Page 51 of Snow Going Back

‘Thank you,’ Lance said with emphasis. He turned his head away for a moment at the sound of someone calling his name. ‘Look, I’ve got to go. I’ll catch you later.’

‘Sure. Catch you later,’ Kate echoed.

The screen went black, and she stared at it for a few more moments. In his haste to jump to Nigel’s defence over her apparent offensiveness, it hadn’t seemed to have even crossed Lance’s mind to jump to hers. Not that sheneededdefending. But the fact he’d been more bothered by Kate ruffling Nigel’s feathers than by the rude behaviour that had prompted her to do so didn’t sit well with her.

Pursing her lips, Kate put the phone away and tried to push it out of her mind. There was no point dwelling on it. She had enough on her plate already without adding anything more.

She pulled a deep breath in, exhaled loudly and pushed her hand back through her hair.

There was a creak as Sam’s door reopened above, and a few moments later, he reappeared in the kitchen wearing a smart dark-green shirt. He buttoned the sleeves and tilted his head upwards. ‘Hey, what are you doing tonight?’

Kate shrugged. ‘Working, I guess. Might walk to Main Street later. Why?’

‘Well, there’s a party at Jack’s, the bar on Main. Jenna hired it out to celebrate Matthew reaching fifty years at the company. Everyone from Coreaux Roots is going. There’s a good band, open bar. Wanna go?’ He waited expectantly.

‘Are you sure they’d be OK with me coming?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, I mean…’ He paused and frowned. ‘You’renotone of thewives, and they’re the only people we ban from these things, so…’ A slow smile crept up his face.

‘Oh, veryfunny,’ she said wryly, rolling her eyes. ‘You heard that then?’

‘I wasn’t trying to, but these walls are pretty thin,’ he replied. ‘So, you wanna come?’

Kate hesitated. ‘Will Aubrey be there?’

Sam shook his head. ‘She hates them as much as they hate her.’

‘OK then.’ Kate smiled. ‘Give me a minute to pack up here and I’ll go change.’

‘Great.’ Sam walked back out into the hallway. ‘By the way, if you manage to grow that penis earlier than planned, let me know, will ya? I’ll switch back to leaving the seatup.’ He glanced back with a mischievous grin, and Kate closed her eyes.

As he disappeared around the foot of the stairs, she turned to a small picture of Cora on the windowsill and shook her head with a sigh. ‘You know, Cora, I’m not sure this fresh start is actually doing me any favours. Sam’s keeping his slate pretty clean, but I’ve racked up two crazy points today already.’

‘Walls are still thin, Kate,’ Sam called out.

Kate’s eyes widened.Three, she mouthed at the picture as she pulled her things together.

Kate watched Jenna swing her two children around on the dance floor with a smile. Like everyone else, they were having a whale of a time at the party.

Matthew’s speech about his time at the company, and his friendship with William and Cora, had been emotional, but soon after the band had started to play and the atmosphere had livened. Now the party was in full swing.

As Kate stood watching from the sidelines, Matthew walked over to stand beside her with a lopsided smile. ‘Glad you could make it,’ he said.

‘Thanks for having me,’ she replied.

‘’Course. Can’t have you home alone on a Friday night when there’s a perfectly good party going on.’ Matthew took a sip of his beer and leaned sideways against the wall. ‘Coreaux Roots is a family. We’re one whole, don’t leave no one out. You might not work onsite, but you’re still our lawyer, which means you’repartof this family.’

Kate felt touched by the sentiment and gave him a warm smile. ‘Thanks, Matthew. I’m honoured to be considered that way.’

He nodded and took another sip of his beer. ‘How’s it going, anyway?’

Kate sighed. ‘Not as smoothly as I’d hoped,’ she admitted. ‘I met Aubrey last weekend.’

‘I heard,’ he said.

‘It wasn’t very pleasant,’ she added.

‘I heard,’ Matthew said grimly.

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