Page 39 of The Runaway Wives

‘Are you sure? How do you know?’ she asked.

‘My friend, Katya, you’ve met her a couple of times, is in Portugal on holiday, in the same resort, and she saw Nigel and Andrew arm in arm with some women. She sent me photos. Do you want to see them?’

There could be nothing in it. They could just be friends, Dee thought. Like she was friends with Kenny. If someone took a photo of her talking to Kenny, that might look a bit suspicious, mightn’t it?

‘Yes, send them over. There could be an innocent explanation.’ She desperately hoped that there was.

‘I’ll call you back when I’ve sent them,’ Yvonne told her.

A few seconds later her phone pinged. She opened up the message. There were two photos and a short video. She opened the photos first. The first photo showed Nigel walking along the street holding hands with an attractive woman. Dee couldn’t remember the last time Nigel had held hands with her. She pressed her fingers on the screen to enlarge the photo, the woman looked to be in her mid-fifties and their hands were clasped close together, fingers entwined. The next photo showed them sitting opposite each other, drinking a beer. Nigel was holding the woman’s hand across the table and they were gazing into each other’s eyes. She braced herself and played the video. Nigel and the woman embracing, kissing. Like he hadn’t kissed Dee for a long time. And definitely not the way you kissed a friend.

The phone rang. It was Yvonne. ‘The ones with Andrew are similar. I think there’s no doubt that they’re cheating on us. I’m booking a flight out to Portugal tonight and I’m confronting Andrew before he leaves. Let him wiggle his way out of this one. Want to come with me?’

Dee couldn’t think of anything worse than flying over to Portugal in order to see Nigel with another woman. ‘No, I don’t. I’ll talk to Nigel when he comes back.’

‘He’ll worm his way out of it, men always do. If we confront them, then they won’t have chance to come up with a story.’

‘Yvonne, the way I feel right now if Nigel wants to go off with another woman, she’s welcome to him.’

‘Do you want me to give him a message from you?’ Yvonne asked.

‘No. I’ll deal with it when he comes back home. Thanks for telling me though, and good luck.’

* * *

Andi put a steaming mug in front of her. ‘Want to talk or be left alone?’

Dee closed her eyes briefly. ‘Just give me a few moments.’

She couldn’t believe that she’d said that to Yvonne. And she’d meant it too. She was tired of worrying about what Nigel was up to. She’d had years of it. She’d put up with it so that she didn’t disrupt the children’s lives, she didn’t want them to suffer, and because somehow Nigel had made it seem like it was her fault. That she never had enough time for him so he’d been forced to seek attention elsewhere.

Well now the children were grown up, she only had to bother about herself. And she didn’t want to put up with it any more. Nigel could do what he wanted. All she wanted was to stay down here in Port Telwyn.

She definitely wasn’t ready to go back and confront Nigel yet. Maybe she never would be. Yvonne would tell him that she’d made Dee aware of what he’d been up to. Let him make the first move. She’d rather stay down here for a while, get her head straight, decide what to do. She’d go to the estate agents tomorrow and see if they had another cottage she could rent for a while, give her time to think. Right now she didn’teverwant to go home.

27

BABS

Dee arrived back at Sunset View ten minutes after Babs sent her the text. She was obviously waiting for a reply and it had been really good of her to give Babs and Geoff space to talk. As soon as she heard the front door open Babs took out the bottle of wine that she’d put in the fridge earlier. ‘Want one?’

‘Heck, yes! Better still, put the straw in the bottle!’ Dee sank down onto the sofa and kicked off her shoes. She took the glass Babs handed her and took a long gulp. ‘Where’s Geoff?’ she asked. ‘Have you two made up?’

Babs nodded. ‘He’s apologised. I’ve agreed to keep an open mind and go on the house viewing trip to Spain with him. And he’s promised to forget the idea if I decide that I really don’t want to move.’ She looked over the rim of her glass at Dee. ‘You were right that there was a reason for his behaviour.’ She told Dee about Geoff’s health scare. ‘He didn’t tell me because he didn’t want to worry me. Idiot! Instead he caused all this mayhem.’

‘Poor Geoff, he must have been worried sick. And yes he should have told you. Are you both all right now?’

‘I’m a bit shook up about it all. I thought me and Geoff were rock solid but now I know we’re not,’ she confessed. ‘Anyway, Geoff’s gone home and I’ve agreed to catch the train back tomorrow morning. I wanted space to pack and talk to you, not just walk out on you without any notice.’ She frowned, suddenly noticing that Dee looked upset and had already downed half of her glass of wine. ‘Listen to me banging on, when there’s obviously something wrong. What’s happened?’

Dee bit her lip and ran her finger alongside the rim of her glass. ‘Yvonne, Andrew’s wife, told me that Nigel and Andrew are both playing AWAY in Portugal. She sent me photos as evidence.’

Babs almost spilled her wine. ‘What, of them actually doing it?’

‘No!’ Dee retorted, eyes flashing. ‘But they’re kissing and holding hands and, well, it’s obvious that they are more than friends.’ She opened the gallery on her phone and showed Babs the pictures and video.

Babs whistled. ‘The arsehole!’

Dee finished off her wine with a long gulp. ‘Yvonne is flying to Portugal tonight to catch them in the act. She doesn’t want to give Andrew the chance to wheedle out of it. She wanted me to go too.’

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