Kat was sitting at the breakfast table on Monday morning going over the bid one last time. Harry was sick to death of talking about it and was making them breakfast. Kat wasn’t sure she could eat anything the way her stomach was churning, but she knew the food was his way of distracting himself just as her double and triple checking the numbers was her way of coping with the nerves. She was excited too – if they could pull this off then it would be the start of something wonderful.
Her phone rang and, head still full of numbers, she swiped to answer it without looking. ‘Hello?’
‘Kat? It’s Debbie, love. Look I’m sorry to bother you on your day off but I’ve just arrived at work and the door’s locked. I’ve knocked and knocked but there’s no answer.’
Kat lowered her phone a second to check the time on the screen. It was quarter to nine, so her dad should’ve been in for ages. ‘Dad’s probably in the back and didn’t hear you. Have you tried calling him?’
‘Yes, a few times but there was no answer. I don’t think he’s here, love, the place is in complete darkness.’ Debbie went quietfor a moment then added, ‘I called the house number too but there was no answer.’
Shit.Kat glanced down at her pyjamas and then across the kitchen to where Harry had stopped stirring the pan in front of him and was watching her with a worried frown. She swallowed hard then said into the phone, ‘Give me ten minutes, Debbie, and I’ll be there.’ She rang off.
‘No,’ Harry said before she could say anything. ‘Whatever you’re about to say, Kat, just no. Not today.’
‘That was Debbie,’ she said, ignoring his protest. ‘She’s outside Java Brava and everything’s in darkness and she can’t get hold of my dad.’ She stood and folded her arms. ‘What do you want me to do, Harry? Leave Debbie standing outside in the cold?’
The smell of something burning hit her nose at the same moment Harry swore and shoved the saucepan away from the burner. He turned it off with a sharp twist of his fingers then huffed out a breath. ‘What do you mean she can’t get hold of your dad? Where is he?’
‘I have no idea. She’s tried his mobile and the house phone and can’t get an answer from either.’ Worry clawed at her insides like a cat trying to fight its way out of a bag. ‘I hope everything’s okay.’
They stared at each other and Kat watched as the anger in his eyes softened as he began to understand the implications of what no contact might mean. ‘I’ll come with you.’
God, she loved him so much. It was neither the time nor the place for the realisation to hit but there it was. ‘No. You stay here and I’ll go and find out what’s going on.’
‘I’m not letting you go on your own; what if it’s something awful?’
Kat gulped as the fear shot bile straight up her throat. ‘I’m sure it won’t be that bad. Mum’s probably making a scene aboutgoing into work and he’s trying to calm her down.’ She placed a hand on his chest. ‘It’ll be okay.’ She wasn’t sure who she was trying to reassure but she had to believe it until proven otherwise. ‘I’m going to go and let poor Debbie in and then I’ll head to their house and find out what’s going on.’
He covered her hand with his. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?’
She gave him her best approximation of a smile. ‘Can I trust you not to lump my dad one when we get to their house and find out it’s just more of their drama?’
Harry gave a reluctant laugh. ‘Probably not.’ His eyes clouded with worry. ‘What about the meeting? Do you want me to try and postpone it?’
Kat shook her head. ‘We need Russ and Adam to have confidence in us and cancelling on them won’t look good. I’ll be back in time, I promise.’
He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. ‘I’ll handle it. Go do what you need to do, Kitty.’
Kat grabbed clean underwear from her drawer then yanked on the jeans and sweatshirt she’d been lounging around the flat in the day before. She didn’t even bother to look in the mirror at the state of her hair, because she simply didn’t have time to worry about it. When she emerged from her room, Harry was waiting by the front door holding her coat ready for her to shove her arms into it. ‘I’ll be back,’ she promised him, but he only nodded and opened the door. Kat hurried out and down the steps, cursing her parents as she ran.
Goddamn them for doing this to her again.
She tried both her parents’ mobiles and the house phone numerous times on the way to the coffee shop but there was no reply. She found poor Debbie huddled in her jacket, stamping her feet to ward off the cold as she chatted to a couple of disgruntled customers.
Kat ran up with the keys in her hand. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she apologised as she fumbled with the lock then hurried inside to disarm the alarm and flip on the lights.
‘It’s fine, love,’ Debbie assured her as she rushed past to the office, already unzipping her coat.
It wasn’t, but Kat appreciated the other woman’s calm, steady nature as she turned to smile at the waiting customers. She knew them both, but then again she knew pretty much everyone in the village, even the ones she hadn’t been at school with. ‘I’m really, really sorry. Please come in and get warm. Give us two minutes to sort ourselves out and whatever you want is on the house to thank you for being so patient.’
‘Everything all right?’ Lydia Green asked as she wheeled in an enormous buggy and parked it beside her usual table. Her little girl, Olivia, was wrapped up in a blanket, fast asleep.
Lydia’s best friend, Milly, smiled at Kat as she unzipped her coat and hung it over the back of a chair. ‘I thought I was going to have to go without my caffeine fix there for a minute!’
‘We can’t have that!’ Kat said, returning the smile with genuine warmth. She’d always been wary of Lydia, but Milly was a sweetheart. ‘And, yes, everything’s fine, thanks. We had a silly mix-up with the rota, that’s all.’ Kat didn’t like how easily the lie came to her lips, but Lydia was a terrible gossip at the best of times and this was far, far from that.
‘You want your usual, ladies?’ Debbie called in a bright voice as she emerged from the office, still tying her apron around her waist. ‘A large latte and a cappuccino with an extra shot?’
‘Yes, please, Debs,’ Lydia replied. She turned to Kat with a calculating look. ‘On the house, you said?’
