The Moment She Left Read Free Page B

spoken, naturally, neither of them had referred to their past relationship. They hadn’t mentioned it on the third occasion either, which was just last week when she’d gone to his antique shop, not to see him, but someone who worked there.
    That was a whole other story, and perhaps one of the stranger ways in which fate had chosen to play its hand, at least for her and Graeme in throwing them together again. For Blake Leonard, the person she’d gone to see . . . God only knew what fate was trying to do to him.
    Fixing her eyes on Martin now, she said, ‘I don’t want you to tell the children any more about Graeme. I only told you I went to his shop because I wanted to behonest with you, but the reason for my visit had nothing to do with him.’
    ‘Oh, just shopping for a few antiques, were you? Something you do all the time.’
    Ignoring the sarcasm, she said, ‘You’re making this far more difficult than it needs to be.’
    ‘Please excuse me for minding about you leaving me. Does he know? Have you told him you’ve rented your own place?’
    ‘Of course not. It’s nothing to do with him and for all I know he’s met somebody else by now, so he wouldn’t even be interested in where I’m living.’ It wouldn’t surprise her at all if Graeme had someone else. He was a good-looking man with a wickedly dry sense of humour, a love of the arts, most things Italian and – this would interest other women far more than it did her – he was pretty well off. A real catch, was how most would describe him.
    Martin was that, too.
    He started to speak, cleared his throat and ran a hand over his unshaven chin. ‘So when do I next get to see you?’ he asked gruffly.
    She didn’t know what to say to that. Anything would be wrong.
    ‘You don’t have to answer now,’ he said, reaching for his keys. ‘Call me when you’ve decided to stop behaving like a bitch.’
    As the front door closed behind him, she turned back to the window and watched as he emerged into the street below and crossed to the van he’d hired to help move her in.
    She was touched that he’d helped her, how could she not be when he was acting against his own interests?
    He was kind; she’d always known that about him, it was a large part of why she cared for him so much – of why she loved him. She just didn’t want to carry on pretending there was more in her heart than friendship. Perversely, she didn’t want to lose him either, though she had to accept that she might, at least for a while.
    As he pulled out into the slow-moving traffic she wondered where he would go after dropping the van and picking up his car. To his mother’s, or to hers? Either would offer him a sympathetic ear, although, to be fair, both mothers had been understanding and patient with her too, which couldn’t have been easy when they treasured how close they were as a family. So close that until today Andee and Martin had been living at her mother’s in a craggy little hamlet up on the northern headland known as Bourne Hollow.
    They should have moved into a place of their own long ago; perhaps this was another indication of how uncommitted she had felt to their future, that she had never been able to find the right house.
    Martin was due to move over to his own mother’s in the leafy suburb of Westleigh sometime in the next few days, where the children would join him for alternate weeks throughout the summer. They still had their own rooms in both grandmothers’ homes, and no matter where life took them once they’d finished uni, Andee couldn’t imagine that ever changing.
    There was an extra bedroom here in the flat, and Andee was hoping that they might at the very least crash with her after a late night out in town.
    Alayna was clearly still furious with her. She wasn’t returning texts, or calling back after Andee left messages.
    Andee would deal with that when the time came. For now she had a lot of unpacking to do, emails to send and a call to make to