She clicked on Brody Zephaniah Smith, just because it was an unusual name, and discovered he’d been a fire and brimstone preacher from the 1920s, now sadly deceased. After that, she decided to switch to a search page of images for the same name rather than text because then she could filter out the sepia and black-and-white photos that were part of people’s family history records, or Brodys who were too old or too young to match the one she was searching for.
She looked at the top row of results and clicked on the first colour thumbnail she saw, but it turned out to be a website for a children’s author called Brody Alexander (no Smith attached at the end – Google must have glitched). Had she heard of him? She clicked on ‘About’ on the author’s website and had a read. Nope. He lived in London and he was married.
Before she closed the page down, she glanced at the black-and-white photo beside the biography. Not bad. Dark hair. A bit rougher around the edges than you’d expect a children’s author to look. Younger than she was looking for, possibly the same as her, early thirties, so that was all wrong, too. He was looking into the camera and not exactly smiling, but there was a hint of it in his eyes. Anna looked more closely. There was something there, something that made her stomach flip a little. Could it be…?
She studied the photograph for a good ten seconds, all the while feeling slightly breathless, but then she clicked the ‘x’ at the corner of the webpage to make it disappear.
No. It wasn’t right. His expression had been too… youthful, too fresh and unsullied by the darkness that life could bring. It wasn’t him. It wasn’t her Brody.
Because her Brody had a secret.
She was more certain of it every time they spoke. It was something to do with his wife, she was sure, something about his grief and loss. She’d tried probing a few times, but as she’d already discovered, he was very adept at conversational sleight-of-hand. She supposed she could try harder, but when it came down to it, she discovered she didn’t want to. If it was too painful to talk about, she should let him be. If anyone understood that it was her.
Anna sighed and flipped her laptop closed. She was just going to have to be patient with him the way he’d been patient with her. And in the meantime, she’d just have to do her best not to be eaten alive by her own curiosity.
Chapter Thirty-Four
‘WHAT ABOUT THIS one?’ Gabi emerged from the changing room and twirled around, grinning. Anna could hardly see her for a cloud of white tulle and taffeta.
‘It’s lovely!’ she said.
Just like the last three wedding dresses Gabi had tried on. Anna was still a little fuzzy about how they’d ended up in a bridal boutique. They were supposed to be finding Anna a dress for Teresa’s party next Saturday. All she remembered was Gabi muttering something about this shop also doing evening wear, and before Anna had known it, they’d been inside the door, and when the sales assistant had assumed they were there to try bridal gowns on, Gabi hadn’t corrected her. Instead she’d shushed Anna, who’d been about to explain, smiled widely at the woman, then reached out and grabbed something off the rail.
Anna hadn’t minded at first; she’d been going with the flow, but she’d been sitting on this padded bench for almost half an hour now. ‘Gabs?’
‘Yes?’ Gabi said, twisting this way then that as she studied herself in a full-length mirror.
‘Is there something you’re not telling me?’
‘Such as?’ Gabi rearranged her breasts to get just the right amount of cleavage in the scooping neckline.
‘Gabriela!’
Gabi stopped what she was doing and spun around to face Anna. The dress continued to rustle and move for a few seconds afterwards.
‘Has Lee…? You know…?’
‘Proposed? You know I would tell you first if he had!’
‘I was starting to wonder whether all of this’ – Anna waved her hand to encompass the luxurious fitting room – ‘was leading up to something.’
Gabi swished her way over to Anna and sat down beside her on the upholstered bench. ‘No, he hasn’t proposed.’ Normally, Anna would have expected Gabi to deliver news like that with big, sad, puppy dog eyes, but it looked very much as if she were biting back a smile. ‘But I think he might!’ she added, bouncing up and down slightly.
Anna studied her friend’s face. ‘Really?’
‘He texted me last night to say he wants to talk about our relationship – that there is something big he wants to ask me.’
‘Something big?’ Anna said. ‘He used those precise words?’
Gabi scrunched her nose up. ‘Let me think… He said… I don’t remember what he saidexactly. But it has to be something big, don’t you think, if he is taking me out to dinner in a really nice restaurant? It has to be more than if I want pizza or Indian next time we get takeaway!’
‘Well, yes. It sounds as if it’s something more than that, but it could be anything, Gabi. I know you really like him, and you’d really like to settle down, but don’t you think you’re getting ahead of yourself?’
Gabi looked hurt. ‘You don’t think he’dwantto propose to me?’
‘Oh, Gabi!’ Anna pulled her into a large, rustling hug. ‘Of courseI think he should want to propose to you! He’d be lucky to have you.’Really lucky.‘But do you think you’re ready? It’s still quite soon to be thinking about marriage.’
And, she didn’t want to add this, she wasn’t one hundred per cent sure Lee was ready either. Not that he didn’t look very invested in Gabi whenever Anna saw them together. It was just a feeling she’d had for a while, fuelled by something that had happened at salsa the other week when Gabi had an evening shoot and hadn’t been able to go.
