page27 (1/1)

‘Robbie can have that effect on people’ Megan broke with tradition and gave the other wo ‘Have a wonderful Christ the htly on Victoria’s shoulder, and felt a stab of pure, unattractive, inappropriate jealousy She pulled back as though she had been stung, her face hot ‘Tell Dominic happy Christmas from me It’s been nice…’ she s up In case I don’t see you again, take care!’

And there was no chance then to prolong the farewells, as food was calling In the sudden confusion of people heading to the kitchen, she was only aware of Alessandro, as he disappeared behind Victoria through the front door and off to his perfect, refined Christmas lunch

CHAPTER FOUR

FOR Megan and Charlotte, Christmas lunch was not so uest reluctantly left at a little after seven, and by eight-thirty most of the detritus had been cleared away—or at least channelled into the kitchen to await further action At which point Charlotte announced that she would be spending the night at her boyfriend’s

Megan was relieved She was tired, and she wasn’t in the mood for a post mortem of the day which would inevitably include lots of questions about Alessandro which Charlotte had been itching to ask ever since he had walked through their front door with Victoria hanging on his ar the clear-up but Megan knew her friend better than iven a fewroom, she would move in for the kill

She had picked up the pieces seven years ago, and had a lot to say on the subject of Alessandro the rat Hence why Megan had decided to tactfully o The only wonder was that Charlotte had ed to be reasonably polite to him earlier, and that was probably because she had been too busy rushing around

By nine, then, Megan had the house to herself, and the full weight of her thoughts settled on her shoulders like a burden of lead

It shouldn’t hurt, but seeing Alessandro with Victoria did It had been one thing to conteht have been having, the sort of wo, but to have the reality of his happiness thrust upon her was a bitter pill to s

Worse than that was the fact that he felt sorry for her And even worse than that was the sickening suspicion that she still had feelings for hih he had derailed her life once before and ticked none of the boxes in what she considered her otistical and driven She liked shy, genuine and easygoing But just thinking about him made her feel hot under the collar, and her nervous syste distance of him

She wondered what the point of lessons was if you didn’t actually learn froo, because he had beenup and she wasn’t suitable tohi to rid her syste ood for her, who boosted her confidence, who never ih

The two guys she had gone out with had not been earth-shattering affairs, but they had been good for her They had h-octane, high-intensity, high everything passion that had consumed her when she had been with Alessandro

She had th Or so she had i and here she was, back to emotional free fall

It see the sh-heeled shoes had been dispatched to the black bin liner in the kitchen, along with the green tights She had a quick shower, changed into track pants, and was doing a last- behind doors, under sofas or wedged beneath cushions that in to smell unless immediately removed, when she spotted the jacket

It had probably begun life on the coat hooks by the front door, but the situation with the coats had been a bit of a disaster Too ether by the front door, so some had been removed to one of the bedrooms upstairs, others to the little utility roo over the banister This stray had obviously slipped through and ended up wedged behind the tall earthernware contraption which they used as an umbrella stand