Beth Thomas - Carry You

Avon

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Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2014

Copyright © Beth Thomas 2014

Beth Thomas asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007544813

Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780007544820

Version: 2014–12–15

For my Beano. Are you still doing all your walking?

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Epilogue

Keep Reading

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About the Publisher

Daisy Mack

is reclining on the sofa eating Jaffa Cakes watching Hugh Grant punch Colin Firth. Could life get any better?

Jenny Martin Ever thought about going out occasionally? Life can get a LOT better.

Daisy Mack Thanks Jen. Great tip.

Nat ‘Wiggy’ Nicholson Aw Daze that sounds miserable. Want me to come over?

Daisy Mack Thanks Nat, but it’s OK. Gonna get an early night.

Georgia Ling Hope your ok hun xx

Ah, the fight scene in Bridget Jones’s Diary. This calls for another cake, to maximise the enjoyment. I pull the edges of my dressing gown round me a bit more tightly and snuggle down further into my duvet. Doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen this, it always cheers me up. Well, it makes me smile, anyway, which in my life is as close as I’m going to get to actual cheer. It’s not the sight of two inept men fighting like nine-year-old girls who don’t know how to fight that makes me smile. It’s the fact that there are two men left in the world to fight over one woman. I know, I know, it’s not real, it’s just fiction. But that’s the thing with fiction – anything can happen. Boys turn out to be wizards; vampires fall in love with human schoolgirls; husbands travel through time; men hit each other with dustbin lids.

I dunk my Jaffa Cake into my hot chocolate as I work hard on suspending my disbelief for a bit longer. It’s an effort but so worthwhile. The disbelief thing, I mean. Not the dunking; that’s no effort at all. Dunking these delightful spongy confections in hot chocolate is one of God’s best and yet simplest ideas. If you get it right, the cakey bit soaks up hot chocolate without falling apart, and the chocolate and orange bit on the top goes all warm and soft, so they just melt in your mouth. Too long in the heat, though, and it’s gooey mush at the bottom of the mug. Timing is everything; it’s a lot like life. Ooh, that sounds good.

Daisy Mack

is dunking Jaffa Cakes in hot chocolate. The timing is everything: it’s a lot like life.

My laptop makes an electronic popping sound, and I glance down. It’s an instant message from my best friend Abby.

Abby Marcus Hey, what you doing?

Oh God. Quickly I grab my mobile phone on the sofa next to me and switch it off, dropping it back on the cushion. But I’m still not safe. I reach up to the landline on the wall next to me and break through the dust and cobwebs on the handset. Abby is the only actual human dogged enough to ring it, and she will when she finds my mobile switched off. I press the ‘Call’ button so the dialling tone is audible. Colin lays Hugh out on the road with one good punch. Colin and Hugh really aren’t very good names for two drop-dead-gorgeous, Hollywood A-list actors, are they? They sound more like a pair of nerdy IT geeks in specs. It’s not exactly Brad and Matt.

My laptop pops again.

Abby Marcus Just tried to ring you but mobile on voicemail and landline engaged. Are you actually talking to another human being???????

Daisy Mack Hey! Yeah, on phone. Speak later x

Abby Marcus No, speak now. Wanna go out?

Daisy Mack Can’t. Am tucked up in PJs, and on phone. X

The landline phone is starting to make that multi-tonal alarm noise that lets you know when you’ve accidentally left it off the hook. I’ve heard it so many times these past few weeks, nee-nawing away in the background like an emergency siren, it’s become the sound track to my life. I end the ‘call’, then start another one immediately. Better actually make a call now, I suppose; guilt is encroaching. I press 4 on the memory list and it connects me through to Oxfam, where I make a ten-pound donation. Immediately I feel better. I genuinely am in my PJs, and on the phone, so I have not lied to my best friend; and now I’ve made a donation to charity. I’m a saint.

Pop .

Abby Marcus It’s half past two in the afternoon.

I love Abby. I do. She doesn’t take any crap. Sometimes I wish she would. Just once or twice. Actually, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being in your PJs on a Sunday afternoon, enjoying a film with a Jaffa Cake or two. And if I stare hard enough at the telly and maintain the suspension of my disbelief – and move my head so the armchair is blocking the view – I can’t even see the three empty McVitie’s boxes on the floor. If no one saw me eat them, no one will ever know.

Abby Marcus Are you eating Jaffa Cakes?

Daisy Mack Just a couple. Watching a film. See you tomorrow. X

Abby Marcus No, now. Come on, come out for a walk.

Oh God. A walk. I so don’t want to go out for a walk. It’s bloody miserable weather today, which is exactly why I’m bundled up on my sofa with Col and Hugh, and the world’s best ever dressing gown, instead of tramping the streets in freezing fog.

Daisy Mack Too cold. X

I, on the other hand, am toasty warm, and very snuggly. I’m staying put.

Abby Marcus Get your arse off your sofa and look out the window.

Daisy Mack OK, OK, I’m up.

Abby Marcus No you’re not you’re still typing. Come on Daze, do it.

Abby really is a fantastic friend. She’s the best. So caring, so thoughtful. So … tenacious. Bridget is embarrassing herself at a party now. Not so keen on this bit.