‘Actually,’ said Lottie, biting her lip, ‘the thing with Melissa.’
‘Go on,’ said Emily hanging on her every word.
‘I really don’t want you thinking she was perfect, butI’m about to tell you something even Zach doesn’t know. You see—’
‘What don’t I know?’ asked Zach, stepping out of the kitchen.
Bugger, thought Lottie. There was no going back now. ‘Look. I’m really sorry, and I don’t want to upset your engagement and everything, but there’s a secret I’ve been keeping about Melissa and it’s eating me up.’
‘Lottie, it’s fine. Just tell me,’ said Zach, squeezing her arm and giving her the confidence to open up.
‘You know Melissa was a workaholic, right?’ began Lottie.
‘No,’ said Emily, her head swivelling between the two of them.
‘Maybe not a workaholic but work was important to her,’ said Zach.
‘Anyway,’ continued Lottie. ‘She was offered this massive promotion, but the job was in Austria and … well …’ Emily and Zach were watching her closely. ‘She’d accepted the job. So she was going to be living part of the time in Austria. Away from you and Jessie. The day she died, she was going to sign the paperwork. I told her she should tell you,’ Lottie pointed at her brother, ‘but she was adamant that you’d try and talk her out of it. All the times you said you couldn’t understand why she was driving to London when the accident happened. That was why. But I couldn’t say because then I’d have to explain about Austria. I’m so sorry.’
‘Oh Lottie,’ Zach pulled her into a hug. ‘You daft thing. I knew about the promotion.’
‘What?’ Lottie snapped her head back.
‘Not when she died, not then. But a few weeks later her boss brought the contents of her desk home.’ He swallowedhard. ‘She said something about the Austria job then because she assumed I knew.’
‘So Melissa put her career before her family?’ ventured Emily.
‘She did on this one occasion, but that doesn’t make her a bad person,’ said Zach. ‘She was right to think I would have tried to talk her out of it because I would have done. Jess was still a baby and the timing wasn’t great. But I would never have stopped her from following her dreams.’ He turned to Emily. ‘Just like I’ll never stop you.’ Emily gave him a hug.
Lottie blew her nose. ‘I’ve been fretting over that for five years and you bloody well knew?’ She gave him a whack on the arm. ‘You could have said.’
‘And sound like I was bad mouthing my wife and your best friend? I think not.’
‘I guess,’ said Lottie. ‘Anyway, before I was rudely interrupted, I was just borrowing your fiancée.’ Lottie took Emily’s hand and pulled her towards the stairs.
Joe turned as they came into the bedroom and gestured for them to be quiet. As they approached, Lottie could see that Dave and the Duchess were no longer the only two animals in the room. Nestled at the Duchess’s tummy was a tiny cream kitten and her mum was frantically washing her. Emily’s eyes lit up and she gave a strangled sob. ‘Sorry. I’m blaming baby hormones,’ she said, pulling another piece of kitchen roll from her sleeve like a magician producing a string of bunting.
‘Is she all right?’ asked Lottie, in a hushed voice so as not to disturb them, forgetting herself and kneeling down at Joe’s side.
‘She’s fine. She’s doing a great job.’ Dave was sitting nextto her looking concerned, and his head darted in Joe’s direction as the Duchess let out a yowl. ‘And Dave is playing the role of the expectant father brilliantly.’
‘He won’t harm them, will he?’ asked Emily.
‘No, he’s just alarmed when she cries out. But he’s a gentle soul. I’m sure he just wants to help. If she thought he was a danger, she’d have gone for him and she’s been very calm.’
The cat started to convulse again and her back leg twitched. She paused from washing her kitten to let out another yowl. Dave stood up and his tail wagged furiously. ‘Another one’s on the way,’ said Joe, stroking Dave.
A few more twitches and yowls later and out popped another kitten. The Duchess immediately set to work breaking into the sac and washing her new arrival. This one had more of a ginger tinge. Lottie was delighted to see it wriggle its way to join the first one – her smile was almost splitting her face. She looked over her shoulder to beckon Emily forward but she was no longer there. She must have snuck back downstairs.
She was alone again with Joe. They stared at each other. His expression was earnest. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you, Lottie.’
She straightened her back and replaced her smile with her ‘I don’t give a crap’ face. ‘How’s Megan? Has she got over the proposal debacle yet?’
Joe checked his watch, which Lottie thought was an odd thing to do. ‘Right now, she should be in a taxi on her way to the airport.’
‘Oh. And are you going to follow her?’ She didn’t want to pry, but how else was she going to find out?
‘No.’ He shook his head. Relief washed over her and she felt instantly guilty.
