Page 27 of Daydreams & Doughnut Cake

Someone was running after me!

I heard my name called out and I started to run myself, fumbling in my pocket for my door key at the same time. I’d just got the key in the lock with a trembling hand when I heard my name again and this time, I recognised the voice.

Turning, I found myself face to face with Clare...

CHAPTER TWENTY

‘Rosie.’ She was out of breath, panting quite heavily. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.’

‘No?’ I stared at her... at the dark-coloured hoodie she was wearing. With the hood up like that, she looked very much like last night’s intruder. ‘Well, you did.’

‘Sorry,’ she repeated. And as if she’d read my mind, she pushed back her hood, allowing her dark hair to tumble out.

‘Were you outside my house last night?’ I demanded, feeling shaken. ‘Did you trash all those cartons of food in my fridge?’

She frowned. ‘What? No!’

‘Are you sure?’ I really didn’t trust her. ‘Because if you’ve got some kind of a grudge against me, you should just come out and say it instead of being vindictive and pretending it wasn’t you.’

‘What? Rosie, I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about!’

‘But you knew where to find me? Where I’m living now?’

She swallowed audibly and looked down. ‘I... was driving through the village yesterday afternoon and I saw you and Amelie.’

‘So youfollowedus to find out where we live?’ A shiver of dread ran through me. ‘Do you know how sneaky that sounds?’

ItwasClare.

She must have returned much later under cover of darkness and tricked me into opening the front door. I’d dashed from the house, thinking someone was stealing the van. And meanwhile, she’d slipped inside and wreaked chaos while I was upstairs making sure Amelie was okay...

‘Just go, Clare.’ I was trembling as I opened the door. ‘I think you need to get help.’

‘But I haven’t done what you were saying, Rosie,’ she protested. ‘Why are you being like this? I just wanted to invite you for lunch with us tomorrow.’

‘Lunch?’ I stared at her, bewildered.

‘Yes. I’m staying in a hotel near here for Brian’s wedding. Mum and Dad have booked us rooms there. The wedding’s on Saturday.’ She was gasping in between sentences, still trying to catch her breath. ‘I found out you were working at the café in Sunnybrook so I thought it would be nice to have a catch-up and –’

‘I’m sorry but I’m busy tomorrow,’ I told her shortly, before stepping inside and closing the door behind me.

I stood there a moment, waiting to hear her retreating footsteps. There was something about Clare that I still didn’t quite trust after all the years I’d known her. She sounded genuine but she’d shown herself to be a good liar in the past...

The letterbox suddenly rattled, sending my heart-rate sky-high.

‘Twelve-thirty at the Swan Hotel bar in Sunnybrook,’ she called through. ‘If you can make it.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

My friendship with Clare had always been a little prickly. Almost from the start.

At first when we met, I thought she didn’t like me.

She was always contradicting what I said, even if it was something quite harmless like the fact that it looked like it might rain. She’d pounce on my casual remark and say something like, ‘No, it won’t. I saw the forecast earlier and it’s going to stay dry.’

She was fiercely competitive when it came to board games, getting quite upset if one of us trounced her. And she had to be right all the time. It seemed like she was never happier than when she was proving I was wrong over something really silly and trivial, like how long to cook garlic bread for or what was the best way to eat a kiwi fruit! I found it mildly irritating – she never seemed to argue with the others like that – but I learned to smile and let her confrontational comments roll off me.

That was just Clare. Maybe something in her childhood had made her competitive. And I realised she resented my friendship with Jackie, even though she and Jackie still seemed as close as ever.

---