Page 46 of The Summer That Changed Us

Fifteen minutes later, they’d selected three plain bras: a white, a black and a pale pink. Katie wrapped them in tissue paper and put them in a new Auntie Small’s bag.

‘Those are much better for me than the ones Dad chose,’ said Amber cheerfully. ‘And cheaper.’

‘I’m glad you like them. Although your dad did ask for anything sustainable or eco-friendly.’

Amber raised an eyebrow. ‘So, he does listen. What a cutie.’

Yep. Katie remembered the tousled hair and lovely eyes, the dimple in his chin and his cheeky smile. ‘I need to refund you the difference,’ she said, aware her eyes had gone a bit swimmy. ‘I don’t suppose you have your dad’s credit card on you?’

Amber shook her head. ‘Sorry. I’ll send him in.’

‘Yes,’ said Katie, unable to keep the smile from her face. ‘That would be great.’

Some days she really loved her job.

Chapter Seventeen

On Saturday morning, Grace woke up and checked her phone. It was eight o clock! She’d managed to sleep for nine hours straight, longer than she’d slept for months. She’d swapped wine for water for the last few nights and felt much better for it. She headed to the kitchen, poured some orange juice and opened the sliding glass She breathed in the tangy sea air and listening to the waves rushing in and out on the shingle beach below the house. It was a gorgeous day, but her mind wasn’t on the weather.

Nipping back to her bedroom, she pulled on a sweatshirt over her pyjamas, collected her phone and took her juice outside.

Her head might be clear after her new rule of no drinking alone, but her thoughts were anything but. Trying on that bra in Katie’s shop had awakened emotions which she thought she’d banished years ago. She’d looked in the mirror and not liked what she’d seen. The bra was lovely, but Grace herself had felt flabby and frumpy.

She’d never been skinny. Zoe had inherited Dad’s lean physique and indifference to food. Grace was more of an apple-shape, like her mum. Myles had loved her curves and since they’d been together, she’d rebranded herself as Rubenesque. But now, with Myles not there to love her anymore, she could feel negative thoughts beginning to crowd in.

Grace could just about handle crying into her pillow every night. She could cope with the occasional verbal slip-up like that one yesterday: Myles will think he’s died and gone to heaven. She didn’t mind replaying the DVD of their wedding and sobbing at the part when everyone was applauding their first dance. She and Myles had been totally absorbed in each other. She vividly remembered feeling lucky at the time at the thought of a Myles-and-Grace-filled future of loveliness.

Well, that wasn’t strictly true, she did mind these things. Very much. But those feelings were all part of the grieving process, any article on bereavement could tell you that. No, what she minded was this new low-level anxiety which she couldn’t shake.

Julia had planted a seed in Grace’s brain and despite knowing how ludicrous it was, she couldn’t ignore it. On one level, she instinctively knew that Myles hadn’t had an affair. But she couldn’t help torturing herself about it. Because if he had had an affair then he must have stopped being in love with her. Which meant that the memories she had of her perfect marriage were a lie. And without those happy memories to look back on, Grace would be lost.

She turned her phone over in her hands. The screen was full of notifications of text messages from Zoe. She felt a flicker of guilt; she’d avoided talking to her sister ever since that phone call from Julia because she didn’t trust herself not to blurt it all out. Knowing Zoe, she’d jump in her car and drive straight over, completely incensed. She fired off a quick reply to fob her sister off for a while longer.

There was only one way she could think of to resolve this uncertainty: she was going to have to speak to Julia again. Because this was probably just Julia’s way of getting even with Grace for not giving Austin and Olivia more of Myles’s estate.

She drew in a breath. Time to take action; Myles had told her once that most of their male staff were a bit scared of her because she always cut to the chase, didn’t take any crap. She’d been secretly quite proud of that. The construction industry wasn’t known for its kick-ass women.

And Grace was one.

Without giving herself a chance to back out, she rang Julia on her mobile. The call was answered straight away.

‘Well hello!’ she drawled. ‘I thought I might hear from you soon. You’ve decided to cooperate, I presume?’

Grace allowed a beat to pass before replying, refusing to let Julia bait her. Instead, she was going to stay strong and get straight to the point.

‘About what you said the other day.’ Her heart began to race; she could hardly believe she was even having this conversation. ‘That Myles had an affair.’

‘I’m so sorry that I had to be the bearer of bad news.’ Grace gritted her teeth; the woman’s saccharine sympathy made her want to scream. ‘I expect you’re devastated?’

‘It seems so out of character for him,’ Grace replied, ignoring the note of hope in Julia’s question. ‘I can’t believe he’d cheat on me.’

‘He wasn’t unfaithful to me, but I suppose there’s a first time for everything.’

‘I just wonder if you could have misheard, or got the wrong end of the stick?’ Grace’s voice remained smooth, but her shoulders were hunched up by her ears.

‘No, definitely not. Look, Grace,’ Julia sighed as if the conversation bored her. ‘We were both at the funeral of a friend from school. I don’t know where you were.’

‘Simon’s? The one late last summer?’ Grace sipped her orange juice, remembering. She hadn’t accompanied him to the service because of an important meeting which would have been awkward to rearrange.