Page 35 of One Bed

They both laughed and Bea knew that one crisis was over. With Golly, it wouldn’t be long before another arrived. ‘Can someone wake Reena up and get her onto her feet?’ Bea asked Cass and Nadia.

Cass nodded and Nadia turned away to put the plate in the pantry, on the highest shelf and behind a big bag of flour. Good plan. She wouldn’t put it past the two of them to go looking for more when they sobered up.

Bea walked over to Golly, put her hand under her arm and told her to stand up. Golly swayed and Bea locked her knees and wrapped her arm around her waist. She met Gib’s eyes. ‘Are you sure you want to stay here? This is a madhouse, and I can’t guarantee it will get any better.’

His eyes softened and his mouth quirked up into that smile potent enough to melt hearts and pantie elastic. ‘Are you kidding? This is the most fun I’ve had for years.’

He strode over to them, bent his knees and scooped Golly into his arms. Golly, being Golly, ran her hand over his biceps, and murmured a low hum of approval.

‘Behave yourself, Godma,’ Bea told her. ‘Up the stairs, turn left and her room is at the end of the corridor on your right, Gib. Just dump her on the bed. Slap her hand if she gets fresh.’

He nodded and looked over at Reena. Cass was shaking her shoulder, but the older woman was dead to the world. ‘Leave her, Cass,’ he said. ‘I’ll dump Golly and I’ll come back for her,’

‘She’s heavy, Gib,’ Bea told him, wincing. Reena was tall and more muscly than Golly.

‘Then I’ll toss her over my shoulder,’ Gib replied, unfazed. ‘It’s not like she’s going to know, is she?’

That was a solid-gold truth. And if Reena didn’t want to be lugged around in a fireman’s hold, then she should’vejust said no!

Bea smiled at Gib. ‘Thanks. I knew your muscles would come in handy at some point.’

His eyes heated, she blushed, and knew he was thinking about that kiss they’d shared, the way she’d run her hands up and down his thick arms, over his chest, down his back. She’d made the most of the little time she’d had to explore his body, and running her hands over his was the sexual equivalent of riding a lightning bolt. Why had they stopped? She couldn’t remember…

Gib turned away and dammit, his back view, in another pair of board shorts and a simple sky-blue T-shirt, looked as good as his front. She sighed, and when she finally, years later, remembered where she was and what they were doing, she turned to see Nadia and Cass looking a little mesmerised, too.

‘He’s such a hottie,’ Nadia said with a sigh, surprising the hell out of Bea.

‘He really is,’ Cass agreed. ‘If I was into men, I’d fight you for him, Bea.’

Bea shook her head so hard she heard her spine creak. ‘No, I – we … um?—’

‘No … I … we … um?’ Cass mimicked her. ‘Have you lost your power to speak?’

‘I haven’t seen him since I was six years old, he’s little more than a stranger, Cass!’ Bea said, holding onto the back of a chair, her knuckles white.

‘Me and Cass slept together the night we met, got engaged two weeks later and were married two weeks after that,’ Nadia told her. ‘Time is irrelevant when the heart wants what it wants.’

Her heart wasn’t allowed to want anything, its only job was to pump blood around her body. And when did Nadia turn into Miss Chatty? She’d barely said anything since they first met, now she was commenting on Bea’s love life. Bea didn’t mind, though, and was glad Nadia felt more at ease. Anyway, she didn’t have a love life. She and Gib had merely shared a bed and a kiss. That was it. They were all being ridiculous, her life was ridiculous…

And as an exclamation to that thought, Reena released a loud and noxious fart.

‘Good God!’ Bea waved her hand in front of her face, grabbed her shirt and pulled it up and over her nose.

Cass pushed the kitchen door and windows open as wide as they could go, and Bea welcomed the gust of fresh air. Cass looked at Reena. ‘We’re sorry about this, Bea.’

It wasn’t their fault. How were they to know that Golly and Reena together were, at heart, precocious teenagers with access to far too much money? That they both lacked sense and even the smallest measure of self-preservation? ‘I don’t blame you, atall. They are wild at the best of times, and this weekend is an excuse for them to misbehave. I am dreading Saturday.’

‘You’ve nixed all her bad ideas, Bea.’ Cass reminded her. ‘It’s going to be a perfectly normal party.’

Oh, to be so optimistic and so naïve! ‘You haven’t spent enough time with my godmother,’ she muttered. ‘Wait until she persuades everyone to a skinny dip at midnight, to a tequila-drinking contest or to do a Coyote Ugly routine on the bar and someone falls off and breaks a hip.’

‘And you think that might happen?’ Nadia asked, pulling ingredients out of the fridge and piling them onto the table. Eggs, ham, cheese, chives … was she about to make an omelette? Bea thought she could eat a couple. Or five.

‘I knowsomethingwill happen,’ she said, pulling out a chair and sitting down. ‘Golly will do something, start something or nail someone, and will make it memorable.’ She looked at their confused faces and sighed. ‘Golly often seduces the married or committed. Because she’s wildly indiscreet and doesn’t give a flying fig about what people think, the news of the affair invariably gets back to the cheated party and…’ Bea mimicked an explosion. ‘I love her dearly, but she can be impossible.’

Cass leaned back against the counter and her feet. She nodded at Reena. ‘Are they … you know?’

‘Together?’ Bea asked. She looked at her godmother’s best friend, her mouth open and grey hair sticking up. ‘To be honest, I don’t know. Golly’s had affairs with women before, but I’ve never asked, and they’ve never told me. I just know they’ve been friends for years.’

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