My Mother's Secret by Sheila O'Flanagan Read Free Book Online

successful businesswoman. Well, she conceded, she’d never be hard-nosed. It wasn’t in her nature. But successful, even semi-successful, would be nice.
    She added some water to the bath and told herself that nobody was going to call on a Saturday and that there was no point in wishing she’d tweaked the design a bit more or submitted her proposals in another way. She’d done the best work she could. It was out of her hands now. So she tried to put it out of her mind, and had drifted into lazy oblivion when her mobile rang again. She snapped her eyes open and looked around the bathroom. The phone was on a small wooden stool, just out of reach.
    ‘Oh crap,’ she muttered, not wanting to miss it in case it was the company calling after all. She leaned half in and half out of the bath so that she could reach the mobile with her fingertips, but the moment she had it in her hand it stopped ringing. She looked at her missed calls and her heartbeat slowed down as she hit dial.
    ‘Hi, Steve,’ she said when the phone was answered. ‘I was in the bath.’
    ‘And I’m liking that image,’ said the voice at the other end of the line.
    ‘Shut up.’ She chuckled. ‘I was hot and sweaty and I was using the bath to cool down.’
    ‘I’m not at all sure you should’ve told me that.’
    ‘Probably not,’ she agreed. ‘So, what’s the story? Will you be able to get here?’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m working on the mobile site and I really can’t get away right now.’
    ‘It’s Saturday!’ she cried. ‘You’re entitled to some down time.’
    ‘And you know yourself that the day of the week means nothing to GoTronics,’ he said.
    She had to admit he was right. The company’s MD was one of the toughest men she’d ever had to deal with. He demanded total dedication from his staff – and when she was working on anything for them, he demanded it from her too.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Steve said again. ‘I know you wanted some moral support today, but to be honest, Steff, I’m not sure it’s really my sort of thing.’
    She’d half expected this to happen. From the moment she’d told him about the party, Steve had given off negative vibes about coming along. Maybe it was her own fault for having complained to him so much about all the work she was doing for it in the first place. And for giving him some frankly freaky descriptions of her relatives. And for painting Roisin in such an unflattering, bossy light. She’d exaggerated because she was irritated by how put upon she felt. But she’d probably made it sound like the party from hell.
    ‘No problem,’ she said. ‘I’m sure you’d have been bored out of your brains anyway.’
    ‘Very likely,’ he agreed. ‘I’m not the best in social situations.’
    At least, not social situations that weren’t all about chilling out with friends and a few cool beers. She sighed. Those were the sort of social situations she preferred too. It was just that sometimes you had to step up to the plate and leave your comfort zone.
    ‘Don’t worry,’ she told him. ‘All I wanted was for you to keep people off my back. Single girls’ love lives are always a hot topic of conversation at weddings, engagements and anniversaries. Being a single man is fine – it’s like you’ve escaped a fate worse than death – but being a single woman is a total admission of failure. You’d swear we were still in the last century.’
    Steve laughed. ‘That’s why I like you, Steffie,’ he said. ‘You tell it like it is. Call me when you get back to Dublin. We’ll get together and have a bit of fun in our own private social situation.’
    ‘Sounds good.’
    ‘Great. See you soon.’
    ‘See you,’ she said and ended the call.
    She replaced the phone on the stool. Then she slid down into the cool bathwater again.
    She wasn’t really surprised that Steve had got cold feet at the idea of all the Sheehans en masse. And not only Sheehans, she thought. There would be Mullens