Something From Tiffany’s (44 page)

‘I didn’t know what to do. It caught me by surprise too,’ he said quietly, seemingly unable to offer any other explanation.

Then Rachel looked at Terri, unable to believe that her best friend could have kept such a thing from her. Especially when Terri knew very well what it was like to be betrayed, given how her last relationship had ended. ‘So you knew about this too?’ she said, her voice hoarse.

Terri looked distraught. ‘Not until that first time Ethan came here. I had an inkling that something wasn’t right and then –’ she looked sideways at Gary ‘– he let it slip the night he came back from Wicklow, when you were out with Ethan. He’d had a few drinks and . . . Look, none of us wanted to hurt you, Rachel,’ she finished sadly. ‘We were just trying to figure out the best way to—’

‘And you, you were going to propose to your girlfriend with this ring?’ Rachel turned her attentions to Ethan. ‘You knew the whole time, and you lied barefaced right from the beginning. All this nonsense about being concerned for Gary, and being in Dublin to research some book. Christ, you must all think I’m some kind of idiot.’

‘Rachel, no, of course not,’ Ethan replied earnestly. ‘It’s just that I didn’t want to upset you. None of us did. And, to be frank, it wasn’t up to me. Gary should have been the one to tell you.’ Again he stared accusingly at Gary.

‘Rachel, Ethan’s telling the truth,’ Terri said. ‘He was trying to consider your feelings.’

‘Why would any of you think that leading me on this . . . this
farce
is considering my feelings?’ she exploded. ‘What kind of imbecile do you think I am?’ Much to her annoyance she began to sob and saw Terri move to comfort her. ‘No,’ she cried, stepping back. Tears stained her cheeks. ‘Don’t touch me. Don’t any one of you come near me.’

Then she thought of something else. ‘Where is the ring now?’ she asked, realising that its sudden disappearance no longer seemed so inexplicable. ‘Oh,’ she said then, answering her own question, ‘of course. I presume it’s back where it belongs?’ She remembered little Daisy’s comment earlier about the ring not being the right fit for Ethan’s girlfriend.

Well, how the hell could it be?

‘So what happened? Did you have a crisis of conscience or something?’ she asked Gary. But then why did he act so surprised when she admitted yesterday that it was lost? Christ, had he been upfront with her about
anything
?

‘As far as I was concerned it was your ring, and there’s no way I was handing it over just because some—’

‘It was me,’ Terri interjected guiltily. She looked at Ethan. ‘I helped Ethan get it back that time he was here. I knew that Gary wasn’t prepared to own up and I couldn’t let you—’

Gary took a step forward. ‘Look, there’s no proof that it was ever Greene’s.’

‘Save it, Gary,’ Rachel whispered. This was all becoming more mortifying and hurtful by the second. To think that all along the people she cared most about had been plotting and planning behind her back, and in the most patronising ways . . . ‘Don’t say another word to me, any of you. Stop trying to make excuses for your actions; you are all liars. Every last one of you.’

Terri reacted as if she had been slapped. ‘Please, Rachel . . .’ she began.

‘No, not another word,’ she said dully.

Gary went to move towards her and she held up her hand to stop him.

‘Ethan, I’m glad you got your ring back, and it’s on the right woman’s finger now,’ she told him.

Then she cast a withering glance at the two people she loved the most, and whom up until today she would have trusted with her life. ‘As for you two, as far as I’m concerned you’ve done nothing but lie, and I want nothing more to do with you.’

With that, Rachel walked out of the kitchen door, straight through the dining room of her beloved restaurant, and didn’t look back.

Chapter 44

When she was gone, Gary glared at Terri. ‘Are you happy now?’ he said. ‘Do you see what you’ve done?’

Terri was gobsmacked. ‘What
I’ve
done?’

‘Yeah. You’re the one who nicked the ring, to give it back to your boyfriend here.’ He looked disdainfully at Ethan. ‘The two of you seem to be in right cahoots these days.’

‘How dare you?’ Ethan replied, stepping forward, his jaw tight. ‘How dare you accuse us when
all
of this is your fault! The only reason I didn’t say anything right from the beginning was out of concern for Rachel.’

‘Bullshit. You were trying to get into her knickers. And when that didn’t work you thought you might try getting into Terri’s instead.’

Terri stood rooted to the spot, unable to believe what she was hearing.

Ethan, though, seemed to have no such problems. He took another step forward and, quick as you like, caught the other man by surprise – landing a well-placed punch directly under his right eye.

Gary stumbled, fell back onto a nearby worktable and crashed heavily to the floor.

‘Oh my God!’ Terri put a hand to her mouth. She looked at Ethan. ‘I can’t believe you did that.’

Ethan winced and gingerly held his right hand, already looking like he was regretting it big-time.

‘Well, after everything that’s happened I think he had it coming, don’t you?’ he said. ‘But disrespecting you like that, that was the last straw.’ He met Terri’s gaze, and was it her imagination or was there was a heavy charge to the air that hadn’t been there before?

It was the last thing she’d expected from a guy who seemed so mild-mannered he would hardly swat a fly. And the fact that he’d done it to defend her honour . . .

‘Especially when you’ve done so much to help me,’ Ethan continued, and just like that the air went out of Terri’s balloon.

Oh.

‘What the fuck . . . ?’ Gary was trying to stand up but still seemed dazed by the blow. And never mind being taken by surprise, Terri figured his male pride would have been seriously hurt from being decked by, for all intents and purposes, a schoolteacher. She smiled.

‘You deserved it and you know it,’ Ethan said, astounding Terri even further by going over and hauling Gary up from the floor.

She waited nervously for the other man’s return blow, but no, the two just stood there staring at one another for a long moment.

Then, much to her surprise, Gary held out his hand.

‘You’re right, Greene. Maybe I did deserve that.’

After a moment’s hesitation Ethan took Gary’s hand, and gave it a light shake.

‘But whatever you might think, I didn’t steal that rock from you. It never even crossed my mind that it belonged to someone else. I honestly thought it was just a stroke of luck. And then when Terri came up with the notion that there might be more to it, I suppose I just buried my head in the sand.’

‘Fair enough. While I don’t agree with how you handled things, or how you treated Rachel, I suppose that’s neither here nor there, nor indeed any of my business.’

Terri was wondering if she was seeing things. Were Ethan and Gary seriously in the process of making things up? Christ, she should have got these two together a long time ago! Despite her best efforts at making Gary see sense, clearly this was the only kind of language he understood.

‘Yeah. I fucked up there all right.’ Gary put both hands in his pockets and stared down at his shoes. ‘And listen, I’m sorry about all that with your missus earlier. I wouldn’t have said anything if . . . well, you know.’

Ethan nodded stiffly. ‘Perhaps we both made a mess of things.’

‘So, no hard feelings?’ Gary was saying to Ethan, and Terri wanted to shake him – shake the two of them actually. No hard feelings? After everything that had just happened?

‘I’m not sure Rachel will see it like that,’ she said, reminding Gary of the fact that his fiancée had just run from the place in tears.

To his credit, he looked shamed. ‘Honest to God, Terri, I just didn’t know what to do. If I’d told her the truth, she’d have left me. I know she would.’

‘You must know Rachel well enough to realise that she isn’t with you for the sake of a diamond ring,’ she said, flabbergasted.

‘She’ll get some shock if she is,’ he said regretfully, and at that point Terri saw a side to Gary Knowles that she had never noticed before. It was as if the tough-man mask had finally slipped, and behind it was the face of an immature schoolboy who’d been caught out in a lie. ‘Things have been very slack for me work-wise this last while,’ he continued sheepishly. ‘Rachel didn’t know. And I didn’t want to say anything, particularly when this place was doing such a bomb. No woman wants a man who brings in less dosh than she does.’

Terri rolled her eyes, doubly frustrated that it now seemed that much of this was about male pride. ‘Come on, Gary. Rachel doesn’t give a damn about things like that. All she cares about is you, not what you earn! That’s why she’s so hurt by what happened. As far as she’s concerned, your engagement – maybe even your whole relationship – was a lie, especially if you couldn’t tell her the truth.’

‘It’s not too late, though,’ Ethan ventured. ‘OK, so she’s upset now but maybe if you tell her what you just told us . . .’

Gary looked from one to the other, unsure.

‘Go after her, for God’s sake,’ Terri urged, unable to believe what she was suggesting. But, looking at it now from Gary’s point of view, she could see that he honestly hadn’t intended any malice; through no real fault of his own he had simply got caught up in a situation from which he couldn’t escape.

Gary nodded and rubbed his cheek. ‘Hey, any damage to the old noggin?’ he asked, quickly returning to form, and Terri had to smile.

‘No need to worry; you’re still gorgeous,’ she replied wryly as Ethan looked on in amusement. ‘Now go and sort things out.’

When Gary had gone, Terri and Ethan were left alone, facing one another.

‘I thought you might be the one to go after her, actually,’ she probed gently, trying to tease out his feelings where Rachel was concerned.

He gave a short laugh. ‘Me? Hardly. Don’t get me wrong; I mean, last time I was here you were right when you suggested I might be a little . . . confused about Rachel. Distracted, more like.’ He sighed. ‘It’s silly, but . . .’ Ethan’s words trailed off as he tried to explain. ‘Well, I must admit I was a little wrong-footed when it sank in properly that she was a baker. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but Daisy’s mum, Jane, and I had this sort of in-joke.’ He went on to tell her about Jane’s instruction about finding someone to bake him bread. ‘I suppose I could be accused of taking it rather literally for a while,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Nonsense really.’

‘I think it’s actually quite sweet,’ Terri said truthfully, realising that he must have loved Daisy’s mother very much indeed. ‘I’m so sorry for all this,’ she said then, feeling strangely uncomfortable in his presence now. ‘I’d imagine after everything that’s happened you’ll be glad to see the back of this place.’

Ethan sighed, his expression unreadable. ‘I’m not entirely sure how to feel at the moment. It’s all been such a mess, certainly, and . . . Oh my goodness – Daisy!’ he gasped as if suddenly remembering that she was here too. ‘Heaven knows what she’s making of all this.’

‘It’s OK. I know Justin will be keeping her well entertained outside. And I made sure she was out of earshot for most of what went on before, and definitely for the worst of it.’

‘I noticed that. Thank you.’ He looked directly at her and again Terri wondered why the conversation felt so awkward all of a sudden. ‘She can be a real worrier.’

Terri had suspected as much, which was why she’d endeavoured to keep the little girl away from the squabbling.

‘Don’t worry; I’m sure she’ll grow out of it. And poor thing, I suppose she has good reason to be fretful, what with losing her mother, I mean.’

He nodded, obviously deeply troubled by this. ‘It’s just that I’ve never been entirely sure of the right way to deal with it. Vanessa says I shouldn’t indulge her, that it’ll only make things worse, but . . .’

‘Sounds to me like Vanessa wouldn’t be the best role model when it comes to parenting,’ Terri retorted quickly, and then, remembering herself, she put a hand to her mouth. ‘Oh Ethan, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that; it was completely out of turn.’

‘No, you’re right. I think that could have been part of the problem, actually. I fell so hard for Vanessa and at the same time I was so intent on trying to give Daisy what I thought she needed – a strong role model and some kind of replacement for her mum – that I didn’t look closely enough to see if Vanessa truly was the right one for the job,’ he admitted. ‘It wasn’t fair on Daisy or Vanessa,’ he added and Terri realised that despite his little ‘blip’ about Rachel, he really did love Vanessa.

‘Well, to be fair, it is a big responsibility.’

‘And looking increasingly like one I’ll continue to bear on my own.’ He smiled sadly. ‘Not that it’s such a terrible thing. That little girl is my world.’

‘She’s very lucky to have such a great dad.’

Ethan squirmed. ‘Well, I’m not so sure about that. Not when she believes in such nonsense as a diamond ring that supposedly has magical powers.’

‘That stuff she was saying about Tiffany’s being magical? She told me she got that from her mum.’