Page 37 of His Best Mistake

Jack pulled into the driveway of a large modern brick and flint house, and she automatically tensed.

“Are you OK?” he asked, switching off the engine.

“I’m fine,” she said and pulled herself together. “I apologise in advance for whatever happens next. I never know what to expect. There was no answer when I called this morning and we’re a bit earlier than originally planned, so they could be in the middle of an argument or in the throes of making up. Either will be excruciating. Come on. Let’s get this over and done with.”

She unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door. She got out of the car and took a deep breath. She released it slowly and shook out her arms and her hands as if that might somehow ease the nerves. Suddenly Jack was at her side, taking one of her hands in one of his and giving it a minute squeeze of support.

And goodness she was glad he was with her, she thought, a bloom of soft warmth unfurling inside her at his touch. He’d listened to everything she’d told him about her parents and her upbringing and he instinctively knew this was going to be hard for her. For the first time in her life it felt as if she had support, someone on her side.

She gave him a small smile of gratitude and then they walked up to the white front door. She pressed the doorbell and waited, so distracted by the feel of her hand in his, so giddy at the realisation that he might actually care a bit, that it was a few moments before she registered the lack of response to her ring of the doorbell.

However, it gradually dawned on her that there was no sound of approaching footsteps, no sound of anything for that matter, so she rang the bell again and hoped to God her parents were in the garden or had the radio up loud and were not in the middle of something no daughter would want to interrupt.

But as the seconds ticked by with still no response that hope dwindled and Stella felt the familiar sensation of her heart sinking and disappointment surging.

She pulled her hand out of Jack’s, fixed a smile to her face and looked up at him, and then wished she hadn’t because his jaw was set and he was frowning. Now she felt even worse because, of course, this was going to turn out to be such a waste of his time. Still, she could get through this with her pride sort of intact. Heaven knew she’d had enough practice.

“Well, I think it’s pretty obvious that no one’s home,” she said brightly, and really, after all these years, she shouldn’t be surprised. Why on earth she’d ever imagined her ‘news’ might be of interest to her parents when nothing else she’d done to date had she had no idea. She didn’t know why she’d even bothered. She should have known that her mother was barely listening when she rang.

“Why don’t you phone them?”

Largely to humour him, Stella did as Jack suggested and then shrugged. “Straight to voice mail,” she said, cutting the call since there didn’t seem much point in leaving a message.

“Are you certain you told them the right day?”

“Oh, I’m certain.”

Jack looked as if he was about to say something else, but she heard a car pulling up behind them and for one stupidly insane moment, she thought it might be them. Her heart actually began to gallop with hope as she turned round to find out.

But it wasn’t them. Of course it wasn’t. She didn’t know who the middle-aged woman getting out of the car was.

“Can I help you?” said the woman pleasantly enough, rummaging in her handbag and extracting a set of keys.

“Er, yes,” said Stella, as she approached. “We’re here to see the Grants.”

“And you are…?”

“Their daughter, Stella.”

The woman’s eyes widened and her eyebrows lifted. “Oh,” she said in surprise. “I didn’t realise –” She stopped suddenly, and Stella felt a sharp jab of years-old pain hit her square in the chest. “Yes. Well. Anyway,” she continued. “They’re away in the Bahamas. For a fortnight. They left yesterday and asked me to come in and feed the cats. I’m Annie.”

Annie held out her hand and numbly Stella shook it, her throat thick and her head spinning with the distressing realisation that after everything she still cared. She still hoped that things might have changed, stupid idiot that she was.

“I expect they forgot to mention it,” said Annie kindly.

“I expect they did.” Except they hadn’t. They’d forgotten about her.

“Would you

like to come in and leave a message?”

“No,” said Stella, swallowing down the lump in her throat and pulling herself together because she just had to get over it and if not now, then when? “But thank you. I’ll give them a call when they’re back.”

“Sure?”

She nodded. Smiled. “Quite sure,” she said firmly. “We should get going.”

As Annie opened the front door and went into the house, Stella headed back to the car, feeling like a fool and hating that Jack had witnessed it.

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