A Baby for Eve. Maggie Kingsley

into his Range Rover. ‘Kate Althorp sure had a lucky escape.’

      ‘From what?’ Eve asked in confusion.

      ‘From marrying him. Don’t you remember how close Kate and Nick were at school?’ he continued as Eve looked at him in surprise. ‘Everyone was certain they’d get married.’

      ‘Well, they didn’t,’ Eve replied. ‘Kate married James Althorp.’

      ‘So I gathered.’ Tom frowned as he switched on his ignition. ‘Which I have to say I find surprising. Don’t get me wrong,’ he added. ‘James was a nice enough bloke, but I’d have thought he was a bit too laid back for Kate, which only goes to show you never can tell. Nick married that girl he met at med school, didn’t he? Anne…Isabel…’

      ‘Annabel.’

      ‘Yeah, that was her name. Nice girl, she was, too, as I recall.’

      ‘She died nearly three years ago now,’ Eve replied. ‘Her appendix ruptured and because she’d taken aspirin she bled out and there was nothing anyone could do.’

      ‘I’m sorry about that,’ Tom declared, ‘but I still reckon Kate had a lucky escape.’

      But Nick isn’t normally like that, Eve thought with a frown, as Tom drove them down the winding road back into the village. The senior partner could certainly be sharp and cutting if he felt people weren’t pulling their weight, but she’d never seen him verbally attack somebody for no reason, and yet that was exactly what he’d done this afternoon.

      ‘Where does Tassie live?’ Tom asked as they drove down Harbour Road.

      ‘Just off Morwenna Road, but if you drop us at the post office we can walk from there,’ Eve replied.

      ‘But that will still leave you quite a distance to walk,’ Tom protested.

      ‘All to the good,’ Eve said calmly. ‘I need some exercise after what I’ve eaten.’

      ‘But—’

      ‘Drop us at the post office, Tom.’

      He sighed but, after he’d crossed the Harbour Bridge, he obediently pulled up at the post office.

      ‘Thanks for the ride, mister,’ Tassie said when she and Eve got out of his car, and he smiled and ruffled her hair.

      ‘Could you make yourself scarce for a couple of minutes, half-pint?’ he said. ‘I need to talk to Eve.’

      ‘Tom, Tassie really does have to go home,’ Eve began as the girl obediently skipped down the road for a few yards, then waited. ‘The wind’s getting up, and she’s not dressed for the weather—’

      ‘I was wondering whether you’d like to come out with me tomorrow?’ he interrupted. ‘We could have lunch, and you could show me the sights of Penhally.’

      ‘Tom, you were born here, you know what the sights are,’ she protested.

      ‘There’s bound to have been some changes—new developments—since I was last here,’ he argued back, ‘and I thought—perhaps for old times’ sake?’

      She didn’t want to do anything for old times’ sake. Two postcards, that’s all he’d sent her after he’d left for America. One from New York, saying he was homesick and lonely, and another one from California six months later, saying he’d applied for a job with Deltaron. After that, there’d been nothing. Not a card, or a letter, or a phone call, for the past twenty years during which she’d got on with her life, and if it hadn’t been the life she’d planned, dreamed of, it had been a satisfying life, and now he was back, and she didn’t want him to be back.

      ‘I’m sorry,’ she said firmly. ‘I have things to do tomorrow.’

      ‘Please.’

      If he had been smiling at her with that old gotta-love-me smile she would never have wavered, but he wasn’t smiling. In fact, he looked uncharacteristically unsure, uncertain, and Tom Cornish had never been unsure of anything in his life.

      ‘I can’t do lunch,’ she said hesitantly. Won’t, more like. ‘As I said, I have things to do tomorrow.’

      ‘Half a day is better than none,’ he said. ‘Do you still live in Polkerris Road with your parents? I’ll pick you up at two o’clock—’

      ‘Three o’clock,’ she interrupted. ‘And I’ll meet you outside your hotel.’

      He looked disappointed, then he nodded.

      ‘OK, three o’clock it is,’ he said, then to her surprise he added quickly, ‘You will come, won’t you?’

      The uncertainty was back in his eyes, big time, and a slight frown creased her forehead.

      ‘I said I’d come,’ she pointed out, ‘and I will.’

      Though God knows why, she thought as she joined Tassie and the two of them began walking down the road together.

      ‘He’s nice,’ Tassie observed, hopping from one paving stone to the next in some sort of elaborate game only she understood.

      ‘Tom can be very nice when he wants to be,’ Eve replied noncommittally.

      ‘He told me you and he were best friends when you were younger,’ Tassie continued with her usual directness, and Eve manufactured a smile.

      ‘It was a long time ago, Tassie.’

      ‘He still likes you. I can tell. In fact,’ the girl added, ‘I bet if we turn round right now he’ll be watching you from outside the post office.’

      ‘Tassie,’ Eve began in consternation, but the girl had already stopped and was looking over her shoulder.

      ‘Told you so,’ Tassie said.

      ‘He’s watching us?’ Eve said faintly.

      ‘See for yourself if you don’t believe me,’ Tassie declared, and Eve shook her head, feeling her cheeks prickle with heat.

      ‘I’ve got to get you home.’

      ‘Chicken.’ Tassie laughed.

      Self-preservation, more like, Eve thought, walking on determinedly. I don’t owe him anything, not after all these years.

      But you’ve still agreed to meet him tomorrow afternoon, haven’t you? a little voice mocked at the back of her mind, and she groaned inwardly.

      She must have been out of her mind.