Read Online Love or Money? by Carrie Stone - Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t so head over heels in love with him.... she might have been able to ask him to leave.
     
    Felicity stared at her laptop screen for the hundredth time that morning. She knew her reservation number and flight details by heart now. The idea that in less than two days she’d be travelling to the other side of the world, for no apparent reason, still hadn’t properly sunk in.
    Australia. The land of kangaroo and barbecues. It was the one place that despite her extensive travel, she’d never visited previously or had any desire to visit. Yet now she’d be spending the next ten weeks of her life there.
    Despite the panic that she felt at the absurdity of her trip, she was also excited. It had been so long since she’d had her mind focused on anything but work and money and the idea of exploring a country and perhaps even taking the odd excursion, filled her with an aliveness that she hadn’t experienced in years.
    She’d worked hard over the last few days to ensure that Maurice and the office would run smoothly without her. Her own personal matters such as the cottage maintenance and finances, were being handled in her absence by her mother and all thoughts of Dan, James and past pain had been pushed aside.
    She’d have plenty of time to assess her feelings on those in detail once she was alone in Australia. But today, she was looking forward to catching up with both Zara and Sylvia.
     
    “ Steve, have you seen Lexi’s Nintendo DS?” Zara called out from the half painted nursery.
    “ I already asked Daddy and he said he hadn’t seen it” Lexi replied, staring at Zara with a downturned mouth.
    “ Well I don’t know then, darling. It must be somewhere, ask your sisters again.”  Putting down the roller brush, Zara wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand as her daughter sulkily left the room.
    She stood back surveying the half painted pale green wall. It wasn’t anywhere near the jungle theme they’d originally had in mind. But it would have to do.  
    “What’s up?” Steve asked appearing in the doorway of the nursery.
    Zara took in her husband’s freshly showered and shaved appearance. Dressed in a pale pin k shirt and his best jeans, she experienced a nauseous feeling. Squashing it, she turned to her husband with sticky, paint covered hands.
    “ Lexi’s moaning because she can’t find her console. I thought you might have seen it.”
    Steve scratched his head distractedly. “No, I already told her I haven’t.” 
    Walking across to open another of the windows, Zara was overcome with exhaustion. The baby was really beginning to move around and her energy levels had seemed to plummet in the past week. Despite being her fourth pregnancy, it was her hardest one yet.
    “Listen, I’ve got to go and meet Tony about some work. I’ll be back by dinner time.”
    Zara nodded silently, scooping down awkwardly to pick up a small paintbrush. She didn’t want Steve to notice her glassy, teary eyes or the disappointment that had plastered itself across her face.
    Oblivious to his wife’s distress, Steve eyed the wet paint.
    “ Good job, its coming along nicely” he said patting his wife’s back. “Right, I must shoot off, see you later.”
    Zara only dared to look up once Steve’s heavy footsteps could be heard making his way down the stairs and out of the front door.
    Sitting alone in the nursery, she allowed the tears to fall freely from her eyes. The feeling of uncertainly that had been building up in the past week had doubled in its intensity. All of the signs had been there for weeks, yet she had chosen to ignore them. The way Steve didn’t want to touch her anymore. The late working nights. The improved dress sense. The trimmer physique. The random and unexplained disappearances. It was exactly the way they wrote about it in every magazine she had ever read. Yet she hadn’t wanted to believe that her Steve could be one of those men. Her Steve. A cheat.
    Lexi padded into the room