Epilogue
EPILOGUE
They were walking home from the station a few days later, having spent the day in London. Charlie had met them for lunch, after which they’d gone for a wander around the sights. The heavens had opened and they’d run giggling into one of the cinemas on Leicester Square and spent a very happy couple of hours sitting in the back row. They hadn’t seen much of the movie and, by the time they’d emerged out into the late afternoon gloom, they’d only wanted to get home.
‘Shall we get a takeaway tonight?’ Sadie suggested as she dropped Dylan’s hand to fumble in her bag for her front-door key.
‘Can we eat it in bed?’ Dylan asked, waggling his brows at her.
‘You have a one-track mind, mister,’ she scolded him as they turned off the road and onto the little path that led to her front door.
‘And you love it.’ Dylan grabbed her waist from behind and yanked her back against him, making her shriek.
‘Stop it, I almost dropped my keys!’
‘Hello, Sadie.’
The laughter froze on her lips as she turned towards the horribly familiar voice. ‘What are you doing here?’
Pete rose from his perch on top of a large suitcase. He hadn’t been wearing a hat, she thought, taking in the red and peeling skin on the tip of his nose. ‘I didn’t have anywhere else to go.’
Behind her Dylan barked out a laugh. ‘And whose fault is that?’ He took the keys that were hanging limply in Sadie’s fingers. ‘I’ll leave you to deal with Pete the Perv here and ring for that takeaway.’ He strode up the path and stood right in front of Pete. ‘You’re in my way.’
Sadie didn’t think she’d ever seen Pete scramble before, but he almost tripped over his case in his haste to step aside. He stared after Dylan as he let himself into the house then turned back to shoot Sadie an incredulous look. ‘Who’s that?’
‘That’s Dylan.’
‘I’m her lover!’ Dylan shouted from inside.
Sadie covered her mouth to stifle a laugh, then grew serious. ‘What are you doing here, Pete?’
‘Gemma left me. Shacked up with some greasy waiter. I couldn’t stand being in the villa on my own, so I came back.’ He gave her a look that he no doubt expected would make her feel sorry for him, and in a way she supposed she did. He looked ridiculous, his jeans some sort of narrow cut that she guessed was in fashion but made his legs look like pipe cleaners. His tight T-shirt under a leather jacket only served to outline the little paunch of his belly. Beneath the tan he looked ten years older than when she’d last seen him.
‘And how is that my problem?’
Pete shrugged. ‘I don’t know, it’s just I got back to Gemma’s house and there was nothing in the freezer, there’s no sheets on the bed and I couldn’t even find any clean ones in the airing cupboard. On top of everything else, the heating’s packed up. I’ve made a terrible mistake, I see that now.’ He stepped forward, holding out a hand towards her. ‘Life’s not the same without you, Sadie.’
Because she was the one who’d always done everything for him. ‘I’ve got the number of our old plumber somewhere. I can let you have that if you like.’
Pete shook his head, giving her another one of those hangdog looks. ‘After all these years, that’s all you’ve got to say to me?’
Oh, there was plenty she could say, starting with piss and ending in off, but she couldn’t be bothered. It had been a long day and all she wanted to do was curl up with Dylan in front of the telly. ‘If you’re really stuck, there’s a Premier Inn next to the station.’
‘Can’t I at least sleep on your sofa tonight until I can get myself sorted out?’
Sadie couldn’t help laugh at the absolutely bloody cheek of it. ‘No, Pete, you can’t sleep on the sofa,’ she said, pushing past him and inside the house. Her house. It might be small and the curtains might be ugly and too short for the windows, but it was hers. She gripped the edge of the door. ‘I’ve got plans for the sofa. Exciting, filthy plans with my lover and I’m afraid you sitting there looking sad would rather put a dampener on things.’ And with that she swung the door shut.
She slumped against the wall, her eyes meeting Dylan’s; he was standing in the entrance to the lounge, grinning from ear to ear. ‘Can you believe he had the nerve to show up here like that?’
Shaking his head, Dylan closed the distance between them to slide his hands around her waist. ‘Forget about him and tell me more about these exciting, filthy plans you’ve got in mind.’
Laughing, she linked her hands around his neck. ‘Well, I was thinking more along the lines of us eating that takeaway, maybe watching a bit of TV.’
‘Oh, I think we can do better than that,’ he murmured, ducking to press a hot kiss to the spot on her neck that always turned her weak at the knees. ‘We still haven’t figured out the trick with the shot glass, the golf ball and the peacock—’ She cut him off with a laughing kiss.