‘Excuses, excuses.’
‘Oh, hang on a second…’ I could hear Beth in the background and Nick answering her, his voice muffled against the mouthpiece. ‘Yeah, I’ll ask.’ He came back on the phone. ‘Beth says Noelle sent her a message at the weekend about needing to speak to her, but she’s not been able to get hold of her since. She was wondering if you’ve heard from her?’
‘No. She’s probably just busy. She has a deadline coming up.’
Nick relayed the information and there was some back and forth, some rattling, a little giggling and then Beth came over my earpiece.
‘Hey, Stephen.’ I could hear the smile in her voice. ‘She mentioned about her book; it was just funny because the message she sent me sounded so urgent. She never usually does that and then doesn’t get back to me. I’ve even tried calling her and it’s like her phone is permanently switched off.’
I chewed my lip, my stomach tightening with concern. That didn’t sound like her. Even if she was busy, she always either answered or sent a message to say she’d be in touch soon. I’d seen her do it often enough when her family were inundating her with messages.
‘D’you want me to go over and check she’s okay?’
‘Oh, would you?’
‘It’s no problem. She doesn’t live far from me.’
‘You’re a star, thank you.’
I smiled at Beth’s reaction. God I was glad we’d repaired the damage I’d done at Christmas now it was looking likely she was going to be my sister-in-law.
My mind stalled on the thought. I’d told Noelle that Nick was planning on proposing. Was that what Noelle had wanted to speak to her about so urgently? The last time I’d given her some personal information about Nick, she’d hightailed it straight over to Beth.
‘I’ll head over there now.’ I forced my voice to sound light.
‘Oh no, finish your game with Nick.’
‘He was beating me anyway and I’m sure he’d prefer to spend some time with you than play video games. Tell him I’ll speak to him at the weekend, and I’ll text you when I’ve seen Noelle, okay?’
We said goodbye and I pulled off the headset and threw my controller down beside me on the sofa. I’d thought I could trust Noelle with Nick’s plans, but why? Of course her loyalty to Beth was going to outweigh any obligation she felt to me. She probably thought that by telling Beth about Nick’s potential proposal she would scupper any ideas I had about convincing him otherwise. I’d thought we’d stopped being at war, but maybe she’d just hoodwinked me again.
I needed to get over there and have it out with her. Whatever I had to promise her, whatever favour I needed to offer her, I just had to stop her from ruining Nick’s proposal. But would she even be home? She’d probably be with her family celebrating Independence Day.
Well, it was worth a try. I couldn’t sit in and do nothing.
I heard the door buzzer in a distant way, like it was coming at me from the other end of a tunnel, rather than the other side of the room. I had a feeling it had been ringing for a while. I unglued myself from the chair, bare legs peeling away from the seat, and dragged myself over to the door, pushing hair out of my face and unsticking an empty packet of chips from my elbow.
I tiptoed up and peeked through the peephole. Stephen was outside, the shoulder of his white shirt and the edge of his ear and dark hair just visible as he stared at the crack in the doorframe like a cat waiting to be let out.
I passed my hand over my clothes again and then shook my head. What was the point? He was going to look like a movie star, and I had more important things on my mind.
‘Youarehome,’ he said by way of greeting.
‘Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘Well, I thought you might be celebrating with your family. It’s the Fourth of July.’
‘Itis?’ My eyes widened, both because I couldn’t remember if I’d told my family I wouldn’t be there for our annual picnic and because that meant I only had one more day before my editor expected my manuscript in her inbox.
‘Are you all right?’ His brow furrowed as he took in my dishevelled appearance. ‘Are you ill?’
I forced a laugh. ‘Some people might call it an illness, but it’s not contagious. You wanna come in for a coffee?’
He nodded and followed me into my kitchen. I could see him throwing side-eye glances at the state of the place and I knew his fingers must’ve been itching to start tidying up. I got to the sink and found there were no clean cups. There was a row of them along my desk behind the laptop but I got side-tracked from collecting them because I remembered I needed to save and back up.
‘So, what’s going on, Noelle? Beth asked me to swing by and check on you because she was worried.’
Oh.Bethhad been worried. Not him. I slumped back down on my desk chair. I mean, why would he be worried? It was Thursday, we’d only seen each other at the weekend. There were some clattering noises and I realised he’d taken over coffee-making duties. I forced myself to close the lid on my laptop. My eyes were sore and barely able to focus anyway.
