Page 82 of For Love or Money
‘Almost always,’ he murmured.
‘Almost,’ she said with a faraway look.
‘Well, you’re still speaking to me. That must say something.’
‘It says a lot,’ Jane said, smiling at him. ‘I think we’re doing okay for an old divorced couple.’
‘We’re bloody marvellous. I’m glad you were able to come,’ he said to her. ‘It’s nice being back here, all of us together. It makes me feel like my old self again.’
‘Your young self, you mean. That’s what you really want.’
‘Isn’t that what we all want?’
Jane shrugged. ‘I have no desire to be twenty again. I think it suits me being a wise old owl. I’ve grown out of my looks and into my personality.’
Peter raised his eyebrows. ‘When did you get to be so mature?’
‘Three-score years and ten will do that to you.’
‘Or not,’ Peter said with a cheeky grin.
Jane laughed. ‘Or not.’
‘Anyway, you haven’t grown out of your looks. Age has not withered you.’ It was true. She had a different kind of beauty now, but it was no less compelling.
‘Says the man engaged to a twenty-six-year-old.’
‘We didn’t split up because I stopped fancying you,’ he reminded her.
‘No.’ She smiled bitterly. ‘We split up because you didn’t stop fancying everyone else.’
Peter sighed. No good would come of picking at those old scabs. ‘I finished your book,’ he said, nodding to the iPad beside him.
‘Well?’ She raised an eyebrow, sitting up straighter, probably as glad to change the subject as he was.
‘I thought it was marvellous.’
‘Really?’ Her face lit up with delight.
‘Absolutely. Your best yet.’
‘You always say that,’ she said dismissively, but she still looked pleased.
‘What can I say? It’s always true. You get better and better. I don’t have a single note.’
‘Can you be my editor? Because I just got an email from Kate this morning, and she’s got pages and pages.’
‘Well, there was just one thing. It’s very minor, but—’
He was interrupted by Jane’s mobile ringing.
‘Oh, hold that thought. Hello?’ She stood as she answered the phone, making an apologetic face at him.
She went to the wooden walkway, and he watched her pacing back and forth as she talked on her phone. She returned after a few minutes, and plopped back down in the lounger next to him, tossing her phone on the table beside her.
‘That was Jonathan,’ she said. ‘They’re having a party on Saturday at their place and we’re all invited.’
‘That’s nice,’ Peter said. ‘I haven’t seen Jonathan and Sophie in ages.’
