Late Night Shopping: by Carmen Reid Read Free Book Online

risks. He'd never earned big money, he certainly didn't plan to change jobs and he'd always been very careful with the money he did have. That was just the way he was, she wasn't going to be able to change him . . . but her job was to reassure him that it was all going to be OK.
     
Her email flashed up with a new message. She looked at the address and was delighted to see that Mr Woo had wasted no time.
     
'Greetings Annie Valentine,' she read, 'I hope you have nice day! I very interested in doing business with your esteemed corporation. My shoes sold in Hong Kong but made in factory of my family. Happy Feet factory. Very good workmanship shoes. I glad you like.
     
We can make 120 pair Timi Woo shoes this month. But if you need more next month, we can make more. Shoes only sell in Hong Kong. Very popular with high class ladies desiring much shoes. We love to sell in England with your esteemed corporation. I send order form with this message. Many styles, many colours. Each pair shoe for you $80. If you buy 100 pair shoes, $75.
     
Greetings, Timi Woo.'
     
Although Annie's heart was thudding with excitement as she read this, she couldn't act just yet as she could now hear the sound of the front door opening.
     
'Hi! Annie! We're back!' came the shout from the hall, so she quickly closed down the email and hurried downstairs to meet Ed and her little boy.
     
'Hello Owen!' She hugged her son tightly first. He felt so skinny. He was growing like a weed and his appetite didn't seem to be able to keep up with the amount of food he needed.
     
Owen kept his face, almost hidden under his thatch of overgrown blond-brown hair, tipped down, but he accepted the shower of kisses without protest. He liked it, really. He just didn't like to admit that he liked it. That's how it is when you're ten.
     
'Nice time?' she asked, directing her gaze at Ed in turn.
     
He looked so happy that she couldn't stop her smile from broadening when it met his. He seemed relaxed and chilled out by his evening away. He slung his jacket on the rack by the front door, then, when she'd released Owen, he put one arm round her waist and the other round her shoulder so she was encircled, and pulled her right in.
     
'Hello there.' He didn't believe in half-measure kisses: 'If you're going to kiss, you might as well kiss properly.'
     
Putting her arms around Ed's broad back, Annie saw the playful look in his blue eyes and felt the touch of his lips against hers. Ed was so calming, when he took hold of her he made her stand still, be still, think about no one and nothing else but him, right here and now. It was very sexy.
     
'Please, just no tongues,' Owen insisted, which made the adults break up a little sooner than they might otherwise have wanted to.
     
'Busy day?' Ed asked, now that the kissing spell was pretty much broken. 'Dressing the universe?'
     
'Oh yeah,' Annie told him with a smile. 'Do you boys need some food? It's late but . . .'
     
'Well, you know . . .' Ed began, 'we never knowingly like to miss out if there's food on offer.'
     
'What have you got?' Owen wondered, as he deposited his anorak on the floor and sat down on a stair to spend the fifteen minutes it seemed to require for him to unlace his trainers. By now, Ed's two fat black cats, Hoover and Dyson, had stalked into the hall and were rubbing up against every available leg and foot, desperate for some attention.
     
'A little bit of fennel lasagne?' Annie offered, fairly certain that this wasn't going to be met with much excitement.
     
'Hmm . . .' was Owen's reply.
     
'Fried eggs and toast?' she offered next.
     
'Look, there's bacon, there's cream, there's definitely a chunk of Parmesan – why don't I rustle us up a carbonara?' Ed offered. 'That'll stick to your ribs.'
     
Owen shot Ed a grin and nodded.
     
This was one of the many surprising effects that surrogate family life had had on Ed. When Annie had first met him, he'd been a sad and lonely singleton living in a damp