How to Get Over Your Ex (21 page)

Barely two weeks on the job, and what would I have to show for
it? Hugh back in hospital, out of a job, my best chance for site experience
blown. My plan would be in tatters, my career would be over before it had really
begun.

I pulled myself up short. Good grief, I was getting as bad as
Saffron! There was no point in overreacting until I knew what the situation was,
and to do that I had to get to Whellerby Hall.

My eyes flickered to George, and then away.

I could walk to the Hall, but it would take too long to cross
the estate.

There was only one thing to be done.

Sucking in a breath, I got out of Audrey, closed the door,
walked deliberately around the bonnet of the Land Rover and got in next to
George without a word.

For a moment I sat there, looking straight through the
windscreen, my lips pressed so firmly together they almost disappeared.

‘Thank you,' I said at last, forcing the words out. ‘I'd be
very glad of a lift.'

‘My pleasure,' said George.

To my annoyance, his engine leapt into life without so much as
a murmur of protest. I cast a reproachful look at Audrey as George reversed out
behind her, and changed gear.

‘You know, you could invest in a reliable car,' he said, a
ghost of amusement in his voice.

‘I couldn't get rid of Audrey,' I said, instantly on the
defensive. ‘She's a great car. It's just that she can be a
little...temperamental.'

Or downright contrary, at times.

George raised an eyebrow. Have you ever met anyone who could
actually do that? Raise one brow? George could.

‘
Audrey
?' he said.

‘She's named after Audrey Hepburn. Because she's so glamorous,'
I added when George seemed unable to make the connection.

‘Right.' He glanced at me and then away, shaking his head a
little, but I could see the curl at the corner of his mouth.

I pushed my seat belt into place with a firm click. ‘She's got
style,' I said defiantly. Vintage, perhaps, but definitely style.

‘Lime green is an interesting choice of colour,' George
commented.

‘It's not everyone's first choice, I know,' I said, ‘but she
was the only car I could afford when I bought her. I washed dishes for three
years to pay for a car of my own,' I told George. ‘Audrey's a symbol as much as
a car.'

George swung the Land Rover out of the site gates and onto one
of the narrow lanes that criss-crossed the Whellerby estate. ‘I'm surprised to
hear Kevin Taylor's daughter had to buy her own car,' he said. ‘Wouldn't your
father buy you one? It's not like he can't afford it.'

My face closed down the way it always did when I had to talk
about my father. I hugged my arms together and looked out of the window. I
hadn't taken a penny from him since I left school, and I wasn't about to start
now.

‘I pay my own way,' I said. ‘I always have, and I always
will.'

ISBN: 9781460303764

Copyright © 2013 by Nikki Logan

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