AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 9
Tugging wasn’t working.
Fuck-a-doodle, this served her right for buying size twelve leggings, because, of course, she’d reasoned shewouldbe a size twelve after a month on the lemon diet.
But she freakin’ wasn’tnow,was she?
One last heave and a firm suck of her stomach and the lycra rippled reluctantly over her hips. She stared in disgust at the white muffin top that surged over the band.
Why wasn’t she born with the skinny gene? Like Judith. Super tall, long-legged Judith. Or Alice, petitely packaged with just enough curves in all the right places?
Polly’s heart tugged painfully in her chest at the thought of Alice. And without Rowena here too, the little weatherboard house was quiet and empty. She’d luxuriated in the space for a few days after dropping Rowena at the airport and being nearly suffocated by hugs. When she got home, she’d walked around completely starkers and promised herself that now she had the perfect opportunity for sex without stuffing her hand in her mouth at the moment of O to stop the sound reverberating around the paper-thin walls.
Except, apart from her one night with Solo, there hadn’t been any sex for a while, had there?
Maybe that was why she couldn’t get him out of her head? And right now, it was either a run or a rendezvous with her vibrator. She wasn’t sure which burned more calories, but she’d hazard a guess it was the run.
So a run it had better be.
Followed by a bowl of lemon and rice soup. Fantastico.
She was about to fling open the front door and head out into the warm summer evening when her phone screen lit up.
A message from Mim.
I’ve emailed you the list for your dad’s birthday party. Can you let me know what jobs you will do asap?
Polly grimaced. Only three weeks to go and Dad would be seventy. Her stomach contracted with that familiar queasy feeling. Over the past ten years he’d tried, he really had. Whenever he’d come to Perth to buy equipment for the farm, he had done his best to play at being the interested father over an awkward meal. Would they ever be able to put the hurt behind them? She wasn’t sure. Even at Mum’s funeral, when his big shoulders shook with sobs, she just couldn’t bring herself to say she forgave him.
She was about to fling her phone onto the hall console when it lit up again with the words “Alice” and “FaceTime”. Polly’s heart soared; exercise could wait.
“Munchkin!” she squealed as Alice’s face bobbed onto the screen. She was wearing a big floppy hat and the sun was glinting off her glasses. She looked so darned blissed out.
“Poll!” Alice’s voice was full of excitement. “Guess what? We’ve got some news!”
“Don’t tell me, you’ve brought the beast to his knees?”
“Watch out, I can hear you.” Aaron’s blond head bobbed into view over Alice’s shoulder with a seriously silly hat on his head.
“What the fuck are you wearing?”
Aaron pushed out his lower lip in a mock pout. “A straw boater. We’re punting.”
“Aaron’s just proposed!” Alice flashed up a hand, the massive diamond clearly visible on her finger. “And guess what? I said yes!”
The same jab she’d experienced at Jake’s wedding, just where her ribs met above her heart, stabbed Polly hard. Oh no, no, no, not the green-eyed monster, not when she was so happy her best friend had found happiness with her man.
Wrong, all wrong.
What a bitch she was.
“I’m so, so happy for you,” she said swiftly and meant it; she really did. A sudden vision of Solo down on one bended knee, with a look of total adoration on his face, flashed in front of her eyes and she gulped it down so hard she nearly choked. Clearly, she’d gone raving loopy. Maybe it was too much lemon juice turning her brain cells to acid. “When’s the big day? I need to gear myself up.”
“Oh, gosh, no date yet. But you had to be the first to know. After all, Poll, if it hadn’t been for you…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m the fairy godmother. Can I be godmother to the first baby, too?”
Alice bit her lower lip and giggled. Aaron flung an arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. “I’m not sure I’ll have you leading my firstborn astray.”
