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“I think so. You?”
Lynne gave a wobbly laugh. “I think so.” She gripped her handbag to her stomach. “Helen will love this story,” she said as Leah started the car.
Leah walked Lynne inside, to her aunt’s house. Helen was very excited to see them. Leah didn’t miss the speculative glances she shot her younger sister. “I have to go, or I’ll be late.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
“Okay. Bye, Mum.”
“Bye, darling.”
As Helen opened the front door, she turned to Leah. Her blue eyes wild with curiosity, she said, “What the hell is happening? My sister has been married for over thirty years, and not once in all of that time has she dropped in for a visit.”
Leah shrugged. “She just needed a little nudge.”
Helen surveyed Leah for a long moment. “You don’t think I tried nudges, pushes, shoves, all of it, back in the day? It’s you, darling. I can see it. I can see it and I love it.”
Leah smiled. “I’ll be back before midnight.”
“You can be as late as you like. Something tells me your mum and I have a lot to talk about.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
It was turning out to be quite a momentous night. Leah leaned back in her chair at Lucarelli’s, closing her eyes as the warm evening breeze moved over her. She was replaying the scene with her father and feeling very proud of herself. She was fully aware that it was not a scene she could have endured twelve months ago. She’d come a long way and tonight was verifiable proof of that journey.
She opened her eyes and gazed unseeingly up the street. Then her gaze focused. A figure was walking towards her. Limping, actually. With a walking stick. Georgie. Leah swallowed heavily as she rose to her feet. The bright, vibrant friend of Leah’s past was no more. The woman walking towards her was thin. Alarmingly thin. The Georgie Leah remembered had curves in all the right places and loved to flaunt them. This Georgie wore jeans and a long-sleeved top. Her blond hair was pulled back in a low ponytail. She wore no makeup and her face was pale. But her blue eyes lit up when she saw Leah.
“Hey.”
Leah reached out and pulled Georgie into a tight embrace. “Hey,” she said, forcing herself to speak around the lump in her throat. “Thanks for coming,” Leah said as they sat down. “I wasn’t sure…I mean, I didn’t know if you…”
Georgie rested her walking cane against the table and shot Leah a look. “You weren’t sure I’d want to see you?”
Leah nodded, biting her lip.
“As if I wouldn’t. I’ve got some things to say to you, Leah Kaplan.” Well, at least she was as straightforward as ever.
“D-do you?”
“I do.”
“Okay.”
The waiter came out with the wine list at that moment, giving Leah time to collect herself. “Moscato?” Georgie asked Leah, not even taking the wine list. At Leah’s nod, she gave their order. “And some bruschetta, please.”
“Sure thing.”
When the waiter had gone, Georgie leaned back in her chair, straightening her leg out. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s fine.”
“I wasn’t looking at you like anything.”
“Yes, you were. Sympathy.”
“You don’t deserve some sympathy?”
Georgie shrugged. “I don’t need it.”
“Well, you have it, anyway. It must have been shit, the last few years.”
