Poppy led Declan over to them, holding his hand, and then said, ‘Actually, Dec, would you mind getting us all some crisps from the bar?’
‘Course.’ Declan dropped a kiss on top of her head and then tucked some of her hair behind her ear in the most gorgeous way.
‘Poppy!’ Georgie, Beth and Ankita exclaimed as one.
‘Yes.’ Poppy beamed. ‘I was just being a paranoid idiot. It was all a huge misunderstanding.’
Thank goodness for that.
The relief that her friend was happy again.
Although…
Yes, Georgie needed to find out asap.
16
POPPY
An hour later, Poppy, talking to her girlfriends, looked over for a moment at Declan, who was chatting to a couple of Noah’s friends at the bar. He looked gorgeous, dressed in a purple shirt and jeans, his hair a little bit mussed. Her heart expanded just at the sight of him. Thankgoodnessshe’d been wrong about the affair.
As she listened to Georgie describe how terribleshe’d been at skating while Ankita and Beth laughed and assured her that she’d probably in reality been an ice dance genius, she thought again how much she loved her friends.
Honestly, she wassolucky. Gorgeous son, amazing husband, wonderful friends.
The only fly in the ointment was that Declan still hadn’t told her what he’d been worrying about. She knew he was going to – she trusted him fully again – but she did just want to know sooner rather than later so she didn’t have that niggle of worry. Was it something about his parents? Was it a worry about work? Their finances? She just wanted to know so that whatever the problem was they could tackle it together, now.
Also, she had one of her tiredness-headaches coming on.
She wouldn’t mind some paracetamol and a few minutes of silence while the pain relief worked.
She made her way over to Noah.
After a quick chat about his leg, she said, ‘Noah, I’ve got a small headache. Would you mind if I popped through to your kitchen and took some paracetamol and just had a moment of quiet while it takes effect?’
‘Of course. They’re in the cupboard to the right of the sink. Are you okay?’
‘Yes, absolutely fine, just a bit over-tired.’
‘Oh, glad it’s nothing serious. Of course, go ahead.’
A couple of minutes later, she was in Noah’s kitchen and absentmindedly looking for the paracetamol. She realised that she’d switched off when he told her where it was. She always did that; it was like asking for directions and then having no idea afterwards what the answer had been. Had he said they were in a cupboard? A drawer?
She couldn’t just randomly open cupboard doors and drawers; it was rude. Maybe she should go back and ask him again and this timefocus.
As she turned to go, her eye alit on a pile of papers stacked on the side. They were clearly Raf’s. His name was all over them. And the top one was an envelope addressed to him in New York. Which she was pretty sure was the one from New Year’s Eve.
Declan had put his secret in the one addressed to Raf, she was certain. It hadn’t really occurred to her until now that she might have the opportunity to read it, because how could she possibly have got hold of it?
But here she was. Standing in a room all by herself right next to the letter.
Obviously, she should not read it. She certainly shouldn’t. Shereallyshouldn’t.
Presumably his secret was the thing that he was going to tell her soon.
She should wait for him to tell her.
She should not open it.
