes, you know,’ Doug said, a mischievous glint in his eyes as Leonie goggled at him. ‘I do have other clothes and, occasionally, I like to dress up.’

‘But…you look so different!’

‘Better?’

She angled her head. ‘You look fantastic,’ she said, ‘but I love your old stuff. I’d never have felt so relaxed with you if I’d met you first like this,’ she added. ‘As the queen of jumble-stall grunge, I would have been far too intimidated to talk to you in your finery.’

‘This was Caitlin’s favourite suit,’ he said reflectively. ‘She hated my sloppy work clothes, insisted I clean the paint off and dress up in the evenings. She thought suits were very sexy. Does Hugh wear suits?’ he enquired suddenly.

‘Don’t mention Hugh, would you?’ Leonie groaned.

‘Having a fight?’

She nodded. It was easier to let him think that than get into complicated explanations.

In the city, Doug parked outside a gallery in Ballsbridge.

‘It will take me a few minutes to bring the canvases in,’ he said. ‘Why don’t you go in and browse around.’

‘I’ll help,’ she offered.

‘You will not,’ he said firmly. ‘They’re heavy. Go on and browse. I’ll be with you in a few minutes.’

While Doug and a man from the gallery with mad bouffant hair and a pink tie brought in the paintings, Leonie wandered around, admiring vivid oils and gentle, dreamy watercolours and spiky, aggressive sculptures in the middle of the floor. Everything was very expensive. Doug’s paintings would probably be even more costly. Hugh had told her that Doug Mansell paintings were a serious investment.

‘You could buy a cheap one from him,’ Hugh had said, eyes lighting up as he planned a bit of money-making, ‘and in a few years sell it for a tidy profit.’

Leonie had been horrified: make money from a friend? No way.

She was peering at a large modern picture and trying to figure out exactly what it was supposed to be, when the gallery door slammed loudly. Leonie’s head swivelled round to see a petite blonde woman march in.

Vivacious would be how you’d describe her, Leonie thought idly. And energetic. Energy fizzled out of the woman like bubbles from champagne. From behind a weird piece of sculpture, Leonie admired the woman’s extravagantly red trouser suit, perilously high funky boots and her short, spiky blonde hair. She didn’t dye that herself, Leonie thought, with an expert eye. The woman reached Doug and then leaned up to take his face in her hands and kiss him.

Leonie’s eyes widened. It couldn’t be…

‘Hello, Caitlin. I didn’t think you’d be here,’ Doug said evenly.

‘I heard you were coming in,’ Caitlin answered in a Marlboro rasp.

Leonie did her best to melt into the background. She admired a horrible daub of a painting and tried not to eavesdrop. But she couldn’t help it. This was the woman who’d destroyed Doug when she left him.

‘How have you been?’ Caitlin asked, one small hand still touching Doug’s arm.

She was much shorter than Doug, and had to arch her slender neck to look up at him. Vivacious, definitely, with that expressive little face and huge dark eyes. She never stopped moving, one foot tapping constantly as she spoke.

‘I missed you, you know,’ she said.

‘Did you? You never called. You knew where I was living,’ Doug answered.

Leonie felt her heart ache for him. He’d longed for Caitlin and she’d abandoned him. The bitch.

Caitlin angled her body closer to his, one hand sneaking up to touch the lapels of his jacket in an intimate gesture. ‘You wore my favourite suit,’ she said softly, looking up at him.

‘Yes.’

One word could say so much. He’d worn it for Caitlin, Leonie knew.

She couldn’t take any more of the tortured eye contact between the two of them.

‘Bye, darling,’ she said, blowing a kiss to the surprised gallery man. ‘I’m just popping next door to have a coffee. I’ll be back later.’

Rising to the occasion, he blew her a dramatic kiss back. ‘Fine, sweetie, see you then.’

Skirt whirling, she left, whisking past Doug as if she didn’t know him. It wouldn’t be fair to muddy the waters for him. If he wanted Caitlin back, he might not want her to know about his friendship with Leonie.

Not, Leonie thought forlornly as she ordered a decaf and a doughnut in the coffee shop, that there was anything to their relationship other than pure friendship. She stirred her coffee miserably, suddenly realizing that she wished there was something more to it. Doug was lovely, kind, her friend. She wanted him to be more than a friend. Much more. And she’d had her chance but now she’d blown it.

Don’t be stupid, he was never interested in you anyway, she told herself firmly. What could she offer a man who’d gone out with someone like Caitlin, a little bombshell who was well under forty, had a fantastic career into the bargain, and who didn’t have to buy granny shoes to fit her huge feet?

She’d bet her life savings that Caitlin didn’t have a wardrobe of sloppy leggings and sweatshirts for her fat days. No, if Caitlin had two wardrobes one would be a ‘Wow, I’m feeling sexy’ wardrobe and the other a ‘My God, I’m bloody gorgeous!’ wardrobe.

She sipped her coffee and stared out the window, longing for Doug to appear and tell her he’d sent Caitlin off with a flea in her perfectly shaped little ear. She’d drunk her second cup and eaten all of her bun when the gallery man appeared at the door. Spotting her, he waved dramatically and sashayed over, his pink tie shimmering into purple under the strip lighting.

‘Leonie, is it?’ he said.

She nodded.

‘Doug asked me to give you this and apologize on his behalf for not being able to bring you to the airport.’ He put a fifty-pound note on the table. ‘He’s sorry he can’t bring you, but Mademoiselle Caitlin is having hysterics and he’s calming her. “Diva” is not the word for the lady.’ The gallery man shuddered distastefully. ‘I’d slap her myself, but Doug wouldn’t like it and I’m so fond of him.’

Leonie was only half listening. She’d tuned out when she’d heard that Doug couldn’t give her a lift because he was comforting Caitlin. Doug was very reliable. He’d never let you down, not in a million years. Except for someone he really loved, someone he’d been away from for a few years and had now been reunited with.

Leonie felt her eyes brimming. She shoved the money back across the table. ‘No thanks,’ she said, as bravely as she could. ‘I don’t want it. I’ve loads of money. Doug was only doing me a favour,’ she added.

‘Really?’ The gallery man’s eyes were shrewd under their discreet coating of mascara. ‘Don’t be a fool, dearie,’ he advised. ‘I was a fool once and look at me now. Alone. Say your piece, that’s my advice.’

Leaving the money on the table, he sashayed off.

Leonie grabbed the money and her bag and rushed out the door. She ran away from the gallery, panting in the August sunshine as she passed lines of cars sitting idly at the traffic lights. Her aim was to be as far away as possible so that she didn’t have to catch sight of Doug clutching Caitlin in a loving embrace. Finally, she reached the top of the road and ran round the corner. There was a taxi rank nearby, she remembered.

She was hot and sweating when she finally fell into a taxi, foundation running down her cheeks and her amber silk shirt stuck to her body. Whatever deodorant she’d sprayed on earlier had given up the ghost. But Leonie didn’t care. She sat in the back of the car, staring out of the window morosely.

The driver attempted to talk to her but when she answered in monosyllables, he gave up. They were nearing the airport when Leonie realized that she looked a sight, and quickly pulled out her make-up kit to repair the damage. She was an hour early, so she sat in the arrivals hall, and leafed through a magazine, not really seeing the articles. Doug, oh Doug. Why didn’t I realize it earlier, she thought in despair. It was too late now.

Most of the passengers from the Boston flight had come out before Mel and Abby burst through the sliding doors, tanned, healthy and glowing, with a mountain of luggage and numerous carrier bags.

‘Mum!’ they shrieked when they saw her.

Leonie hugged them both, tears falling down her face with delight.

‘I’m so pleased to see you,’ she said, half laughing, half crying.

‘Us too,’ they chorused.

‘You both look wonderful,’ she cried. And they did.

Mel looked fantastic: gloriously brown and beautiful, long dark hair held back in a plait, smart in black nylon trousers and a swirly pink T-shirt with a lilac cardigan tied carelessly around her slim waist. But it was Abby who took her mother’s breath away. She’d shot up and was now taller than Mel. The extra height had elongated her body, making it sexily curved instead of stocky. She wore clinging faded jeans that showed off her long legs, along with a tight T-shirt in turquoise, which brought out the electric colour of her amazing eyes. Silver and turquoise American Indian bracelets rattled from her arms and she wore a silver choker round her tanned neck. Her hair, bleached by the sun, feathered around her shoulders and hung down her back. The look was relaxed, Thelma and Louise-style, and it suited her perfectly.

‘Abby, you look fantastic,’ Leonie said, standing back and admiring the beloved duckling who really had grown into a swan.

‘I feel fantastic,’ Abby said with a broad grin. ‘I feel me, not anyone else.’

‘She’s been reading those self-help books non-stop,’ giggled Mel. ‘I can’t find my inner power no matter what I do!’

‘You only find your inner power when you see a good-looking guy,’ Abby teased.

As if by magic, a group of young guys weighed down with rucksacks walked past them and shot admiring glances at both girls. Mel, used to it, pouted prettily at them. But it was Abby’s reaction that astonished Leonie. She looked at the men with a confident grin and then flicked her head away laughing, her hair shimmering round her shoulders. She exuded self-assurance, Leonie realized. Her baby had come home as an adult.

They talked non-stop in the taxi home.

‘I thought Doug was picking us up?’ Mel said.

‘He couldn’t make it,’ Leonie said brightly. ‘Now, tell me everything.’

Boston had been brilliant, Texas was better. Fliss’s father, Charlie, had a ranch in the Panhandle but also had a house near Taos in New Mexico, ‘this beautiful, cutesy little place where you can go skiing in winter,’ Mel said dreamily. ‘It was seriously amazing. Full of these New Age types, which Abby loved. She went out with one, Kurt his name was.’

Once, Abby would have gone puce if her twin had revealed such a thing. Now, she grinned and played with the suede thong that circled one tanned wrist. ‘He was a friend, that’s all, Mom. Mel wants everyone to be going out. That is so last year, Mel.’

At home, Penny went crazy with excitement, her golden body quivering with delight as she licked the twins and sniffed their suitcases ecstatically.

‘We missed you,’ Abby crooned, sitting cross-legged on the floor with the dog.

Clover ignored the welcoming party and chose to sit on top of the kitchen cupboards, watching the proceedings like a reigning monarch bored with her subjects.

Leonie had half-expected the girls to be disappointed to be home, but they seemed thrilled, delightedly exclaiming how much they’d missed the place, and how irritating it was being ultra-tidy all the time.

‘Fliss is, like, obsessed with tidiness,’ Mel said. ‘You’d hate it, Mom.’

Leonie smothered a giggle.

Mel immediately went off to phone her friends/enemies to tell them what a fabulous time she’d had, how brown she was and what incredible new clothes she’d got, clothes that you’d never be able to buy in Ireland, naturally.

Abby unpacked several small coloured boxes of herb and fruit teabags and offered to make a restorative brew for her mother. She’d given up regular tea and coffee, she told Leonie. She didn’t pollute her body with things like that any more. ‘You are what you eat,’ she said, explaining that fresh, healthy foods were so much better than any processed stuff. ‘Lemon is wonderfully revitalizing, I find,’ she said as she boiled the kettle, ‘although my favourite is cranberry and orange.’

Leonie sat on a kitchen chair and admired her tall, self-assured daughter.

‘You look beautiful, Abby,’ she said with a catch in her throat. ‘I’m so proud of you.’

‘Try this,’ Abby said, proffering a cup of cranberry tea.

‘Lovely,’ Leonie said.

‘I was abusing my body,’ Abby explained, ‘I put the wrong things into it and I didn’t listen to it. That’s why I was depressed and hated myself. But I feel wonderful now.’

Her face glowed, Leonie thought. Her eyes sparkled and she was full of life, confident and happy.

Remembering the confused, angry girl who’d gone away just three months before, Leonie said a small silent prayer of thanks. And she thanked Fliss too. Whatever Fliss had done for Abby, Leonie was truly grateful.

‘Fliss has been great, obviously,’ she said.

‘It wasn’t Fliss,’ Abby said emphatically. ‘It was you, Mom. You did it for me. You’ve always been so strong and I couldn’t be. I was lost in trying to look like someone else. I…’ she searched for the right words, ‘wanted to look like Mel and talk like Fliss but be me. And you can’t do that.’

She laughed at the stupidity of the very idea. ‘We all owe it to ourselves to be ourselves. The course taught me that. I went to the eating-disorder counsellor for a while, and it was great, but when we went to Taos, I heard about this course. It was about healing and empowering yourself. Mel thinks it’s mad, but it was just what I needed. You have to let go of all these silly notions you have of who you are and learn about who you really are. We had to talk about the people who inspired us and – ’ Abby’s eyes were shining – ‘I talked about you, Mom.’

Leonie’s eyes gleamed too, with tears.

‘I told them how you’d been brave to split up with Dad because you knew it wasn’t right, because you owed it to you, to Dad and to us, to be with the right person. And I told them all the sacrifices you make for us. I know, Mom, you buy second-hand clothes so we’ve got lovely new stuff. Don’t think I wasn’t aware of it. I just never appreciated it before, I guess. When I was away from you, I did.’

‘Oh, Abby.’ Leonie reached out and took Abby’s silver-ringed hand in hers. ‘I thought you couldn’t wait to get away from me to spend time with Fliss.’

‘I couldn’t wait to get away from myself,’ Abby admitted. ‘I was bulimic, Mom. I made myself sick, I’m sorry. I know I lied to you.’

Leonie couldn’t speak but held Abby’s hand even tighter.

‘I can’t believe how stupid I was,’ Abby continued. ‘I mean, you could have a heart attack from bulimia. It ruins your teeth and your gums, hurts your throat from vomiting all the stomach acid up, and it doesn’t even work. All it does is destroy you on the inside.’ She took a deep breath. ‘It was hard telling you that, Mom, because I lied to you. But it’s important to face these things.’

She sounded so grown-up, so in control of herself.

‘Abby, promise you’ll never do it again,’ Leonie begged.

Abby put her arms gently round her mother. ‘I won’t, Mom. I won’t for you and I won’t for me, you have my word. To stop being bulimic, you’ve got to do it for yourself. That’s what healing is all about. It’s not always easy, you know, but I can do it. Especially when I have you with me.’

They sat around the kitchen table all evening, laughing and talking about the holiday. As usual, Mel had photos and, also as usual, she’d decapitated most of her subjects.

She seemed younger than her twin, Leonie realized. Abby had grown so much for so many reasons, while Mel had never had to. She’d have to suffer at some stage, go through the pangs she’d effortlessly avoided now. Leonie knew Abby would be there for her when it happened.

‘Mom, I’m hungry,’ Abby said, prowling around the kitchen and opening cupboards. ‘Do we have any rocket, pesto and pine nuts?’

Leonie laughed heartily. ‘No. We’ll have to go to the supermarket tomorrow. Does your new healthy-eating plan mean I’ll be cooking four different types of meals every day?’

Abby stuck her tongue out wickedly. ‘I’ll have you eating my way before long, you wait and see.’

‘She will,’ Mel confirmed. ‘She won’t let me have double chocolate-chip ice cream any more.’

That night, Leonie got ready for bed feeling as if a giant load had been lifted from her shoulders. Abby was well, more than well, actually. Blooming. That was the most important thing in the world. So what if Leonie had a small ache in one corner of her heart over Doug. She had her girls, her beloved girls. What else did she need? She’d made the mistake of getting involved with Hugh and not noticing what was wrong with Abby. That wouldn’t happen again. Men would not be a part of her life in the future, she decided emphatically. Who needed them anyway?

The next day, the three of them went shopping for clothes and school uniforms. School started in a week and Mel needed a new jumper, while Abby needed a new skirt as she’d shot up too much for the other one to fit. When they’d bought everything, they went to the latest Merchant Ivory movie and then to a Mexican restaurant to have something to eat. While she was with the twins, Leonie could forget about Doug. But they came home to find he’d left a brief message on the answerphone saying he’d ring back. Leonie spent the evening waiting for the phone to ring. She didn’t know quite how Doug was going to explain what had happened but she still wanted to hear his voice, to hear him say ‘Leo’ in that tender way of his. The phone rang all right: for the girls, endlessly. Doug didn’t phone. He was obviously lost in love and deliriously happy with Caitlin, Leonie decided sadly.

She felt oddly dispirited as she went into work the next day. She should have been thrilled: Mel and Abby were home, delighted to see her, and Danny was due back the following week. But she felt a bit miserable.

‘What’s up with you?’ Angie enquired, as Leonie dumped her belongings and pulled on her nurse’s uniform.

‘Nothing,’ Leonie said, taking the clipboard with the day’s instructions on it. There were two dogs booked in for spaying that morning and Angie was doing exploratory surgery on a cat who was suspected of eating an entire reel of thread and a needle.

‘Is it the girls?’ Angie asked delicately.

‘No, they’re great. They had a lovely time but they’re happy to be home,’ Leonie answered. ‘Abby looks amazing and she’s so happy.’ Leonie’s voice trailed off. She didn’t want to talk about it. Hell, she didn’t know what was annoying her.

She inspected the surgery’s inhabitants. Three cats, one of whom was on a drip, four dogs who’d been operated on the day before and were due to go home, and Henry, a pigeon with a broken wing who glared at her from his cage, outraged to be confined in this way. To prove his point, he picked up his birdseed and threw it out of the cage on to the floor. Normally, this would have made Leonie laugh. Today, she glared back at him. ‘Bad boy, Henry,’ she said.

Angie answered a phone call from an owner concerned about their dog, while Leonie, Helen and Louise, the other nurses on duty, began bringing the dogs out for a constitutional in the back yard.

‘I know it hurts, you poor thing,’ Leonie crooned to a sweet nine-month-old boxer bitch who’d been spayed the day before and who was whimpering as she walked shakily out of her cage. The boxer leaned against Leonie, shivering and desperate for reassurance. Leonie hugged her until the frantic shaking stopped. ‘You’ll be going home today,’ she murmured, petting the dog’s soft ears.

When all the dogs had been let out and their cages cleaned, she and Louise started on the cats.

Finally, all the animals had been seen to and it was time for morning surgery. Because the receptionist was late, Leonie had to man the desk. She hated working on reception when it was busy and today the place was jammed. People and animals were crowded into the reception area, with dogs howling in misery and a lot of frightened mewing from cats in carriers. By the time the receptionist got there, apologizing profusely because she’d had a flat tyre, Leonie had processed ten people, taken four phone calls, and calmed a hysterical woman who arrived with a vomiting cat.

‘It’s OK,’ Leonie said woodenly.

Relieved of reception duty, she took over from Helen, who was assisting Angie in the operating room. Angie was removing impacted teeth from a poodle, a tricky job. Silently, Leonie took up her position beside the poodle’s head, monitoring the dog’s breathing and colour. The dog’s tongue was a healthy shade of pink, meaning it was doing fine under the anaesthetic.

‘Jeez, Leonie, you look like you lost a shilling and found sixpence,’ Angie said, without looking up.

‘I’m fine.’

‘If you’re fine, I’m the Queen of Sheba,’ Angie announced. ‘Tell me what’s wrong, for God’s sake.’

‘Oh I don’t know. Something depressed me…’ Leonie said.

‘Hugh?’ Angie asked as she triumphantly dropped the extracted tooth into a little dish.

‘No. Something happened the other day when I went into town with Doug on the way to pick the twins up from the airport.’

‘Ah yes, the reclusive Doug. I saw him the other day,’ Angie said. ‘You wouldn’t kick him out of bed for eating crisps.’

‘Angie, you’re disgraceful! He’s been through so much.’

‘And you fancy comforting him?’ Angie remarked shrewdly.

‘No, I don’t. He’s a friend, that’s all.’

‘What was that Shakespeare said about people protesting too much?’ Angie went to work on another tooth.

‘He is,’ Leonie insisted.

‘And why didn’t you get an attack of the miseries when darling Hugh got the big E?’

There was no answer to that.

‘Tell me what happened,’ Angie ordered.

Leonie did.

‘And he hasn’t phoned since?’ Angie said in outrage.

Leonie shook her head.

‘You know what you have to do, don’t you?’ Angie added. ‘See him and tell him how you feel.’

‘Don’t be daft,’ Leonie began. Then backtracked: ‘Anyway, I don’t feel anything. I was just hurt he hadn’t rung to apologize. Well, he did ring, but I wasn’t there and he hasn’t rung back since.’

‘Delaney, don’t bullshit me,’ Angie barked. ‘I know damn well you’re crazy about him. You see him every second day, go for long walks with him, have endless cups of coffee in his studio…Now don’t tell me that’s not love, even if it’s only just occurred to you that it is. Hell, you saw ten times as much of Doug as you ever saw of bloody Hugh. Of course you’re in love with him.’

‘I didn’t know I was,’ Leonie said quietly. ‘It was when I saw him and Caitlin together that it hit me. I hated her for hurting him so much.’

‘Well, tell him!’

‘How can I tell him when he’s obviously with her? What should I do – stomp up to the house and demand to be heard, with her standing in the background mocking me for even imagining I could go out with him? You should have seen her, Angie,’ she groaned. ‘She’s bloody perfect.’

‘Not if she dumped him as callously as you say she did.’ Angie gave the poodle an injection of antibiotic to help fight infection, then she picked him up to bring him back to his cage. ‘You’ve got to say something to Doug or you’ll kick yourself for the rest of your life.’

‘Guess I’ll just have to kick myself,’ Leonie muttered, cleaning up after the operation.

The following week, Danny came home from his trip with a rucksack full of filthy clothes and a million tales of his travels. The twins went back to school, buoyed up with their own tales of travels. Leonie was permanently busy, what with trying to get back into the early-morning routine, along with doing extra hours in work as one of the other nurses was sick and they all had to fill in. She shouldn’t have had a moment to think about Doug, but she managed it. She kept thinking of their walks in the mountains, the long talks they’d enjoyed sitting in Doug’s kitchen and that wonderful dinner in the Hungry Monk when they’d been so relaxed with each other. She’d never been that relaxed with Hugh, she realized. Even during lovemaking. Or perhaps especially during lovemaking. Sometimes, she let herself think what it would be like to make love with Doug, to feel his beard brushing against her breasts as he kissed her…Stop it! Furious with herself for moping like a teenager, she took Penny on long, exhausting walks to burn off her nervous energy. She didn’t walk past Doug’s house: she went in completely the other direction so there was no chance of bumping into him and Caitlin, entwined besottedly with Jasper and Alfie gambolling at their feet. Penny, however, wanted to go their usual way and meet her canine pals, but Leonie dragged her away.

On Friday evening, she got home from her walk to find Doug’s Jeep parked on the drive.

‘Doug’s here!’ yelled Mel unnecessarily as Leonie arrived.

‘Great,’ lied Leonie. She hated facing him but there was no option. Fixing a bright smile on to her face, she went into the sitting room where Doug was watching television with Danny.

Doug immediately got up. ‘I need to talk to you,’ he said.

‘Sorry, can’t,’ Leonie trilled. ‘I’ve got a date with Hugh,’ she lied.

‘No you haven’t…’ began Danny.

Leonie silenced him with a killer look.

‘About last week, I’m so sorry, Leonie. Caitlin turned up and I had to talk to her…’

‘Fine,’ Leonie said brightly, backing out of the room. ‘Whatever. I have to go. Bye.’

She ran to her bedroom and slammed the door shut. Then she fell on to the bed, mindless of the fact that she was still wearing her filthy walking clothes, and burst into tears.

He phoned on Saturday.

‘Say I’m out,’ Leonie whispered.

‘She says to tell you she’s out,’ Danny told Doug.

Leonie rolled her eyes. Tactful it wasn’t. Well, it might give him the message that their friendship was over, Leonie decided. If Doug was going to be superglued to the nauseous Caitlin for the rest of his life, Leonie didn’t want to have to witness it.

On Sunday, she was walking Penny when she spotted Doug’s Jeep coming down the road. Frantic to avoid him, she leapt into a nearby field, to Penny’s delight. The sheep in the field looked horrified. ‘We’ll only be here a moment,’ Leonie reassured them from her hiding place just inside the gate.

Life went on as usual. Abby enquired why Doug hadn’t been round to dinner since they’d got back from America.

‘I don’t know,’ Leonie lied. ‘He’s busy with a painting, I think.’

Abby gave her mother a knowing look. ‘And you expect me to believe that?’ she said.

Leonie groaned. ‘Not you, too. It’s like being on Oprah and being advised by the audience on what to do with your life.’

‘You’re not happy, Mom,’ Abby said. ‘Anybody can see that.’

‘I’m tired, Abby, that’s all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to put some washing in the machine.’

Another week limped by. Leonie was on auto pilot for most of it. It was her weekend on in the surgery and on Saturday, the place was jammed with clients and shivering animals. Leonie was monitoring a neutered rabbit when the phone rang for Angie.

‘Keep an eye on the rabbit, will you?’ Leonie asked Louise. ‘I have to get Angie.’

She went into the second surgery and stopped dead. There, holding a quivering and howling Jasper on the examining table, was Doug. He looked harassed, his hair was windswept and he was wearing his walking clothes. He looked tired. Too much sex, she thought grimly.

‘What’s wrong with Jasper?’ she asked immediately.

Recognizing his old friend, Jasper wagged his plumy tail weakly.

‘Poor love,’ she said, stroking his head.

‘He’s hurt his paw. The dew claw has been ripped away from the flesh.’ Angie was preparing to numb the area.

Jasper howled with the pain and howled even louder when Angie approached him. She had that vet smell, Leonie knew, the smell all dogs hated.

‘There’s a phone call for you,’ Leonie told her. ‘Mrs McCarthy, about her cat. It’s urgent.’

‘Right. I’ll be back in a moment.’

Angie left the room.

‘Why have you been avoiding me?’ Doug asked quietly.

Leonie wouldn’t look at him. She kept her head facing Jasper, who had stopped howling but was pleading with her to let him get out of this horrible place.

‘I haven’t been avoiding you,’ Leonie said sharply. ‘I’ve been busy with my life, the way you’ve been busy with yours.’

‘I haven’t been busy,’ Doug replied. ‘I’ve been lonely and depressed. There’s been nobody dropping round at all hours making sure I take my vitamins or dragging me out of the studio to get some fresh air. Nobody to invite me to dinner and feed me home-made lasagne. Nobody to laugh with and talk to.’

Leonie found she’d been holding her breath. She exhaled slowly and shakily. ‘What about Caitlin?’ she asked. ‘The love of your life has come back, you don’t need boring old me to make you coffee or talk to. You’ve got Ms Wonderful to do that with you.’

Before he could reply, Angie swept back into the room. Jasper whimpered again.

‘Sorry about that,’ she said, staring at Leonie, who was very pale around the mouth.

‘I must go,’ Leonie said and ran from the room.

She hid in the loo for a few minutes until she was sure she had overcome the desire to cry. Then she went back to look after the rabbit. They were short-staffed today and there were so many animals to keep an eye on; she couldn’t leave it all to Louise and Helen.

She’d just closed the rabbit’s cage a few minutes later when Angie appeared, followed by Doug and Jasper, who was panting happily and holding up his front paw which was now expertly bandaged.

‘You’re not allowed in here,’ Leonie yelped. ‘Jasper’s better now. You should go home.’

Angie took Jasper’s lead from Doug, who advanced until he was standing very close to her. She could smell the distinctive scent of oil paints and there was a smudge of yellow ochre on his shirt.

‘You can fix his paw,’ Doug said, ‘but you can’t fix my heart.’

Leonie stared tremulously up at him.

All the nurses were watching. Even the animals in the cages were interested. Watching humans having a heart-melting drama was more fun than watching the nurses approach with injections and rectal thermometers.

‘Doug, what are you on about?’ Leonie said, desperately trying to control her emotions.

‘You – I’m on about you. You’ve been avoiding me for two weeks. You won’t go for walks with me and you never come to the studio for coffee any more.’

‘This is hardly the place to talk about it,’ she squeaked.

‘You won’t talk to me at home, so I had to come here.’

‘And you hurt poor Jasper to get me to talk to you?’ she enquired.

‘No, Jasper knew I was desperate and when he came home today limping, it was the ultimate sacrifice.’

Even at a moment like this, Doug could make her laugh.

‘I’ve never met anybody who can jump to conclusions like you do,’ he added.

‘That’s true,’ Louise interjected.

Leonie gasped at the injustice of it all.

‘You were convinced that German Shepherd’s leg was broken when it wasn’t,’ Louise pointed out.

‘That’s not jumping to conclusions, that’s imagining the worst-case scenario so you can make the correct decision. I’d prefer to over-react than under-react,’ Leonie said.

‘You over-reacted when you saw me with Caitlin,’ Doug said softly. ‘I couldn’t bring you to the airport because I had to comfort her. She was in bits because she wanted us to get back together and I told her it was out of the question, that I was in love with someone else.’

Leonie felt tears prickle behind her eyes.

Jasper, getting bored, howled.

‘Quiet, Jasper,’ warned Angie. ‘This is better than Coronation Street.’

Everyone laughed. Doug reached out and pulled Leonie towards him. ‘I love you, Leonie. If I have to tell you in front of an audience, I will, because I’m crazy about you and that’s the only way you’ll believe me.’ He raised his voice. ‘I, Doug Mansell, am madly in love with Leonie Delaney, mother-of-three, big softie and jumper-to-conclusions.’

The audience clapped and the animals who weren’t recovering from anaesthetics joined in, howling, barking, yelping and flapping their wings.

‘Really?’ Leonie said, leaning against him weakly.

Doug kissed the top of her head because her face was buried against his shirt.

‘Really. I’ve spent the past week trying to talk to you and if it hadn’t been for Abby, I wouldn’t have said anything because you made me think you were still with that bastard Hugh.’

‘Abby?’

‘She’s been plotting with me. If Jasper hadn’t rushed things by hurting his paw, I’d have been round this evening to drag you away. Abby is packing a suitcase and I was going to whisk you off to Kilkenny for a romantic few days away. Mount Juliet, two days in a beautiful country estate.’

The audience sighed at the romance of it all.

‘I figured the masterful approach was the best, seeing as you refused to even talk to me.’

‘I’ll kill Abby, the little wretch. She could have told me,’ Leonie said.

‘You can’t. She’s looking after the dogs for us,’ Doug said. ‘Will you come?’

Leonie rubbed the paint off his shirt, then patted his beard. ‘Yes, I’d love to.’

The girls sighed again.

‘We can’t disappoint them,’ Doug said, a wicked glint in his eyes. ‘They need a kiss for the end of the matinee performance.’ And he kissed her so hard that Leonie had to lean against the medicine cupboard to stop herself from falling over.