Jill Mansell - Falling for you

‘Come on,’ said Jake cheerfully, ‘time we hit the dartboard before the opposition gets here. We could all do with the practice.’

Kate was hating every moment. Everyone was pretending not to look at her. They had ordered from the menu and now she longed for a cigarette, but the dining section was non-smoking and she definitely wasn’t going to venture through to the bar to be ogled at close quarters.

‘Hungry, darling?’ Valiantly attempting to pretend there was nothing wrong, that this was just a normal, happy mother-daughter outing, Estelle was struggling to keep the conversation going. ‘The new chef’s much better than the old one. Daddy and I had a fantastic bouillabaisse last time we were in.’

Kate pointedly examined the salt cellar. In desperation, her mother gazed around the other tables.

‘Ooh, those mussels look nice.’

How could mussels look nice? Mussels were mussels, for crying out loud, nothing more than a heap of black shiny shells.

‘Sweetheart, trust me, everything’s going to be fine,’ Estelle whispered. ‘Just give them a few days to get used to you and—’

‘Oh please, Mum, don’t treat me like a kid,’ Kate hissed back. ‘Everything isn’t going to be fine. How can it, with me looking like this? I’ve had almost a year to get used to it,’ she went on bitterly, ‘and it hasn’t happened yet.’

‘But darling, it’s only a few little scars! How you look on the outside isn’t important, you’re still you ... oh Kate, where are you going? Sweetheart, come back.’

Chapter 6

It was no good, she couldn’t do this. Feeling horribly trapped, Kate stood up so fast she almost tipped her chair over. If she was going to cry, she had to get out of here before it happened. But pushing back through the crowded bar – past the darts teams limbering up for their match – would be too much of an ordeal.

Glimpsing the corridor to the right, Kate abruptly veered towards it. The ladies’ loo was through a door on the left. Locking herself into the cubicle with trembling hands, she collapsed onto the lowered lavatory seat and took several deep breaths, tilting her head back and willing the tears to go back down.

Thankfully it worked. When it was safe to return her head to the upright position, Kate snapped open her Prada bag, took out her cigarettes and lit one. This was what she was reduced to now; hiding in the toilet, smoking a Marlboro Light, hideously aware that out in the bar people were laughing and talking about her, and. there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop it.

All her life she’d adored being the centre of attention. But not like this.

Exhaling furiously, Kate pictured Maddy Harvey, whom until tonight she hadn’t seen for eight years. The change in her was amazing; Maddy had been the original ugly duckling.

If Estelle hadn’t kept her up to date with developments, she might not have recognised her. But having been told what to expect, she had known at once that the sparky blonde at the bar was Maddy.

She’d heard the burst of laughter, too, after she and Estelle had made their way through the bar. And when they’d been seated at their table she’d found herself covertly glancing over at her. Being prepared for an improvement was one thing, but this much of a transformation had come as a major shock. Maddy may only have been wearing a little black vest and black trousers, but the colour enhanced her bouncing, layered, white-blonde hair and golden tan. As she drank and joked with the visiting darts team, she exuded down-to-earth glamour and the kind of easy confidence that Oh hell.

Kate shrank back instinctively as the door handle to the loo began to jiggle. She stared at it, willing the intruder to give up and leave her in peace.

The jiggling stopped, then started up again, accompanied by the creak of wood as someone leaned against the door. Go away, thought Kate, wondering if it was her mother come to see how she was. Just go away.

‘ Hello?’ called a voice that clearly didn’t belong to Estelle. ‘Is anyone in there?’

Drawing hard on her Marlboro, Kate rose to her feet, lifted the wooden lavatory seat and dropped the rest of the cigarette down the loo. Then she flushed it away.

‘Oh, sorry!’ the voice sang out. ‘Sometimes you think there’s someone in there and it’s just that the door’s got stuck.’

A shiver went down the back of Kate’s neck. Was that Maddy’s voice? Swivelling round, she peered up in desperation at the tiny window, but it was no bigger than a cat flap. You might just be able to squeeze a loaf of bread through there, but a grown woman? Forget it.

So she was trapped. The only way out was through the door. Meanwhile, the more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that the voice on the other side belonged to Maddy Harvey.

Bracing herself, Kate unlocked the door.

And there she was, leaning against the sink, looking even more spectacular close up, those emerald-green eyes no longer hidden behind geeky spectacles.

‘Oh. Hi.’ Maddy hesitated. ‘Sorry about the door. It gets stuck sometimes.’

Kate reached the second door, the one that would lead her back out into the corridor.

‘And I’m sorry about your ... um, accident,’ Maddy went on awkwardly.

Bitch. I’ll bet you are.

‘Yes.’ Kate fixed her with a look of utter derision. ‘I heard you laughing.’

Maddy flinched as if she’d been slapped. ‘Oh, but I wasn’t laughing at—’

‘You,’ Maddy insisted to Jake and Juliet when she rejoined them. ‘I was about to say, "I wasn’t laughing at you," but she just slammed the door shut in my face! God, it was awful, I was only trying to be polite. And then when I came out of the loo they were sitting there eating their meals and I wondered if I should go over and explain, but what if she’d started causing a massive scene in front of everyone, chucked a bowl of mussels over me or something?’ Maddy shuddered. ‘I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, and now everything’s more awkward than ever.’

‘So?’ Jake was typically unconcerned. ‘Don’t let it bother you. Scars or no scars, she’s always been a bitch. Anyway, we’ve got a match to play.’

‘And someone here has his eye on you.’ Juliet gave Maddy a nudge. ‘You could be about to pull.’

The last time they’d played the team from the Red Fox, Maddy had been charmed by their captain, a burly rugby-player type called Ed. Throughout the evening they had flirted happily with each other, until last orders were called and Ed had regretfully confided that he’d love to take her out some time, but he had a girlfriend. Which was sweet, of course, and showed he was the faithful, trustworthy type, but at the same time not what she’d wanted to hear.

Maddy glanced across at Ed now, throwing darts and pretending he didn’t know he was being watched.

‘He’s already seeing someone.’

‘Wrong. He sidled over when you were in the loo and asked if you were available.’ Juliet looked smug. ‘Then he casually mentioned that he’d finished with his girlfriend. I think you’ve definitely made a conquest.’

Maddy wished she could feel more enthusiastic. Before, she had been quite taken with Ed, but somehow this news no longer filled her with delight. It was like seeing a great pair of Timberlands and not being able to afford them, then walking into the shop two months later with your birthday money in your purse, realising that the yearning to own them had evaporated and that, actually, you’d much prefer a pair of fantastically sleek stiletto-heeled boots.

Oh God, was she seriously comparing Kerr McKinnon with a pair of boots?

‘Come on, you’re miles away.’ Jake pushed her forward. ‘You’re next.’