I live in Woodbridge. Where are you staying?’
She told Kate the address, and her jaw dropped. ‘But that’s next door but one! We’re neighbours! How amazing. You must come round—what are you doing now?’
Liv shrugged. ‘Nothing. I have to get back because Kit’s going to wake up soon, and he’ll scream all the way home.’
‘Why don’t you come round?’ Kate offered. ‘Have coffee with me—or lunch. Both. We can catch up. That would be so good.’
So they pushed their buggies back up the hill, and she went into Kate’s chaotic but friendly kitchen, and while Kate made coffee she fed Kit and watched the children playing together. Missy was thrilled to have new toys to look at, and there was a smidgen of hope that she’d forget the hedgehog bread!
‘So you’re staying with Ben, are you?’ Kate said, settling down at the table for a good gossip. ‘Do tell all! How come your hubby’s let you slip the leash and stay with a guy like that? He must need his head examined! Andy gets the hump if Ben so much as sets foot on the drive while he’s out—he says all that testosterone is bound to go to my head!’
She laughed good-naturedly, and Liv gave a polite chuckle.
Testosterone? Ben?
Was she missing something—or had that shiver of awareness when his lips had accidentally clashed with hers been more than just a fluke?
‘I don’t have a husband,’ she confessed, dragging her mind back to Kate’s question. ‘Oscar and I never got married.’
‘Oh, Lord, Oscar Harding—I remember reading about you in one of the glossies. But that was years ago!’
‘Four,’ she confessed with a wry smile. ‘I’m old news now.’
‘Four years. Heavens. I suppose it would be; I was at home with Jake. That was how I had time to read a magazine, I guess! Wow. I never thought I’d see you again. So where’s Oscar now?’
She shrugged. ‘In London. I’ve left him.’
‘With the babies and everything? Gosh, I expect he was gutted.’
Liv gave a hollow laugh. ‘No. Not gutted. Not Oscar.’
‘Oh, love, I’m sorry,’ Kate said sincerely. ‘So how will you cope?’
She laughed again, with more humour this time. ‘I’m Ben’s new housekeeper,’ she admitted. ‘He’s being more than kind. I cannot cook to save my life, and it doesn’t help when Missy puts sugar in the chicken casserole.’
Kate’s jaw dropped, and then she laughed till the tears ran down her face. ‘Oh, no. I’m sorry, I have this dreadful vision—’
‘It’s probably accurate,’ Liv said with another wry smile. ‘It was awful. It probably would have been pretty awful without Missy’s help, though, to be fair.’
Kate sat back and tipped her head on one side. ‘Want me to teach you? I mean, say no if you don’t, but really there are some dead easy things that will impress the socks off him. I’ve got a long list of them—I use one of them on Andy if I want something.’ She grinned mischievously. ‘I do a great line in aphrodisiacs,’ she stage-whispered, and Liv smiled ruefully.
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