All Because of You (Lakeview #2) (27 page)

When Eric had settled Toby in his pushchair, and the two were ready to leave, Liz bent down and lightly kissed the top of Toby’s head. 

“OK, then,” she told the two people she loved most in the world. “Have fun.”

“He looks like you,” Emma said, laughing gaily.  

“Do you think so? Everyone else says he looks like Liz.”

“Naw, he’s too good-looking,” she joked.

“That’s not very nice.”

“Oh, you know I’m only joking, Eric. Don’t take it all so seriously.”  She sat back down on the park bench, the two having once again convened at their preferred meeting place, the park behind the lake. 

Eric shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He hadn’t liked the idea of taking Toby with him, but Liz was right, it had been a while since his mother had seen her grandson and it would have looked odd if he hadn’t wanted to bring him. So, in order to avoid suspicion about his whereabouts, he had indeed gone to visit his mother. But only briefly. 

And he’d got even more of a fright when, within about five minutes of their arrival at the park, they’d spotted someone walking along the pathway towards them.

“Shit, who the hell is that?” Eric asked, his face paling at the thought of someone seeing them together – and with Toby here too!

Emma too looked concerned, but as the person drew closer, they realised it was no one they knew. Eventually, having bid them a friendly hello as he passed, the man, who was carrying a fishing rod, continued further along.

“Relax – it’s nobody from around here – probably just some tourist doing a spot of fishing.”

Now he turned to Emma, who this evening was looking very pretty, dressed in a pair of tailored trousers and a pattered top, her bump now becoming visible beneath it.

“So how are you feeling?” he asked.

She made a face. “Like death. Although at least the morning sickness seems to have calmed down a bit. But I’ve put on lots of weight and it’s driving me mad. My face looks like somebody stuffed cotton wool in my cheeks and my breasts are getting bigger by the day. Although maybe that’s not such a bad thing, eh?” she added jokingly.

Despite himself, Eric reddened. “It’s good that you’re over the morning sickness anyway,” he said, gulping slightly. “But how do you feel about, you know, everything else?”

She rolled her eyes. “Tara and my mum are still driving me mad – trying to find out who the father is and why I’m hiding it. But they can keep trying.” She looked at him. “How’s everything with you?”

Eric sighed. “Things are getting worse. You know Liz and I were away last weekend?”

“Sure, how did it go?” Emma tried to sound off-hand.

“The usual. She spent the entire time talking about Toby and the house and the dogs – it’s all she cares about now. It’s as though I no longer have a part to play in her little world.” He sat forward. “At one stage, I was almost tempted to come right out and tell her.”

“You can’t,” Emma warned. “Not yet – not until it’s all sorted.”

“I know, but I feel so guilty keeping secrets from her. After all, this affects her future too.”

Emma put a hand on his arm. “Promise me you’ll give it just a little more time before you tell her. Now is not the right time. And if she finds out that
I’m
involved, all hell will break loose. She’ll want to throttle me.”

“Liz wouldn’t dream of doing something like that.” Despite his guilt or perhaps because of it, Eric felt obliged to defend his wife.

“Right,” Emma snorted, “I’m sure she’s a
very
understanding person.”

“She is actually.”

“OK then, how understanding would she be if she found out that you’ve brought your son to one of our meetings?”

He bowed his head. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t bring him here on purpose, and we went to see Mum first.”

“Liz might not see it that way.”

“I know.

Emma reached across and kissed him on the cheek. “Look, try not to worry about it too much for the moment. We’ll think of something. In the meantime, we’ll both keep our mouths shut – about everything, OK?”

“OK.”

“It’ll all work out for the best, I promise you.”

“Will it?” Eric asked, thinking that things ce
rtainly couldn’t get much worse

Natalie’s first date went spectacularly well. That Friday night, she took Tara’s advice and admitted from the outset to Jay that the restaurant was wonderful, but truthfully she’d prefer something a little less formal. 

“I get so much of this kind of thing with work,” she told him, her tone apologetic, but not too much. No simpering, Tara had warned her.

Jay laid down his leather-bound menu. “You know, you’re right. I’m the very same. We entertain clients in places like this all the time, and while the food is great, it’s nice to be able to go somewhere where you get by with using just one bloody fork instead of four.”

“Or maybe even eat with your fingers,” Natalie added.

Jay picked up the wine menu and gave it a cursory glance “Or have a cold beer instead of a fifty-pound bottle of wine.”

“Mmm, now you’re talkin’,” she said, before cocking her head towards the corner of the dining room. “Or listen to rock music, instead of frightful screaming accordions.”

Jay laughed and followed her gaze to where the restaurant’s resident musician was happily providing what had to be described as very much
foreground
music. While it stamped an air of French authenticity on the place, it was invasive and largely not conducive to cosy chat. Although the restaurant was expensive and upmarket, it was also very much in demand, and private tables were at a premium here, so much so that Natalie and Jay were practically bumping elbows with the party seated at the table next to them. That particular evening, the place was full of self-important business types, all of whom were too busy trying their best to look sophisticated to enjoy themselves.

“I’m sorry,” Jay said, evidently reading her thoughts. “I’ve made a mess of this already, haven’t I? Here was I, thinking you’d be impressed by all this grandeur when all the time you’re hankering for
TGI Friday’s
.”

Natalie grinned. “Well, perhaps not quite there, but somewhere a little more fun, maybe?” Then she realised something. With all her talk about purple carpets and purple cocktails and now TGIF’s Jay wo
uld think she was a right chav.

When she said this to him, he laughed out loud.

“No, I just think you’re someone who knows how to have fun,” he replied cheerily.

“I suppose that’s what it’s all about though, isn’t it?” she said, echoing Tara’s earlier words. “Having fun.” 

And to Natalie’s surprise, she believed them. For once, she wasn’t concentrating on whether or not she looked good in the dress, or if her make-up had run, or when she’d get to meet Jay’s mother – instead she was concentrating on just enjoying being with him. And she admitted to herself, she didn’t have to try too hard to do that.

Also, knowing that the decision of whether or not to sleep with him had already been made – “Most certainly
not
!” Tara had ordered – there was a certain freedom in just kicking back and relaxing.

All throughout dinner, she and Jay entertained themselves by trying to apply silly chain-restaurant names to the fine-food dishes they’d ordered, (Jay’s truffles were ‘Viagra Mushrooms’ and Natalie’s rare-cooked duck was ‘Quacking Daffy’).  They’d laughed so much that at one stage the resident musician had come over to their table in an attempt to drown out the noise.  

“This is terrible,” Jay joked. “We really should be giving these lovely truffles the respect they deserve.”

Natalie looked down at her meal. If she was going to be honest, she might as well be honest about everything.

“Do you know something? I really don’t know what all the fuss is about.”

Jay raised an eyebrow. “About truffles?”

“Yes. At eight hundred quid a pound, I suppose there has to be something to it, and I know the way they can only be found by a certain breed of animal is believed

to be very romantic and so on. But tell me, how on earth is the idea of pigs snuffling round dirty ground looking for wild bloody mushrooms romantic?”

Jay’s lips were pursed, so she wasn’t sure how he’d react to this. She knew how Freya would react – her friend would think that Natalie had taken leave of her senses. ‘But truffles are simply fabulous, darling!’ she’d purr, irrespective of whether or not she really enjoyed them. No, the fact that truffles were considered a delicacy and so expensive only a certain type of person could afford them – Freya’s type – would be enough for her. Personally Natalie had never understood what all the frenzy  was about and, by admitting this to Jay, she was, without knowing it – and possibly for the first time in her dating life – using a subconscious test on him.

Jay looked at her. “Is it a case of Emperor’s New Clothes, do you think?”

“Would it be so awful if I told you that’s
exactly
what I think?” she replied, setting down her knife and fork.

Then, to her surprise, Jay nodded vigorously. “Well, I do enjoy the taste, but I know what you mean about the hysteria. Everyone else raves so much about the bloody things, you’d wonder if they had magical properties.”

“
Phew!
So I’m not the only one then!”

“I doubt it very much,” Jay told her, smiling. “You know as well as I do how the glitterati fall over themselves to appear exclusive, when all they’re doing is following the horde.” Then he smiled wickedly. “So if we’re going to take the piss out of expensive delicacies, what are your thoughts on caviar? Horrible bloody stuff, isn’t it?”

By the end of the evening, Natalie’s sides ached from laughing, and for once she didn’t worry about whether or not she’d impressed him enough to want to see her again. In fact, it was no longer an issue – during dinner Jay had already promised to take her to the Hard Rock Café the following weekend. 

“Then we can do the reverse – their curly fries will be ‘delicately sautéed potatoes’ and their burgers ‘ground-up fillet de boeuf with tomato jus’,” he joked, as they went out to the street afterwards, Jay casually linking her arm in his as if it was the most natural thing in the world. 

“I’ll have to have a proper think about what to call buffalo wings then,” she replied, enjoying the unforced intimacy. He wanted to see her again and they’d had a great night tonight! 

Tara was an absolute genius.

The second date was even better. They did go to
TGI Friday’s
for Saturday lunch (apparently there was a waiting list for the Hard Rock Cafe, something Jay found hilarious), and again spent the entire time again taking the piss out of the menu, while trying to speak over
The Best of Bon Jovi
blasting out over the speakers.

“Lunch is good,” Tara had declared approvingly, during their last coaching session. “It means he wants to spend time getting to know you, instead of simply wanting to jump your bones.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing,” Natalie murmured. “He’s gorgeous, successful, good fun – why hasn’t anybody snapped him up yet?”

“You’re gorgeous, successful and good fun too – why hasn’t anyone snapped
you
up yet?” Tara retorted before launching into another diatribe on how Natalie really should think of herself as the prize catch, instead of the other way round.

She was unbelievably bossy when she wanted to be.

Now, sitting in TGIF’s staring at the remains of her ‘boeuf’ burger, and listening to Jay recite funny anecdotes from Labyrinth’s most recent event, she wondered why she had ever bothered with a loser like Steve, whose idea of interesting conversation was how Chelsea’s latest signing had turned out to be the greatest load of bollocks.

When they’d finished, Jay once again insisting on paying the bill, Natalie wondered what on earth they were going to do next. It was the middle of the afternoon for goodness sake – it wasn’t like they could spend the rest of the time wandering around the shops. 

Still, she supposed they could go for one or two quiet drinks somewhere. No, on second thoughts, she’d better not suggest that. Tara would
not
be impressed if Natalie ended up getting sloshed in some pub and then launched herself on Jay, which is exactly what would happen if they went for ‘a quiet drink’. 

She looked across the table at Jay, who was busily signing his credit card slip.

“So, are you heading away somewhere now – back to the office, perhaps?” she asked, when they got up to leave.

He frowned. “Why on earth would I do that?”

Recalling how Steve often used to abandon her for the office at weekends, Natalie was just about to say something about him being very busy and all that, when she remembered Tara’s words about being too simpering. She shouldn’t let him think that she believed his work was more important than their time together – that was laying the groundwork for bad habits in the future, she reminded herself.