As she snapped off her phone, a wave of sadness washed over her. Of course Zak would realise why she was turning him down. Now she felt terrible. It wasn’t fair of her to treat her friend like that – especially since she’d been the one to call him. Lauren sighed to herself. How many great parties/picnics/pub crawls had she missed over the years because she’d chosen to wait around for Jude instead? Lauren pushed the thought to the back of her mind, her heart heavy. Frustration and disappointment had become an integral part of this relationship Still, the decision had been made. She’d just have to stick to it.

‘Come on, darling,’ Jude shouted from the bedroom. There was a note of irritation in his voice. ‘I haven’t got long.’

Lauren sighed. She might have known that the clock was ticking on her already.

Chapter 64

Chapter 64

‘Have lunch with me,’ Blake says as we finish our run.

I laugh breathlessly at the suggestion. ‘I can’t do that.’

‘Why not?’

Why not? Er. . . Let me think about that. ‘I look a mess.’ I’m standing in the car park feeling all sweaty.

‘You look fabulous,’ he says, and there’s a sincerity in his tone which takes my breath away more surely than all that jogging.

‘I look like a woman who’s just huffed and puffed five miles.’

‘Let’s go somewhere low-key,’ BC suggests. ‘We can sit out in the garden in a shady corner well away from the designer label crowd, if that’ll make you feel better.’

‘Okay,’ I say, with an attempt at a casual shrug. I should be used to Blake’s company by now – we’ve done enough running together. So why does he still make me feel like some gauche teenager?

‘Leave your car here,’ he instructs, as he opens the passenger door of his Lotus Exige for me.

With some difficulty and no elegance whatsoever, I deposit myself inside, trying to look as if I’m not a novice sports-car passenger. Blake slips in beside me and, with a smile, he roars away, pinning me back into my seat.

I try to look cool and unflustered as we zoom through the streets, lower to the road than I’ve ever been before. My sister would kill me if she could see me now after her stern warning. Well, perhaps Lauren – or anyone else for that matter – doesn’t need to know about this.

True to his word, Blake pulls up outside a bargain-basement family pub.

‘I didn’t think you knew about places like this,’ I tease, as I clamber out of the low-slung car in an equally ungainly manner.

‘My daughter, Leona, likes the ball pond.’

‘Oh. How old is she?’

‘Just three. She’s an angel and a demon all rolled into one.’

‘They all are at that age.’