BooksBarbecue
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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

‘There’s no need to be,’ Dean assures me. ‘I’ll look after you every step of the way.’ I could put it down to my new anorak, but suddenly I feel very warm. ‘You’ll be fine.’ He ticks me off his list and cranks up that smile again. ‘We’ll have a lot of fun.’

Will we? Oh my good grief!

Chapter twenty-seven

Chapter twenty-seven

‘Are you going to sulk all night?’ Neve asked.

‘Quite probably,’ Jake said and restructured his sulking posture. Neve was sitting on a chair, while he was taking up as much of the sofa as he could manage.

‘We’ve been over this a dozen times today.’ She was getting more tetchy by the minute and Jake didn’t think she had any right to. Her voice sounded hollow and hard-edged as it bounced off the walls in the cavernous main room of the apartment. It was like living in the reception area of an architect’s office. He hadn’t realised how much affinity he had for carpet until he didn’t have it anymore. ‘I thought you’d lost interest in the egg project.’

Neve snapped off the television with the remote control.

‘And I thought we were working on it together,’ Jake said. ‘So we were both labouring under a misapprehension.’

Neve said nothing.

‘You didn’t even tell me about the meeting you’d fixed up with Alec. How do you think that makes me feel?’

‘I was going to tell you….’ Even Neve didn’t seem to think she sounded convincing.

‘When exactly?’

‘When I came over to your desk and Pip told me that you’d just gone chasing off after Lyssa.’

‘So minutes before it was due to start? Why didn’t you tell me days before or the night before or when we were on the Tube together all the way into work?’

‘It slipped my mind.’

‘No, Neve,’ Jake said. ‘Nothing that important slips your mind.’ If one of the guys had done this to him, Jake would have decked him first and asked questions later.

‘Why didn’t you tell me you were rushing off to hold your ex-girlfriend’s hand?’

‘The first I knew about that was from Pip too. She’s off on some madcap trek in the Himalayas.’ He cast an accusing glance in her direction. ‘She clearly hasn’t thought it through properly.’

‘Good for her,’ Neve stated. ‘You said she never did anything interesting. Perhaps she’ll love it. She’s her own person now.’ Neve shot an equally accusing glance back at him.

‘I was trying to stop her from making a big mistake,’ Jake pointed out. ‘I was trying to help her. Not stitch her up.’

‘Is that what you think I was doing to you?’

‘Is there any other explanation?’