Read Online Falling in Love Again by Sophie King - Free Book Online Page B

had been so horrified about his girlfriend going off with another woman. Caroline had thought that was hysterical when she’d come round the next morning to see how it had gone.
    ‘So are you going to the next meeting?’
    Alison shrugged. ‘Maybe. It’s called ‘Moving On’.’
    ‘Just what you need. Great hair by the way. See, I was right.’ Caroline – who had, lucky her, inherited their mother’s natural blonde locks! – opened the fridge, helped herself to a bottle of unopened wine and picked up a wine glass which she then proceeded to wash first before filling it up (such cheek!). She walked into the sitting room, which was still festooned with newspapers from last month, dated the day before they’d taken Jules back. The day when the world was still all right.
    ‘Haven’t you got an estate agent coming round to do a valuation? Better tidy up, hadn’t we?’ She filled up her glass again. ‘Get rid of those man’s clothes for a start. No. Don’t look at me like that. It’s psychological. You need to bin his stuff in order to move on. And move the bedroom furniture around so it looks like a different bedroom from the one when he was in it. Trust me. I’m the expert on this one.’
     
    Of course, the valuation was just a red herring. There was no way that David would really go ahead with a sale, whatever he said . . . She was certain, absolutely certain, that once she presented him with two or three formal quotes and they sat down – as they would surely have to, wouldn’t they? – to talk over the practicalities of dividing the furniture and their assets (such an awful word), he’d realise his mistake and come back.
    David loved their home; had loved it from the minute he’d found it all those years ago and rung excitedly to say he’d discovered the perfect house (near Amersham) and that although they’d have to borrow a fair bit, it would be worth it in the long run. ‘It’s in a quiet road,’ he had told her excitedly, ‘with enough space in the drive to park two cars; maybe three. And the garden has a willow tree – I know you’ve always wanted one and . . .’
    They’d moved in six months later, just before Jules had been born. All their memories were here, thought Alison. The mark on the wall where Ross had thrown a football even though ball games weren’t allowed inside (her rules rather than David’s). The spacious, airy hall where Jules had taken her first steps and she’d excitedly rung a rather stressed-sounding David in the office to tell him. The utility room which was the original kitchen until they had saved up enough money for the extension.
    No. He wouldn’t leave all this. She’d just go along with his silly game caused, she was certain, by a combination of his stressful job and their last child leaving home. He’d be back. She’d heard that tremor in his voice when she’d told him the door was still open.
    ‘Mum!’
    Before she  knew it, Alison found herself being enveloped in a young, strong pair of arms (again so like her husband’s). ‘I’m sorry it’s taken so long to come up,’ Ross was standing back now, as though embarrassed by his display of affection, ‘but I couldn’t get back before. You do understand, don’t you?  And what have you done to your hair? It looks . . . different.’
    Ross had followed her husband into the legal profession but into a different branch. His firm regularly sent him to Hong Kong and Singapore, where he had been during David’s bombshell. But now he was back! He was so like his father that if anyone could fix it, it would be him. They’d have the shepherd’s pie she’d just made (even though she didn’t feel at all hungry) and sort it all out.
    ‘Have you seen Dad?’
    As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt the punch of irony. How had it come to this, that she had to ask her own son for news of her own husband?
    He nodded. ‘I dropped into the office on the way back from the airport.’
    He’d seen