The Wedding Invite (Lakeview) (Lakeview Contemporary Romance Book 6) (25 page)

A
week
later Nicola and Ken were relaxing in front of the television, Barney sleeping peacefully at their feet, when she got a call.

“Hello, Nicola?”

She smiled. “How are you? I’m so glad you rang. When are we meeting for coffee?”

“Soon, I hope. But this isn’t actually a social call.”

“Oh? What’s wrong?”

“Well, someone came to see me a few days ago, someone who was asking a lot of questions about you.”

Nicola took the cordless handset into the kitchen and closed the door behind her. “What do you mean? Who? What kind of questions?”

“It was Dan’s fiancée. She was pumping for information about when you two were married. I couldn’t get you at home before now, and I didn’t want to disturb you at work.”

“You can’t be serious. What did she want?”

“Well, she’s a cute one. She let on that she was some kind of solicitor or something. Only for I’ve seen her before, and I knew who she really was, I might have been taken in by it. John pointed her out to me one night.”

“What? She didn’t even tell you who she was?”

“No. She obviously doesn’t want anyone, including Dan, to know that she’s digging around. Obviously, I didn’t say much to her and I told her that the two of us were friends, but only through Dan and John.”

“And?”

“And she said she was under the impression that I had been a close friend of yours, so I told her that if I was such a close friend, why didn’t I even know you were back in Ireland until recently?” She paused. “She was very persistent. I didn’t really take to her, to be honest.”

Nicola couldn’t believe it. If Dan’s fiancée was looking for information about her, then she must know that she and Dan had met up again lately. Maybe she was the jealous type, Nicola thought, recalling how unnerved Ken had been by it all. But surely if Dan had told her everything, then she’d know there was absolutely no reason for her to be jealous.

“Do you think I should tell Dan about this?” she said, thinking out loud.

“Well, if it was me, I’d
have
to tell him. I wouldn’t want her poking around in my business like that. I mean, she could be talking to anyone.”

Nicola sighed. “I wonder if she
has
spoken to anyone else?”

“To be honest, I kind of got the impression that she had, because she seemed to know an awful lot about your marriage. But she didn’t get much from me.”

What would Chloe want to know about their marriage? Her first guess was that the girl was basically insecure, but she couldn’t imagine how any woman could be so bad that they’d resort to sneaking around like that. “Look, thanks for putting her off.”

“No problem. I just thought you should know, though. I wouldn’t like someone asking questions about me behind
my
back like that.”

“Thanks. And listen, you should come over soon, for dinner or something.”

“I will, we’ll arrange it soon.”

“Who was that?” Ken asked easily, when she returned to the living-room.

“What? Oh, it was Helen, wondering if I could baby-sit Kerry this weekend,” Nicola lied. She couldn’t tell him about this. Ken would go mad.
And
she couldn’t risk the possibility that he might confront Dan about it. Damn. She had thought this thing was over and done with.

“Oh.” Unperturbed, Ken changed the television channel.

“I’m going to make a cuppa,” Nicola said, needing a little time to think about this. “Do you want anything from the kitchen?”

Ken looked up, pondering. “Mmm, I think I’d like the table, please,” he teased, “and maybe a couple of chairs while you’re at it?”

“Ha. Somebody’s in fine form tonight.” Nicola smiled absently and left the room, her mind fully focused on what she had just heard.

Dan’s fiancée asking around about her? Why? She’d have to tell Dan and let him deal with it. It was up to him to sort it out.

Luckily, her old friends were supportive, and of course they wouldn’t tell Chloe anything. Laura certainly wouldn’t, neither would Helen, and no better woman than Carolyn O’Leary to tell her where to go. But Chloe wouldn’t be bold enough to approach her closest friends, would she?

T
he following day
, still annoyed, Nicola dialled Dan’s number

“O’Leary, Hunt Accountancy. Can I help you?” It was a voice Nicola didn’t recognise.

She cleared her throat. “Is Mr Hunt free, please?”

“He’s in a meeting at the moment,” the telephonist told her in a song-song voice. “Would you like to leave a message?”

Nicola paused. Should she leave her number? Dan would surely wonder why she was calling him. It was probably better to phone back later and speak to him directly.

“Or possibly his PA could help you? Shall I put you through?” the girl continued, unnerved by the lack of a response.

“No, no, that’s fine, I’ll just leave my number, thanks.” Nicola recited her office number and hung up.

Nearly an hour later, she was in the gym conversing with one of the newer instructors when Sally roared across at her.

“Nicola, phone.”

It was Dan.

“Nic?” he sounded pleased, but a little surprised. “Did you phone me earlier?”

She nodded, forgetting he couldn’t see her.

“Nic – you still there?”

“Yes, sorry. Dan, can you hold for just a minute? I want to use the phone in my office.”

“Sounds ominous,” he joked.

When she was safely ensconced in the privacy of her own office, Nicola told him what she had learned about Chloe.

“Are you serious?”

“I wouldn’t make something like this up, Dan.”

“I know – that’s not what I meant … crap. What the hell is she playing at?” he asked, voice raised in anger

“Look, I’m not telling you this to cause any trouble between you two, but I have to tell you that I don’t like it.”

“I just can’t believe that she would do something like that. And pretending to be a solicitor? Did it ever cross her silly little mind what would happen if she were found out? ”

“Well, why
is
she doing it?” Nicola asked shortly.

“I don’t know … I … well, I know she’s been very anxious about you and –”

“But why?”

Dan was silent for a moment. “I didn’t … Nicola, she doesn’t know.”

“What?”

“I just couldn’t … I wasn’t able to …” he trailed off.

“Oh, Dan …” Almost immediately, Nicola felt sorry for Chloe. The girl obviously felt threatened by her, and was trying to allay her fears by finding out as much as she could. Nicola tried to put herself in Chloe’s position, and knew that she herself would probably have done the same, albeit a little less underhandedly. Dan was a fool to keep things from her.

“You need to sit her down and tell her everything,” she said. “It’s only right.”

“It’s got nothing to do with her, Nic. It’s to do with you and me.”

“That’s exactly why she’s sneaking around – you’re shutting her out.”

“It’s none of her business,” he said again, then sighed deeply. “Look, what has she found out so far?”

“I’m not too sure – she was asking questions about our marriage, about any problems we were having.”

“Right.” His voice was hard. “Well, look, let me sort it out from here and don’t you worry about it a second longer.”

She nodded. “Dan … it’s important that you know I’m not trying to cause any trouble between you, it’s just –”

“I know that, Nic,” he interjected, “but I’m glad you told me this. It gives me some idea of the type of person I was supposed to marry.”

Was
supposed to marry?

“Oh – I thought you two were married by now,” Nicola said, surprised. Their wedding was to take place the day before Laura and Neil’s. Was Dan saying that it hadn’t?

“No, it’s a long story but the hotel messed up on the booking. We had to postpone, and the way things are going, it’s a bloody good job we did.”

Oh! At least it had nothing to do with her anyway, Nicola thought, unsure if she was pleased or worse,
relieved.
She had worried a little when he kept phoning, asking to meet up again, hoping that they could maintain some kind of friendship. But what Dan was doing wasn’t fair to Chloe. The girl deserved better.

“Dan, if Chloe thinks you’re hiding something, then you can’t blame her for wanting to find out what it is. She’s just trying to protect herself and your relationship.”

“I know that.” He sounded contrite.

The conversation was suspended in silence for a moment, as both Dan and Nicola were lost in their own thoughts.

“Look, Nic, I promise I’ll sort this out but … please, can we meet again soon?” Dan’s voice was soft. “We didn’t really get a chance to – ”

“Dan, no. As I said before, I’ve moved on – we’ve
both
moved on. I’ve got Ken to think of and there’s no point in our going over what went on before. It’s history now.”

He exhaled deeply. “OK, I understand. But look, I know you don’t want to hear this now, least of all from me but maybe … maybe sometime soon you might feel like talking about it. If you do, let me know.”

“Thanks.” Why couldn’t he just leave things well enough alone?

“All right then. Take care.”

“
W
hat on earth
did you think you were playing at, Chloe?” Dan raged. “Sneaking around like that – pretending to be someone you weren’t?”

“I’m sorry, really I am. I didn’t know what else to do…”

“
What else to do
?” he repeated savagely. “I told you before that what happened between me and Nicola is none of your business. We’re divorced now and it’s over.”

“But you were always so cagey about it … and I was just afraid that it was something terrible.”

“Well, did what you find out put your mind at ease then?” he snapped. He had no idea what Chloe had found out, if anything, so he was particularly interested in how she answered now.

She looked away, ashamed. “I know that you and Nicola lost a baby, and that … that she cheated on you.” When she saw his eyes widen, Chloe floundered. “I’m sorry, Dan, I had no idea, I thought it might be something else … oh, I don’t know what I thought.” She shook her head.

Dan’s mind raced. What she had said surprised him, because there were only a few people who would have known about Nicola’s ‘fling’ with Ken Harris back then.

Unless Harris had been shooting his mouth off. But no, as much as he hated the bastard, Dan knew that Ken Harris had nothing but the utmost respect for Nicola. In fairness, Harris had been the one to convince Dan that there was nothing between them – that they hadn’t been carrying on some torrid affair behind his back, that Ken couldn’t help the feelings he had always had for Nicola, despite the fact that she was a married woman. The man had been distraught with guilt, and although he’d wanted to tear the bastard limb from limb, Dan respected him for his honesty. Harris had even tried his best to get them back together and for a while it had worked. Anyway, weren’t he and Nicola an item now – much as the idea galled Dan and made him sick to his stomach. So Ken would hardly go shooting his mouth off about it, would he? No, it wouldn’t have been Harris.

So who then? Dan thought back to that time, one of the most difficult periods of their short marriage. Who had he and Nicola been confiding in back then? He never told John anything. So who else? Then the thought struck him. Crap.

Dan clapped a hand to his forehead. There was one person who would be more than happy to blab all about it. Dan raced from the room, leaving Chloe white-faced with remorse.

“
I
can’t believe
you would do that,” he shouted down the telephone. “Don’t you have a single shred of compassion or
decency
? You know how hard things have been for Nicola – why drag it all up again?”

“Dan, calm down.”

“What? You’re telling
me
to calm down. Why did you talk to Chloe in the first place?”

“Look, I didn’t know who she was, OK? She showed me her business card and she said she was on official business, so what was I to do?”

“You could have kept your mouth shut. I thought you were supposed to be a friend.”

“I said I didn’t know, OK? It’s not a state secret that you and Nicola were having problems back then – you two are divorced, for goodness sake. What’s the big deal?”

“I think you knew damn well what you were doing and what you were saying.”

She sniffed. “You think I did this for revenge, Dan? You think I did it because I wanted you all for myself? That one night wasn’t good enough for me?”

Dan’s heart sank. He didn’t want to discuss this with her. He didn’t want to have to feel guilty about it all over again.

“I think you did it because you were angry that it
was
only one night,” he said. “You knew I wasn’t myself, you knew I was going through a terrible time yet –”

“Yet I dragged you into bed,” she said mockingly, “Give me a break, Dan, you wanted it as much as I did. Going through a terrible time…. What about
my
problems, what about all
I
had to put up with? We needed each other at the time and you know it.”

“Man, you’re a cold-hearted cow. You pretend to be my friend, and then at the first opportunity you turn around and shoot me in the back.”

“Shoot you in the back? I only told your
fiancee
what she wanted to know, and if you had any decency you’d tell her the rest. No wonder the poor girl has to sneak around behind your back.
You
obviously don’t trust her.”

“It’s not fair to Nicola.”

“Dan, you and Nicola are finished. When are you going to accept that? She wasn’t there for you when you needed her; she was too busy feeling sorry for herself, without a second thought as to what you might be going through.
I
was the one who was there for you, yet you’re still carrying a torch for
her
. ”

He shook his head. “You have no idea, do you?”

“What?”

“You have absolutely no idea how hard it was for Nicola. Have you even
seen
her since she’s come back?”

“Yes, and she seemed perfectly alright to me,” she snapped dismissively.

“To think that I defended you –” Dan broke off and shook his head from side to side. “Dan, you broke up your marriage all by yourself, and without help from me or anyone else. You were happy to come to me when you wanted it, so don’t you dare try to transfer
your
guilt on to me.”

“It was a stupid mistake … I …” Dan trailed off. And it
was
a mistake. He hadn’t meant to, but he had been so lonely at the time, and he couldn’t get through to Nicola – by then she was a different person and he couldn’t do anything or say anything right, so what else was he supposed to do…?

“You said you’d tell her. You never did though, did you?”

He paused, remembering. “I couldn’t tell her,” he said sadly. “I wanted to but I just couldn’t – she’d have been devastated, things were bad enough – ”

She gave a short laugh. “It’s hilarious, really. Poor old Nicola never had a clue and the funny thing is, she still thinks we’re friends. I met her in town a while back and she asked me to go for coffee with her. What a joke.”

Dan gritted his teeth in anger. She was one dangerous woman – that was for sure. If only he had realised that at the time.

“I promise you,” he warned, “if you do anything, or say anything else to Nicola
or
to Chloe, so help me God… It’s none of your business, so from now on you’d better keep out of it.”

Carolyn O’Leary smiled.

“Don’t worry,” she said smugly, “your little secret is safe with me.”