was being odd today. Since he’d got back from dropping off the Porsche yesterday, she’d been different. And he was damned sure she was lying to him about something.
Nursing his mobile phone in his hand he looked back towards the house. At least there was only Penny there, and she would keep out of his way while he made this call.
Searching his contacts for the right number, Gary pressed the screen to connect. It was early days yet, and he hadn’t bothered to commit the number to memory in case it proved a waste of time.
‘Hello.’ Shit. It was the husband. He should have called the mobile, but he’d called the house phone by mistake. He hung up. Fortunately, he had his phone set permanently to block its number - so there would be no caller ID.
Now what was he going to do? He’d been hanging around too long for this one, and he was getting impatient. It didn’t usually take this long to get them gagging for it. He’d been put off on Saturday night and told that it was all about seduction, but you can’t bloody seduce somebody if you don’t see them.
His phone buzzed in his hand. It was her.
‘Hello - I hoped you’d realise it was me and call back. How are you?’ he said in his smoothest tones.
‘Angry. That’s how I am. I told you yesterday that this week would be difficult - so why are you calling me?’
‘Come on - you know you don’t mean that. You miss me - you know you do.’ Gary smiled, even though he didn’t feel like it. He had been told that you could hear a smile down a phone, so he pulled his face into a rictus of a grin.
‘No. I don’t miss you. Things have changed here and I’m no longer interested in what you have to offer. I think we should leave it at that.’
Gary was incensed. He had never failed before. ‘Well, I don’t. You wanted to be wooed, so that’s what I did. You said we were nearly there. I played by your rules, for once in my life. Perhaps I should just have had my way with you - forced your hand. Perhaps you’d appreciate a bit of rough treatment. Lots of women do.’
‘I can assure you that I cannot be counted among their number. Now, let’s get some rules straight here. We’re inevitably going to meet again at various functions. I will be polite. And you will be polite. But I don’t want to see you alone again. Is that understood?’
‘You don’t know what you’re missing. I thought you might be quite fun, under that frosty exterior. But I was wrong. And don’t tell me it’s because you’ve belatedly got the hots for that turd of a husband of yours, because I don’t fucking believe it. You’ve wasted my time, lady. And I think that’s something you may well regret.’
‘Is that a threat, Gary? How splendid. I shall wait with bated breath until you enact your revenge. Goodbye.’
The phone went dead.
Snooty, toffee nosed bitch. Who did she think she was?
His phone buzzed again. Perhaps it was her, begging his forgiveness.
He looked at the screen. Sean. He’d better not be fobbing him off with some cock and bull story about the money not being through. Because if he was, there would be trouble. Big trouble. He was in just the right mood.
* * *
At the end of her shift, Ellie couldn’t bear the thought of going home. After Kath’s revelations that afternoon and the horror of Abbie’s early life, she couldn’t face more tension. She was perilously close to her breaking point.
She didn’t know how she was supposed to react to last night’s surprise dinner, and she didn’t know how she was going to stop herself from blurting out the truth about what she’d done. She approached the car park in trepidation, though, wondering if Sean would be waiting there for her again, particularly after what had happened earlier. But there was nobody there, and no yellow rose.
Ellie breathed a huge sigh of relief, and got into the car. What now? An idea struck her. One thing that she hadn’t dealt with this week was the problem with Georgia, which she had yet to understand. She should have followed it up sooner, but with everything that had been happening, including the extra shifts and Leo staying with them, it had been driven so low down in the list of priorities that she