Part 32 (2/2)

'Well, if magic has got anything to do with it, let's send some of it on,' said Catherine, and laid her own kiss on top of Eddie's, then blew it in the direction of Stevie's house. Surely not even Eddie could rebuke her for interfering in Stevie's life on that plain.

Chapter 57.

A week had pa.s.sed when the loud knock landed on Stevie's door and her heart started racing as she rushed to open it. It dropped like a stone though to find Matthew standing there; nevertheless, she formed a small, welcoming smile, which was roughly a quarter the size of his own.

'I've got some great news!' he said, angling for an invite.

And Stevie being Stevie, she said, 'Come in.'

'Is er...?'

'No,' said Stevie, antic.i.p.ating what he was going to ask. 'Adam doesn't live here any more.'

Matthew's smile suddenly got a bit wider.

'Coffee?' said Stevie, because it would have been rude not to.

'Yes, please,' he said, because it would give him an excuse to stay a little longer. 'Lovely cottage,' he commented, looking around. Not only lovely but also s.h.i.+ning and polished and clean, and there was that indefinable something in it that turned a house into a home. His house didn't have it any more. It hadn't had it since Stevie left.

'Yes, it is lovely,' she said quietly. She would be sorry to say goodbye to it too, so sorry. So many times she had picked up the phone to ring Adam on the pretext of asking him when she needed to get out of the cottage, only to put it down again in case Jo picked it up. He would be a fool to have gone back to her, but Jo MacLean was like a flame to men and she attracted the sorts of hearts that could not stop themselves burning their fragile moth-wings many times against her. Adam must have taken her back; why else would he have left and not been in touch?

'Sorry I've not been across before, but it's been a mad week,' said Matthew.

'Oh yes?' said Stevie, barely realizing how many days had pa.s.sed. She had locked herself away in her office when Danny wasn't around, occupying all thought-s.p.a.ce with Damme and Evie, because she did not want to think of her own empty life.

'I've been offered my old job back!' said Matthew.

'Good, I'm pleased,' said Stevie.

'But...' He left a dramatic pause. 'I'm not taking it.'

'Why ever not?'

'Because I've decided I'm going to have a fresh start. I'm selling the house and clearing some of my debts with the equity, and then I'm moving to London. I've got interviews lined up and I've found a flat, sharing with some other people. It's cheap and cheerful but it will do nicely until I get back on my feet. I've made too many mistakes here and I want to get away. And by way of an unofficial apology, Doyles are giving me three months' paid leave and they've w.a.n.gled me a tax-free bonus. I hear it was old Seedy who came through for me in the end, can you believe?'

'Yes, I can believe it,' said Stevie. He had looked a decent man. One who must be hurting terribly at the moment too.

'He's going to live in New York apparently.'

'Good. A fresh start for him too. And...Jo?' asked Stevie, although she still had difficulty saying the name.

'Got flattened by a stray meteorite, died an agonizing slow death.'

Okay, so she imagined that.

'No one knows. She didn't turn in for work the day after you went into the office and hasn't been back since.'

Adam hadn't been seen either. He hadn't been working at the gym. They were obviously together. Maybe they had gone off on holidayafter all, isn't that what couples did to escape the trail of devastated hearts they left behindrun off to the sun? Not that it mattered really, for the words of Jo's letter had stung her hard and deep. Even with no Jo MacLean on the scene, Adam's heart wasn't going to be fulfilled by a short, lumpy woman and someone else's kid.

'Apparently Colin looked rough for a couple of days after your meeting,' said Matthew. 'Someone said he was caught crying in his off-' A five-ton penny dropped. 'Hey, you don't think Jo and Colin...do you?'

'I'm almost sure of it, Matthew.' Stevie had been instrumental in that avenue of escape being closed to Jo, which would almost definitely have driven her back to Adam as a safe haven. She shooed that thought away and turned her attentions back to Matthew. 'So how come you know what happened at work?'

'Well, people started ringing me againonce the truth filtered out that I wasn't a psycho-woman batterer. I think they felt a bit guilty about believing the stories and tried to over-compensate. Anyway, I got some presents and good luck cards in the post and I'm meeting my department for a night out before I move.'

'I'm glad for you, Matthew, I really am. I hope you enjoy London.'

'Unless you...er...' Matthew stumbled. Stevie looked up into his eyes. They were soft, brown, warm and open, and he was looking nervously at her like the first time he had dared to ask her out.

'Unless of course you didn't want me to g-go and...' he stuttered on.

Stevie gulped. This was the moment she had been waiting for. Adam's plan had come through for her too, it seemed. So why wasn't she hearing bra.s.s bands playing in her heart? There was nothing but the faint piercing sound of retreating bagpipes.

That week she had finally faced up to the fact that her love for Matthew had started to die as soon as Adam showed her the holiday confirmation; its roots had been wrenched out with the break of trust. She knew she had clung on blindly to the fantasy that it was still a plant alive and growing because a buried but determined part of her wanted to win Matthew back from Jo, to make up for the fact that she had lost Mick to Linda. She wanted so much to see him as the strong, reliable bloke her heart was waiting for. But he wasn't that man. Someone else was.

'No, I don't suppose...you would, would you? C-consideryou...meagain?'

'No, Matthew.' She answered him in a kind voice because there had been too many hearts broken, too many emotional casualties.

'I was a thick t.w.a.t,' he said with genuine frustration. 'My gra.s.s was lovely and green and I went looking for better stuff and ended up with Astroturf.'

She hoped his next job wasn't going to be writing romantic fiction, because he just might give her a run for her money with lines like that.

Matthew looked at her, her spun-gold hair, her lovely blue eyes, warmth and nice-person radiating out from her in waves, and once again he could not believe he had let her go. Ironically, her strength in saying, 'No' to him made him want her even more, but her eyes were only looking back at him as if he was ordinary. They weren't registering that he was special any more. They looked at Adam MacLean quite differently, he had noticed. Jim Bowen's voice welled up in his head with the Bull's-eye tune playing in a minor key: Look at what you could have won.

'It's him, isn't itAdam? You really fell for him then?'

'Yes, Matthew, hook, line and sinker.'

'I thought you were just joking at first, you know. You'll laugh but I thought it was all a sort of plan to get us jealous.' He laughed at how stupid that seemed now. As if! 'So what happened?'

'I don't know,' she shrugged. 'I presume Adam and Jo are together somewhere, planning a new start. I haven't seen or heard from him since...well, since...'

'Since I came round that night, by any chance?' Matthew said, his shoulders scrunching up with shame and embarra.s.sment. Stevie didn't answer; she couldn't. There was a big lump in her throat, and there was no Adam around to perform a Heimlich manoeuvre on her to s.h.i.+ft it.

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