Hens Reunited by Lucy Diamond Read Free Book Online Page B

Craig at your glam parties, Georgia. You don’t need me and Jake to sort you out with some totty, surely!’
    Georgia wrinkled her nose. ‘Well, I wouldn’t say no,’ she replied. ‘It’s wall-to-wall WAGs and bimbos for me these days. I’m getting a bit fed up of it, to be honest. I reckon another year and I’ll be done on the showbiz circuit. Any longer and I’ll be burned out, or an alcoholic. Or just a hard-hearted bitch, like some of the other gossip girls.’ She poured everyone another glass of wine. ‘It eats away at you after a while, this job. Sometimes I wonder about giving it all up to write my best-selling novel.’
    ‘Oh yeah?’ Katie looked up with interest. ‘What best-selling novel is this, then?’
    Georgia shrugged. ‘Oh, you know, just a little pipe dream. Something I’ve been thinking about for a while. But I need to stockpile some savings first if I’m ever going to manage it, so I guess I’m stuck where I am for the time being.’ She smiled. ‘Anyway, enough about me. We’re here for Alice after all. Lovely Alice and lovely Jake. Here’s to years of happiness and hot sex.’
    Alice blushed, but Katie was already raising her glass. ‘Happiness and hot sex!’

 
    Chapter Three
    Everything Changes
    Saturday, 14 June 2008
    Alice turned the key in the lock and pushed the door. It didn’t budge. Great. That was a good start.
    She wiggled the key tentatively, twisting the door handle at the same time. Still nothing.
    Behind her, on the front path to the cottage, Iris was crying in her car seat and kicking her bare feet. A bead of sweat trickled down Alice’s back. Just her luck that she’d decided to move house on the hottest day of the year. Just her luck that she couldn’t even get in her new house!
    She yanked the door handle a degree more fiercely, turning the key so hard now she almost expected the top half to snap off in her fingers. ‘All right, Iris, just a sec,’ she murmured, trying to sound as soothing as she could, while her daughter ramped up the volume, veering dangerously towards full-throttle sobs.
    ‘You need to give it a shove, my love,’ came an amused voice from further behind her. A rich country burr, strong enough to churn the butter, as her mum would say.
    Alice turned and wiped her sweaty forehead with her bare arm. A man was leaning over the front gate, her dad’s age, white curly hair, his face nut-brown, the colour and texture of shoe leather. ‘Hello,’ she said, feeling flustered as she joggled Iris’s car seat with her foot. Still Iris wailed, becoming redder and redder in the face.
    ‘Give the door a shove,’ the man said again. ‘It’s swollen in the heat, is all. Always sticking, that door.’
    Alice wasn’t sure if she liked how familiar this complete stranger was with her new front door. But he was watching her expectantly and Iris was still grizzling, hot tears spouting out of her grey eyes, fists banging up and down. So she put the key in again, twisted it (hard), turned the door handle (hard), and gave it a smart shove with her bottom.
    The door swung open, and Alice went stumbling in after it.
    The man hanging over the gate laughed. ‘There she goes!’ he said. He gave her a mock salute. ‘Cheerio now!’
    ‘Thanks,’ Alice said, righting herself and standing on the threshold. But he was already off, whistling as he went down the road. ‘Um . . . cheerio!’ she called after him, and he raised a weathered hand in the air in acknowledgement.
    She bent down to Iris, who looked as if she were about to explode, and released her from the straps. ‘Come on, tired girl,’ Alice said, scooping her up. She could smell the lavender from the dusty flowerbed nearby now that she was crouching. Bees droned around the purple heads, dive-bombing through the leggy grey stems. Alice stood up and patted Iris’s back. ‘Let’s go and see our new house.’
    Iris sobbed into her shoulder, her tears wetting Alice’s top, as they stepped over