Page 62 of Lie For Me

‘Absolutely, thank you. I hope you did too.’

‘I am well rested, thank you. As one would hope to be on such an important day.’

Jack saw Ollie and Lucy exchange a glance as they sensed trouble coming.

Valerie continued smoothly.

‘Which is more than can be said for other members of the wedding party.’

Ollie grimaced and put down the croissant he had been about to bite into.

‘Oliver, we need to talk about your friend David.’

Ollie looked like he might burst out in laughter about poor Dave, but fear of his mother’s reaction made him swallow it down.

He slipped his sunglasses over his eyes.

‘Um, sure, Mum. I think a few of them might have been up a bit late.’

‘Oliver, there’s clearly more to it than that. The boy doesn’t look like he knows his own name.’

Ollie couldn’t help it, he snorted aloud.

‘He’s sitting in there,’ Valerie gestured frantically back at the breakfast room, ‘looking like he’s had a lobotomy.’

Lucy giggled, and Ollie broke out into laughter. Jack hid a smile behind his coffee cup. Valerie pursed her lips together and put her hand on her hips, tennis bracelets winking in the sun.

‘I don’t know what you’re sitting here giggling about,’ she said to Lucy. ‘Your time would be better spent getting ready for this important day. You’ve got plenty to sort out.’

Her voice rose half an octave. ‘If we need to replace the best man at the eleventh hour, I could do with at least knowing that you’ll be ready on time.’

Lucy looked a little taken aback, and Jack reached for her hand under the table. She tensed for a split second when his fingers brushed hers, then relaxed and slipped her fingers through his. He squeezed her hand, and she smiled, her eyes meeting and holding his gaze. Her energy seemed to sag whenever her mother was near.

‘Mum,’ Ollie cut in, trying to reassure his mother. ‘You really don’t need to worry. Dave does this. He has one too many––’

Valerie scoffed and narrowed her eyes.

‘One too many,’ Ollie insisted, ‘and then he’s really rough for a few hours in the morning, then he suddenly snaps back and he’s fine. He’ll be fine, honestly, Mum.’

‘Well, I think we need to consider what we do in the event that it turns out that he doesn’t just snap back.’ She clicked her fingers, clearly annoyed that Ollie was not taking this as seriously as she felt he should be. ‘You might need someone else to step in.’

She turned to Lucy. ‘Darling.’ Valerie held her watch under Lucy’s nose. ‘Look at the time.’

Lucy scraped back her chair and glanced at Jack with an apologetic look. It was at least two hours until the wedding, but she would be safer out of the line of fire.

‘Yes, going to get ready now,’ she said, as she slid past Valerie and mouthed, good luck, at Ollie over her mother’s head.

‘What about Greg?’ Valerie was asking, as Lucy slipped away. ‘Could he….’

The voices seemed to fade away. Jack couldn’t take his eyes off Lucy’s bottom, the soft fabric of her summer dress clinging to it as she sashayed away, flip-flops slapping on the terrace as she went. He swallowed as he remembered the feel of her under his hands the night before, and he couldn’t shake the thought of how it had felt to hold her in his arms and kiss her.

20

Lucy was getting out of the shower when she heard the door to their room bang shut. There was some shuffling and a couple of soft thuds, then it went quiet.

In the mirror, she looked at the towel piled on her head, at her face, flushed from the shower, her skin pink and damp. She felt oddly self-conscious and hiked the towel up under her arms, knotting it tightly. She paused at the door with her hand on the knob. It was hardly the first time Jack had seen her in a towel or scantily dressed. They’d been swimming together, gone on weekend trips to the beach where she’d lazed around in a bikini without a second thought. But now, walking out there to the room they shared in just a bath towel felt odd. The kiss had changed things.

She shook her head. It was a drunken fumble, a silly mistake that meant nothing and was now to be forgotten. Jack probably hadn’t given it a second thought since it happened. She glanced at herself once more in the mirror and pulled her shoulders back.

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