Read Online Perfect Timing by Jill Mansell - Free Book Online

from work yet. She’ll be back around five. Can I get you a drink?’
    Angie Slade-Welch smiled at the sight of Caspar, so streaky-blond and deliciously tanned, in his turquoise tee-shirt and white shorts. He looked like a beach bum, and not a day over twenty-two.
    â€˜I knew Claudia wouldn’t be here.’
    She also knew that so long as you were prepared for it, a bit of rain didn’t go amiss. The damp, disheveled look suited her down to the ground. It was why, having been dropped off by her driver right outside the house, she had waited half a minute before ringing the bell. Plenty of Audrey Hepburn eye make-up and a fragile smile, and Angie could take on the world.
    As long as the mascara was waterproof.
    â€˜You knew Claudia wouldn’t be home yet? Oh dear,’ said Caspar. ‘In that case, I hope you haven’t come here to ask embarrassing questions behind her back. My mother did that once when I was in high school. She cornered the French teacher, convinced that I was being led astray—’
    â€˜And were you?’
    â€˜Of course.’ He grinned. ‘But it improved my French no end. So, is that really why you’re here? You want me to dish the dirt on your daughter’s love life?’
    â€˜Not at all.’ The only love life Angie was interested in was her own.
    â€˜You want to find out if she’s happy here?’
    Angie shrugged and shook her head. ‘No, but you can tell me if you like. She’s had a couple of moans about the new girl… what’s her name? Poppy.’
    Never one to boil a kettle when he could open a bottle instead, Caspar was relieved to discover an unopened bottle of Pouilly Fumée hidden behind the mineral water at the back of the fridge.
    â€˜Ah yes, Poppy and Claudia.’ He filled two glasses and passed one to Angie. ‘The harem, as some of my not very witty friends have taken to calling them.’
    â€˜And are they?’ Angie raised an interested eyebrow. ‘Your harem?’
    Caspar pulled a face. ‘They bear a passing resemblance. Claudia doesn’t trust Poppy an inch. Now I know what it would be like, keeping a wife and mistress together under one roof. Except,’ he added with a grin, ‘I’m not sleeping with either of them.’
    â€˜How quaint.’ Angie could imagine how desperately Claudia would have liked to. She would leap at the chance. Caspar evidently wasn’t interested. Good.
    â€˜In fact, neither of them are to my knowledge sleeping with anyone,’ he went on, ‘which means there isn’t really any dirt to dish.’
    â€˜Some harem.’
    â€˜So if it isn’t a rude question,’ said Caspar, ‘why are you here?’
    â€˜I’d like you to paint me.’
    Angie crossed one slender charcoal-stockinged leg over the other. She was wearing an efficient-looking grey pinstriped suit today, tightly belted to show off her tiny waist. Unfastening her bag, she took out a calfskin-bound diary.
    â€˜Um… no offense, but I’m pretty expensive,’ said Caspar. It was always better to come out and say it straight away, particularly when the potential client was someone you knew. Even friends-of-friends had an embarrassing habit of expecting you to do it for free.
    â€˜That’s all right, so am I.’ Leaning closer, Angie gave him a conspiratorial look. ‘The thing is, I want the painting for Hugo. It’s his fiftieth birthday in December—’
    â€˜If you want it finished by December I’m going to have to charge more,’ Caspar interrupted. ‘Look, it’s going to be six grand. I’m sorry, but my manager would shoot me if I said anything less.’
    Privately he was marveling at the choice of gift. How many men would want to so much as glance at a portrait of their ex-wife, let alone be given one for their birthday? What if he threw darts at it?
    â€˜Six grand, no problem.’ Angie