Read Online The Birds and the Bees by Milly Johnson - Free Book Online Page B

together; back then, she was little better than a fragile shell with no confidence. A beautiful woman who really did think she was as ugly anduseless and unlovable as MacLean had driven her to believe. He really had saved her, Matt thought with a proud inner glow that warmed him right through. They were so good together–as soul-matched as Cathy and Heathcliff, Tony and Cleo, Bonnie and Clyde. Jo MacLean was the most fantastic creature he had ever met. And after they had both done the necessary business this afternoon, nothing would ever part them again.
     
    When Matthew’s car pulled up outside the house at thirteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds past two, Stevie was relieved to see that he was alone. She manufactured a smile, which trembled on her lips as she jumped across the room from the window to stage herself casually at the computer just before the door opened.
    ‘Hey there!’ she said, pulling her smile as wide as possible in a semblance of ‘woman overjoyed to see missed fiancé’ and sprang up to give him a welcoming hug. She noticed immediately how stiffly he reciprocated it.
    ‘Did you have a nice time?’ she said breezily, trying to overcome the lump of panic that was clogging up her windpipe. ‘Hey, I see you’ve been at the sun-beds there. Great leisure facilities, eh?’ She did the lie for him.
    ‘Yes, they were. Fantastic, in fact. Nice way to unwind–sitting in the…on the…er…sun bed. Especially after the long hard boring meetings.’
    ‘Must have been tiring. Bet the journey back was hell,’ she said as chirpily as a canary on Prozac.
    ‘Yes,’ he said, stretching and yawning with exhaustion at the imaginary long drive from Scotland.
    ‘Cup of tea?’ she said.
    ‘No, I’m okay. Stopped off on the way at some motorway services at Scotch Corner.’
    Liar . She herded her rebellious thoughts back into line and stretched the smile a little further, not too much that it was gushing, but enough to be warm and welcoming and unaccusing. It was harder than she had thought, trying to be Mrs Nice Person whilst someone was lying their head off to you, and what’s more, you knew they were and you were sifting through everything they said for substantiating evidence. It was the little details to give credence to his story that were the most hurtful of all: stopped off at Scotch Corner; long boring meetings; sun beds …
    ‘Stevie.’ He started scratching the back of his neck. Something he did when he was nervous, usually when opening a bank statement.
    ‘Yes?’ she said, still wearing that ridiculous smile onto which she was hanging tenuously, because this was it, this was the moment. The way he said her name suggested that what was to follow was not good news.
    ‘Stevie, when I was away, I did a lot of thinking. Alone. Lying under the sun…er…bed.’
    Lying being the operative word .
    ‘Oh, did you?’ Smile, smile. Thinking and shagging. And spending my son’s holiday money!
    ‘I don’t know how to say this so I’ll just come straight out with it…’
    Oh God, oh God …
    ‘I’m listening,’ she said, presenting her bravest and most understanding face.
    ‘I think…’
    Oh, please don’t say it, Matthew, please don’t!
    ‘…I think we should take a bit of time out. Before the wedding.’ Damn, I didn’t mean to mention the wedding, Matt thought. Now I’ve made it look as if it’s still on.
    Which was exactly what Stevie was thinking.
    ‘Before the wedding’–that means it’s still on! Thank You, God!
    She tested him. ‘You mean, like, split up?’ she said.
    ‘No…yes…no…’
    Damn! Her total reasonableness threw him. He had expected her to start crying and pleading and throwing things, then he would have had licence to storm off. This was so much harder, her being calm and nice and giving him nothing to kick against.
    ‘Okay, if that’s what you want,’ she said, nodding. ‘I totally understand.’
    ‘Eh? Oh, right then.’ Bloody hell! That was