‘I mean, obviously not if you don’t want to. Forget I mentioned it.’ Declan was still focusing over-hard on the door in front of them.
Oh.Oh.
He’d just asked out of politeness.
Well, fine then.Fine. If she decided to look for a job, there’d be other options.
Inside, it was big and noisy and petrolly, and, oh Gawd, everyone was wearing padded boiler suits which clearly weren’t that flattering.
When she had hers on, she turned round and bumped straight into Declan. He smiled at her, that lopsided, just-for-her smile that she’d always loved.
‘You arecutein that,’ he whispered in her ear. Honestly, he was such a good actor. He really did sound as though he meant it.
She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror looking honestly like a Michelin man. Yeah, no, clearly he did not mean it.
‘Great acting,’ she told him.
He shook his head, his smile gone. ‘Not acting.’ Yeah, whatever.
Poppy said nothing further, instead whisking herself away to talk to her lovely godson Max, who Beth had suggested Georgie bring to replace Dominic, who predictably was busy with work this evening.
When, a couple of minutes later, one of the people who worked there did a loud hand-clap and asked them to go into the briefing room, Poppy happened to look over at Georgie and Raf. They were sitting at a table, just the two of them, Georgie clearly telling some kind of story, and Raf with his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand, eyes focused fully on Georgie, justgazingat her, and smiling a big, lazy smile, like he was justenjoyingher.
It was gorgeous. It was the kind of moment that Poppy used to share with Declan, in what now felt like the dim and distant past.
The pre go-karting briefing was an excellent opportunity for observing everyone else, especially Declan.
Raf and Georgie ended up next to each other again, with Max this time, and honestly the three of them almost looked like a unit. Poppy reallyhoped for Georgie that she and Raf would end up in a relationship; they just looked righttogether.
Beth was being a teensy bit gormless about the whole thing, and as Noah was explaining matters to her he looked secretly adoring.
Declan was standing by himself, shooting slightly odd looks around the room. You’d actually have to use the wordshiftyto describe his demeanour. Whywas he being shiftynow? Did he think someone else here knew about his affair?
‘You got everything I said?’ the go-karting man asked, interrupting her thoughts.
‘Yes, definitely,’ she lied.
How hard could it be? Although, eek, now she was looking at the go-karts she was thinking she should maybe have listened. Like, how did you even get them started?
She felt an arm – Declan’s, obviously – slide round her Michelin-man-like waist, and stiffened.
‘Good to go?’ he asked.
‘Yes, thanks.’ She couldn’t carry on pretending for much longer and she did not want a cosy little conversation now where she smiled while he summed up the instructions. She’d rather just not be able to work the kart.
She stalled three times during her first lap and accidentally drove hard into the tyres by the side of the track, and by the end she was definitely in last position time-wise. Hmm. She screwed her face up inside her helmet. It kind of felt like she was a bit rubbish at everything at the moment.
And then Max shot past her on her inside. Andwhat? Eleven-year-olds were overtaking her now?
No.
They were not. No way.
Poppy shoved her foot down as hard as she could and she and her kart flew forwards.
And it wasamazing. She’d already crashed hard and knew that it did not hurt, so now she had no fear, which was an excellent position to be in.
She skidded round the next corner, fought with the wheel and stayed in command of her kart, squeezing past Raf on the inside.
