Read Online Bet Your Life by Jane Casey - Free Book Online

left her staring into the fire, looking quite ravishing in a big woolly jumper, with her hair loose around her shoulders.
    Now or never, Hugo.
    I opened the back door and peered out into the garden. Except for the rectangle of light at my feet, spilling out from the kitchen behind me, it was entirely dark. I couldn’t see Tilly’s studio at the end of the garden, or even the path that led to it. The rain was falling more softly now, but persistently. It gurgled in the gutters and pattered on fallen leaves. I strained to hear a rustle in the bushes or paws on gravel.
    “Diogenes,” I called into the darkness, not too loudly. I could have wished the Leonards were less inventive about their cat names. “You idiot cat, where are you?” I cranked the volume up just a little. “Diogenes!”
    One minute I was alone. The next, a figure stepped into the light, Diogenes cradled against his chest. The cat was staring up at him adoringly, her face pillowed on his shoulder. His face was half in shadow, but I would have known those hands anywhere, and the easy way he moved. I caught my breath, wondering how I could ever have mistaken anyone else for him. Will came toward me and then stopped short, out of reach.
    “Looking for this?”
    All my life.
    I didn’t say it. I didn’t say anything. I stood back and held the door open and he walked in. He didn’t touch me, or even look at me as he walked by. There was no reason why I should feel close to fainting as his sleeve brushed mine, shedding water that soaked through the wool of my jumper. It was cold.
    A reminder, as if I needed one, that getting too close to Will was a bad idea.

 
    5
    When I turned round, Will had already put the cat down on the floor. She was rubbing herself against his legs, her eyes half closed with pleasure.
    “Wearing your catnip aftershave again?”
    “How did you know?” He reached down and stroked Di. “It’s nice to see her. Nice to be missed.”
    “Oh, you were missed.” The words seemed too significant once I’d said them and I started filling the kettle, just to have something to do. “Tea?”
    “Yeah.” He leaned on the countertop, watching me, in all my makeup-free scruffiness. I had dragged my hair into a knot on top of my head but I knew it was untidy. I also knew I couldn’t do anything about it without looking vain. Of course I was wearing my oldest jeans and a hoodie that was too big for me; it was as if I’d known he was coming and had taken steps to look as unattractive as possible. I glanced at him and noticed he’d taken off his coat. It was hanging on the back of a chair, dripping. He was wearing a fisherman’s sweater with the sleeves pushed up a little. His arms were still tanned from the summer. Naturally, obviously, he looked stunning, but he also looked different somehow, and I couldn’t allow myself to stare at him for long enough to work out why.
    “How are you?” he asked. Well, it was as good a way of starting a conversation as any.
    “Fine,” I said, a little too brightly. “You?”
    He shrugged. “Fine.”
    “How’s your mum?” Straight in there with the tough questions, Jess. Nice one .
    “She’s doing all right. Much the same.”
    “How’s the new school?” Safer territory.
    “Making me work hard.”
    “But do you like it?” I asked.
    “It has its good points. It’s not here, for starters.” I flinched and Will saw it. He added, casually, “It’s just nice to be somewhere no one cares who my dad is.”
    “Are they nice? The other students?”
    “Mainly.” He relented. “I’ve met some nice people.”
    I heard people and thought girls . There was no way to ask. But I looked at him, with his hair a little ruffled and the fading tan that made his eyes look very light, and thought there was no way he wouldn’t attract attention from any female with a pulse.
    Speaking of which, I really needed to start paying attention to what he was saying rather than how he looked. I’d just missed