Francesca was treated to the click of someone ending a phone call before she had a chance to speak and, with a little sigh of resignation, she turned to Jack, who had been sitting at the kitchen table, listening in on the phone call.
‘It won’t be as bad as you think,’ was the first thing he said when he saw her face.
Francesca looked at him and smiled reluctantly. Jack knew enough about the situation to appreciate the awkwardness of it, but he knew nothing of the depth of feeling she had carried around with her for years, the knowledge of love lost for reasons beyond her control.
‘No, it’ll be worse. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets us there so that he can shake his head at what we suggest and conclude that we’re not up to scratch for the job.’
‘That would make him a very bitter man.’
‘You’ve got it.’ And it was a situation that never should have arisen. She should never have met him, should never have fallen in love with him. Theoretically, she should have fallen in love with the man sitting opposite her at the table. Same age, same background, same friends, most of whom they had long left behind, but still…
The beauty queen of the local comprehensive school with the highest truancy rate in the country should have ended up with the wild, reckless but irresistibly handsome bad-boy heartthrob, but fate had had other plans in store. Fate had decided to throw friendship into the cauldron, and friends they had become to the exclusion of everything else.
‘Must have been a shock, seeing you,’ Jack said with a wicked grin. ‘Maybe he’s still got the hots for you.’
‘Oh, please. That was years ago. No, what he wants is to see me fail because I had the temerity to turn him down years ago and Angelo is not the sort of man who takes kindly to being turned down by a woman.’
‘We won’t fail, Ellie.’
‘He calls me Francesca. For him, I’m the one who strung him along, rejected him only to run off and begin a new life with you.’
‘Which is kind of true, in a way.’
‘But not in the way he thinks. He thinks that we’re an item.’
‘And maybe it’s safer that way,’ Jack said thoughtfully. He leaned forward and rested both elbows on the table. ‘I mean, he won’t try anything if he thinks that I’m on the scene, will he?’
‘Try anything like what?’
‘Bit of a kiss and a cuddle in the larder?’
‘The man’s engaged!’
Jack shrugged. ‘Fat lot of difference that would make to most men.’
‘Jack, you’re…you’re…’
‘Totally realistic?’ He grinned affectionately at her. ‘Think that’s why I don’t have any success with the ladies?’
‘You have lots of success with the ladies, Jack McGill. You just don’t want to take the plunge.’
‘Because I’m realistic. I know the minute I step off the diving board I’m going to be thinking about swimming to the side of the pool and hopping on another one.’
‘I give up on you.’ But she never had and she knew she never would. They were tied to one another with bonds too strong to break.
‘But the man obviously still has some effect on you.’
‘Because I know him! I know he could destroy our careers for no better reason than getting revenge!’
Jack ignored the interruption. ‘And it might be a good thing, in a way, that he’s come back into your life. Maybe seeing him at close quarters, seeing him with his woman, you’ll be able to put the whole thing into perspective and get on with your life. You’ll be able to get him out of your system once and for all. You can’t end up an old maid, Els. Fate worse than death when there are so many eager chaps out there waiting to snap up a beauty like you.’
‘Oh, silly, selfish me, not looking at it from that point of view,’ Francesca said dryly, but maybe, just maybe, he had a point. Maybe she needed to see Angelo Falcone, needed to see him in the company of his fiancée, embarking on the greatest adventure of his life, before she could fully move on from the past. Like it or not, the past had held her captive for too long.
‘Knew you’d agree with old Jack. And we could pretend to be an item if it makes it easier. A fair few women have told me what a sexy hunk I am.’ He folded his hands behind his head and looked smug. ‘Which just goes to show that bald men can still pull the birds.’
Francesca didn’t think for a minute that Angelo harboured any feelings towards her, bar the obvious one of wanting to see her suffer, but it certainly felt more reassuring thinking that Jack was some sort of emotional barrier between them.