You And Me, Always(58)

‘He's finished Weaver's Cottage,' said Coral. ‘It's amazing.' She shook  her head. ‘He said he'd be quick, but we didn't think he'd be this  quick.'

‘I can't believe so much has happened while I've been away.' Patsy  looked at Coral, then at Trent sitting beside her with his arm around  her waist. ‘Looks like you've been pretty speedy yourself.'

‘Hi. Trent Barrett.' With his free hand, Trent reached across the table  and enthusiastically pumped Patsy's hand. ‘Guilty as charged. A week ago  I went away on a painting holiday and met the most amazing woman in the  world.'

‘Oh don't!' Coral was laughing and blushing.

‘Don't be modest. I'm saying it because it's true.' Trent pulled her  closer to him. ‘When you know, you know.' He gazed deep into Coral's  eyes. ‘And believe me, I know. Which makes me the luckiest man in the  world.'

‘You definitely are,' said Patsy with a warm smile.

Lily wanted Coral to be happy, but she couldn't help wishing the  lovey-doveyness could be dialled down a notch. She glanced sideways at  Dan, who came to the rescue once more.

‘Hang on, did Kyle's family move to Liverpool after they left here? I've  been trying to remember, and for some reason I'm thinking Merseyside.'

He wasn't; they'd already been through this and concluded they had no  idea where the family had headed. But Lily said, ‘Ooh, maybe you're  right.'

‘Who's this?' said Patsy, joining in.

‘We were just talking about him before you came in,' Dan explained.  ‘Kyle, the one from school who ended up in hospital after that accident  at The Leap.'

‘Oh I remember.' Patsy nodded. ‘Kyle McLinehan. Poor lad, how is he now,  do you know?' She paused. ‘What? Why are you all looking at me like  that?'

Lily said, ‘Did you know him?'

‘No.'

‘But you know his name was McLenehan,' said Dan.                       
       
           



       

‘Not McLenehan. McLinehan,' Patsy corrected him. ‘His mother came to the  salon one time, not long after the accident had happened. She had a  trim.'

‘You remember that from ten years ago?' Dan was incredulous. ‘And you actually remember how to spell her surname?'

‘She was a bit terrifying.' Patsy confessed. ‘She saw that I'd written  it down wrong in the appointment book and told me off. It was like being  back at school, to be honest  –  she made me rewrite it properly and say  it out loud. But it meant I didn't forget it. McLinehan.'

Dan already had his phone out. He tapped in the name and said, ‘Bloody hell.'

‘What? Show me, show me.' Lily leaned across, ready to peer at whatever  he'd found. Hopefully it wasn't a news story about a poor put-upon boy  going berserk and doing away with his scary mother.

She heard Dan start to laugh with relief. ‘Thank God for that,' he  murmured, then turned his phone so she could see the screen too.

And there was a photo of Kyle McLinehan, older now of course but still  instantly recognisable, wearing a racing helmet and mud-splattered  jockey's silks and with his arms held joyously aloft as he celebrated  victory in the winners' enclosure at Ascot.

‘He's a jump jockey,' Lily marvelled as Dan scrolled on down. ‘He's not in a wheelchair!'

‘Not at the moment,' Dan said drily. ‘Listen to this  … ' He expanded the  text and began to read aloud: ‘"In the last decade, spectacular wins  have been interspersed with equally dramatic injuries; in addition to  fractured femurs, arms and collarbones, a horse landed on McLinehan last  year, leaving him with serious internal injuries and a fractured skull.  He recovered well, however, and was back racing within months. More  happily, earlier this year he and his wife welcomed the arrival of their  fifth child."'

‘All those injuries,' Lily marvelled.

‘And five kids. Basically, Kyle doesn't hang around.'

‘If we'd known anything about horse racing, we'd have heard of him,'  said Lily. Then she jumped as beneath the table and out of sight of the  others, Dan gave her hand a squeeze.

He was only doing it to signal his relief that Kyle was OK, but it gave  her a jolt all the same. Worse, it made her want to kiss him. Oh help  …

‘Looks like he's done all right for himself,' said Patsy. ‘Five children  too. When his mother was telling me about him, she was absolutely  convinced he was gay.'

‘He's won loads of races.' Lily was still reading the information on  Dan's phone screen. ‘Ha, remember how Gail was boasting at the barbecue  about how she was friends with Frankie Dettori? Next time she's down, we  can boast back about knowing Kyle McLinehan.'

‘Except she's not going to be back down here.' Dan stopped abruptly. ‘OK, I wasn't supposed to say that.'

‘What?' Lily was puzzled. ‘Why not? What's happened?'

Dan hesitated, then shrugged and said, ‘Oh well, it's not like it was a proper secret.'

It wasn't exactly reassuring to discover he wasn't that great at keeping  any kind of secret, proper or otherwise. As if the memory of their  supposedly secret kiss wasn't already preying on her mind enough.  Anyway, never mind about that now. ‘Dan, what's going on?'

‘Declan only didn't mention it because he thought you had enough on your  plate, what with the stuff with Keir happening and Patsy disappearing.  But he told me last week,' said Dan. ‘It's all over between him and  Gail. We won't be seeing her again.'

‘Wow.' Lily boggled. ‘Do we know why?' Although she had to say, they'd  spent the last week with Declan and if he was heartbroken he'd been  disguising it like a champion. Until today when he'd had to rush back to  London, if anything she'd have said he seemed even more cheerful than  usual.

Dan said, ‘It was his decision. There's no one else involved. He just realised things weren't right.'

‘Well I bet Gail got the shock of her life.' Lily could just picture her  reaction. ‘She doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd expect to be  finished with.'

‘No one goes through life expecting to be finished with,' said Dan.

Patsy said, ‘I do.' She pulled a face. ‘And I'm always right.'

‘We're going to find you someone nice.' Lily had already decided, while  they'd been hugging each other, that this was going to be her new  resolution. Turning to Coral to back her up, she said, ‘Aren't we?  Between us we'll make it happen.' Because Patsy may have made mistakes  in the past, but she did deserve to be happy.                       
       
           



       

Coral blinked. ‘Sorry. What was that? I missed it.'

‘She's miles away.' Trent laughed and, with his arm wrapped around her  shoulders, gave Coral another of his overenthusiastic hugs. ‘Wakey  wakey, pay attention, honeybun  –  you were daydreaming about our last  night in Grimaud, weren't you!'

Eww again; but Coral was looking embarrassed, smiling apologetically and shifting in her seat. Plus Trent was looking smug.

So maybe he'd been right.



‘OK, can I just say I wasn't being nosy.' Patsy blurted the words out as  Dan made his way back into the living room much later that night.

‘About what?' Dan frowned as he put down the plate of cheese on toast  he'd just made in the kitchen; why on earth was Patsy looking at him  like that?

Then he saw that she was pointing to his laptop, lying open on the coffee table between them.

‘All I did was glance at the screen as I was reaching for the TV remote.  By the time I realised it was your bank statement, it was too late. I'd  already seen his name.'

‘Whose name?' But Dan had already figured it out. And Patsy knew that he knew.

She gave him a big-sister head tilt. ‘Come on, you're many things, but you're not stupid.'

Apart from his unbelievably stupid love for Lily. Except Patsy still didn't know about that, thank God.

She was now pointing to a transaction on the screen. ‘There. On Sunday  the twenty-ninth of June, you made an online payment of three thousand  pounds.' She paused, then said evenly, ‘To Keir Bourne.'

Fuck.

And the way she'd emphasised the amount made it sound like a lot.

OK, it was a lot. But it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

Dan exhaled. ‘I thought Lily had been through enough.'

Patsy was looking at him as if she knew better. ‘Just Lily?'

‘OK, and you too,' he admitted. ‘Both of you.'

‘That's why there was no story the following Sunday. No more awful embarrassing details.'