Which turned into quite a long kiss. Raf slid his hands inside her jumper and she put hers under his shirt, and when he kissed her lower and lower down her neck and chest, her legs went almost entirely to jelly, and her resolve not to go inside with him nearly did too.
But no. She was not going inside.
‘I really should go.’ She hoped she didn’t sound as though she was panting (even though she was pretty sure she was).
‘Of course.’ He let go of her immediately.
She got straight into her car before she could be tempted any more.
As she pulled away, she could see in her rear-view mirror that he stood looking after her car the whole time until she turned the corner, his face inscrutable.
What was he thinking?
What hadshebeen thinking? She’d only been hanging out with Raf to get her secret back. Hadn’t she?
15
GEORGIE
The next morning, Georgie arrived bright and early at her new yoga studio.
She’d decided that she would not have time to run, learn Italian and ice jumping, look after Maxanddo her job properly if she had a two-hour round trip yoga commute, so she’d joined the studio on the next road over from her flat in Bristol.
She’d better take a quick selfie to post to the chat. She pasted a smile onto her face for the photo before allowing her features to settle back into a non-smile. The worry about the secret was weighing more and more heavily on her shoulders now. Plus, this morning, in the cold light of day, she was wondering what she’d beenthinkingkissing Raf like that.
After her lesson, she pushed open the door to the studio and exited onto the street, and immediately shivered. She pulled her coat more tightly around herself. It wasfreezing.
As she took her gloves out of her bag, she saw that Declan had posted a photo of what looked like pie and chips to the ‘Resolutions’ chat. As usual now, when she thought of either Declan or Poppy, she felt a wave of guilt spread over her. She wasdesperateto find out whether her secret was true, so that if itwas – fuuuuuck – she could act. The appointment she’d booked was still nearly a fortnight away; maybe she should just phone later today instead.
A couple of hours later, she’d dropped Max at a friend’s house so that she could go to Raf’s house alone (his cat feeder couldn’t do today), and she was on her way to find the envelope.
She’d decided that Raf seeing her on Ring rummaging through his belongings was a hazard she was going to have to accept; she’d cross that bridge if it happened. The main thing was to get the envelope.
She piled straight into the house, did the alarm, got the cat food out at the speed of light (the tins were a lot easier to open once you knew what you were doing) and got searching.
She was kneeling down, on her fourth drawer in the pedestal desk in the study, when there was a sound behind her and a woman’s voice said, ‘What are youdoing?’ Shiiiiiiit.
She closed the drawer and swivelled round on her knees very slowly.
And, oh God.
Raf’s mum was standing in front of her, immaculate with her steel-grey, very sleek bob and olive skin, and dressed in a camel jumper, slim navy trousers and navy suede pumps, her eyebrows raised.
Georgie stood up, attempting a confident I-totally-have-good-reason-to-be-here smile, but her face felt wobbly.
‘Hello.’
‘What were you doing?’ Raf’s mum repeated. She looked a lot less friendly than she had in the hospital.
‘I’m feeding the cats.’
Yes, convincing, Georgie.
‘What?’
Georgie screwed her face up. ‘I’m so sorry. Obviously, no one tries to feed cats by going through drawers. I’m looking for something.’
‘What?’ Raf’s mum said again.
