Undertaking Love Page 0,52

sure. She’d go to dinner with him on Saturday and get things back on track.

Gabe on the other hand had made himself conspicuous by his absence since the funeral, and boy was she glad. Shame made her hide her face in her hands whenever she thought about the way she’d flung herself at him on her doorstep.

She spat the shards of wooden pencil into the waste paper bin and tried to will her way back into the easy groove she’d worn for herself before Gabriel had turned up and rucked his way through it rough-shod.

Cupcakes.

It would have all been so perfect if it had only been a cupcake bakery.

Okay, so maybe they’d all have been letting out their belts a little by now, but her business would have been safe and her sanity would still be intact. Her rock-solid world seemed to have tipped on its axis, sand slipped under her feet whenever she tried to get a grip.

She rubbed the pale blue ribbon from Bluey’s funeral that she kept on her desk. Dora was continually tidying it away into the drawer, but Marla kept pulling it back out again like a child with their comfort blanket.

Darling Bluey. Her mind tracked back over the same painful loop every time she thought of him. If only she’d taken him home. If only she’d stopped Rupert from opening the chapel door in time. If only she’d managed to catch hold of his collar.

If only.

Sometimes, in the darkness of the middle of the night, she even managed to hang the blame on Gabe’s shoulders. Without him there would have been no need for a campaign, no public meetings, and she’d never have met Rupert. She didn’t dwell on the fact that the idea of life without Rupert stirred a distinct lack of emotion in her.

She focused instead on the fact that no Rupert would have meant no fireworks, and no fireworks would have meant that her beloved Bluey would still be here. And there she was again, full circle, Rupert and Bluey tied together in her head.

She wound the blue ribbon around her fingers, her eyes on the funeral parlour.

If it had been a cupcake bakery, she’d never have met Gabe. She didn’t dwell, either, on the fact that this was a much more disconcerting thought than having never met Rupert.

Much to her own annoyance, her mind insisted on road testing the idea of Gabe as a cupcake baker rather than an undertaker, and however hard she tried, she couldn’t get the image of Gabe, naked except for a cooking apron, out of her head for the rest of the afternoon.

Chapter Twenty-Three

‘Are you sure you’re alright?’

Gabe cast a doubtful look at the neck brace Melanie had worn on and off since the accident had happened several weeks ago.

‘It’s fine, Gabe, honestly. It looks worse than it is.’

It was a small miracle that she hadn’t been badly injured, or worse. A big dog and a small car was a bad combination. He’d been concerned enough to call at her home the day afterwards to check on her, and although he was sure that he’d seen the net curtains twitch, no one had answered the door. Odd really, but just as he’d been on the verge of starting to wonder if she was inside and too ill to make it to the door, a text had blipped in from the lady herself.

Hi Gabe,

Thxs 4 ur help yday. Am fine, just at A&E to get neck strain double checked.

C U on Monday

M x

How fortunate that she’d chosen to text him at that precise moment. A less trusting man may have found it too convenient, but Gabe was determined to think the best of her. Melanie was a good worker, and she was loyal to the hilt. Too loyal sometimes maybe, but could that really be considered a fault?

Anyway, her explanation for being at the funeral parlour at that late hour had turned out to be perfectly watertight. After all, it was the first time she’d ever locked up for him. It was only logical that she might have had a little panic and nipped back to double check she’d locked the door properly. She was conscientious, that was all.

The dog had come from nowhere, she’d said.

Impossible to stop in time, she’d said.

It was patently clear that she felt wretched about it, and as far as he knew Marla didn’t wish there to be any further investigations. Why stir the already muddy waters with the suggestion that