Page 34 of Daydreams & Doughnut Cake

‘I’d love to. I’ve... missed her.’ She smiled wistfully. ‘Danny’s driving as well. He’s on the non-alcoholic beer.’ She nodded over at him. He was laughing at something Brian was saying. ‘Another orange juice, then? I’ll get them this time.’

‘Okay. Thanks. Are you staying longer than the actual wedding? It would be good to have a catch-up, just you, me and Amelie?’

She nodded. ‘We’re here until early Monday morning so there’s plenty of time.’

‘Great!’

As we walked back to the table, I was smiling to myself, thinking I hadn’t felt this happy for a long time.

I’d missed having these people in my life more than I’d realised. But now that we’d reunited, I was determined to stay in touch this time.

We were all getting on really well. Even Clare was being super warm and friendly towards me.

My sinister intruder couldn’t possibly be her and I found myself feeling very relieved indeed about that...

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

As we were all leaving the Swan Hotel, Danny offered me a lift back to Risley Common.

‘You’re a badminton player, then?’ I said, noticing the racquet and tube of shuttlecocks in the back seat of his car as I got into the passenger seat.

The conversation was flowing nicely. I’d thought it might be awkward after all this time but to my huge relief, we were managing to chat and laugh about sharing the house in Brighton, subtly skirting around other much trickier subjects.

‘Yes. I’ve joined a club where I’m working now. In Worthing. Although I still live in Brighton.’

Something snagged at my memory as we drove along. ‘Didn’t you used to play badminton with Clare when we lived in Rustic Place?’

‘Yeah, we joined the university badminton club and I went along for the first few weeks of term.’

‘You dropped out for some reason, although Clare kept going all through her time at uni.’

Danny gave a sheepish grin. ‘You invited me to try ten-pin bowling with you and it clashed with the badminton club night.’

‘Oh, yes. I remember now. Those were great nights. On to the pub afterwards. Jackie started joining us eventually.’

‘She did. We went practically every week during that first term. I beat you both every time, of course,’ he added, tongue in cheek.

I chuckled. ‘No, you didn’t. I seem to remember I was pretty good at it myself.’ I smiled, shaking my head. ‘I’d completely forgotten about our ten-pin bowling nights.’

‘It’s funny the things you remember.’

‘We used to go on the same night every week.’

He nodded. ‘Wednesdays. It was Wednesdays.’

I turned to him. ‘How on earth do you rememberthat?’

He gave a sheepish shrug. ‘I was such a saddo back then, those nights were probably the highlight of my week.’

I laughed. ‘Well,that’srubbish for a start, Danny! You were the most sociable of all of us. Honestly, I got quite used to walking into the kitchen in the morning and finding your latest glam girlfriend drifting around in one of your T-shirts and a pair of knickers making herself coffee.’

He chuckled. ‘You make it sound as if it was a regular occurrence.’

‘Well, wasn’t it?’

‘Certainly not. And by the way, I take offence at that stain on my character.’

We exchanged a grin and Danny added, ‘And here I was thinking it was onlymewith the great memory for the things we did back then.’

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