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Back When Life Gives You Lemons Save as PDF
Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS
  3. Dedication
  4. Part One
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter Two
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Part Two
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Part Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-One
  28. Chapter Twenty-Two
  29. Chapter Twenty-Three
  30. Chapter Twenty-Four
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Part Four
  37. Chapter Thirty
  38. Chapter Thirty-One
  39. Chapter Thirty-Two
  40. Chapter Thirty-Three
  41. Chapter Thirty-Four
  42. Chapter Thirty-Five
  43. Chapter Thirty-Six
  44. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  45. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  46. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  47. Chapter Forty
  48. Chapter Forty-One
  49. Chapter Forty-Two
  50. Acknowledgements
  51. Keep Reading …
  52. About the Author
  53. By the same author:
  54. About the Publisher

We take our mugs through to the kitchen, and I thank him again for the poncho. ‘Why have you never let Izzy visit you?’ I ask as he’s leaving. ‘At the flat, I mean?’

He exhales forcefully. ‘Oh, I know it’s stupid. But obviously, she’d have made a big thing about it and told you. And, quite rightly, you’d have found it hilarious.’

‘I’m not sure I would have,’ I say, deciding to never mention my trip there with Penny and the others. How we’d gone into the shop and quizzed the woman who worked there.

‘Why did you care what I thought?’ I ask.

‘I’ve always cared what you thought. I always will.’

I am stumped for how to respond to that. ‘It’s been good to talk tonight,’ he adds.

‘It has,’ I say truthfully as, in a peculiar way, I know Andy better now than I ever did when we were together. I feel equal to him, at least equal; not that I am interested in power games. Right now, I’m dog-tired and interested only in sleep. ‘So, you’ll be moving out of the flat, I guess?’

Andy nods as he steps outside. ‘I’m not sure where I’m going to go.’ I’m sure I catch it then; his quick glance towards our home. A hopeful look. Or maybe I imagined it?

‘So,’ I say, ‘the cheese thing doesn’t interest her at all? Even though it was the family business?’

Andy shakes his head, and a tiny smile forms. ‘She’s dairy intolerant,’ he says.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Monday, November 18

Penny has gone AWOL. At least, she and Hamish seem to have gone off on a jaunt on his boat, and there’s no way of reaching her. It seems crazy, that a person is uncontactable in this day and age. ‘Last thing I heard, they were having an impromptu holiday,’ Nick says, with a trace of exasperation when I call him at lunchtime from work. ‘I think it’s because I’m here, and Bobby hates the boat, apparently. He gets anxious and sick and he won’t wear his little life jacket.’

‘Can’t they just … put it on him?’

Nick chuckles. I push aside my haloumi salad and make an apologetic face at Belinda, who’s sitting opposite. ‘I think Mum finds it aesthetically unpleasing.’

I splutter with laughter, despite the anxiety that’s rising in me now; we really must tell her soon. I inhale deeply and sip my glass of water. ‘What can we do, then?’ I ask.

‘Hamish is bound to drive her mad,’ Nick assures me. ‘She’ll be back soon, and as soon as she appears, I’ll call you. Please don’t worry. There’s no way she’ll object to it, now we’re almost ready to go.’

Tuesday, November 19