The dog flies out of the car like a cannon ball in flightand starts running around in excited circles and sniffing all the strangescents in the garden. Jen laughs apologetically. ‘ThatwasRolo!’
Harlyn whistles and calls Rolo over and the animal obeys himinstantly, sitting at his master’s command and gazing up at him with bigsoulful brown eyes. Harlyn drops to his knees and makes a fuss of him. ‘Goodboy.’
‘Oh, he’s gorgeous.’ My heart is actually melting. I’vealways longed to have a dog but it never seemed practical. But maybe one day...‘Look, why don’t you let Rolo have a good race around the lawn?’
‘Great.’ Harlyn nods, glancing around him. ‘You’ve got anamazing place here.’
‘We brought a ball,’ says Jen, fetching it from the car.‘And Rolo’s basket. If we exercise him now, he’ll quite happily snooze in hisbasket somewhere out of the way, while we get on with the painting?’
I nod. ‘Perfect. Can I get you a tea or a coffee?’
They decide on coffee and I retreat indoors to put thekettle on. Looking out of the window, I watch Jen and Harlyn playing with Rolo.At one point, Rolo spins around at his master’s command and the couple look ateach other and start laughing, and Harlyn loops a casual arm around Jen andkisses her. And I stand there, mesmerised, thinking what a lovely couple theyare, and how easy they are with each other. They haven’t been together long,according to Maddy, but it’s clear they’re so happy together.
I find myself thinking that Harlyn reminds me of Liam. Hehas that same laid-back, friendly aura...
Next second, I give a surprised laugh because my mobile isringing – and the name that pops up is Liam’s. Maybe we have some sort of weirdtelepathy!
‘Hi! I was just thinking about you,’ I say. Thinking thatmight sound a little weird and stalker-ish, I add hurriedly, ‘I mean, I wasjust wondering if you’d make it here today.’
‘Yes, of course. Wouldn’t miss it. Thanks for sending theinvite to me at the station. I knew about it anyway, but thanks.’
‘Oh, Maddy will have sent that.’
‘Right. Anyway, I was phoning to see if you’d like an extrapair of hands today? I’ve got someone here who says she excels at housemakeovers, although I think she might be exaggerating a bit.’
‘Oh.’ Blind-sided by this, I force a laugh. ‘So...who’s that, then?’
‘Nat? Natalie? My researcher, who you met? She was therewhen I opened the invitation and she offered her services.’
I swallow. ‘Right. Wow. Well, that’s great! Yes, of course.Tell her she’s more than welcome to come over. The more the merrier!’
‘Fantastic. Right, we’ll see you in five.’
Ending the call, I feel so deflated – after my Oscar-worthyperformance pretending to be over the moon – I can barely raise a smile whenJen looks over at me and waves cheerily.
For goodness’ sake, pull yourself together, LottieFanshawe! Nat is Liam’s work colleague. And you’re not interested in men, anyway,so why on earth would you be bothered that he’s bringing her along today?
Plastering on a smile, I move away from the window and busymyself checking for the hundredth time if I’ve laid out enough snacks in thekitchen to keep people going during the painting session. I’ve moved all thefurniture I can into the centre of the rooms to give us all space to work, andthe dust-sheets (it was Maddy’s idea to request them on the invitation) will beso useful for protecting everything. Everyone has an old sheet they don’t useat home, don’t they? So I don’t feel too cheeky, asking. And I’ve alreadycovered everything in the living room with sheets from the blanket boxupstairs.
Despite my pep talk to myself, my heart still gives a giantlurch when I hear Liam’s voice outside – but when I walk out to greet them,there’s actually a small crowd of other people there, too. Primrose hasarrived, at the same time as Maddy and Jack, and Fen and Rob, so there’s plentyof laughter and chatter to fill in any awkwardness I might have felt having togreet just Liam and Nat.
And then another car arrives, a gleaming red Porsche,parking at the end of the line of vehicles in the drive.
‘It’s Krystle,’ says Maddy. ‘Oh, and she’s brought Katja.’
As I walk over to say hello to them, I catch Nat’s voice. ‘Ican only do a few hours, unfortunately, but I thought I’d offer anyway,’ she’ssaying to someone.
Only a few hours.
I try to tell myself that’s a shame because Nat actuallyseems really nice and I need all the help I can get. But the thought of beingable to talk to Liam on his own later has put a definite spring in my step as Ismile at Krystle and Katja and thank them for coming.
Apparently, Ellie, Zak, Rose and Maisie are coming over thisafternoon, but Katja tells me Jaz might not be able to make it.
‘She’d already agreed to baby-sit Milo’s daughter today,’she explains. ‘But she’s going to try and get them to come along later, withher and little Emma.’
‘Interesting,’ murmurs Maddy, arching her brows with a smile.‘Jaz seems to spend an awful lot of time in her next-door neighbour’s company, consideringthey’re “just good friends”.’
‘Milo’s lovely. It would be great if they got together romantically,’says Katja.
