BooksBarbecue
Back With or Without You Save as PDF
Chapters (84)
  1. Chapter one
  2. Chapter two
  3. Chapter three
  4. Chapter four
  5. Chapter five
  6. Chapter six
  7. Chapter seven
  8. Chapter eight
  9. Chapter nine
  10. Chapter ten
  11. Chapter eleven
  12. Chapter twelve
  13. Chapter thirteen
  14. Chapter fourteen
  15. Chapter fifteen
  16. Chapter sixteen
  17. Chapter seventeen
  18. Chapter eighteen
  19. Chapter nineteen
  20. Chapter twenty
  21. Chapter twenty-one
  22. Chapter twenty-two
  23. Chapter twenty-three
  24. Chapter twenty-four
  25. Chapter twenty-five
  26. Chapter twenty-six
  27. Chapter twenty-seven
  28. Chapter twenty-eight
  29. Chapter twenty-nine
  30. Chapter thirty
  31. Chapter thirty-one
  32. Chapter thirty-two
  33. Chapter thirty-three
  34. Chapter thirty-four
  35. Chapter thirty-five
  36. Chapter thirty-six
  37. Chapter thirty-seven
  38. Chapter thirty-eight
  39. Chapter thirty-nine
  40. Chapter forty
  41. Chapter forty-one
  42. Chapter forty-two
  43. Chapter forty-three
  44. Chapter forty-four
  45. Chapter forty-five
  46. Chapter forty-six
  47. Chapter forty-seven
  48. Chapter forty-eight
  49. Chapter forty-nine
  50. Chapter fifty
  51. Chapter fifty-one
  52. Chapter fifty-two
  53. Chapter fifty-three
  54. Chapter fifty-four
  55. Chapter fifty-five
  56. Chapter fifty-six
  57. Chapter fifty-seven
  58. Chapter fifty-eight
  59. Chapter fifty-nine
  60. Chapter sixty
  61. Chapter sixty-one
  62. Chapter sixty-two
  63. Chapter sixty-three
  64. Chapter sixty-four
  65. Chapter sixty-five
  66. Chapter sixty-six
  67. Chapter sixty-seven
  68. Chapter sixty-eight
  69. Chapter sixty-nine
  70. Chapter seventy
  71. Chapter seventy-one
  72. Chapter seventy-two
  73. Chapter seventy-three
  74. Chapter seventy-four
  75. Chapter seventy-five
  76. Chapter seventy-six
  77. Chapter seventy-seven
  78. Chapter seventy-eight
  79. Chapter seventy-nine
  80. Chapter eighty
  81. Chapter eighty-one
  82. Chapter eighty-two
  83. Chapter eighty-three
  84. Chapter eighty-four

Neve picked at her pasta. ‘I’m not trying to stitch you up,’ she said again. ‘No matter what you might want to believe.’

He couldn’t think of any other way to explain it.

‘I’m trying to shield you from Alec,’ she carried on. ‘You’re not flavour of the month at the moment.’

Anywhere, it would seem.

‘Let’s face it,’ Neve said. Her countenance had set like stone. ‘You’ve not exactly been pulling your weight at the office. In a lean company like Dunston & Bradley, it’s going to be noticed.’

Why, when he was wanting her to offer him words of comfort, was she insisting on cudgelling him with every sentence? ‘There were reasons for that,’ he said calmly.

‘And now Lyssa’s gone,’ Neve pointed out, ‘you’re not under pressure from her anymore to play happy families. We can get on with our lives.’

‘Our’ seemed a bit of an optimistic term. Nothing could swerve Neve from her chosen path. Jake sighed inwardly. He had ordered some sort of fancy bollocks—spinach and pork and tomatoes arranged as a stack. It was tiny and fiddly and he’d never had less appetite. Every mouthful felt as if it was choking him.

He never felt connected to Neve. She always seemed to be at arm’s length, just out of his grip. When they were snatching a few illicit hours together, he’d put it down to that. Now that, in theory, they were able to spend all of their time together, they didn’t seem to be getting any closer—quite the contrary. He still couldn’t find any words he wanted to say to her.

Neve heaved a theatrical sigh of relief that made several diners at adjacent tables turn and look at them. They probably thought they were a couple on the verge of relationship melt-down, splitting up. Perhaps they were.

‘Look,’ Neve said, ‘I’m going away for a few days.’ She put her fork down. ‘Business,’ she added when there was no response from him. ‘Milan.’

‘Is it to do with the Blow account?’ he said, not trying to disguise the sarcasm in his voice.

‘Yes,’ Neve huffed. ‘I was going to tell you.’

Jake just wondered when.

Chapter thirty-six

Chapter thirty-six

At exactly 6.00 a.m. and before it’s light, Sanjeev Sherpa pops his head through my tent flap. ‘Hot tea.’ His smiling face is a welcome sight. And he puts my tin mug of tea on the ground, along with a bowl of hot water. ‘Breakfast in fifteen minutes, sister,’ he says, and disappears to repeat the process in the next tent.

‘Thanks, Sanjeev,’ comes out rather belatedly and accompanied by a yawn.