Doing the Right Thing (17 page)

“She didn’t tell me. I thought she was playing. Shit, I feel terrible. It would have been okay if Vee hadn’t…” Will’s voice rose. “What the fuck is she doing here? How did she find us? Everyone knows better than to tell her anything.”

“Go back and get rid of her. I’ll find Addie.”

Ed hadn’t intended to spend the evening doing anything more strenuous than having a long soak in a hot bath. With a bottle of cold beer in his hand and his computer balanced on the washbasin, he planned to lie back in comfort and watch a film. Now he was going to have to drive round the streets of Alwoodley looking for a pissed-off, possibly hysterical female.

It took Ed ten minutes to find her. She sat alone at a bus stop. He pulled up and lowered his window. “Addie, get in. I’ll drive you home.”

She didn’t move. No hysteria. No crying. No fury. Just a sad, pale face. Ed wanted to kill Will.

“Are you all right?” he asked and could have kicked himself for his stupidity.

Addie could still feel where Will had been inside her, but he didn’t care about her.

Not enough anyway. He wanted her gone. Ed wanted her gone because a woman called Vee had arrived. Addie was overwhelmed by the pain of complete humiliation. So stupid to think someone that attractive wouldn’t already have a girlfriend. Stupid to think he might want her for anything other than a quick fuck. He was her boss. What had she been thinking?

“Get in, Addie. Let me drive you home. Please.”

Everything ached—her leg from yesterday, her head, between her legs. Her heart.

Ed got out of his car. “Come on, Addie,” he said, his voice soft and gentle. “You’ll be ages waiting for a bus and it’s started to rain. Let me take you home.”

Addie picked up her backpack and got into his car.

“Where do you live?”

She whispered her address.

* * * * *

By the time Will walked back into the house, he was freezing. He felt terrible, but not because he was cold and wet. He looked at the stairs, turned away and went into the kitchen. He knew what would happen. He’d shout at Vee, she’d cry, he’d feel guilty and try to make her feel better and then it would only be a matter of time until the next explosion. The bottle of champagne stood open on the kitchen table. He turned and walked to the stairs. What was the point in putting this off?

He pushed open his bedroom door.

“
Salut
, Will.”

His ex-wife lay curled up on his bed with only a towel wrapped around her.

“
Que fais-tu ici?
” he demanded, slipping into her native tongue, asking what she was doing there.

Vee pouted. An expression with which he was all too familiar.

“That’s not nice,” she said.

“I thought you were in Paris staying with your parents.” Will glared at her. He’d hoped she’d never come back to the UK.

“We had an argument. They don’t care about me. They don’t want me.”

Will had heard all this before.

“You’re wet.
Tu fais froid
?” Vee asked. “Let me warm you up.” She uncovered herself, posing on the bed like a centerfold model.

Will tried to keep his eyes on her face. He pulled his fingers through his damp hair.

“You don’t belong in my bed, Vee.”

“But you’re my husband.”

“Ex-husband. We’re divorced, remember?”

“Ah,
pas exactement
.”

Will’s heart lurched in his chest like a dog trying to escape a leash. “Not exactly?

What does that mean?”

“We’re still married.”

Panic scuttled through his veins. Will shook his head. What the hell was she talking about? “No, we submitted the draft settlement. The
notaire
prepared it. The bloody French lawyer cost me a fortune. We signed it. The hearing—”

“I said we’d changed our minds.”

For a moment, time stopped. “What?”

“I told them I wanted to try again.”

Will tried to rein in his fury. “How dare you, Vee? This was all sorted.”

“I want to try to again.”

Will chewed his lip. “What happened to Jean-Claude?”

“The
cochon
was sleeping with a waitress.” Vee started to cry. “Why do people always do that to me? They always hurt me.”

Will was tempted to remind her that she’d hurt him, but he didn’t. How did she think it made him feel when she slept with other men? Vee cried harder. Will squirmed.

He felt helpless when women cried. It made him want to do anything to stop them—

give them his car, his credit cards, Ed’s Star Wars figures, anything. His desperation stemmed from the way his mother used same tactic of emotional blackmail when he and Ed were little. Crying to get them to cuddle her, crying if they didn’t work hard at school and crying so they wouldn’t leave her like their daddy. It worked then, too.

Vee sobbed and Will looked at her in despair. Confrontations always made her cry.

Her crying made him feel guilty. Feeling guilty weakened his resolve. He hated this.

Her parents had fucked up her life and left her as fragile as a glass rose.

“Don’t you love me, Will?”

“Yes, but not in the way you want. Not anymore.”

Vee got up and walked over to put her arms around him, leaving the towel behind.

“You’re lying. Part of you still wants me no matter what you say.”

She nestled against his chest and Will kept his arms motionless, trying to imagine she wore clothes.

“What’s wrong with me?” she asked.

“Nothing.” Nothing he wanted to list now, anyway.

“Then why don’t you want me? Don’t you think I’m beautiful?”

“You shouldn’t have come here, Vee.”

“I wanted to be with you today,” she said. “Just today.”

Will glanced at the luggage in the corner.

“Don’t you remember this day?” she asked.

He was at once on alert. “No.”

“The day we lost our baby, Will. The day our little baby died. You’re the only one who understands.”

Then he believed the tears and let himself hug the memory of what had been inside her.

A child hadn’t been planned, but he’d been ecstatic at the news. He thought it would put things right between them, stop Vee straying. The first time she’d had an affair, he’d taken her back and given her another chance because she swore it would never happen again. Then two days after she’d told him she was pregnant, he found her lying naked in the arms of their equally naked next-door neighbor.

Once the neighbor had grabbed his clothes and left, Will told Vee the marriage was over. She drove off in a flood of tears, crashed the car and lost the baby growing inside her. At her bedside in hospital, Will offered her another chance. A mistake. A month after she’d been discharged from hospital, he found her in the arms of one of his friends. That really was the end.

Only it wasn’t, because although he moved out of their flat, Vee constantly called him to sort out some problem, real or imagined. She always came to him in times of crisis and she always seemed to be in a crisis. It hadn’t escaped Will’s notice that most of her difficulties could be sorted out by taking her to bed, or as Vee had once described it, giving her a “get-better fuck”. What he’d thought would be no-strings-attached sex, had turned out to be anything but.

Will knew Vee was unstable and that made him feel worse. After he’d removed his belongings from their home, she’d taken an overdose and had her stomach pumped. Ed had talked him out of taking her back then. Now Ed had stepped in again. They both knew what would have happened if Vee found him in bed with Addie. Vee had stalked and threatened Jolene, a previous girlfriend. It had cost Will a fortune to sort that out.

Jolene could have brought charges. He sighed as Vee snuffled in his arms. Ed thought he’d done the right thing this evening, but Will wished he hadn’t. He wished Addie had her arms around him and Vee was in a taxi going back to the station.

“This has to end,” Will said. “You have to stop running to me every time you’re upset.”

“But you’re the only one I can rely on. You are the one good thing that has ever happened to me.”

Why did that make him so miserable?

“Find some other idiot to lean on. I won’t do this anymore.” Even to his ears his voice lacked conviction.

“I thought you’d understand because of our baby.”

“Was it ours?” Will wanted the words back. He always ended up saying things he didn’t mean, things he regretted. Although he had wondered if the baby was his.

“Don’t be horrible, Will. Jean-Claude was horrible to me.”

Will doubted that. Jean-Claude, a good-looking French car salesman, barely out of his teens, hadn’t been able to believe his luck when Vee threw herself at him.

“I missed you. I wanted to be with you. Can’t I even have a kiss?” She went up on tiptoes to reach for his face.

Will pulled back. “No.”

“You’re my husband. We made promises to each other. I love you, Will.”

“I returned the divorce papers to my lawyers. As far as I’m concerned, we’re not married.”

“Come to bed. I want you to make love to me, make me feel better.”

She slid her hand between his legs.

“No,” Will croaked and moved out of her reach.

He saw Vee stiffen.

“Look, get dressed and I’ll take you out for something to eat,” he said. “We can talk, try and sort out this mess with the
notaire
.”

They’d eat and talk, but he knew they wouldn’t sort anything out.

He sat on the bed. Vee emerged from the bathroom fully clothed, makeup reapplied, all traces of tears obliterated. Her eyes weren’t red. Just like his mother.

Ed drove without speaking, though Addie could feel him sneaking glances. She had pressed herself as close to the door as she could. Her hands shook on her lap but she wasn’t cold, hot air blasted from the vents. She needed to pull herself together. If she was to salvage any vestige of pride she had to pretend this didn’t matter. Will had done her a favor. Now, when she looked at a guy she fancied, she didn’t need to wonder if he’d be the one to take her virginity. She’d made love for the first time. No, they’d fucked. Addie winced. She’d been fucked. That was okay. It didn’t have to be love. And it had felt good, except for what followed, when she’d been thrust away like a used tissue.

“Are you all right?” Ed asked.

What sort of stupid question was that? Addie thought and then took a deep breath.

This wasn’t his fault.

“Yes. Third exit at the island.”

“Will wasn’t expecting her.”

So that made it all right did it? Will should have told her he had a girlfriend. He’d flirted. But then Addie had too. She’d been asking for it. She’d turned him on. She’d heard her brothers talk about cockteasers. Was that what she was? She’d bloody well had an orgasm when he’d barely touched her. More than once. And he knew. He knew what he did to her. But she couldn’t help it. She was so out of control she might as well have been on drugs. Will probably thought she was on drugs.

“Turn left,” she said. “Straight on ’til the traffic lights. Then right.”

“Vee’s a bitch,” Ed said.

But she was the one with Will now.

“Two houses past the shop. It’s the house by the lamppost.”

The moment Ed pulled up, Addie flung open the car door, desperate to escape. But to her astonishment, the moment she stood, her legs collapsed. She hit the wet pavement hard. Ed was out in a flash and by her side.

“I’m okay.” She struggled to her feet, mortified. “I tripped.”

Ed clicked his key to lock the car and held on to her. “Let’s get you inside. It’s this one, right? Where’s your key?”

“My bag.” Addie fumbled in her backpack. She saw the kite Will had played with, remembered his happy face, and the key fell from her fingers. Ed picked it up.

“Do you live on your own?”

“No, with Lisa.” Addie froze. “If she’s in, say I’m drunk.”

The house was empty.

“I’ll be fine now. Thank you for the lift,” she said and made her way upstairs.

Ed watched her get slower and slower like the bunny without the branded batteries. He couldn’t leave her like this. He’d wait until her housemate came home.

“Could I make myself a coffee?” he called.

Addie seemed to come back to her senses. “Help yourself.”

Ed went to look for the kitchen. He wished Will hadn’t told him it was her first time. His brother had hurt her. Ed could see it in the way she held herself, the way she moved and spoke. It was in her eyes and Ed knew how she felt because he’d had his heart broken too. Twice. The first time was when Susie Burton had aborted his child without telling him. The second time when Ariel had chosen a career in New York over life with him. After that, Ed hadn’t let himself get attached to anyone. He’d mended his heart with Superglue and Addie had to learn to do the same. Life was sometimes shit.

Deal with it.

Addie didn’t cry until she stood in the shower. Sex. That was all Will wanted. God, she was stupid. She knew what men were like. She had three brothers. She grew up with them talking about girls they’d pursued, groped and scored with, like it was some game. It would have been nothing to Will. He’d be laughing about it by tomorrow, forgotten by the day after and she’d remember forever.

She scrubbed at her skin, rubbed until it was red. Had she thought he was going to ask her to marry him? He must think she was pathetic. She
was
pathetic. No, he’d think she was pathetic if she made a big thing about it. She had to get over it. It had happened. It was a one-off fuck and at least they’d both got something out of it. He got laid and she was no longer a virgin. That was a good thing. She had to keep telling herself that. So why the tears?

Because it had felt so good up until it had felt so had. Will’s gentle fingers, the way he breathed in her ear, the feel of his wet tongue teasing her nipple, his beautiful cock.

Addie gulped back her groan. How could she ever face him again?

When Addie walked into the lounge she stared at Ed in shock. He sat on the couch holding a mug.

“I thought you’d gone.”

“I didn’t want to leave you on your own.”

“So you’re the nice brother?”