Page 49 of The Price of Love
‘It, oh, this is all very difficult. I’m afraid that I have to tell you something. I . . . God this is hard. I lied to you. Please forgive me.’
Shit. In fact,shittyshit. This was precisely what I did not want to hear. Tell me it’s a mistake, Luke. Tell me it’s all a misunderstanding. But, please, oh God, pleasedon’t tell me you lied. Tell me you love me.I almost spoke across him. ‘It’s all right. It doesn’t matter. I don’t mind, whatever it is. Please, I don’t mind.’
‘No, Willow, I want, no, Ineedto explain. You see, I lied when I told you my mother was dead. In reality, she left my father. It was . . . everything was confused. But she . . . she and I have been in contact. She’s the one who sent me the messages, you see. But I didn’t tell you because, well, I didn’t, and I’m sorry, and when I realised that you might have misinterpreted what you saw, then, forgive me, Willow.’
Katie raised her eyebrows at the way I kissed the receiver. ‘Nothing to apologise for. Luke, honestly, I quite understand.’
‘Oh, but—’
‘No. It’s fine. Everything is fine.’ And it was. The sun, which had probably been shining since about five o’clock this morning, had just broken through the cloud in my own personal sunrise. The erstwhile grey, sunken mass which had been my hope for the future was now leaping about in a pink tutu, singing a million Broadway songs, tap-dancing like a pro. ‘You don’t need to explain any more, Luke. I’ll see you tonight.’ Oh, and prepare for the shagging of your life, I didn’t add, but only because Katie was listening.
‘You really are the most fantastic woman I’ve ever known.’ Luke’s voice was quiet now, the relief in it almost oozing down the line. ‘Have you ever thought about entering the Church, because you make confession soooooooo sexy.’
I giggled. I couldn’t help myself. ‘Luke, you are shocking.’
‘Yeah. And that’s not all I am right now. God, woman, you make me horny. Any chance of getting away at lunchtime and meeting me in the flat?’
I was supposed to be going to the hospital to see Bree and the baby, but . . . ‘I’ll see what I can do.’ The release of the tension that I’d been holding since I’d turned his phone on was bubbling through my blood. That and Cal’s incredibly sexy kiss, which had revved up my whole system and left it ticking on standby all night.
‘Luke?’ Katie was waiting when I put the phone down, her scandalometer clearly reading into the red. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Nothing, nothing,’ I trilled. ‘Well, not exactly, we just had a bit of a misunderstanding, that’s all.’
‘Oh, right, about him moving out of the hotel and stopping at the showroom instead?’
‘Ah, no. This was another misunderstanding. A different one.’ Buoyed up and riding on the tide of goodwill that Luke’s admission had brought, I told Katie the full background to last night’s little, ahem, indiscretion on the lip frontage. When I’d finished, she frowned.
‘Do you and Luke ever actually, y’know,talk, Wills? Or do you spend all your off-duty time shagging and communicating in mime?’
‘What?’
‘You do seem to have an extraordinary number ofmisunderstandings, don’t you? For a couple who are supposed to be so deeply in love that they’re planning to getmarried, there’s a lot he doesn’t seem to tell you about. And, please God, if you’re going around kissing strange men, the reverse is also true.’
‘Cal . . . it wasn’t . . . it wasn’tthatsort of kiss,’ I said indignantly. ‘And of course Luke and I talk, don’t be stupid. It’sjust, you know how prone I am to grabbing the wrong end of the stick and using it to beat myself.’
‘Yes, but the stick does have to be held out for you to grasp in the first place.’ Katie put her hands on my shoulders and looked me deep in the eyes. ‘I’m worried about you, Will. Okay, so Luke might have good reasons for all the misconstructions that have gone on, but it’s more that they’ve happened than what they’ve been about that worries me.’
‘Well, my dear, worry no more.’ I twirled around on my chair. ‘I’m going to suggest to Luke that we move into the flat next week and start living together properly. It can’t be comfortable for him camped out in the showroom, and we might as well start getting it all together. How do you feel about wearing peach for the wedding?’
‘Will, if it makes you happy I shall wear a whole fruit salad,’ she said solemnly.
‘Willow.’ The door opened and Neil came in. ‘Bloke for you in the front.’
‘Good Lord, it speaks. Evolution in action.’
‘Shut it, frosty knickers.’
‘What, Clive not with you? Was the separation a success?’
‘And you can shut up an’ all.’ Neil grinned. ‘Dunno ’oo he is. Some weirdo. Bit of luck, he’s a mad axe murderer.’
He wasn’t. It was Cal, loitering about in the front office, looking at the photographs on the walls. (Man Rescues Tortoise — Pictures Inside.) ‘Hi.’
‘Hello.’ Katie was hanging around by my left shoulder like a conscience-devil. ‘How are you?’
‘Fine. I came to . . .’ Cal clocked Katie and began to stammer. ‘I . . . I . . . you, yesterday . . . quite . . . upset.’
‘Everything’s sorted now, just another misunderstanding,’ I said smoothly. Well, I could have belched every word and next to Cal’s delivery it would have sounded smooth. ‘Cal, Katie.’
