Pitch Imperfect(44)

“I hope they have a great time.”

“Really. Well, guess what? Sarah bought a Douglas tartan shawl from Minnie Campbell’s shop to wear with her dress. Don’t roll your eyes at me. It’s true. She told me over her fish and chips, last night.”

Anjuli jerkily stacked the coasters into a tower. She didn’t care if Sarah wore Rob’s family colours to the ceilidh. He could wrap her up in Douglas tartan and stick his family broach into her chest until she bled all over the—Oh crap.

Ash gave her a crafty look. “Sarah asked Minnie to make her a Douglas sash for the Common Riding Ball. They must be going together.”

“See my breezy smile. Watch my indifferent hands effortlessly perform mundane tasks. You won’t succeed in making me jealous.”

Coasters arranged, Anjuli tidied the newspapers, aware of Sarah heading towards the door. Before she reached it, she paused and turned around. “Sorry, Ash, I keep forgetting to ask when your baby’s due. Soon, right?”

The only sound was that of jaws dropping and brows hitting the ceiling, Anjuli’s included. The colour drained from Ash’s face and Viking slammed down the pint glass he’d been polishing. “Baby?”

Fifteen minutes later the Heaverlock Arms had emptied of the last well-wisher, gushing congratulations. Anjuli and Viking adopted identical poses at each end of the bar, arms crossed and faces grim. The biker jacket Viking always wore seemed to shrink as his muscles bulged and his chest puffed out. Why was he so dour faced?

“Will you excuse us?” Anjuli asked.

“No.”

Ash sighed. “Viking can stay. The fact is, I’m just over five months pregnant and Mum’s shalwar kameez won’t hide my baby bulge for much longer.”

Anjuli stared at Ash’s abdomen. Ash was slender, her bump nothing like the whale-sized lump she herself had sported with Chloe. But how could she have missed it? Was she so self-absorbed she wouldn’t notice something so important? “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I wanted to tell you but I didn’t know how to because...y’know.”

“I’m fine,” Anjuli lied. “Have you told Mahesh?”

Ash had been dating the Indian mystic, a teacher at their parents’ centre, on and off since he arrived the previous year.

“He’s not the father. We parted ways before he returned to Delhi.”

Viking banged his fist on the counter and swore in Polish. He and Ash shared a long look and her eyes lowered. “It doesn’t matter who the father is. What matters is we’re not together and never will be so I’d appreciate it if you left it alone.”

“Never? What do you mean by that? You have to tell me who he is.”

“Well, guess what?” Ash said angrily. “You don’t have a monopoly on secrets.”

Anjuli bit her lip. She hadn’t told Ash about her marriage until after the fact and she’d also kept mum about Chloe until well into her pregnancy. Her family knew little of what her life had been like over the past eight years, and she’d preferred it that way. But Ash was cast in a different mould. Why wouldn’t she want to tell her who the father was, unless—

“Oh, God, is it Rob?”

Ash burst out laughing. “Jesus, Babes, that would be like incest. I can’t even look at Ben without thinking he’s Rob and therefore totally off limits, although he’s hot. That dark, dangerous cop thing he’s got going on is a powerful mojo and—”

“You can’t do this to me,” Anjuli exclaimed. “And what about Mum and Dad? What will I tell them when they phone? Mrs. P. is probably writing to them as we speak, and when you don’t say anything they’ll come after me for the info. I won’t be able to answer their questions and—”

“Okay I’ll tell you since you’ll stress yourself out until I do, but it won’t help with Mum and Dad. Please don’t hate me, okay? The bottom line is that it was a mistake. We got drunk one night and it happened. It was only one time. I don’t love him and he only slept with me because he was bored with his goody-goody wife.”

Goody-goody? The only person Ash ever referred to that way was—

“Oh, no, tell me it is not who I think it is, Ash. She adores him and he loves her. They have two kids, for Christ’s sake.”

Ash didn’t meet her eyes. “I’m not Craig’s first fling. There’s another woman in Halton and somebody else in Manchester. I think she’s got a child of his also. Craig likes to play the field. Always has.”

If her jaw dropped any lower it would come unstuck. “When Mac finds out about you and the baby—”