Read The Other Woman's Shoes Online
Authors: Adele Parks
The Other Woman's Shoes (47 page)
He was grateful to be saved by the bell. Mr Evergreen had probably forgotten the keys. Martha let Greg answer the door. Well, he’d seemed keen to do so; he’d leapt up out of the settee. She hadn’t seen him move so quickly since Brazil scored that second goal in the World Cup semi-finals – then he’d jumped up and down for ages, fired with fury and disappointment.
‘D’you know what, Martha?’ yelled Greg as he opened the door. ‘I think Eliza was right.’
‘Do you?’
‘Yeah, girl, if he really loved you he would want to be by your side
now
.’
‘Right,’ mumbled Martha, and she sank deeper into a depression that wasn’t just induced by Victor Meldrew’s miserable tones.
‘Hey, Babe, budge over, I don’t think I’ve seen this one.’
And it was Jack.
Jack sat down next to her on her settee. Martha gawped, unable to say anything.
Greg was clearly much more in charge of his faculties. He acted like the perfect host and passed Jack a can of Carling. Immediately, he took it away. ‘Oh, right, yours is an orange juice, isn’t it? I’ll go and get one from the kitchen.’
Martha still found it impossible to speak. Bloody hell, who’d turned her tap on? Once again she was crying. Would she ever stop?
‘Hey, Babe, what’s up?’ said Jack. He tenderly leant in
and kissed away the tears that were streaming down her face. ‘Didn’t I tell you I’d be back?’ His eyes were an exotic and erotic mix of passion and love. Deep, deep love. She believed in it. She was wise and foolish enough to believe in it. She was brave enough to say it. Optimistic enough to hope for it. In love enough to know it.
He loved her.
Acknowledgements
I wrote
The Other Woman’s Shoes
in the early months of 2002, which already seems an age ago. Indeed, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. Those months were extraordinary ones for me. I would not have got through them, let alone had the strength to write a novel, without the love, laughter and support of some very wonderful people.
Please stand up and take a bow: my son, mum, dad and sister; Louise Buckley, Nicola Williams, Sandie King, Catriona Butler, Emma and Lorcan Woods, Claire Percy-Robb, Louise Moore, Jonny Geller, Deborah Schneider, Carol Jackson, Norma Howard, Lottie Harwood-Mathews, Helen McDermott, Nikki Sung, Amy Apcar, Rene Van Eyssen, Stephen Glendinning and Rashid Akhtar.
I would not have got through a single day without Jim Pride. You amaze me.
Table of Contents
September
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
October
14
15
16
17
18
November
19
20
21
22
23
December
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
January
31
32
February
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
March
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
April
48
49
50
51
