Read Online Caught in the Act by Gemma Fox - Free Book Online Page B

pulling a face.
    â€˜Not for any job you’d ever want,’ said Adie.
    â€˜You’d never get a job in my place with those shoes or that outfit—Cat boots, a rugby shirt and jeans—what were you thinking?’ said Netty.
    â€˜What’s wrong with them? They’re comfortable to drive in,’ protested Carol, not at all offended.
    â€˜You could have made an effort.’
    â€˜I did,’ said Carol with a grin.
    â€˜Come on, behave,’ growled Adie. ‘You look great. So, Carol, after three—two, three—and away.’
    She paused for an instant, trying to collect her thoughts, painfully aware of how quickly the years had gone by. It didn’t seem so very long ago that they had been out buying their first booze together.
    Diana, heading up to the counter in an offie near the station, because with her hair up she looked twenty if she was a day, clutching the money from combined Saturday jobs for a bottle of vodka. Adie, arm in arm between Janand Netty, walking down Bridge Street to catch the train to Cambridge, guitar slung across his narrow back. Everyone smoking, everybody giggling. Getting stoned at the back of the library, getting drunk at the leavers’ ball.
    Carol smiled; she had loved them all so much and hadn’t known it. She took a deep breath, struggling to slow down the frantic slide show of images that filled her head. Maybe if she started to speak, her brain, with something else to think about, would throttle back and slow down the montage of memories, words like weights making the rush of thoughts and recollections into something more manageable.
    â€˜Come on, Carol, take no notice of them,’ said Adie. ‘So, once upon a time Lady Macbeth left Belvedere High School and then…?’
    â€˜And then, well, I worked in a bookshop in Cambridge—you remember that, Netty—we used to meet up for lunch? And I worked in a pub at weekends. I was planning on going to teacher training college when I met Jack French. He came into the shop and swept me off my feet, which sounds totally ridiculous now but it was true at the time. He kept coming in and flirting, and I said he would get me the sack. I remember that I was unpacking a whole boxof sale books onto a table display when I said it—and so he bought the lot and then took me off to lunch to celebrate in his Mercedes.’
    â€˜Wow,’ said Netty. ‘Bit flash. I don’t remember meeting him.’
    â€˜Unfortunately it was mostly all flash and balls. But I was very impressed, which shows how shallow and how gullible I was back then. To cut a long story short, I moved in with him, we got married—he was a lot older than I was—and we had two kids, two boys called Jake and Oliver.
    â€˜He was thirty-six when I met him, and anyone of his own age would have seen straight through him. I think he was rather hoping I’d stay nineteen for ever—he was so very disappointed when I grew up.’
    At which point Netty cleared her throat as if to say or ask something but Adie raised a hand to silence her. ‘There will be time for questions at the end,’ he said officiously, and then nodded for Carol to continue. ‘Off you go, honey. We’re all listening.’
    â€˜Sad thing was it took me a while to wake up, but by then I’d got Jake. We’d bought a house, Jack had a drink problem, was a financial disaster and had a roving eye that perfectlymatched the other parts of his body that were prone to roving. He did about as much for my self-esteem and peace of mind as the Titanic did for maritime insurance. But what we did do—against the odds re ally—was have two re ally great kids and build up a good business between us, which is mine now. So it’s not all bad news. I’ve been on my own nearly eight years and I’m doing OK, more than OK—I’m doing good.’
    Adie nodded appreciatively.
    â€˜And have you got