Never Say Never (Lakeview Contemporary Romance Book 3) (37 page)

Robin looked at her. Peter had done a terrible thing letting her take the blame all this time when he had been off with some other woman. Again, she realised that Olivia had suffered a lot more than any of them over this. And yes, even more than Robin herself. Olivia had been betrayed many times over and in the end had wrongly been left carrying the guilt.

“He wasn’t always that bad, you know, and he loved you very much.”

Olivia shook her head sadly. “He loved the idea of me, Robin. He got a hell of a shock when we split up because he didn’t see it coming. He just liked the idea of his being in control, and when I pulled the plug he was blindsided.”

“Maybe, but that never excused what
I
did.” She thought of the mess she had made of their friendship.

“You just fell for the same things that I did, his smile, his charm, and that so-called little-boy-lost routine. Peter was always very skilled at making women fall for him.” Olivia was looking at things a lot more clearly now. “I think I might have known it at the time, but I didn’t want to admit it. It was easier to think that you two just had a drunken fling, but I don’t think it was quite like that.”

Robin simply nodded. She didn’t really want to get into that night with Olivia – it wasn’t fair to her.

“Anyway,” Olivia sighed, “he’s out of both of our lives now and, to be honest, I think we’re the better for it!” She grinned. “He can have his bloody divorce and good riddance! Although, in fairness, he was great with Jake.”

There was silence for a long moment, as both women were lost in their own thoughts, neither knowing quite what to say next.

Then Olivia reached into her bag, took something out and laid it on her lap. She looked speculatively at Robin.

“I brought some photographs – of Jake,” she said carefully, and Robin’s heart leapt with nerves, anticipation, she wasn’t quite sure what. “I was planning on sending you one on each birthday, but you were so insistent that you didn’t want to know …”

Her stomach fluttered. “You were right – back then, it would only have made things harder.” She paused, and stared at the small photo-album on her friend’s lap. Then she smiled. “But I’d love to see them now.” And she realised that she meant it.

“I hoped you would,” Olivia said, smiling too.

She laid the photo album on the table, and they both moved their chairs closer around it. Then the two friends sat side by side as Olivia slowly turned the first page.

P
oor Amanda lay
deathlike on the bed, looking tired and worn-out, although Leah could see that her make-up had been carefully applied, and her hair was freshly washed.

“Hello, Mummy Clarke,” she said, and Amanda’s eyes opened wide with delight when she saw her two visitors.

“Hi!” she said sitting up easily, and then, as if remembering, her face contorted into a grimace worthy of a day-time-soap actress. “Ah, I’m sorry,” she whispered frailly, “but I’m still so sore ….”

“You poor thing!” Kate soothed, but Leah could hear the sadistic pleasure in her tone. “So it wasn’t as beautiful an experience as you’d imagined?”

“Kate there is nothing beautiful about any of it, as you well know,” she said huffily. “I can’t understand how they honestly think there’s anything natural about all that huffing and puffing and pushing and, oh, don’t get me started!”

“You did it though, didn’t you?” Leah said, looking in awe at the tiny pink bundle in the crib beside the bed. “And she’s beautiful.”

“Just like her mum!” Andrew bellowed, upon entering the room. He leant over Amanda and gave her a delicate kiss on the forehead.

“Mmm, stay away from me, you – it’s all
your
fault I’m here in the first place,” Amanda groaned, looking thoroughly peeved. “And that’s another thing that’s totally unfair,” she said, addressing Kate, as if by magic the two of them were now best friends, ‘sisters of labour’ and all that. “Why do they let men in the delivery room with cameras? Honestly! Throughout the entire gruesome and hellish experience I didn’t see Andrew for dust, and then when it was all over and I’m lying in the bed looking like
The Wreck of the Hesperus
, with my hair matted to my forehand and my face drenched with sweat, he arrives in with the camera.”

Leah smiled at the mention of a camera, and realised that it didn’t hurt her quite so much any more. She wasn’t over Josh, but she was on her way and she knew she’d get through it. The thought cheered her immensely.

“Just think, you’ll be able to look back on it in years to come and little – little, hey, did you pick a name for her yet?” Kate asked.

Andrew and Amanda’s eyes met and a secret smile passed between them. “Yes, we’re going to call her Lulu,” Amanda confirmed.

“Aww,”
Leah and Kate said in unison.

“Sorry, we missed that – what are you calling her?” Olivia said from the doorway. And to Leah’s total amazement and delight, standing behind her was Robin.

“Come in, come in – Robin!” Andrew grinned, surprised. “It’s great to see you.”

“Thanks,” Robin smiled shyly around the room. She and Kate looked at one another warily, but eventually Kate smiled too.

“Well, I must admit, I didn’t expect this many visitors,” Amanda said, although Leah could tell she was delighted that so many of her friends had seen fit to visit her. Then she looked around. “Me, Andrew, Leah, Kate, Olivia, Robin – it’s almost like a reunion.”

“Like the reunion that never was?” Kate said sardonically. “I told you all it was a stupid idea, but of course, you had to insist, and you were all so sure, and then I said …”

Leah stood back and looked around at the faces of her friends, the faces of the people she knew would help her get through the difficult times ahead.

She and Kate had a great chat over lunch, and she knew now that Kate had been afraid to ask for help with Dylan, because she worried Leah might feel obliged. She also worried that Leah would find it difficult, knowing well that she had made a huge sacrifice for Josh, and not wanting to shove her own motherhood in her face.

Obviously Robin and Olivia had sorted out a few things too, and now the two of them looked relaxed and easy with one another. It was wonderful.

Amanda had the new baby in her arms now, and she and Andrew were looking from their daughter back to one another with such love and pride that Leah knew that motherhood –
parent
hood – was an experience she didn’t want to miss, she didn’t want to sacrifice.

She smiled inwardly. Goodness knows who the misfortunate father would be but …

“My, don’t you have a lot of friends, Mrs Clarke.” A nurse came in on her rounds and smiled graciously at them all.

Amanda beamed. “Yes, I suppose I do,” she said proudly.

“Well, give me that camera of yours, Mr Clarke,” the nurse said to Andrew, “and I’ll get a photograph.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Of course not – this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day, and I know what it can be like. By the next time you lot get together it could be ages.”

“Thanks – I appreciate that.”

They all gathered round the bed, and just then Leah realised that this
was
a reunion of sorts, and although they were missing the one that had scattered them apart, they had gained one who it seemed had somehow brought them together again.

It was as though this was a new chapter, a new beginning – for all of them.

Six happy faces looked into the camera and smiled.

The other one just yawned.

L
eah took
a deep breath and tried to calm herself. This was easily the most terrifying experience of her life. Worse than starting her business, worse than opening the shop, even worse than breaking up with Josh.

She pulled into the kerb, trying her best not to drive up onto …
oops,
she’d done it anyway. This wouldn’t be a good start.

Leah turned off the ignition, and glanced in her rear-view mirror. Where the hell was this blasted driving instructor? He’d told her seven pm – it was now well after two minutes past.

While she waited, Leah impatiently tapped the steering wheel. She switched on the radio. Whoever he was, he’d better not tell her that she couldn’t have the radio on while driving. Leah had to have the radio on – it kept her mind off things – and if she didn’t have it on in the background she’d definitely crash the car.

Then Leah suddenly realised that maybe that was why she
shouldn’t
have the music on. It
did
take her mind off things. Only the other morning, she’d been on her way back from Olivia’s house in Lakeview, and was laughing at something the DJ was saying on air and what did she do? Completely miss the turn-off for her way home.

It had been all hours by the time she got back to the apartment, having to drive for ages around the one-way system before turning back around again. Not that she minded much, she thought with a smile. Olivia and she had a great chat, and it was wonderful to see her so happy, carefree and comfortable with Matt. They were great together and Peter was well and truly out of her life now. They had drawn up plans for their divorce, Peter had applied for full residency in Australia, and Olivia and Ellie were finally free to move on.

In fact, all her friends seemed happy with themselves lately. Back in the States, Robin and Ben had finally found their dream house and were making plans to move in shortly. Her little book had done well upon publication, and there were high hopes for the subsequent releases.

Leah suspected that an engagement might be on the cards for them soon too as, upon her return to New York, Robin had told Ben everything about her past.

“I think he might have suspected something like that anyway,” she’d told Leah shortly afterwards. “He knew I was running away from something back home. But he’s fine about it, and we’re going to talk seriously about where we go from here.”

Leah suspected that Robin would be at her happiest staying in New York. She had a good lifestyle there and, indeed, it was probably the best place for someone like her to live successfully with her allergy. Leah too had booked her long-awaited and well-earned holiday, and was due to visit Robin and Ben in the new house soon. She couldn’t wait.

Amanda, to everyone’s surprise, had taken to motherhood like a duck to water and incredibly was being a huge help to Kate. This in turn was helping Kate to grow more confident with Dylan, and by comparing notes with Amanda she didn’t feel so isolated.

Leah was so busy thinking about how well things had turned out for her friends, that she almost didn’t hear the sharp tapping at the driver’s window.

She looked up and saw what had to be one of the youngest, but
cutest
driving instructors she had ever seen. Why hadn’t she done this ages ago? Leah thought with a grin, opening the car door and getting out. A little bit of flirtation would definitely be on the cards here.

“Leah, is it?” the instructor asked.

“That’s me,” she answered, eyeing him unashamedly as he walked round the car, and then sat into the passenger seat.

“I’m Ian. Sorry I’m a little late,” he said but Leah barely heard him. She was too busy trying not to stare. Look at those stunning dark eyes, those huge hands, and that smile – jeez. And dare she say it; he was even more attractive than Josh.

“So is this your first lesson?” he asked, with a friendly smile.

Leah quickly stopped staring and resolved to concentrate on the task in hand.

“Yes, it is my first lesson and to be honest I’m a bit of a disaster. I’ve failed my test three times in a row now, and although I try my best, I know I’m a terrible driver, and I just want to say that you have a big job ahead of you because I will never,
ever
, be able to pass this bloody test.” She couldn’t resist a coquettish flick of her dark hair.

“Don’t be so defeatist,” he said, shrugging. “I’ve taught lots of different kinds of drivers over the years, some good, some bad and some downright terrifying.”

Leah groaned. She was definitely in the latter category. “I can imagine.”

“But,” Ian continued, and Leah tried her best not to stare at that undeniably sexy mouth, “when it comes to any pupil, no matter how good or how bad, we driving instructors have a little saying about the driving test.”

“Yeah, and what’s that?” Leah asked, thinking that she didn’t care a jot about the test, but she couldn’t wait to get going on the lessons – especially now.

Ian looked at her sideways, and winked.

“Never say never.”

E
njoyed this book
? Read on for an excerpt of another Lakeview novel, THE WEDDING INVITE

C
hloe Fallon knew
she should be concentrating on her driving, but she couldn’t help it. She just
couldn’t
look away. There it was glistening attractively in the afternoon sunshine, newly polished and extraordinary, adorning the third finger of her left hand. Was there anything in the whole wide world more exhilarating than an engagement ring –
your own
engagement ring?

She didn’t think so.

“So what do you think I should wear on Sunday?” her best friend asked.

Lynne had been chattering down the phone about her latest shopping trip for the last twenty minutes. Chloe loved a good natter about what to wear as much as the next girl, but she just wasn’t in the right frame of mind for discussing the merits of see-through strap bras as opposed to strapless ones – not today. She was just too excited.

“Lynne I really have to hang up – there’s a patrol car ahead,” she said, deciding she’d better pay more attention to the road.

“Oh OK.” The other girl sounded disappointed. “I suppose I’ll see you at Alison’s barbecue – you and Dan are going?”

“Should be,” Chloe replied. “I’ll talk to you later – wish me luck!”

After they had said their goodbyes, she hung up and tossed her mobile onto the passenger seat.
Of course
she and Dan would be at the barbecue on Sunday. Chloe had picked up an amazing beaded top to go with her cropped white trousers especially for the occasion and she would be damned if she was going to miss the opportunity to show it off.

She shivered with excitement as she approached the pretty little tourist town of Lakeview, about twenty minutes drive from Dublin. It was a shame that Dan couldn’t come with her today but he had simply laughed when she suggested that he take the morning off to drive down with her.

Sometimes Dan didn’t understand how much all of this meant to her.

Chloe weaved through the busy main street – she hadn’t expected the place to be so thronged. The popular tourist village – centred round a broad oxbow lake from which it took its name – was very charming certainly. The lake itself, surrounded by low-hanging beech and willow trees, wound its way around the centre and a small humpback stone bridge joined all sides of the township together.

But it was the cobbled streets and ornate lanterns on Main Street, as well as the beautiful one-hundred-year-old artisan cottages decorated with hanging floral baskets that were the true attraction here. Because of its picturesque beauty, the village had long ago been designated heritage status by the Irish Tourist Board, so the chocolate-box look and feel of the place was intentionally well preserved.

And the main reason that there were so many tourists clogging up the roads, Chloe thought impatiently.

Attempting to negotiate a narrow stretch of road between cars parked on each side of the street, she was horrified to find that not only had she clipped her own wing mirror but her Rav4 had actually shattered the mirror of the Astra parked on her right.

Yikes! Heart pounding, she sped on as if nothing had happened. There was no one in the car, and she didn’t think anyone had seen her, so if she could get away with it …

Anyway it was the driver’s fault for parking on double yellow lines, she reasurred herself. What else could he expect? She was no Michael Shumacher after all. And she was in a hurry – and just didn’t have time to wait around and discuss broken mirrors. She could always pop back later and leave a note and her mobile number on the windscreen or something. Maybe. Oh dear, why did this have to happen today – and a broken mirror of all things.

If Lynne were here, no doubt she’d start going on about seven years’ bad luck and all that. Her friend was unbelievably superstitious and on an important day like today, Chloe did not want to even
think
about the possibility of bad luck.

Finally finding a space just off the main street near the recreational park alongside the lake, she removed her sunglasses and checked her reflection in the rear-view mirror. She applied a fresh coat of Mac ‘Siss’ lipstick and touched up her foundation. Eventually pleased with what she saw, she got out and locked her jeep, but couldn’t help checking her reflection once more in the driver’s window. Using her sunglasses to tuck her blonde bob behind her ears, she straightened her skirt and began walking purposefully down the street. She smiled when a gang of teenagers loitering outside an attractive café on the corner wolf-whistled as she passed them by. Probably admiring her long legs. Well, Chloe thought with a self-satisfied grin, they were worth admiring.

Minutes later she pushed open the door of Amazing Days Design and walked directly to the sales counter.

“Hello I’m looking for Debbie, please. I spoke with her on the telephone yesterday,” she said in a business-like tone.

The teenage sales assistant regarded her with a bored look. “She’s in Ella’s,” she said rudely without looking up from her magazine.

Hardly a good first impression in a place like this, Chloe thought. “Ella’s?” she repeated quizzically.

“The Heartbreak Café next door,” the girl replied as if Chloe should recognise what was obviously a local haunt. “On her lunch.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sure you can help me then,” she said impatiently. “I’m here to see some designs –”

“Hello there!” The aforementioned Debbie piped up from the doorway, apparently back from her lunch break. “Sorry to keep you waiting, but I didn’t think you’d be here until two.”

Chloe said nothing. According to her watch it was
just
two. Still, she supposed she’d better not be too uptight. “I’m just dying to see them,” she said with as much cordiality as she could muster, while secretly hoping the place didn’t apply this laissez-faire attitude to every aspect of their business.

Debbie smiled. “Well I came up with a few designs that might be suitable. Come in back and I’ll show them to you.”

Chloe eagerly followed her towards the rear of the store.

“You said on the phone that a friend recommended me?” Debbie probed.

“Alison Caffrey – well, she’s Alison Kelly now,” Chloe explained. “Everyone was raving about her invites and when I began planning my own wedding I asked her for your details.” It had absolutely
killed
Chloe to have to ask stuck-up Alison for the Amazing Days Design number, but if she and Dan wanted the best she had to bite the bullet.

“Ah yes, Alison,” Debbie recalled. “She chose the gold-inscribed linen, if I remember correctly. But you said you were looking for something a little less traditional?”

Chloe nodded. Actually something completely unlike Alison’s. She couldn’t have people suggest that she was stealing her friend’s idea. Not in a million years. These designs had better be good and hopefully the drive down here to the back of beyond wouldn’t be a complete waste of time.

“Well take a look at these and see what you think,” Debbie said pleasantly. “I used the details you gave me on the phone, and came up with a few personalised samples.”

Chloe gasped when she saw the assortment of cards on the table.

“Wow, these are gorgeous,” she exclaimed, examining a white hammer-effect card with a picture of a cute smiling flowerpot ‘couple’ on the front, and tied with a scarlet ribbon – the colour of Chloe’s bridesmaids’ dresses. It was pretty but perhaps a little tacky too – she had been hoping for something a bit classier. Then a second card caught her eye: this one plain white with embossed silver stained-glass-effect border, and elevated silver hearts in the centre.

She opened the second card, and felt her heart leap with pride as there, inscribed in silver foil were the words she had been waiting to see:

“
O
h
, they’re really beautiful!” she exclaimed, putting a hand to her mouth.

She was getting married. She was really getting married. Chloe had been dreaming about her own wedding for most of her twenty-eight years, yet she didn’t think that it had really hit her, not until then – not until she’d seen the words written down.

Of course she’d done all the other things – reserved the Sharon Hoey dress, ordered the flowers, booked the hotel – but the dress was just a design, it wasn’t yet hers, and the flowers were just a ‘concept’ in the florist’s artistic little head. But here
now
, Chloe was holding in her hand tangible evidence of her forthcoming wedding, and she didn’t think she had ever felt so exhilarated in her entire life.

“Are you alright?” she heard Debbie ask kindly.

Chloe turned to her, blinking back tears.

“You know it’s lovely to see a reaction like yours,” Debbie continued, when Chloe didn’t respond. “I’ve always thought that the wedding invite should be chosen with as much if not more thought as the wedding dress. After all, the invites herald the entire showpiece. Your guests get to see those before they get to see the dress, the flowers and the rest of it.”

“Ah – I’m just being silly,” Chloe said, collecting herself. She really shouldn’t have let Debbie see her react like that. Now the woman would probably charge them a fortune.

“It’s alright, dear,” Debbie said, obviously mistaking Chloe’s change of expression for embarrassment. “You don’t need to explain anything to me. Now do you want a cuppa while you pick the design you want, or will I just leave you to it?”

“I think the design chose me,” Chloe said, unable to let go of the silver-embossed card she grasped in her left hand.

“You’re sure? You don’t need to OK it with Himself or anything?”

“No, it’s my decision and he’ll be happy to go along with my choice. Anyway,” Chloe added dismissively, “you know what men are like.”

How
dare
the woman undermine her relationship. As if she would have to ‘OK’ it with anyone.

“I do indeed,” Debbie agreed seemingly unaware of her customer’s affronted feelings, “but you’d be surprised. I had a couple in here last weekend and your man was calling all the shots and wouldn’t let the girlfriend get a word in edgeways. I tell you, he was one of the fussiest divils I’ve ever come across, enquiring about the origins of the paper we use, and the environmentally friendliness of the ink and all that. And the same fella was wearing a leather jacket. The misfortunate wife-to-be was mortified by the time they left the place.”

How unprofessional. In Chloe’s eyes, the customer was always right, and she wasn’t too impressed to hear Debbie gossiping merrily about one Amazing Days Design client to another. Idle chitchat was no doubt a way of life down here in the country. Chloe would have preferred to employ a wedding-stationery designer from Dublin, but nothing in the city had come close to Amazing Days. Such unprofessional conduct was obviously the price you had to pay for dealing with a company in the sticks.

She chuckled inwardly. Dan would murder her if she said something like that in front of him. Her fiance had been born and bred in Longford and was proud of it. Still well-educated as he was, his culchie roots didn’t show and to Chloe that was the main thing.

Not that Mr & Mrs Hunt were farmers or anything like that – nothing of the sort actually. Although semi-retired, Dan’s father owned a construction company and Mrs Hunt had ‘supported him’ throughout his working years.

Something Chloe wouldn’t mind doing for Dan once they got married. She hated her job as legal secretary to one of her father’s partners in his solicitor’s practice. Although she supposed there were
some
perks. Like taking time off on a Friday afternoon to choose wedding invites, for example.

Chloe sighed as she studied the invite. She wouldn’t mind Dan getting just a teeny bit more involved in the wedding plans, but it wasn’t really his thing. Anyway, he was just too busy – especially at this time of the year. Most of the companies on the books of O’Leary & Hunt Chartered Certified Accountants had their accounts year-end in March, which meant that by the middle of April Dan was up to his eyes preparing profit and loss accounts and balance sheets. She could hardly expect him to traipse around after her at the weekends, or take afternoons off just to choose their wedding stationery.

“Embossed Silver Hearts it is then,” Debbie said, writing the details in her order book, which Chloe noted seemed to be full of clients. She wasn’t surprised. The Lakeview company had really created a name for itself, and it wasn’t difficult to see why.

It was a pity though that so many people seemed to have heard of them. Would Amazing Days Design invites be two-a-penny by the time their wedding came around, and would everyone poke fun at Chloe’s lack of originality?

“The wedding is when – September?” Debbie said, a pen in her mouth. “And you said you want matching place-cards and evening invites too?”

Chloe nodded.

“OK,” she said, studying the order book, “I should have them ready for about the first week in July – how does that sound?”

“I’d actually prefer earlier,” Chloe said quickly. “We’ll need them well before then.”

First week in July indeed. That was four months away – how long did it take to run off a few invites?

Debbie looked apologetic. “The card you’ve chosen is one of our newer designs for this year and unfortunately, stock for the full set won’t be available until early June. And I’ll need a few weeks from then to work on the inscriptions.”

“Of course.” Well at least now Chloe knew that her chosen design
would
be original.

“And because you’re ordering so far ahead,” Debbie went on, “I would always suggest that my customers leave it as close as they can to the wedding itself before deciding on final particulars, just in case anything needs to be changed in the meantime.”