Read Online Blind-Date Baby by Fiona Harper - Free Book Online Page B

her down again and she sat with a bump.
    ‘Don’t look so scared, Grace,’ he said and released her hand. ‘I’m not about to stalk you, but I really enjoy spending time with you. If friendship is all you are offering, then I accept.’
    Grace was speechless. That was what she’d said, but that wasn’t what she’d meant. Not really. But as Noah slipped his long dark coat on, said his farewells and walked out of The Coffee Bean, she couldn’t think of a single countermove. Automatically, she cleared his plate and walked over to the counter, where she handed it over to Caz. With nothing left to do in the café she opened the back door, navigated the narrow passageway there and climbed the stairs to her flat.
    Down below, Caz stared hard at the dirty plate, twisting itthis way and that in the light. And, when she was satisfied she’d looked long and hard enough, she smiled to herself and brushed the crumbs into the bin.

CHAPTER FOUR

    G RACE smiled as she opened Noah’s latest email. Once you got through that ever-smooth façade, he could be really insightful and funny. Finding a message from him in her inbox always brightened her day. And he’d been true to his word. In the last six weeks she hadn’t felt stalked, not one little bit. She was glad of his friendship. She still missed Daisy like crazy but it was Noah, along with the girls from Blinddatebrides.com, who kept her going.
    Grace smiled as she hit the ‘send’ button on her email. She’d thought she’d be horribly lonely without Daisy around but, after that day she’d stumbled into the chat room and sent out a distress call, she’d been in constant contact with Dani from San Francisco and Kangagirl, really Marissa from Sydney.
    She wasn’t quite sure what had caused them to bond so firmly. They had very different jobs and lifestyles, but they just ‘got’ each other. And having two neutral ears to share her dating worries with had been a godsend.
    She flipped the laptop closed and padded off to the kitchen in search of a snack. There were another two hours to kill until her scheduled chat with Marissa and Dani at midnight. A strange time of day to get sociable but, considering that Marissa was thirteen hours ahead and Dani was eight hours behind, live chats had to take place at either midnight or sixo’clock in the morning. And the girls knew how she felt about six o’clock in the morning.
    It actually seemed a little bit sad that her best friends lived on different continents and she’d never met them face to face. She didn’t know how they liked their coffee or what their voices sounded like, but maybe that was a good thing. Yes, there was a lot of banter, but when that died down they weren’t afraid to be honest with each other. They’d got to know each other so much better over the Internet than if they’d met up and done small talk over coffee.
    Sadder still had been the realisation that the greater part of Grace’s socialising up until now had involved Daisy and a group of friends. They were cool kids, but she doubted they wanted a forty-year—a mature woman hanging around now Daisy was overseas.
    Grace raided the biscuit barrel and sat down with a glass of milk at the kitchen table—a great little find from a junk shop. It was pure nineteen-fifties Americana, complete with chrome legs and trim and a speckled Formica top.
    As Grace munched, she began to frown. She hardly ever just sat in her kitchen and had a really good look around. There was something about it. Something she just couldn’t put her finger on. It reminded her of…
    Oh, God. It reminded her of student accommodation.
    Suddenly she was on her feet, walking through her flat looking at everything with unfettered eyes.
    She realised with horror that her approach to decorating hadn’t changed much since she’d married Rob. Oh, the colours and the prints and the bad flat-pack furniture had changed, but the essential philosophy—cheap, bright and fun—was exactly the