Somebody to Love: Sigh With Contentment, Scream With Frustration. At Time You Will Weep. (12 page)

Donna admired her, yet felt sad for her sometimes, that Evelyn seemed not to know how to let down her defences.

‘Just eyes?’ Evelyn asked, with an amused glance. ‘One would hope he has a bit more about him, Donna.’

Donna blushed as Mark’s touch, smell and feel flashed through her senses. ‘He’s got a lovely smile.’ She sighed wistfully.

‘And he wears a police uniform. What more could a girl want?’ Alicia sighed in turn, and batted her eyes.

Evelyn, though, didn’t look quite so ecstatic. ‘Does he, indeed? Hmm, almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t he? So, does he have a name, this twinkly hunk in a uniform?’

‘Mark. Mark Evans,’ Donna supplied, droopy-shouldered.

‘Good Lord!’ Evelyn eyes shot wide. She shook her head bemusedly. ‘Well, there can’t be two of them.’

‘Two of what?’ Alicia asked, crawling after Jack, who — set loose on the world — was crawling across the floor after Sadie.

Donna eyed her mum quizzically, who seemed to have drifted off somewhere. ‘Mum?’

Evelyn snapped back to attention. ‘I know him,’ she said, a smile on her face, but her eyes troubled, which sent a tingle of trepidation down Donna’s spine.

‘You do?’ Alicia sat back on her haunches.

‘How?’ Donna asked cautiously, wondering whether Evelyn had perhaps had a run in with him, defending one of her many causes. Crikey, she hadn’t been arrested by him, had she?

‘He’s Robert Evans’ son,’ Evelyn enlightened her. ‘Dot’s next door neighbour. Small world.’

‘He lives there? With his father?’ Donna blinked, puzzled. So where did his lodger and Jody-kiss-kiss fit in?

‘No. He looks in on him. Brings his son sometimes, too.’ Evelyn glanced worriedly at Donna. ‘In fact, Dot invited them both to…’

‘His son? He has children?!’ Donna’s heart plummeted to the depths of her soul. She knew this would happen. Knew it!

Hardly able to breathe, she steeled herself to ask. As excruciatingly painful as it was, she had to know… just how many lies he had told her. ‘Is he?’
Oh, God
. ‘Is he married, Mum?’

‘Good Lord, Donna?’ Evelyn stared at her, disbelieving, ‘You mean you don’t?’ She stopped, obviously noticing her daughter’s slightly demented look. ‘No. Divorced, I gather.’

Donna reached for the bottle and poured a wine. A large one. ‘No fiancés knocking about the place, then? Girlfriends waiting in the wings?’ She took a huge swig, wiped her arm across her mouth and snarled, ‘Harems queuing on the landing?’

Evelyn eyed her curiously, then tried to coax Donna to let go of her glass.

But Donna wasn’t parting with it or the bottle.

‘Donna, as far as I know, no, there are no girlfriends lurking anywhere,’ Evelyn said gently. ‘No women in his life, apart from his child-minder — Gemma, I think her name is. So, come on, darling, there’s no need for all of this over-indulgence in alcohol, is there?’

Donna sniffed, then head high and bottle hugged tight to her chest, she stood up to walk to the coffee table. Wherefrom, she picked up Mark’s mobile, selected his
inbox
, walked back with a slight weave, handed Evelyn the mobile — and waited.

‘Oh, I see,’ Evelyn said, reading the text with an unimpressed look on her face. ‘Thank you.’ She took a large slug from the glass Donna handed her without further ado.

****

Evelyn walked straight past Robert Evans when he opened his front door the next morning.

Mark turned from his endeavours restocking the fridge to eye her curiously as she came into the kitchen, looking purposeful. ‘Everything okay, Evelyn?’ he asked, concerned that Mrs Bruce might have had a fall or something. It was a bit early for a social call.

‘Mark.’ Evelyn nodded, marched across the kitchen, eyed him quizzically, then slapped him, hard.

‘
Christ
!’ Mark dropped the carton of milk he was holding. ‘What the
bloody hell
was that for?!’ He ran a hand across his abused cheek, and stared at her, shocked.

‘Whoa, steady on.’ His father came into the kitchen behind Evelyn. ‘You can’t just barge in here, throwing punches. What in God’s name’s got into you, woman?’

‘Don’t you
woman
me,’ Evelyn said, eyeballing Mark furiously. ‘For
your
information, that was most definitely
not
a punch. If it had been, he’d be flat on his back, which is where he was trying to get my daughter, I’ve no doubt.’

‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous.’ Robert scoffed. ‘Mark’s a good lad. He would never do anything to disrespect a woman.’

‘Like father, like son, you mean?’ Evelyn gave his father a good eyeballing, too, then turned back to Mark to drag a disdainful glance the length and breadth of him. ‘Running around like he hasn’t a responsibility in the world. In my day, a father worth his salt would have taken his
good lad
outside and given him a good thrashing.’

‘Bit old for that, don’t you think?’ Robert suggested dryly, obviously quite lucid right then. ‘Now, would you like to sit down and discuss this civilly over a cup of tea, or are you going to stand there ranting like an old witch?’

‘I don’t want tea!’ Evelyn growled. ‘I want
him
to move on.’

‘I’ll round up the posse. Meanwhile, I’ll put kettle on, shall I?’ Robert made
gone loco
eyes at his son.

Mark shook his head, glad his dad seemed not to be taking this too seriously, though the fact that he’d just been assaulted was serious in Mark’s book. If the shoe had been on the other foot, though. ‘Would that be before dawn, Evelyn?’ he asked. ‘And shall I take my
responsibilities
with me when I move on? It’s just that Karl’s pretty settled in this neck of the woods, you know?’

Evelyn looked contrite, albeit for one second.

‘Would you like to tell me what this is all about,’ Mark asked, much more calmly than he felt, ‘because either I’m going nuts or you are.’

‘Oh, I’m
far
from gaga, PC twinkly-eyed Evans, though I concede my daughter must be to have seen anything in you!’

‘Daughter?’ Mark shook his head. ‘What daughter?’

‘Do you know how I left her last night? With her confidence in tatters. You did that, Mark Evans. And after all she’s been through with that horrible little toad Jeremy. You should be ashamed of yourself.’

‘What on God’s green earth are you talking about?’ Mark asked, utterly exasperated.

‘I’d say fifteen calls to Jody-kiss-kiss and as many or more text messages in return in one week tells the tale, wouldn’t you?’ With that, Evelyn planted Mark’s missing mobile pointedly on the kitchen table, glared at him, and turned to the door.

Jesus. Mark ran his hand through his hair, realisation dawning as he stared at the phone. ‘Donna?’ he asked, disbelieving. ‘
You’re
Donna’s…’

‘Mother, yes.’ Evelyn turned back. ‘You’ve abused her trust, PC Evans. Lied to her. Mislead her. Broken her heart, I suspect. If you have any respect for her at all, please don’t see her again.’

****

Donna drooped downstairs a full day later, Sadie plopping tri-leggedly down after her. ‘I’ll take you out, baby,’ she promised, knowing that a leg missing here or there wasn’t about to stop Sadie wanting her walkies. She’d gotten away with taking a sick day from work, but she doubted it would wash with Sadie.

Turning to make sure the dog was safe on all threes in the hall, Donna’s puffed up eyes fell on the flashing answering machine. She chewed on her lip, hesitated, then pressed play.

‘Donna, please call me back, will you? I have to talk to you.’ Mark’s voice wrenched at her heart all over again.

That was the fourth message he’d left.

Should she ring him back? Tell him she’d read all his texts and guilt be damned, several being from Jody-kiss-kiss, whom he obviously had a close and longstanding relationship with, given the content.
What time did he want her
? Some of them read. Others saying, she’d see him at this time or that time, could he pick her up, drop them off. She was taking ‘K’ here or bringing him there, K being Mark’s son, presumably.

No, she wouldn’t ring him.

No matter what he said, however many times he apologised, at the end of the day, he hadn’t even mentioned his son, let alone Jody, whoever she was. Which obviously meant he didn’t think Donna would be a part of his life long enough to warrant him mentioning him. She was just a passing fancy he’d hoped to have sex with and
no complications.

Be careful what you wish for
had never been more apt than it was now.

Still, she really did have no right to judge him. Hadn’t she been ready to do just that to him? With him? Hadn’t she bought racy lacy underwear with that exact purpose in mind?

Donna’s fingers strayed to her lips. She could still taste him. How would it have been with him? She’d never know now, yet she did. He would have been gentle, and caring, and loving, she was sure, if only for a short time.

Was it possible, she wondered, to grieve the loss of a lover who never was? A man who wasn’t worth shedding a single tear over, according to her mother. Donna so hoped Evelyn didn’t ‘give him a piece of her mind’ as she’d threatened to. She’d made her promise not to. But then, the trouble with mothers is that they never stopped being mothers. Donna certainly felt like giving Jeremy a piece of her mind about his treatment of Matt.

‘Come on, Sade, let’s get some din-dins.’ Sighing, Donna padded up the hall, then almost shot through the ceiling as the phone rang again.

She walked back and squinted at the caller display. It was him. She nibbled at a thumbnail.
Should
she talk to him?

No. Her heart might be broken, but her spirit wasn’t. She didn’t need Mark to fix her problems. She had a life to live. A future to secure. She was going to ring the care home — one of the charitable trust’s own projects — direct, she’d decided. It couldn’t hurt. It might help to get some voluntary work under her belt. Might even be a way into a permanent position alongside her training.

There. All sorted. No point wallowing in self-pity. She was going to pull herself up by her bootstraps and show mean Jean, as well as PC Mark Evans, that she damn well could fight her own battles. Donna swiped a tear from her cheek and headed determinedly to the kitchen with a plan.

She’d feed Findus and walk Sadie. Then ring the insurance company about her car, which would be another job done. Make her doctor’s appointment. And then, on a better-late-than-never basis, take her-wretched-self off to work.

****

Mark debated whether to try Donna again. No, no point. She wasn’t going to call back. He had lied to her. There was no way around it. Yes, he might have lost her if he had told her. Now, through his own stupidity, he’d lost her anyway.
Broken her heart
, according to Evelyn. Dammit! When, precisely,
had
he been planning to tell her about Karl, if he hadn’t had the bottle to tell her when he’d had the perfect opportunity? Instead, he’d confessed to liking rom-coms.

Rom-coms!

Christ, what had he been thinking? Karl should never have been an embarrassing secret he couldn’t admit to. If a woman was going to be put off at the mention of him, then she wasn’t the right woman. But his instincts told him Donna wouldn’t have been. Still he hadn’t said anything. Mark cursed and climbed out of his car, his own heart pretty damn near breaking.

‘Mr Evans, hi,’ a female instructor waved, coming towards him with the Autism Assistance Dog earmarked for Karl. ‘Sally.’ She smiled, extending her hand. ‘And this is Starbuck. He’s a caffeine junkie, so whatever you do, don’t leave yours lying around if you want to drink it.’

Mark smiled. ‘I won’t. I need all the caffeine I can get. Hey, Starbuck.’ He bent to give the animal a fuss. Getting attached to the dog would be no trouble at all. He just prayed that Karl would take to him, too.

Chapter Eight

‘Book Price,’ the person on the insurance helpline informed Donna the amount they’d pay for her car, which meant she’d get half the amount she’d hoped for. And she’d have to send them photographs of the deceased vehicle along with the accident report before they’d process her claim.

‘How ridiculous,’ she told Sadie, plopping the phone down and heading back to the kitchen. ‘I mean, honestly, what am I supposed to put in the report? I ran into a
fire
coming in the other direction?’

And what was she supposed to do meanwhile? Use public transport, she supposed, seated next to the local loony, no doubt. On the bright side, she couldn’t fail to lose a few pounds walking to the bus stop. Not that she had reason to lose weight now that her new lacy bra and panty set would never see the light of day.

She sighed, relieved Findus of a stray trainer he was chomping and exchanged it for cucumber, then fetched a dish and Sadie’s dog food from the cupboard. Still sighing, she spooned the food into the dish, then offered Matt a weak smile as he bopped into the kitchen in time to
Smile Like You Mean It
playing appropriately on the radio.

‘Oh.’ Matt stopped mid-bop and arched a pierced eyebrow. ‘I take it you and your policeman friend had a lover’s disagreement?’

‘No.’ Donna didn’t quite lie. ‘Why?’

‘You’re sighing a lot as star-crossed lovers do.’ Matt sloped over to the working surface to eye the breakfast offerings dubiously. ‘And you’re about to eat dog food.’

‘Ho, ho. Guess who’s reading Shakespeare at college.’ Donna removed the offending bowl from under his clever-clogs nose and offered it to Sadie.

Matt rolled his eyes and headed for the fridge. ‘So you going to kiss and make up, or what?’

‘What.’ Donna opted for the latter.

‘Shame. He was kind of cool,’ Matt commented, emerging from the fridge with the entire meagre contents therein: one floppy sausage.

‘Yes, well, you kiss him, if you like, but I’m not.’ Donna relieved him of the sad sausage in order to cook it, before he went begging the neighbours for food. ‘He’s been… Let’s just say he’s been less than truthful.’ She shoved the sausage under the grill pan.

‘Uh-uh.’ Matt shook his head, fetched two slices of bread, and placed them reverently on a plate, awaiting his sausage. ‘Your gay friend, Simon, might go for a snog with your boyfriend, but dis bruvver…’