Second Chance - Jane Green [59]
‘Just time to time?’
‘Okay. Most weekends. Still, do you think we ought to turn it off now that we’re here? Probably best that they all play, don’t you think?’
Holly flushes a bright, guilty red. ‘Oh God, of course. You should have just switched it off. Come on, let’s go downstairs,’ and the two of them head down to the ground floor.
Twenty minutes later Oscar and Oliver are racing around the house shouting, waving light sabres, and Ruby and Daisy are behind closed doors in Daisy’s bedroom, Ruby helping Daisy draw pictures, much to Daisy’s delight, although she periodically opens her door and roars at the boys, in a very ungirly fashion, to stay away from her bedroom, or to get out.
Olivia sips her tea and recounts, blow by blow, the events of her glorious few days with Fred.
‘He sounds completely delicious.’ Holly laughs.
‘He is.’ Olivia blushes. ‘He’s practically perfect in every way.’
‘So… how are you going to navigate it?’
‘Navigate what?’
‘A long – distance relationship.’
‘I’m not.’ Olivia frowns at Holly. ‘I’m pretty certain that isn’t what this is. The truth is he was, he is, gorgeous, but he’s in his early thirties, and he’s still a boy, not someone I could see myself with at all.’
‘Really? So it was just mad sex?’
‘Pretty much.’
‘Oh God.’ Holly sighs heavily as she gets up from the table. ‘How I miss those days of mad sex.’
Olivia laughs, thinks nothing of it as Holly bends over to get the carrot sticks and hummus out of the fridge for the kids’ snack.
‘Okay, so come on then,’ fess up,’ Olivia says finally. ‘What have you been doing?’
Holly straightens up and looks at Olivia in confusion, and ever such a tiny touch of guilt. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You look fantastic, that’s what. You look like you’ve lost about a stone since I last saw you, which was, what, about two weeks ago? And you’re all glowy and gorgeous. What are you doing? Hang on, let me guess… Pilates? No, it’s probably Bikram yoga or something and the GI diet… am I right?’
Holly starts laughing. ‘God, no, I’m far too lazy to do exercise – are you mad? Running around after the kids is more than enough exercise for me, and the three times I tried yoga I almost died of boredom.’
‘God, I know!’ Olivia groans. ‘Every now and then I feel horrible about not doing any exercise, so some well – meaning friend drags me off to a yoga class telling me I’ll love it, and I’m always bored stupid.’
‘But you look insanely fit.’
‘It’s just running an animal shelter, not to mention walking the dogs. That’s about all the exercise I need.’
‘I don’t even walk dogs,’ Holly laughs, ‘and definitely no yoga for me. I’m not sure that chocolate digestive biscuits are on the GI diet… what do you think?’ Holly jams a whole biscuit in her mouth and Olivia starts to laugh.
‘How old are you, Holly? Six?’
‘No,’ Holly mumbles, crumbs flying out of her mouth. ‘I’m four,’ and the two women grin at one another.
‘So…’ Olivia muses, refusing to let it go. ‘Are you and Marcus having lots of fantastic sex all of a sudden? Is that what it is? I mean, I’d always heard that once you get married you stop having sex altogether, but there’s clearly something going on.’
‘Christ, no.’ Holly swallows quickly. ‘Can’t think of anything worse. I’ve just been feeling really happy recently and haven’t been very hungry. You know how it is, sometimes you’re hungry and sometimes you just seem to have no appetite, and the last few weeks I just haven’t had much of an appetite.’
‘Well, whatever it is you’re doing, don’t stop. You look completely fantastic,’ Olivia says, reaching out for a chocolate digestive of her own.
‘Don’t stop’ is what she said. Does that mean I have permission to carry on doing what I’m doing? But what am I doing? I’m not doing anything. We’re just friends. That’s all.
Holly had forgotten all about Will. She had written him off as one of those silly crushes you have when there has been emotional turmoil