Summer at Tiffany's (19 page)

Her rocky words bounced off like pebbles on a giant. ‘You walked away so easily, without even a backwards glance.

‘No,' she refuted. ‘Not without a backwards glance. I was miserable for a long time in Paris, but I had to go there. You knew that.'

‘All I knew was that you chose to leave.'

‘You could have chosen to wait. Did that ever occur to you? It would only have been for a few months, but it had to be “now or never” for you, didn't it? Your ego couldn't bear that I might even be
able
to leave you.'

He blinked at her, his hazel eyes steady, discerning. ‘And who says you would have come back? Look at you now, already engaged to another guy. When did that start, huh? Did you meet him just a few weeks later in Paris, or was it a few months later in London?' His eyes roamed her face, but she looked away, refusing to answer. She didn't need to explain her history with Henry to him. She didn't need to explain herself to him at all. ‘Well, either way, it wasn't long, I know that much. You were
never
coming back to me. I knew it even if you didn't.'

She swallowed and they fell quiet again, the party thumping all around them like a giant heart. Was anyone watching them? Was Suzy? Henry? Arch?

‘Listen . . .' he said, his hand reaching towards her, but she flinched and he took it away again. More silence and yet a running commentary in her head – all the things she'd wanted to say to him back then and hadn't. ‘I don't want to fight. That isn't why I've come over. It was a long time ago now. We're different people. You've moved on; we both have, and believe it or not, I'm actually really happy that you've found what you were looking for. Henry seems like a good guy. Beau can't stop raving about him.'

Cassie wished she'd been looking at his face when he'd said that – had the words almost choked him? – but she continued looking out onto the street below.

‘I'd really like to call bygones on this whole thing. Accept my apology, Cass. I'd like us to be friends again.'

She turned to face him, her hip leaning into the cold stone. ‘But we were never friends, Luke.'

He stared back at her, both of them remembering exactly what it was they had been to each other. ‘Maybe not, no. But . . . maybe we could learn to be.'

From the corner of her eye, Cassie saw Suzy approaching, her arms held high above her head as she moved through the crowd with the wine glasses. Beau was just behind her on the dance floor, making an obscene gesture behind her back, and Cassie remembered again his final lascivious words to her at the polo. Even now they made her skin crawl. He had seen her at her most intimate, a privilege he should never have enjoyed – and it was all because of the man standing before her now.

She looked back at him coldly. ‘I don't think so. Anything that was between us you killed off a long time ago.' And she walked away, meeting Suzy just inside the French doors.

‘Holy crap! Isn't that—' Suzy asked in surprise as she clocked Luke, just as Cassie grabbed her by the elbow and steered her away to another corner of the room. She had met Luke when she and Anouk had sprung a surprise visit on her in New York.

‘He's still staring,' Suzy said without moving her lips, handing over her drink and clinking it with hers. ‘What the hell's
he
doing here?'

‘He's a friend of Beau's.'

‘Ugh, that figures.'

Cassie arched an eyebrow. ‘You know Beau?'

‘He's a dim and unwelcome ghost from the past.' Suzy looked sheepish. ‘And I may have snogged him once after one too many snakebites at a university ball.'

‘Oh, Suze, you didn't!'

‘I'm sorry. I was visiting Henry for the weekend and . . . well, it was a terrible lapse of taste
and
judgement.'

‘At least tell me he's an atrocious kisser.'

‘Mmm, yes, about that . . . Wish I could,' Suzy sighed with a shake of her head. ‘Still, he's an utter git. I can't believe Henry's hooked up with him again.'

‘Well, hopefully three months in a tiny cabin with him will finally make the scales fall from Henry's eyes.' Cassie took a sip of her drink, surreptitiously checking Luke wasn't still watching, but he had disappeared from sight – hopefully the room and country too. ‘Did you find Arch?'

‘Oh yes. He's supervising the Drink While You Think.' Suzy rolled her eyes, pointing to the nucleus of fun in the room. Archie's red hair, even redder under the lights, flicked about like the Olympic flame as Cassie watched Henry cheering on someone out of sight from her position. She was sure he couldn't have seen Luke here. He wouldn't be smiling anywhere near as widely if he knew her ex was in the building.

‘What are they trying to do?' Cassie asked, puzzled, just as the crowd parted momentarily and she glimpsed through the gap in the crowd a dazzling blonde-bobbed girl with a brilliant smile. ‘And who is
that
?'

‘Who?' Suzy craned to see. ‘Oh, that's Amy, the co-skipper, Henry's opposite number.'

‘Henry's got an opposite number?' Cassie murmured, watching as Amy gripped her hair with one hand, her eyes scrunched shut. She was clearly trying to think of something as everyone chanted a countdown to her. ‘I thought Beau was the other co-skipper.'

‘Nope. He's the expedition leader.' Suzy dressed the titles with faint scorn before noticing her friend's anxious expression. ‘Hey, don't worry about her. She's one of the boys apparently. They all love her.'

‘You don't say,' Cassie said with an edge.

‘I don't mean they love her like that.'

‘How do you know?'

‘Arch told me.'

‘Suze, just
look
at her!'

‘Listen, what are you so worried about? Henry can see no one but you.'

‘But she looks just like me, only better!'

Suzy soothingly placed a hand on her arm. ‘Stop being so insecure. For one thing, she's got a boyfriend. And for another, there's no such thing as a better you.'

Cassie watched as Beau leaned in and said something in her ear, Amy throwing her head back in laughter in reply. Was he her boyfriend? Hadn't Luke just sent Beau over to her?

‘Hey, guys!'

Both Suzy and Cassie turned in unison to find Gem bombing towards them like a pocket rocket. She was wearing a turquoise, brown and white crocheted dress with boy pants underneath and a black bra, her tanned skin winking through the vast openwork spaces. Her hair was still tightly bound in the cornrows, and attached to her hand was Laird.

Close up, he seemed less cartoonish than he had at the pub the other week. His eyes drooped slightly at the outer edges, giving him a vaguely melancholic air, and two weeks in England seemed to have taken the maroon tint off his tan. His hair was still improbably blond, but surrounded by the salty seadogs here tonight, it didn't seem quite so striking, and he just seemed fit, rather than buff, now that he was wearing a shirt and not a muscle vest.

‘I'm dying for you both to meet Laird properly.' She looked back at him with bright eyes. ‘These are the ones I was telling you about – Suzy, Henry's sister, and Cassie, Henry's fiancée.'

‘Pleased to meet you,' Cassie smiled, holding out her hand as she caught sight of Suzy's expression and guessed at her displeasure at both of them being introduced only in terms of their relationships to Henry. Suzy wasn't Henry's anything. She was older – he was her little brother; or how about she was Archie's wife instead? Or just the elder cousin? Even just the one with the great boobs?

‘Hi.' Laird shook her hand lightly. ‘Sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you at the party.'

‘It was a big party,' Cassie smiled, feeling guilty that she and Anouk and Bas had deliberately ducked into the crowd and disappeared – pretending to get separated – as Gem had led them over with Henry to make the introduction. ‘I . . . uh, love your name. It's so unusual.'

‘Thanks,' he said. ‘My grandparents were Scottish. It's a Scottish name.'

‘Ah yes, of course it is,' Cassie nodded. ‘I used to live in Scotland.'

‘Really? Whereabouts?'

‘Halfway between the border and Edinburgh. The Lammermuir Hills?'

He shook his head apologetically.

‘It's OK. No one outside of a ten-mile radius has ever heard of them.'

‘Do you miss it?'

‘Ha! You've got to be joking,' Suzy interrupted. ‘Poor Cass was trapped in a terrible marriage the whole time she was up there. Her husband worked in Edinburgh and would only come back at weekends. It was just you and the cook and the gin cupboard, wasn't it, Cass?'

‘Suze, you've just totally made me sound like an alcoholic!' Cassie protested with a laugh. She looked back at Laird. ‘For the record, I do not have a drink problem.'

‘Oh, I know,' he replied earnestly. ‘Your skin's too good.'

‘Oh, thanks,' she grinned.

Gem made eye contact with Cassie, flashing her a delighted smile that said, ‘See?' as beside them Suzy cleared her throat.

‘So, I just saw Archie,' Gem said, speaking up to her big cousin. ‘He looks
so hot
.'

‘He nearly died the week before last,' Suzy replied with an incredulous tone that suggested she was not of the same view. ‘I hardly think he's looking his best.'

‘
So?
' Gem cried. She placed a small hand on Suzy's arm. ‘I never got what it was you saw in him till now. I always thought he looked like that
Fast Show
character – you know, the lord who's in love with his estate keeper?'

Suzy's mouth dropped open in mute horror.

‘But now! The cheekbones, his eyes are so bright, and his teeth . . . He's got such good teeth.
Who knew?
'

Clearly not Suzy, who was now looking at her husband in the crowd with an expression approaching confusion. Were they talking about the same man?

‘You're a lucky girl, cuz. We all are.' Gem looked back at Cassie again, sipping her drink like a child at her parents' dinner party. ‘Have you and Henry set a date?'

Oh God, not again. The same old question. ‘Not yet,' Cassie said with a tight smile. ‘We're just enjoying life as it is now.'

Gem looked baffled by the answer.

‘Cassie's still recovering from her disastrous marriage. She got married too young, you see,' Suzy butted in tactlessly. ‘A decade wasted, her best years behind her and all because she rushed into it,' she tutted.

Cassie glared at her best friend – could she have been more unsubtle? – but Suzy's eyes were resting solely on Gem. Laird shifted his weight uneasily. He, at least, appeared to have got the point.

‘Can I get anyone another drink?' he asked.

Cassie gladly accepted – mainly to help justify his escape – and she watched him slip into the safety of the crowd, her eyes coming to rest on Henry again, as he still stood horsing around in a tight-knit core with Beau, Arch and Amy.

‘So I'm amazed Archie made it here tonight. He was saying he only got out of hospital, like, yesterday.'

‘Yes, and if he tries to get off that stool, I'll personally drop-kick him back to the CCU myself,' Suzy said, eyes slitted as Archie enthusiastically began another countdown.

‘When's he back to work?' Gem asked.

‘Not for at least another month. His ECGs weren't great. He needs further monitoring before they'll sign him off. The doctors said he's got to fully relax and start gentle exercise.'

‘I'll teach him yoga,' Gem offered excitedly, grasping Suzy's hand.

‘Ha! You wish!' Suzy quipped. ‘Trust me, there are farmhouse tables with more flexibility in their legs than his.'

‘You really don't need to be flexible to do yoga, you know,' Gem said, laughing. ‘I know I could help him. I worked with some really knackered old blokes in Oz and it made
such
a difference to their well-being.'

Cassie had begun to get the giggles – for the first time ever, Suzy's outspokenness was making no imprint on Gem's blunt-headedness – and she couldn't help but look over at Suzy's outraged expression.

‘Well, you're very sweet, Gem,' Suzy said in her most patronizing tone, ‘but we're not actually going to be around this summer. We're decamping to Cornwall.'

‘To Butterbox?' Gem gasped, her eyes wide and her hand slapped over her chest.

‘That's right. The fresh air and big views are just what he needs.'

‘I couldn't agree more. It'll be so healing for him being by the sea. The soul needs that vista, you know. It's too easy to disconnect from nature when you live in these big cities; you don't even realize it's happening. There's just this silent erosion of something good and vital from our lives and then we wonder why we feel so out of balance.'

‘Yes. Right. That's what I thought,' Suzy said warily.

‘You know, this is how Laird and I connected in the first place. He'd be up for the surf and he'd go right past my dawn classes – just seven or eight of us on the beach. It was only a matter of time before we got talking and realized how connected we are.' Her eyes glazed with the memories. ‘God, he'd love it down there. The surf's so sick at Polzeath and—' She stopped talking abruptly, her expression lighting up. ‘Oh my God,' she breathed, her hand clamping suddenly on to Suzy's arm. ‘We should totally come down with you.'

‘What?' Suzy looked nauseous.

‘Think about it! You and Arch need to heal – because you've had a terrible shock too, Suzy. Don't underestimate the pressure it's put on you – and Laird's just beginning to wilt, bless him, being so far from the sea. He loves me and he'd live with me in the Gobi Desert if I asked him to, but he needs that element in his life. And I can do my yoga anywhere. Plus, it'd be the perfect opportunity for us all to have some proper time together and really reconnect, you know? It's been so long, years really, since we all had proper time together.'