Never Say Never (Lakeview Contemporary Romance Book 3) (32 page)

“She certainly will,” Robin agreed, relieved that they’d finally reached Leah’s apartment. She followed Olivia through to her friend’s bedroom. The two were silent as they helped her undress, Leah mumbling all the time. “I knew we’d all be friendssh again.”

When Leah was safely tucked up in the bed, the two women joined Matt in the living-room.

“Is she asleep?” he asked, his face concerned, but also, luckily, a little amused by the situation.

Olivia nodded. “I think she’ll be OK now.” She turned to Robin. “Will the couch be OK for you? I think she has some spare blankets in the hotpress –”

“I’ll be fine – I’ll find them,” Robin interjected. “Look, it’s late, and you two need to get home. I’ll keep an eye on her, honestly.”

“Are you sure you don’t want us to – ?”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

Robin walked them both to the door, unable to understand why she felt so sad, and desperate to say something. But yet it wasn’t sadness, she decided, trying to read Olivia’s expression as she lost her nerve and said nothing other than goodbye. It was guilt, wasn’t it?

“So are you staying long or …?” Olivia ventured cautiously.

Robin shook her head. “No, I’m off to the UK on Tuesday, so I don’t know if I – ”

“I see,” Olivia nodded. “Well, the very best of luck with everything. I’ll be sure to pick up a copy of your book for Ellie.”

“Thank you.” Robin didn’t know what else to say, but still she knew that there was much, much more.

Matt gave her a quick kiss goodnight on the cheek. “Good night, Robin – it was great meeting you. Good luck with the book and sure, we might see you again soon.”

“Bye, Matt, thanks.”

Closing the door softly behind them, Robin could clearly understand why Olivia was involved with him. He was similar to Ben in a way – considerate, loyal, unselfish. They were both very lucky, but the big difference was that Olivia deserved someone like that in her life; she deserved someone who cared enough about her to understand her loyalty to her friends.

The fact that Robin, with all her faults, didn’t deserve a man like that was obvious, and something that, tonight, all Leah’s babblings had brought home even more.

O
livia was mostly
silent on the way back to Lakeview in the car, her thoughts scattered as she kept going over the evening.

She’d handled it well, she thought. She’d been polite, friendly and gracious – despite the fact that she had felt totally uncomfortable throughout, and especially towards the end with all Leah’s gibberish.

Robin had been initially subdued and, Olivia thought, definitely uncomfortable too, but seemed to come out of herself after a while. With Leah getting so drunk, they had no choice but to slip into their old roles of looking after one another. Poor Leah, she would really suffer tomorrow, in more ways than one. Olivia knew that she’d feel awful about her drunken chattering, especially in front of Matt, although, in fairness, he had seemed to take it all with customary good humour.

She sighed inwardly. Seeing Robin tonight really brought it home to her that she’d have to let Matt into her confidence soon. It wasn’t fair otherwise. They’d been getting on extremely well lately and, luckily, Catherine seemed to be staying out of the way. Whatever problems she’d had with Olivia at the beginning, be it concern or jealousy, at least she seemed to have come to terms with it now. Matt had mentioned before that she was seeing some guy – probably the one that Olivia had seen at the house that morning a while back – so perhaps these days she was more interested in her own budding romance than about Matt’s new relationship. Olivia really hoped Catherine had laid off her and Matt for good, as she knew she couldn’t cope with the hassle and strain of it all. What was the point? She liked Matt – in fairness, a good deal more than just liked – but at the same time she knew that if the situation with Catherine became unbearable then she would have no choice but to end their relationship. Olivia had spent years pining over the loss of one man, one relationship, and she was determined never to let another man affect her life or indeed her sanity the way Peter had. No, this time Olivia was in control.

“Are you OK?” Matt asked softly.

Olivia jumped. She’d almost forgotten he was there.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m just thinking about Leah, that’s all. I’ve never seen her like that, Matt, and it worries me. She’s always been great at convincing everyone that she’s coping, that she’s getting on with it. Stupidly, I took that at face value, when I should have known that she was really suffering.” She shook her head. “I’m her best friend – how could I not have known?”

“Look, I don’t know Leah very well, but she does strike me as the type of girl who likes her independence. Yes, she’s upset over this guy now and she’s having a tough time of it, but that’s only natural.”

“I know, but I’ve never seen her so out of control.”

“It was her birthday – a big occasion and he wasn’t there to share it with her. Of course it would affect her – it would affect anyone. I remember after Natasha died I went completely off the rails on what would have been our fifth wedding anniversary. I couldn’t cope. I drank solidly the whole day long, trying to shut out the pain and the memories. It was a nightmare.”

“I know.” Olivia did know, but unfortunately she never had the luxury of going off and getting blotto whenever a meaningful birthday or anniversary came round to mock and remind her of all that she had lost. She had Ellie to look after.

Still, looking at it from that point of view, it did explain why Leah seemed so out of it. This time last month, her life was wonderful – she’d achieved her lifetime ambition, she had a man who loved her, and the promise of an exciting future. Now, things were looking a whole lot different and, while her professional life still looked promising, her personal life was in tatters. Olivia felt for her, and made a mental note to be there as much as she could for her over the next while, seeing as Kate didn’t seem to be prepared to do the same thing. She knew Leah was suffering over that too. Once Kate became pregnant and now, since she had her baby, the friendship was slowly but surely slipping away.

Matt looked sideways at her. “Robin seems nice.”

Olivia stiffened. “She is,” was all she said.

“There’s a bit of history between you two then?” It was a statement rather than a question.

She shrugged, not really wanting to get into it just then. “We were close in uni, but we lost touch when Robin moved to the States.”

“So, tonight really was your first time seeing one another in what – seven years? And you didn’t keep up contact in the meantime?” Matt was amazed. “No wonder there was tension.”

“Did you think there was?” Olivia was worried now. She thought she’d played it to perfection. Was Matt now saying that she’d failed?

“Well, I thought she seemed a bit edgy, but I could have been imagining it.” He seemed to pause intentionally, before adding “So Leah, in her own way, was hoping to be peacemaker then?”

“Peacemaker?”

“Well, I didn’t really understand most of her gibberish, but she kept repeating that stuff about you all being friends again and how this Kate thinks Robin’s a ‘bitssh’,” he mimicked good-humouredly. Then his tone grew more serious. “It doesn’t take a genius to work out that she wasn’t there for you when Peter died.” Matt shook his head. “That must have been tough. Or …” he hesitated, “is there more than that to it? Did Robin–”

“
What?
What did you say?” Olivia cried, then slammed down on the brakes and swerved as a car pulled out of a parking-place on her left. She had all but hit it.

“He was indicating,” said Matt mildly.

Olivia didn’t answer. It was as though every muscle, every tendon in her body had all at once tensed to breaking-point, and she felt as though a herd of horses had just trampled over her stomach.

Staring rigidly at the road ahead, her pulse still racing, she scrambled to sort out her thoughts. But how could she explain it all here – in the car, while she was supposed to be concentrating on her driving? Still, she had to say something now, didn’t she? Otherwise…

“Matt,” she began then. “Matt, that’s not – ”

Just then Matt’s mobile shrilled loudly, and the remaining words died on Olivia’s lips.

He glanced at her apologetically, as he recognised the number displayed.

“Hello, Catherine,” he said, with an edge to his tone.

Olivia exhaled loudly.

“Hi, yes, we’re just on our way back – what? You’re kidding!”

She glanced away from the road briefly, a question in her eyes.

Matt looked worried. “Well, did you call the doctor? What did he say? Good, well, look, I’ll be back in say, fifteen minutes or so, OK? And try not to worry, I’m sure it’ll be fine but … Tell him I’m on my way, won’t you? Right, right, see you soon – bye.”

“What’s happened?” For a split second, Olivia wondered if she’d been wrong about Catherine coming to terms with their relationship, but by the anxious look on Matt’s face she knew the woman wasn’t being dramatic just to try and ruin yet another night out.

His voice was fraught. “It’s Adam, he has a fever and she thinks it might be meningitis.”

“Oh, no.” Olivia had a similar scare with Ellie one time and it was horrific. “Is there a rash? Did she try the glass test?”

“I don’t know, it was hard to make out what she was saying, she sounded so distraught.”

“Look, I know it’s impossible, but try not to worry – we’ll be there soon.” Instantly she increased the pressure on the accelerator. “Matt, it could be well be something small.”

“I know, I know, but I just want to be there now.” He turned away and looked quickly out the window, but as he did, Olivia thought she saw the glistening of tears in his eyes. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him too, Olivia,” he said in a broken voice, and her heart went out to him. “I really don’t know what I’d do.”

Olivia didn’t know what to say. All she knew was that her own problems would have to take a backseat for a while.

At the moment, there were far more important things to worry about.

A
ndrew Clarke sat
in the arrivals area at Dublin airport, bored out of his trolley. This had almost been as bad as the wait outside the delivery room last night. Although at least he was outside, and not inside with all the screaming and thrashing around and stuff. He really wasn’t the kind of fella who could deal with all that sort of thing.

But Amanda had done well and apparently eighteen hours labour was a common enough thing. Andrew grimaced and once again thanked his lucky stars that he’d been born a man. How did women do it? All that pushing and shoving and blood and goo – surely it wasn’t natural? Surely, the human species had advanced far enough along the evolutionary chain to come up with some better way of reproduction than that sort of primal carry-on? Although, he thought, grinning to himself, the reproduction part being primal wasn’t really all that much of a problem, it was trying to get the finished product out that caused all the hassle.

But, after it all, he was now the proud father of a tiny little girl who as yet had no name. The child had been born at 4am that morning and Amanda was still dithering over names. Andrew dreaded the final decision. Yesterday, before her waters broke, she’d been talking about naming the child, ‘Manchester’.

“It’s original and classy and the great thing is it would suit either a girl or a boy, wouldn’t it?” she’d said, full of enthusiasm. All Andrew could think about was the hiding the child – male or female – would get all its life from football fans.

Amanda was thrilled it had turned out to be a girl. She thought she was ‘beautiful’. Andrew thought she was nice enough but, in all honesty, right after the birth she just looked like a small, shrivelled sausage with arms and legs.

He’d often wondered why it was that, out of the entire animal kingdom, human offspring were the only ones that didn’t look cute at birth. Look at baby elephants, lion-cubs, puppies and the like – wouldn’t you run away with them in a second? But the tiny prune-faced object lying in the hospital alongside his wife at the moment was very far removed from that.

He checked his watch. Hell, were Amanda’s parents ever going to emerge from that bloody flight? The eleven thirty Aer Lingus flight from London had landed a good half an hour ago and still there was no sign. Amanda’s mother was probably fussing over her luggage and no doubt redoing herself up to the nines in the Ladies’. Amanda’s vanity was nothing compared to Mummy Langan’s. Although, Andrew thought chuckling, these days the woman was a bit rough-looking and needed as much Polyfilla as she could get.

His stomach growled with the hunger, and he was just about to pop down to the Sandwich Bar near the bookshop, when a glut of passengers with Aer Lingus tags on their bags came through arrivals. There must have been some delay with the luggage then, Andrew thought, deciding that he’d better be here when Mummy and Daddy Langan did come through or there’d be Holy War.

He could always grab something on the way back to the hospital anyway. Luckily, he was one of those people who couldn’t hear much when his jaws were moving, so he’d be spared the worst of Mummy L’s annoying high-pitched rants about how the flight was delayed, and the luggage was lost, and how the air-hostesses had some cheek because they didn’t kiss her fat feckin’ arse.

He began scanning the faces of the passengers, just in case his in-laws had changed at all since the last time he’d seen them, which in Andrew’s opinion wasn’t long enough ago. Just then, he stiffened as he thought he caught sight of a familiar face, a face he knew well, but hadn’t seen in a very long time. It couldn’t be, could it? Andrew blinked and looked again like they always did in the movies. He almost went to wave but then, he thought, no, he was wrong it couldn’t possibly be …it feckin
was
!

Should he go over and say hello and …no, there was no time, because there were the Langan’s waving condescendingly at him, and pointing to their bags.

As if he was some thick hotel porter or something, Andrew thought, irritated, as he approached them.

“Hello there! Did you have a good flight?” Andrew asked, kissing Mummy L on the cheek and almost retching at the whiff of her probably expensive, but definitely manky perfume.

“Don’t talk to me,” Amanda’s mother waved a dismissive arm. “Don’t talk to me about that flight. People just don’t know a
thing
about customer service these days. Can you believe that they actually tried to charge me for a glass of Perrier? How tacky.”

Andrew decided there was no point in asking if the two stingy feckers had anything to eat – no doubt Mummy would have gone apoplectic at the thoughts of paying five or six euro for a chicken sandwich. Good, that meant they’d have to get something on the way to the hospital. His stomach growled approvingly.

“Well, you’re here now and you’ll be glad to know that Amanda’s doing fine and really looking forward to seeing you,” he said, slightly annoyed that they hadn’t even bothered to ask.

“Andrew, the only thing I’ll be glad to know is that the car is parked close by and ready to take us away from this poor excuse for a cowshed.”

Andrew picked up the bags and followed them out to the carpark. He sighed deeply. It was going to be a long journey back to the hospital.

O
livia sat in her kitchen
, waiting impatiently for news of Adam. She hadn’t heard a thing from Matt since he and Catherine had gone to the hospital the night before, so she had no idea if Adam was still in danger. She was reluctant to call Matt’s mobile, feeling somehow it was not a time to intrude – it would probably be switched off anyway if he were in the hospital – and she was even more reluctant to call Catherine at her house. She had phoned Crumlin Children’s Hospital earlier that morning, but because she wasn’t family they wouldn’t give her any information about his condition. She had expected nothing more anyway.

At around midday, she got a call from Leah. The poor thing was dreadfully upset and embarrassed about her behaviour the night before.

“I made such an idiot of myself,” she wailed, mortified. “Matt must think I’m an unbalanced lunatic.”

“Don’t be silly, of course he doesn’t think that,” Olivia said, and went on to explain that Leah’s behaviour was the last thing on Matt’s mind at the moment.

“Give him my best regards when you hear from him, won’t you?” Leah said. “Oh, and while I think of it, I got a call from Andrew first thing this morning. He’s the reason I’m up out of bed, actually. Amanda had a baby girl early this morning.”

“Oh, that’s great news.” Despite her own concerns, she felt pleased for Amanda.

“Yeah, apparently it wasn’t pretty, and Amanda threatened the midwife with litigation if she kept forcing her to push like that, but it all worked out in the end.”

Olivia forced a smile at the image of princess-like Amanda going through hard labour. That would have been some sight. Then she thought of something.

“Is Robin still there?” she asked, trying to sound casual.

“No, I made her go back to the hotel this morning. I felt awful about her having to sleep on my lumpy couch when she should have been relaxing in sumptuous luxury. She knew me and my hangover wouldn’t be much company today, but I’m meeting her again before she heads off to London.” She paused slightly, and Olivia knew what was coming. “Olivia, how can you ever forgive me? I just wasn’t thinking straight. I really didn’t mean to drag everything up like that. It must have been hard enough for you as it was, seeing her again.”

“No, it wasn’t too bad actually.” She forced a small laugh. “But it was unfortunate that you mentioned Kate.”

“I know,” Leah groaned again. “I spent much of this morning trying to convince her that Kate didn’t know any better, but I think I’d said more than enough at that stage.” Her voice dropped slightly. “I know she found it tough too – last night, I mean.”

“I know that. That’s why I tried to make it as easy as possible for her.”

“You’re a good person, Olivia, and a good friend.”

“I don’t know about that, but, as you know, I’ve never felt there was much point in holding a grudge. As it turned out, I wasn’t exactly blameless myself.”

“Well, look, I’m very sorry if I made it uncomfortable for you,” Leah said softly.

“Don’t be silly – we were bound to come face to face at some stage and, if anything, it gave us something to talk about, didn’t it?” she replied, trying to keep her voice light. “Anyway, you should go back to bed and try and sleep that hangover off.”

“I think I’ll have to,” Leah moaned. “At the moment I feel like my head is about to split in two. But let me know what happens with little Adam, will you? And try not to worry.”

“I will – and I won’t.” She went to say something else but hesitated. “Talk to you soon.”

“You too, bye.”

Olivia hung up, realising that just then she’d been about to ask something else about Robin. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop thinking about it, as she’d thought about it many times before. After all these years, surely they had more to say to one another. Didn’t Robin have any questions, didn’t she wonder about any of it? Had it been that easy for her to shut them all out of her life?

Or was it that Robin simply didn’t give a damn?