Page 60 of Doc Hollywood

“Did you phone him, or did he phone you?” Sadie questioned.

“He phoned me,” Clara admitted.

“Are you two playing this week or not?” Mike called from across the table, waving the picture sheet at them.

“Yeah,” Clara said back, using it as an excuse not to speak any more about Taylor.

“This conversation isn’t finished. You’re coming round for dinner this weekend, and we’re going to have a chat,” Sadie murmured.

Clara just nodded.

CHAPTER 16

Clara took a big sip of the glass of wine that Sadie had just handed her, bracing herself for the onslaught of questions, but she was saved when a small boy came hurtling into the room and grabbed her around the legs.

“Clara!” Austin, the six-year-old son of Sadie, squealed.

“Hi, squirt.” She beamed, bending down and hugging him.

“Austin. Get back up here; it’s bedtime.” George’s voice rang out from the top of the stairs.

“In a minute,” Austin yelled.

“Now!” George replied.

Clara chuckled.“ You’d better go back upstairs.”

“Austin. You’re meant to be going to bed so mummy can chat with Aunty Clara,” George called.

“About Superman?” Austin chortled.

Clara had just taken a sip of wine and began to choke on it.

“Bed,” Sadie said firmly, pointing to the door.

“Mum—“ Austin pleaded.

“Bed!” Sadie repeated, pointing her son out of the kitchen door.

With a final huff, Austin dashed out of the room and back up the stairs to his yelling dad.

“I mean. He’s not wrong,” Sadie shrugged and handed Clara some tissues, whose eyes were watering from inhaling the wine. “I do want to talk to you about Superman.”

Clara stared down at her glass, mumbling, “Okay. What do you want to know.”

“Everything. I get the feeling you’ve withheld a lot of information from me.”

Clara nodded. She had told her best friend all about the week she had spent with Taylor in minuscule detail, and they had spent several evenings drinking wine and dissecting it all. But, for some reason, Clara hadn’t told Sadie anything about the text messages from Taylor.

Setting her drink down, she steeled her nerves and fished in her bag, pulling her phone out.

“We’ve been texting,” she muttered. Opening the message thread, she shoved it across the table to Sadie.

Sadie spent a few minutes scrolling through the messages until she finally said, “He texts you every day. Multiple times a day.”

“Yeah.” Clara nodded in agreement.

“And he phones you?”

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