Part 16 (2/2)

Before Loveday could warn Mickey not to accept the invitation, he had, with great bonhomie, replied, 'Lovely. That'd be just the ticket, eh, Loveday?'

'That's sorted then,' smiled Greer, before taking Jesse's arm and looking up into his eyes in a way that made Loveday feel sick. 'My husband and I are to give our first dinner party to our best friends.' She stood on her tiptoes and gave Jesse a slow kiss. 'Excited?'

To Loveday's horror, Jesse returned the kiss with warmth. 'Let's get you home, Mrs Behenna.'

He wheeled Greer round and walked her off towards Pencil Cottage. Mickey pulled Loveday towards him. 'Must be nice to be married. Jesse was telling me they had a great honeymoon.'

'Did he?' Loveday felt empty.

They started walking towards Loveday's house. She said, 'My mum's not back till tomorrow. She's gone over to Auntie Sheila's.'

'Will you be all right on your own?' asked Mickey, not understanding what she was saying to him.

She spelt it out. 'I thought you might like to stay over and keep me company?'

'What? You mean like ...?'

'Yes, Mickey, that's exactly what I mean.'

'Loveday,' Mickey said thickly, and Loveday returned his overjoyed smile with one of her own. She may not have Jesse, but she had the power to make Mickey the happiest man in the world.

Jesse and Greer were lying in their new bed in their new bedroom in their new house. Greer was listening to the old place talking to itself as it settled its eaves onto its ancient rafters and cob walls. She couldn't have felt happier. Pencil Cottage was her home. Growing up, this had been the one house in the whole of Trevay that she had dreamt of owning. And now she did. Well, OK, her dad's company owned it, but it was hers to live in and love.

She turned and snuggled into her husband, who was recovering after a short, sharp, drunken but satisfying for him five minutes of lovemaking.

'Are you happy?' she asked.

He was getting fed up with her always asking if he was happy.

What would she do if he told her the truth? If he just opened his mouth right now and said: 'No, as a matter of fact I'm not particularly happy. I only agreed to marry you because my father and your father persuaded me that it would be good for me, for them and for the whole financial health of Trevay. Our boats would get a better deal with the fish market; we'd freeze out the boats from further up and down the coast. They told me that you were the best catch in Cornwall and I'd be a lucky man to have you as my wife. And I am so thick, and so greedy, that I went along with it and sold my soul to the devil.

'I am no longer my own man. I married you and received a house, a job and a honeymoon as payment. I am a wh.o.r.e; I don't want to be lying next to you tonight, I want to be with Loveday. Yes, fat Loveday with no prospects. She has been a loyal friend to you and you despise her.

'I made love to her once, the night before our wedding, if you want to hear the gory details, but now I'm married to you. It was cruel of me to talk about her flesh keeping her warm and to kiss you in front of her, but I was cruel tonight because I wanted her to get the message that I cannot give her anything. She deserves to be with a good man like Mickey. And you don't deserve to be with a s.h.i.+t like me. I'll try to be the best husband I can to you and to make you happy, but am I happy? You're happy, your dad's happy, my dad's happy, so who cares if I'm happy or not? Only Loveday, and she's as miserable as I am.'

He s.h.i.+fted a little so that Greer could rest her head on his shoulder. 'Yes, I'm happy, maid,' he said, and lay still, staring into the unfamiliar darkness of his new home.

Mickey couldn't believe that, at last, Loveday was his. She had led him up her narrow stairs and taken him into her bedroom, which looked the same as it always had. The grey carpet with swags of spring flowers woven into it was the same one that the four friends had played endless games of Monopoly on. He remembered that he and Jesse had had a huge fight, one Christmas, over paying the bill for a Monopoly hotel he'd put on Park Lane. Jesse had refused to hand over the money and they'd ended up brawling on the floor. Loveday had ended the fight by getting in between them and forcing them apart. Greer had quietly and carefully simply folded the board and put all the pieces back in their little boxed compartments.

The wallpaper was the same too, but now the A-ha posters that had littered it had come down. He'd been so jealous that Loveday had fancied Morten Harket. 'He's a poof,' he'd told her, and got a whack for his trouble.

Her single bed with the old satin eiderdown was still pushed up against the wall, and her teddy, Annabel, was still sitting on the pillow.

Loveday didn't put the bedroom light on. Instead she let the light from the landing spill softly into the room. She took his hand and knew he was nervous. 'Come on. Sit on the bed with me.'

He sat next to her and watched as she put Annabel down on the carpet. Then he kissed her more deeply than he'd ever dared before.

She felt for the b.u.t.tons of her denim s.h.i.+rt and began undoing them, before shrugging it off to expose a large black bra, straining against the flesh and weight of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Mickey stopped kissing her and looked in wonder at her. 'You're so beautiful,' he breathed.

She helped him with the tricky clasp of her bra and, after that, he needed no help in easing both of them out of their clothes and in between the cool sheets. As inexperienced as Loveday was, she knew that where Jesse had been a lover with pa.s.sion and force, Mickey was altogether different. He was tender and careful. She closed her eyes and gave herself up to the pleasure he was giving her. He wasn't Jesse. He was Mickey, and she prayed he would never, ever find out about her and Jesse.

16.

The 'Sunday night sups', as Greer insisted on calling their get-together (apparently because she'd read somewhere that that's what Princess Diana called her informal evening meals), was endured and enjoyed in equal measure.

On the way there, Loveday steeled herself, determined not to let the situation get to her, or to let her emotions show through. But it was so hard. It was Jesse who answered the doorbell; instantly those sea-green eyes locked with hers, sending her stomach into backflips of desire before she had even crossed the threshold. As Jesse went to take her coat, Loveday tried to shrug her way awkwardly out of it, but she was not fast enough, and she felt Jesse's strong hands close round her shoulders, seemed to feel them burning through the thick material. She shuddered, making her way quickly through to the kitchen to give Greer a hand, trying to put distance between them. Still, when Jesse handed her a drink, she saw that her hand was shaking.

Greer was a good cook, and Loveday wasn't sure if she tucked into her meal with such relish because of her discomfort or in spite of it. Once or twice she caught Jesse's eye, but when she did he would look quickly away, or disappear to the kitchen on the pretext of getting another couple of cans of beer. He must have noticed the way she'd been in the hallway, she decided, squirming inwardly: he was making certain that they were never on their own together, or sitting anywhere near each other. Well, OK, if that was how it was going to be, Loveday thought, bristling, she had her pride. As the wine flowed and her taut nerves finally began to relax, Loveday got her own back by cosying up to Mickey, who was very happy to bask in his s.e.xy girlfriend's attention.

Inside, Loveday was finally processing the stark message that was being ruthlessly delivered to her: that their lives had settled into a new phase and that nothing she could do or wish for was going to change that.

Jesse still spent long hours at sea hunting the best catches he could. He knew his father was pleased with his progress not that he would ever hear him say so and he was given more responsibility on the boat. At sea he could be the old Jesse. Laughing with the boys, working hard and always respecting the ocean.

Life at Pencil Cottage was surprisingly pleasant. Comfortable. Greer was a great homemaker and the little house soon took on a polished and stylish personality. Out went the colours chosen by her and Jesse's mother; in came buff and beige and cloud grey. Jesse liked coming home to a lovely home, a decent supper and clean laundry. It was like living with his parents, but with the added bonus of s.e.x and the satisfaction of being the man of the house. The only bore was Greer's extreme standards of tidiness, and her insistence that he should remove all his smelly fis.h.i.+ng clothes the moment he entered the house. She would place a large towel on the floor, exactly a one-metre stride from the front door, so that he could, simultaneously, step on it, close the door behind him and strip off. She would hold out the laundry basket for him to drop the ripe jeans and overalls into before putting them rubber gloves on into the was.h.i.+ng machine on a boil wash. Jesse would go upstairs to find a hot scented bath waiting for him. He'd have a soak, then a shave and clean his teeth, before finding Greer and giving her the s.e.x he thought she was as eager for as he was.

It was Valentine's Day when Greer met him off the boat odd in itself and, odder still, kissed him full on the lips, even though he stank to high heaven.

'What was that for?' he asked as they broke apart.

'I've got some news.' She put the back of her hand to her mouth, tasting the sourness of his breath and trying not to gag.

Jesse swung his kitbag over his shoulder and, taking her hand, walked quickly towards home. The surprise of her appearance and the pa.s.sionate kiss was sending messages of the bedroom kind to his nether regions.

'Let's get home.'

Lying breathless by her side, his filthy overalls for once allowed upstairs and strewn on the spotless dove-grey carpet of their bedroom, Jesse smiled. 'That was nice.' He exhaled slowly and pulled her head to rest on his shoulder. 'Now, tell me your news.'

The odour from his armpits was strong and stale. Greer s.h.i.+fted a little in order to avoid the worst of the fumes. 'I think we're going to have a baby.'

The fingers that had been stroking her waist stopped abruptly. The room grew a silence that became a little thicker with each second, and then so heavy that Greer felt panicky and thirsty for oxygen.

He spoke. 'You think? Have you taken a test?'

'Yes.'

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