AllFreeNovel
Share Us
On cue, his phone pinged.Why haven’t you replied with the information? I need the info pronto.
Jesus, give him a chance, he’d been mediating family arguments all afternoon. He typed in a reply.Will send ASAP. Busy at the moment.
Don’t forget.
Yep, his first impression of Beth Lawrence was that she was focused, driven and one of life’s achievers. He doubted she ever lacked confidence, and she was probably a tyrannical boss in the workplace. She was also prickly, combative and scary as hell, and not the kind of woman you wanted to piss off.
The fact that she was gorgeous didn’t help, as it only added to the torment. He imagined she was the kind of ball-busting female who didn’t tolerate fools easily and probably viewed most men with disdain.
Luckily for him, he wasn’t interested in winning her over. She was far too high-maintenance for his liking, and nothing dented a man’s ego more than a woman who looked at him like he was something nasty attached to the bottom of her shoe.
He preferred a quiet life. No drama and no stress. And Beth Lawrence was not a restful person. Of that he was certain.
Chapter Six
Friday, 19thApril
There was a lot Connie had given up since Kenneth had left her. Gousto home deliveries. Weekly Italian takeaways from Positano’s. Two-hundred-quid bottles of Château La Fleur-Pétrus red wine. But the one thing she refused to relinquish was her spa membership. A woman could only be pushed so far.
Ducking under the cool water, she pushed her hands forwards, propelling her body through the grand ballroom pool. Soft lighting shimmered above, distorted by the ripple of water. She relished the sensation of weightlessness and quiet. Quiet that didn’t dispel even when she broke the water’s surface and took a deep breath. It was utter bliss.
Slowly and methodically, she glided across the pool, concentrating only on the rhythm of her breathing and the tension leaving her muscles.
She’d hadn’t reacted well when Beth had confronted her about her excessive drinking. Denial had been her first response. Justification had been her second.
She was hurting. Drinking helped to ease the torment, giving her respite. It allowed her to forget her woes, leaving her mellow and relaxed… until the next morning, when she awoke with a raging hangover. Then the previous night’s peaceful oblivion would shatter into a thousand pieces, as her thoughts tumbled back into her mind like a tsunami, reminding her that she’d been dumped, that she was alone and facing financial ruin.
Reluctantly, she’d decided that the nightly drinking had to stop.
Not because she agreed with her daughter’s concerns that she was heading for alcoholism, but because she couldn’t function with a hangover. She was a working woman now. Albeit as a doctor’s receptionist, but she had to start somewhere. And for someone with no discernible qualifications or professional training behind them, starting at the bottom was inevitable. Painful, but inevitable.
She ducked under the water, completed her turn, and used the pool wall to propel herself forwards. Twenty-eight laps completed. No one could say she wasn’t in good shape.
Swimming had always been enjoyable. She’d never taken to golf, like her husband, or tennis, like her girlfriends. But she could happily spend hours in the pool, completing length after length, and rewarding herself afterwards with a sauna and a dip in the jacuzzi.
After completing her thirty laps, she was satisfied that she’d burnt off the anxiety that plagued her body. It would be back tomorrow, disturbing her sleep and hampering her appetite, but for today it was gone.
Dragging herself from the pool, she dripped over to the sunbed and wrapped herself in one of the spa’s fluffy towels that smelt faintly of citrus. It was warm and cosy, a comfort for her damp skin.
There was no one else in the pool so, for the moment, it was her own private slice of heaven. She loved coming here. It was a way of hanging on to the life she’d enjoyed for so many years, a life that had been cruelly ripped away from her.
But thinking about her situation would only ruin her equilibrium, so she took a deep breath and shook away her thoughts.
One day soon she would have to give up her membership. She wasn’t naive enough to believe it could continue. Her part-time salary barely covered her weekly food shop, so there was no way it would extend to a six-thousand-pound annual spa membership.
She headed for the changing rooms, wishing she could turn back time. She’d tell her twenty-year-old self to focus on getting a career, instead of putting all her eggs into one giant motherhood-sized basket.
But having a family was all she’d ever wanted. Her dream was to have a husband, a home and several children. By the age of thirty-two her dream had come true and she had it all. Kenneth was starting to earn good money, and she was content to be a stay-at-home mum. That was what Kenneth had wanted, too.
Wrapping herself in one of the spa’s guest robes, she headed for the Sensory Room, intending to indulge in a short nap before lunch.
There had been times over the years when she’d debated taking up a career. The idea of teaching had always appealed, but the motivation had never been that strong. She was busy running a home, supporting Kenneth’s career and taxiing the kids to various extra-curricular activities – a job would have got in the way. So she’d busied herself with local charitable events, joined various social clubs and enjoyed weekly trips to the spa.
Of course, if she’d known that her husband of thirty-nine years would bugger off and leave her once she was past her prime, she might have devised a better plan. She would have forged a career and earned her own income, so she wouldn’t be left at the mercy of a man who no longer had her best interests at heart.
Hindsight was a wonderful thing, but not something she’d been blessed with.
The sound of a giggle greeted her as she left the pool changing rooms. Someone was having a nice time. A very nice time, by the sounds of it.
