Page 70 of In This Together

She tried to smile but couldn’t manage it. Seeing Mike was a reality check. A reminder that she really did have something growing inside her. That she didn’t know who the father was. That Tommy was upstairs, expecting her to go to dinner and continue their fling until he next went on the road, and she was down here, in the basement, thinking…

She dragged in a sharp breath… Thinking she wished the baby were his.

Clearing her throat, she stepped down from the Range Rover. ‘Hi, Mike.’

‘Andrea.’

She rolled her eyes at his usual stoicism – an impressive rival for her own.

Before she had a chance to make one of a number of confessions, Mike asked, ‘Are you okay?’

She felt her eyes widen. Did he know? Was it written all over her face? Could he sense that she was pregnant?

He inclined his head in the direction of the scratched hood of the car. ‘The damage.’

The car. Shit.

Relief flooded her. ‘I’m sorry… I… A car just… I went into the back of someone. I gave the driver the insurance details from the glove box. I don’t think there’s much damage. A few dints and scratches. She’s driving fine.’

He took the keys from Andrea and walked around the car to get a better look at the damage, bending to rub each mark, making her feel even worse in the process.

How on earth was she going to explain this to Tommy? She couldn’t exactly say she was in a fluster, mulling over whether she should get rid of the child inside her or not.Oh, that’s right, I’m pregnant, funny thing. You’re not cross? No, it may not be yours. It could in fact be the child of my best friend’s dad.

She backed away from the car, gripping the strap of her purse on her shoulder for support.

Mike looked up to her. ‘Where are you going?’

Where was she going? Anywhere. Nowhere. There was nowhere she wanted to be, except with Tommy, where she couldn’t be. She had nowhere to go.

‘Please, tell him I’m sorry,’ she said, before making a run for it.

18

ROSALIE

As she stood outside arrivals with Seth, Billy, Frankie and all their gear, waiting for a minivan to pick them up, Rosalie inhaled the southern air. There was something so homey and provincial about the south.

‘You all right there, Rosalie?’ Frankie asked. ‘Kinda look like you’re smellin’ a burger truck.’

She pursed her lips, brought her Dior shades to the tip of her nose and, looking over the rim, told Frankie, ‘Do you really think I would relish the thought of a fatty burger?’

‘Now that you mention it…’

Replacing her glasses, she smiled. ‘You boys only ever think about your stomachs, don’t you?’

‘No, sometimes I think of my mouth, and how it would like to taste a burger and a beer before they hit my stomach,’ Billy said. ‘Is anyone else starving?’

‘Don’t worry,’ Seth said. ‘If there’s one thing we know how to do in the south, it’s feed people. My old man will have had the grill stoked all afternoon, smoking meat for us. Wait ’til you taste his ribs.’

‘Oh, are we going to visit your dad before we go to the hotel? Or are we dropping our things to the hotel first?’

Seth seemed to scowl from behind his thick black shades. ‘We’re staying with my old man. He offered, Sofia was grateful, and down here, somebody offers you hospitality and you turn it down, we have a word for that. It’srude.’

Before Rosalie could retort or protest, a black minivan pulled up in front of them and the guys loaded their gear inside. The van smelled of cheap air-freshener and the leather on the seats was coming away at the edges. Rosalie considered her pink wrap dress and the damage those seats would do to the crepe material. She looked at the dirty step up to the van and feared for the cream leather of her Aquazzurabow-embellished sandals, bought new for the trip. Oh, she couldn’t do it to them. Her beautiful shoes.

‘Are you going to get in the van?’ Seth asked, appearing at her side in his staple stonewash jeans and scruffy boots. How could he possibly understand the dilemma she faced?

Was it too late to arrange herself a luxury transfer? Why hadn’t she checked the schedule Sofia had given her in more detail?

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