Slightly Foxed (24 page)

doorway, but was instead pursuing any one of my varied,

fascinating hobbies, then hurried to answer the door. Leo

stood on the step wearing a sexy grey top and faded denim

jeans, and with his hair rumpled attractively as though he'd

just got out of bed. My heart did a little double-thump at the

sight of him and I smiled into his green eyes. This was it. Did

I feel different? I felt—yes, something. Was this love? It was

warm and enveloping, and sent a little row of tingles down

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my spine, a burning press through my body. I knew I wanted

him.

"I'm so glad to see you," I said.

"Oh, Alys." Leo stepped forward, and for a moment I

thought he was going to hug me. I moved towards him,

anticipating the hug, but his arms didn't move from his sides

and I ended up standing almost under his chin. "It—you—I'm

glad to see you."

I led him in to the living room as he chatted slightly

shakily about how badly the journey had gone, then rolled his

eyes like a nervous pony at the table of food I'd set out.

"Florrie's coming over from her Dad's later," I explained. "I

thought this would be a good chance for you to meet her."

"I'd love to meet your daughter."

"Oh, and my best friend, Jace, might drop by."

"That's nice," he said hesitantly.

"And Mrs. Treadgold from my book group. She might pop

in too."

"Um. There's not anyone
else
, is there?"

"Anyone else?" Immediately I thought that he was calling

my fidelity into question. Why did that image of Piers in the

summerhouse keep floating through my head?

"Coming over. Tonight." Leo shifted from foot to foot. "I

mean, you're not having a party or anything? I know it was

short notice and everything, so I wouldn't expect you to

cancel your arrangements but—"

"Oh! Oh no, they're coming over to meet you."

"That's nice," Leo repeated. "Look, Alys. I wanted to—"

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He was interrupted by the sound of a key in the lock and

Florrie calling, "Mum!"

"In here," I called back. Florence's head appeared

cautiously around the door.

"Are you...oh good, you're not," she said ambiguously.

"Hello. You're Leo. I'm Florence." More of her arrived in the

room, and there was quite a lot of her on display in a little

cropped top and low-waisted Capri pants. I wondered quickly

whether she'd dressed like that deliberately to flirt with my

boyfriend, then dismissed that as overly paranoid. Florence

thought everyone over thirty was completely past sex and

was staggering rapidly towards the grave.

"And I'm Piers." Piers walked in behind her and stood with

one arm draped across her nearly bare shoulders. "Sorry to

invite myself over, Alys, but Flo wanted to cadge a lift back

later. Alasdair's taking her and Ma to Harrogate tomorrow."

I waved an airy doesn't-matter hand whilst staring at him.

His Sarah must have had a word with him about his terrible

taste in clothes because today he looked all-out gorgeous.

"I got your text, Mum. About Grainger." Florence shrugged

herself away from Piers. "Are they sure he's okay?"

"Doing as well as can be expected. They haven't said when

we can fetch him home. And they've said not to visit in case

he gets upset. Or, more upset than he already is. Apparently

he tried to eat someone yesterday."

"That means he's getting better. Doesn't it?"

I fixed a reassuring smile. "Yes." I couldn't look at Piers.

He had, according to the vet, already paid two hundred

pounds for the consultation, drugs and accommodation fees. I

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squirmed at the thought of how much overtime I was going to

have to work for Simon to pay it back. I'd probably be

shelving until I was seventy.

"And are you Florence's boyfriend?" Leo shook Piers's

extended hand, clearly baffled by this unexpected person.

"I'm her stepbrother," Piers said rather unhelpfully.

"My ex's wife's son," I filled in quickly as Leo glanced at

me. "He's driven Florrie over from Thirsk for the evening." I

allowed my gaze to meet Piers's and was disconcerted when

he gave me a tiny wink. "I, er, I—look, everyone grab

something to eat and ummm...mingle."

The three of them, bless them, did their best to mingle

while I went into the kitchen and took some deep breaths.

When I came out armed with two bottles of wine, Florence

was talking to Leo about ponies. Piers had vanished.

"You didn't tell me Leo owned the Charlton Stud." Florrie

turned accusing eyes on me. "Dylan was by Charlton Thistle.

His mother was a thoroughbred mare." She lapsed back into

horse talk, Leo hanging on her every word, interjecting now

and again with even more jargon about straight pasterns and

cow hocks. I was glad they were hitting it off so well and ate

a sandwich to celebrate.

"The door is open." Jacinta sashayed her way into the

living room. "I am hoping you have food, Alys, I am most

hungry." Her eyes fell on Leo. "You must be man."

I introduced Jacinta to Leo, who shook her hand and

winced. Jace had obviously given him her no-nonsense

handshake, which could have brought tears to a docker. She

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fixed him with eyes carrying enough makeup to have

rendered a corpse presentable in society.

"You are able to be leaving your tiny horses tonight?" she

asked, as though she suspected he might have one or two

tucked into pockets or shoved under the sofa.

"Er. Yes."

Florrie and Jacinta began a discussion about their relative

outfits and the purchasing thereof. Florrie's entire outfit would

have just about made a nice belt for Jace, and the latter was

wearing a purple silk number which made a noise like a

cellophane-rolling plant whenever she moved. Leo carefully

removed himself and came to stand beside me at the food

table.

"Your daughter seems like a nice girl."

"She is. Mostly. And Jace is all right, once you get the

hang of her." We looked at the pair of them chatting and

comparing labels, Florrie so slim, Jace so large and sturdy,

they looked like punctuation on legs. "I'm glad you're here,

Leo."

I reached out and squeezed his hand. "So am I, Alys," he

whispered back. "But they are, you know, going to go away,

aren't they? So that we can talk?"

"Oh, yes. Wait until the food's gone and you won't see

them for dust." I ate another eclair to help things along.

"What prompted this visit anyway?"

"Do I need prompting?" Leo picked at some nuts, watching

Florrie and Jace still chatting. "I found that I could get away

for a couple of days and—well—I felt that we had some

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talking to do. Things to discuss. About us." He looked around.

"Where's the young chap gone?"

"I don't know. I ought to find him. Knowing Piers he's

probably holed up in Florrie's room smoking spliffs." It was

meant to be a joke, but from the way Leo rolled his eyes at

me he'd clearly already marked Piers down as a crack dealer.

I left him in charge of the nuts and went in search.

"What are you doing in here?" I found Piers in Florrie's

bedroom, stretched out at full length on the bed with his

mobile pressed to his ear.

"Ssssssshh." Piers waved a finger at me. "No, not you.

Carry on," he said into the phone.

"Oh, right. Just checking where you'd got to." I pulled back

and went to close the door, but he jumped up, waving an

impatient hand at me to stay. Beckoned me over.

"Could you just say that again, please?" He gathered me

up against him with the arm not supporting the phone,

holding the tiny clamshell between us so that I could hear.

"Just that last bit."

The tinny voice at the other end of the mobile gave a sigh.

"Your cat. Making a remarkable recovery. Quite astonishing."

I gave a little squeak and Piers squeezed me closer,

grinning. "Yeah, well thanks for letting us know. I'll be in

touch later about when we can fetch him home, yeah?" He

flipped the phone shut with a casual twist of his wrist and slid

it back into one of the almost invisible pockets in his suit.

"Good news, eh, Alys? The vet had my card, so they called

me. Hope you don't mind, Grainger being your cat and all.

Apparently, after you phoned this morning, he tried to dig his

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way out of a solid metal cage. Now they reckon he's really on

the mend."

"That's brilliant." I tried not to think about the bill again.

"It's just so good. I mean, seeing him like he was, I didn't

think he'd..." An alternative future rose up and I blinked back

tears. "It's so good," I whispered through the thickening in

my throat.

"Yeah. Tomorrow we could go see him if you want." Piers

swivelled around so that he was facing me, still with an arm

holding me in a half embrace. "I know they told you no

visitors, but, hey, I'll use my charm. Maybe we could make an

evening of it, yeah? Catch a movie, grab a meal—"

"I don't know. There's—well, Leo's here and..."

Piers let the arm fall. "Oh yeah. I forgot. This guy who's

really into horses. You and he—is it, you know? Kinda

serious?"

"I don't know
what
it is. But we get on, we've got a lot in

common. Well, it's not like I'm beating them off with a stick,

is it? Talking of which—" I took a tiny step back. "I'm sorry I

upset you. In the taxi."

"Don't worry about it." Piers had an expression on his face

that I couldn't read. "I shoulda been flattered, I guess."

"I didn't know about Sarah. I'd assumed, which was

stupid. Just because I don't see you with a woman on your

arm every five minutes, doesn't mean you don't have—

girlfriends."

"Oh, yeah, Sarah." There was a deadness in his voice.

"Well. You weren't to know."

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"I told Alasdair that you were taking her down tomorrow.

They're looking forward to meeting her. She must be quite

some woman if she's managed to get you into something as

stylish as that suit." I looked him up and down again. "You

look fantastic."

"Fantastic, huh?" Piers sounded smugly pleased, then...

"You told Alasdair
what
?"

"It's only what you said. Only passing on what you told

me."

"Jeez, Alys. Sometimes you're
so
fucking..."

"Alys? Is that you?" Leo's voice made me jump. I pulled

away from Piers and took another step back, so that I

couldn't feel him against me any more. "What are you doing

in here?"

"Long story." I was rubbing at my arms, as though my skin

was chilly. "Let's go find some more wine." As I left the

bedroom, Piers was standing in the middle of the floor

twisting the rings on one hand. Staring down at the carpet

with his features set, as though he was thinking hard and

fast. Leo looked over his shoulder at him, and I noticed his

expression change. "Is something wrong?"

Leo took my arm and guided me through into the kitchen,

shutting the door behind us very quietly. "That man." His face

had slumped down into lines of weary seriousness, and he

took his glasses off to rub at his eyes. "You and he—"

"The vet had phoned him about my cat. He's at the vet's—

that's the cat, not Piers, obviously. I thought he was going to

die. But he's not. That's still the cat, you knew that, didn't

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you? He's up and about apparently." I wondered even as I

said it why I felt that I had to justify what I'd been doing.

"Never been very fond of cats." Leo stared over my

shoulder and then met my eyes. "Bit allergic. And there's

something about the way they jump at you. I knew there was

nothing to worry about, but I can't help myself, Alys. I'm

sorry."

"What were you worried about?"

"You and that man. You looked— Oh, it's me, wrong end of

the stick, misunderstandings, all that."

"For goodness sake, Leo. He—there's absolutely nothing

going on between me and Piers! I've known him since he was

seventeen," I added, as though this made a difference,

impatience boiling from every pore that Leo could even
think
,

even remotely
suspect
that I would do anything behind his

back. And with
Piers
?

"Yes." Leo was still rubbing his eyes and now he'd

extended the motion to take in his cheeks. I watched his

whole face rising and falling like Eeyore on happy pills.

"Baggage, Alys."

"Baggage? I don't understand."

"From Sabine. I lost count of the number of times I

watched her flirting with other men, whether it was to get