Read Online The House On Willow Street by Cathy Kelly - Free Book Online Page A

deleting or getting out of whatever text he’d been writing, Mara realized. He smiled guiltily at her and that’s when she knew for sure. It took one look at his face to know the truth.
    “Is it true?” she asked. “About you and Tawhnee?”
    “I’m sorry,” he said feebly.
    “Sorry? Is that the best you can do, Jack?” she asked quietly. She wouldn’t shout. Not here. She would leave with dignity.
    “I wanted to tell you for ages,” he insisted.
    “Why didn’t you?”
    He shrugged.
    Mara felt curiously numb. This must be shock, she thought.
    “I’ve got a headache. I’m going home now.
    “Of course,” Jack said. “Take tomorrow too. Er, headaches can really get you down . . .”
    She left and grabbed her things from her desk. The guys were chatting.
    “Hi, Mara, what’s up?” said the one who’d called her ordinary.
    She looked at him through the haze of numbness, then stumbled from the room.

    Cici had volunteered to go with Mara to the wedding.
    “Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll look totally sad if I come with you. No offense, but coming with a female friend is likewearing a badge that says I’m a loser who couldn’t get a date. Brad Pitt is about the only man I could bring and not look like a sad cow.”
    “Okay then, but promise me you’ll dance like there’s nobody watching,” Cici added.
    “Isn’t that the advice from a fridge magnet?” Mara demanded.
    “Fridge magnets can be very clever,” her friend replied. “ A clean kitchen is the sign of a boring person , and all that.”
    “True.”
    There was a pause.
    “I always danced like there was nobody watching,” Mara said mournfully. “Jack loved that about me. He said I was a free spirit. Although not as free as Tawhnee.”
    “She was obviously free with everything, from her favors to her skirt lengths,” Cici said caustically.
    Mara smiled. That was the thing about a good girlfriend: she’d fight your corner like a caged lioness. If you were injured, she was injured too and she remembered all the hurts and would never forgive anyone for inflicting them on you.
    “She has great legs,” Mara admitted.
    “All people of twenty-four have great legs. It’s only when you get to thirty that your knees sag and the cellulite hits.”
    Cici was thirty-five to Mara’s thirty-three and considered herself an expert on aging issues. Mara could remember being mildly uninterested when Cici had complained about cellulite spreading over her thighs like an invasion of sponges. Then one day, it had happened to her and she’d understood. Was that to be her fate forever—understanding when it was too late?

    The wedding band were murdering “I Only Have Eyes for You” when Jack appeared beside her, urbane in his dinner jacket.
    “Mara, you look wonderful.”
    Mara had maxed out her credit card on a designer number from an expensive shop that catered to petite women. She’d been going to wear one of her vintage specials, but she hadn’t the heart for it: she’d show Jack and everyone else that she could do “normal” clothes too. So at great expense, she’d bought a bosom-defying turquoise prom dress worn with very high, open-toed shoes. She’d curled her hair with rollers and clipped it up on one side with a turquoise-and-pink flower brooch. Her lips were MAC’s iconic scarlet Ruby Woo, her seamed stockings were in a straight line, and she knew she looked as good as she could. Not mainstream, no, but good. Not ordinary , she hoped.
    “Would you like to dance?”
    Dance with Jack?
    It must be a dream. A very strange dream, she decided. Soon, a big white rabbit would appear, along with a deranged woman screeching “Off with their heads!” and possibly Johnny Depp wearing contact lenses and a lot of makeup.
    Still, even if it was a dream, she’d go along. Nobody could think she was a bad loser if they saw her dancing with her former lover.
    “Of course,” she said, beaming at him.
    Smile all the time , had been Cici’s other