Hard Tail by JL Merrow Page A

would she? We’d already been history when I’d heard—not, admittedly, by all that long, but still, history.
    “He broke his leg,” I explained. “That was what Mum’s call was about.” Naturally, Mum wouldn’t have spoken to Kate. I’d never been quite sure why, but they’d never got along all that well. Hence, I presumed, the un-forwarded messages. “So what were you so worried about?”
    “Oh—it was just me being silly,” she said.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, you weren’t at the house any of the times we went back, and you’d obviously not been there, and I just thought—but it was just silly of me.” She finished up the sentence at top speed, obviously wanting to change the subject.
    I was grimly amused. “What, you thought I might have driven off a cliff or something? Don’t worry, Kate, I’m fine.” Saying it, I realised I was, pretty much. Yes, I’d had my moments of missing her—but speaking to her now, I was stunned to realise I didn’t want her back. We should never have been more than friends. “How are you and Alex?”
    “Oh, we’re fine,” she gushed a little too enthusiastically for my liking. “Alex has just been promoted to partner!” Great. Not content with stealing my wife, he had to show me up in the career department too. “How’s your job hunt going?”
    “It’s not. I’m looking after Jay’s shop until he’s back on his feet.”
    “Jay’s bike shop? But doesn’t he have staff? Can’t they do it?”
    “No.” It felt weird, and somehow wrong, to talk to Kate about Matt, so I changed the subject quickly. “Anyway, while you’re on—what are we going to do about the house?”
    “Oh—well, we’re planning to stay at Alex’s. It’s a lot more convenient, really, for work. I suppose I just assumed you’d buy my half—when you get another job, of course. When do you think you’ll be getting another job?”
    I bit back my initial, impatient reaction. Upsetting Kate wouldn’t get us anywhere. “I don’t know. I think we should put the house on the market. Who knows,” I added, inspiration striking, “I might get a job down here. It’d be nice to be nearer my family.”
    “Are you sure?” Kate sounded dubious. “I thought you loved London.” There was a pause. “This isn’t some kind of midlife crisis, is it, darling?”
    There was a moment of awful silence, which I rushed in to fill before she could apologise for the accidental endearment, which would have been even more painful than the original slip. “I’m only twenty-eight! I’m not having any kind of crisis. I’m just taking the opportunity to…re-evaluate a few things, that’s all.”
    “Well,” Kate said brightly, “good for you. Um. I think I’d better go now—would you like me to sort out the house, then? Contact an estate agent, that sort of thing?”
    “Yes, I think that’d be best.” Now I’d said it, it felt like my old life was disappearing at breakneck speed. It was an odd sensation—thrilling but more than a little unnerving. “I’ll be up during the week to pick up some more stuff—Tuesday night, probably.” I was hoping she still went to Pilates on a Tuesday.
    “Good,” she said a little vaguely. I wondered if this was as unsettling for her as it was for me. Still, I was sure Alex would help her through it. Bastard.
    “Good-bye, then, Kate. Take care.”
    “You too,” she said. Just as I was about to hang up, she spoke again. “Tim?”
    “Yes?”
    “I really am sorry about all this.”
    What do you say to something like that? That’s all right would be letting her off the hook a bit too easily, Me too would sound like an admission of shared guilt, and So you bloody well should be was way too confrontational.
    “Me too,” I said in the end and hung up.

Chapter Eight
    Monday morning, I got to the shop to find Matt sitting in the doorway waiting for me to unlock it. He gave a big smile when he saw me and unplugged his iPod from his ears while