Three’s a Crowd (59 page)

‘Okay, now you're just grossing me out.' Rachel heard a knock at the door. ‘There's someone at the door, I have to go.'

‘Yeah, that's the fella I sent around to sweep you off your feet. You can thank me later.'

‘Goodbye Mel.'

‘Call me if you change your mind about tonight.'

Rachel hung up as the knock sounded again. ‘Coming,' she sang out. Whoever it was had already got past the security door, so it was probably a charity collector who'd been right through the block. She hurried up the hall and opened the door, and her heart stopped.

‘Surprise!'

‘Hannah, Sophie!' Rachel finally found her voice. ‘You're back.'

‘Well, dahh!' Hannah lurched at her, giving her a hug.

Sophie was not so forward, but she looked happy, and she was smiling straight at her. ‘We just got back a couple of days ago.'

Where was Tom? Rachel wanted to ask, but she didn't think she could get the words out. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she could feel the blood pumping through her veins, creating a weird rippling sensation throughout her limbs. It was a little surreal. She wondered for a second if she was dreaming . . .

But no, the girls were definitely real, standing large as life in front of her. Hannah had clearly hit puberty, she'd lost that little girl look, but Rachel wouldn't embarrass her by saying so. ‘Have you gotten taller, Hannah?'

She positively beamed but Sophie answered before she could. ‘Yeah, she thinks she's going to end up taller than me, but I'm not going to let that happen.'

Sophie hadn't grown or changed that much physically, but there was something different about her. Maybe it was her hair, obviously longer now, held back haphazardly in a clip with strands falling loose everywhere, very un-Sophie like. She seemed less restrained or composed somehow. She looked like an adolescent again.

‘Well, come on in,' Rachel finally managed to say.

‘No, thanks anyway,' said Sophie. ‘We were just going down to the beach.'

‘And we came to see if you want to come with us,' Hannah chimed in.

‘Dad's just parking the car,' added Sophie.

And then he appeared on the landing below, and he was turning around to come up the last flight, and he looked up at her, and he smiled.

‘Hello Rachel,' he said, looking right into her eyes as he climbed the last few stairs.

She wasn't sure at all that she was going to get her voice to work. But she could feel the girls' eyes on her, waiting for her to respond.

‘Hi Tom. Welcome home.'

He stopped where he was, on the top step, leaning his arm on the banister. ‘So, have the girls asked you yet?'

‘Um, yeah, they did.'

‘So what do you say?'

Rachel honestly didn't know how she was going to even put one foot in front of the other. ‘Um, I don't know, I've got all this stuff I was going to do . . .'

‘Isn't Saturday the day for not quite getting around to things?' asked Tom.

How did he remember that?

‘Please Rachel, you have to come,' Hannah urged.

‘It was their idea,' Tom said, giving her a meaningful look.

Then Rachel felt Sophie's hand, slipping into hers. She turned her head to look at her.

‘Please come with us, Rachel,' she said. ‘It'll be more fun. You know what they say . . . three's a crowd.'

Ally Tasker feels trapped. Her dreams of a fulfilling life after art college didn't include cleaning up after bored school children and being a doormat for her high-flying boyfriend. Ally envies her friend Meg who has turned her art training into a lucrative job in graphic design, not to mention having a doting husband and gorgeous baby to complete the package.

But when Ally's grandfather, her sole relative, dies, she returns to the Southern Highlands home of her childhood where she must confront painful issues from her past that her safe life in the city has allowed her to ignore. Meanwhile Meg is not as happy as Ally imagines . . .

Sometimes you have to risk all you have to realise what is worth saving.

 

When she was a little girl, all Samantha Driscoll ever wanted was to be somebody's wife. She would marry a man called Tod or Brad and she would have two perfect children. But instead she married a Jeff and he's just confessed to having an affair.

Spurred on by supportive friends and her unpredictable sister Max, she finds the job she was born for:
Wife for Hire
. Sam manages everything from domestic help to renovations to social events for many satisfied customers.

However when Hal Buchanan is added to her client list but claims not to need her services, Sam realises that while she can organise many things in life, she is not so businesslike when her emotions are involved.

 

Georgie Reading runs a successful bookshop – with a name like that, she was born to. A fun-loving friend, loyal sister and adored aunty, life's pretty good for Georgie. Except her love life, that is. Nothing seems to go right and she's ready to give up.

On the other side of town, Anna and Mac appear to have the perfect marriage. But with every failed attempt at IVF their relationship suffers further and Mac doesn't know how much longer he can cope with Anna's pain and disappointment.

So when a stranger walks into Georgie's bookshop and they strike up a friendship, events are set in motion that no-one could imagine. What is the connection between the stranger, Anna and Mac? And what will the consequences be for everyone involved if Georgie allows herself to fall in love with him?

 

Helen always tries to be a good person. She recycles, obeys the water restrictions – she is even polite to telemarketers. As a mother, wife, daughter and nurse, Helen is used to putting everyone's needs before her own. But it only takes one momentary lapse of concentration to shatter her life forever.

There was no such momentary lapse for Gemma. Her customary recklessness leaves her pregnant, alone and estranged from her family, with her once-promising advertising career in tatters.

So when Gemma barges unceremoniously into Helen's life, things will never be the same again for either of them. Two very different women who have one thing in common – their lives have fallen short of their expectations. But is fate offering them a second chance?

 

With a hefty mortgage, a frustrating career as a newspaper columnist and a flailing relationship with a married co-worker, Jo Liddell is resigned to living a less-than-perfect life.

That is, until she crosses paths with Joe Bannister – a celebrated foreign correspondent returning home to care for his dying father. Against all her natural instincts, Jo finds herself falling for Joe, and with his help, begins to realise that she might deserve to be happy after all.

But when she decides to take the plunge and give love a chance, the results are catastrophic. And so Jo must fight hard for everything she has never believed in – success, self-acceptance, and above all, real love.