All Because of You (Lakeview #2) (45 page)

Tara smiled back. “Well, the mystery has now been solved once and for all. I was going mad trying to figure who it was. Believe it or not, I’d started to wonder only recently if she might have had a bit of thing with Dave McNamara, but wouldn’t say anything because of him getting engaged to someone else. And what with him being a councillor and a pillar of the community and all that.”

“Interesting theory,” Liz agreed nodding thoughtfully, “but well off the mark as it turns out.”

“I nearly fell down dead when she told us, Liz,” Tara went on. “I knew Emma had a thing for unavailable men, but honestly! Still, apparently Colm is determined to give her all the support she needs, so …” She shook her head. She’d known that her sister had always had a bit of a soft spot for Colm Joyce – as had lots of women in this village over the years – but had no idea that it had been anything more than that. Was it because the guy – due to his ongoing confusion – was the ultimate challenge? Or did she really have true feelings for him? Poor Emma – in this case, it seemed that Colm was the one man she truly never could have. And because of this, she felt for her sister, and was annoyed that Colm had messed around with her feelings like that. “Liz, can you imagine what’ll it be like around here when the news finally gets out?” In the end, her poor sister had been right to keep it all a secret for as long as she could. “The Lakeview gossips will have a field day.”

“I certainly don’t envy her. It’s tricky one to take in at all, let alone try and explain. But Emma’s seems a very resilient girl – when it does all come out, I’m sure she’ll cope with it.”

“Resilient?” Tara repeated, wryly. “That’s a slightly different description to the one you used for her that night she was here, isn’t it?”

Liz grimaced. “I know – I feel
awful now about calling her a floozy. But at the time, I was so angry I
had
to lash out at someone.”

“Well, Emma’s a big girl and from what you were telling me, she was messing with your head anyway. She seems to like doing that.” Tara had told Liz all about Jason’s telephone call to the house shortly after Glenn was born, and how Emma hadn’t mentioned anything about it. “She’s a strange one, Liz, and as much as it pains me to admit it, it’s true. While I do feel sorry for her with this whole Colm situation, there’s no getting away from the fact that she really needs to grow up once and for all. I just hope that when she does have this baby, she’ll stop all her silly games and start behaving like an adult.”

“Well, at least the child will have two more sensible parents to rely on if Emma isn’t up to the task,” Liz said, unable to resist a giggle as she referred to Colm and Nicky’s promise to help with the childrearing.

“Less of the sne
ering at my family, Liz McGrath,” Tara joked. “You’ve only been living in this town for barely a year, and already you’re sounding like one of the natives!”

“Yep, with all these secrets and lies, I think I’ve just about qualified as a true
Lakeviewer,” her friend laughed. “And speaking of which, are you ever going to make the move?”

“Where? Back here?”

“Of course.”

“I don’t know. I’ve thought about it a lot lately, you know that – especially now after all this with Glenn and Abby, but I just don’t know.”

“I know someone who’d be happy,” Liz said, her eyes dancing.

“Who?” Tara looked at her in surprise.

“Well, my favourite next-door neighbour for one. As I’ve told you a thousand times before, he’s always asking for you. Every time I meet him he manages to bring the conversation round to you.”

Tara snorted. “He probably just wants some more mice removed.”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Bloody hell woman, can you not see something when it’s staring you plain in the face?”

“What are you on about?”

“Luke’s crazy about you. And I know you’re a bit partial to him too – I saw you with him that night in the pub. So you’d want to get up off your backside, and do something about it before someone else snaps him up. I know I would, if I were single, which I’m not of course,” she added primly. “In fact, I’m very happy with my man.”

“You and Natalie both then,” Tara said.

Natalie had phoned her again a couple of days after her conversation with Jason. 

“I’d love us to stay friends,” she’d told Tara, “but I know it’s not ideal. Especially not as it’s getting serious with Jay and me.” Then she added, almost apologetically,  “He’s asked me to move in with him.”

“Natalie, I’m so happy for you, really I am,” Tara said truthfully, “but you don’t need me now. Yes, we were friends of sorts but you no longer need me to help you out with your love life. And don’t apologise for that,” she added quickly, before Natalie could speak. “You and Jason … Jay . . . are obviously very much in love, and you deserve that. You both deserve it.”

“Tara, I don’t know what to say,” Natalie said tearfully. “I never thought something like this would happen.”

“It’s OK, and I’m sure we’ll keep in touch and ring one another from time to time to see how we’re getting on.”

But of course that wouldn’t happen, and sadly, they both knew it. It was a pity, but Tara thought, such was life. And she couldn’t help but be reminded of Jason’s comment about how the universe conspired to keep people together or apart. Maybe she shouldn’t think too more about it and instead just leave it all up to the gods.

“I’m telling you – you’d better do something about Luke,” Liz was saying. “Only the other day, I saw that nice Nina Hughes chatting to him in the greengrocer’s.”

Although
on the other hand, Tara thought, smiling to herself, as she thought about it, maybe this time, she should just bite the bullet and take destiny into her own hands.

A week later, Tara walked up to the front door and rang the bell. Despite herself, she swallowed nervously as she heard him come out to the hallway to answer it. What the hell was she doing here? And why had she let Liz talk her into this?

“Hi there.”

“Hi.” When he opened his front door, Luke’s blue eyes lit up, but when he looked down and saw what Tara was holding in her arms, he quickly took a step backwards. “What … what’s that?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Tara tried to sound nonchalant. “
Wow, the place is looking great.” She looked past Luke’s bulky frame into the front hallway. 

Eric had obviously done sterling work in the few weeks he’d been working on this place for his neighbour. The walls were freshly painted, there was a new wooden floor and skirting in place of the old worn lino, and from her vantage point, Tara could see that he’d redone some of the kitchen too.

“Well, aren’t you going to invite me in? Or do I have to stand out here all day?”

“Erm, come in then.” All the time trying to avert his eyes from what she was holding, Luke held back the door and allowed Tara in.

“Well,” she announced breezily. “You’ve certainly been busy.”

“Yes … erm, what
is
that?” Luke repeated, his voice quivering a little.

“Oh, this?” Tara held up the animal cage as if she’d forgotten all about it. “It’s a gerbil,” she told him nonchalantly.

“And what is it doing here?” Luke said, backing a little further away from her.

“Oh, silly me – I forgot to mention it. It’s a present,” she said, thrusting the cage at him.

Immediately Luke recoiled. “A present?”

“Yes, a housewarming p
resent for you.”

Luke swallowed. “Erm, Tara, it’s very nice of you to think of me but –”

“I thought it was the best possible gift for you.”

“Ah – why?”

“Well, I know this is my territory and not yours, but surely you know the best way to overcome your fears is to face them head on?”

And by being here today, that was exactly what she herself was doing. Finally taking Liz’s advice, Tara was opening herself up to the possibility of a relationship, a friendship, whatever, with Luke Cunningham. 

So it might come to nothing but wasn’t it – as Liz had always insisted – wasn’t it worth taking the chance? It wasn’t as though she could use Glenn as an excuse any more. As of last week, he and Abby had announced they were thinking of moving in together when the baby was born, and as much as it would kill her to let him go, Tara knew she had no choice. Seventeen years on, she had to allow her son get on with his own life, and now she, Tara, would get on with hers.

Starting today.

“Tara, I appreciate the gesture but – ”

“Just let me help, OK?”

“Help with what? I’m already overrun with bloody mice, I don’t need another rodent to add to my collection.”

“I told you – it’s not a mouse – it’s a gerbil,” she repeated, again thrusting the cage at him. 

Then, as Luke tentatively put his hand out to take it from her, their fingers touched briefly and an unmistakeable spark of electricity passed between them. 

For a long moment, the two of them stayed like that, eyes locked together, while between them in its cage, the gerbil munched innocently on a piece of lettuce.

“Tara,” Luke said eventually, “did it ever cross your mind that I might not want to make friends with rodents? That I’d much rather make friends with a more agreeable and less scary species?”

“Like what?” she said, her eyes still locked on his.

“Like you,” he said, moving forward, and Tara swallowed. “I think the likes of you qualifies as a species all of your own.
Genus femalus obstinatus
I think it’s called.”

“Me? Obstinate? Never.”

“No, never in a million years,” Luke said, gingerly taking the gerbil cage and setting it on the hallway table. “And don’t try and play the innocent with me. Liz has told me enough about you, and I’ve learnt enough myself to know exactly what I’m getting into.”

“Then she’s probably also told you I’ve got a lot of baggage,” Tara said, amazed that the two of them were being so frank so quickly. It felt strange, exposing herself like this, but at the same time, it felt quite … nice.

The first flush of attraction, the promise of more to come – Tara hadn’t felt something like that in a very long time. And it was only then, standing there in front of Luke – a man she sensed wanted something to progress between them as much as she did – that she realised she missed it.

“Baggage?” Luke smiled, and drew her close. Standing there in the circle of his arms, her body inches from that incredibly broad chest, his handsome face smiling down at her, Tara felt safe. She felt safe with Luke, and for the first time in ages, she gave herself up to the fact that what happened next was something she couldn’t, or didn’t want to control. But she was pretty sure she knew what it was, in the same way that she was just as sure she wanted it to happen too.

“Yes, baggage,” she repeated.

Luke’s mouth was now only inches from her own.

“Well, knowing you,” he went on giving her a lopsided grin, “it’ll be environmentally friendly and biodegradable, so I’m sure we won’t have to deal with it for long.”

Then
he lowered his head and kissed her softly on the lips.

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Read on for
an excerpt of the next Lakeview book, NEVER SAY NEVER.

NEVER SAY NEVER

Melissa Hill

PROLOGUE

‘Man Plans – God Laughs.’

Robin couldn’t help but think of the old Yiddish proverb as she listened to the discussion going on around her. She always felt uncomfortable talking about ‘the future’. 

It was a mild evening in late May, and Robin and her friends – all soon-to-be graduates of University College Dublin, were sitting on the grass by the lake in St Stephen’s Green. They were having a ‘where will we be in five years’ time’ conversation.

“Andrew will be our big sports star,” Amanda declared, positioning herself comfortably against her boyfriend’s broad chest. She pushed a fair curl away from her pretty face.

Kate rolled her eyes. “You worked overtime on the crystal ball for th
at one,” she said caustically. After graduation Andrew was poised to sign with a well-known Irish rugby club.

Aman
da gave Kate a withering look. “No doubt you’ll end up in politics, lecturing the rest of us as usual.”

There had never been any love lost between Andrew’s girlfriend and Kate. The two of them always managed to rub on
e another up the wrong way, and Robin thought wryly, neither tried to hide it.

“So what about you, honey?” Andrew asked, turning the attention back to the person who craved it the most. “What’ll you be?”