Out of Practice by Penny Parkes Page A

prepared to put in the effort to achieve it. It had been quite the aphrodisiac.
    Back then, Holly thought she had found that rare and elusive beast – a steady, thoughtful man, who also happened to be a demon in the sack. She remembered thinking, as she walked down the
aisle towards him, that he really was the whole package, almost too good to be true.
    If she’d known then, what she knew now . . .
    Holly sighed, thinking that she probably wouldn’t be quite so quick to say ‘I do’.
    Eric curled up against Holly’s leg, as if sensing her spiralling mood, pressing his little furry body into her, tail tattooing a steady beat on the flagstone floor. Holly stroked his ears
distractedly, grateful for his unconditional support. ‘I wish we could have a dog,’ she sighed. ‘It would be amazing for the boys and Ben really responds to him, have you
noticed?’
    Will draped the tea towel over his shoulder and sat back against the counter beside Lizzie, his hand gently massaging the small of her back. ‘Why don’t you, then? You could have a
little one, couldn’t you? Now your hours are more regular? It wouldn’t need that much exercise.’
    Holly shrugged uncomfortably, suddenly wishing she hadn’t brought it up.
    ‘Failing that,’ Will joked, ‘you could just share this one.’
    ‘Ooh yes,’ Lizzie cried, suddenly animated, ‘then we can have him on timeshare! Oh, come one, Holls, it’ll be great. Go on! Be honest, you know I didn’t really
think this dog business through – I don’t have enough time to give him all the attention he needs. But I
do
have time for half a dog and so do you! And he already prefers you
anyway . . . And he loves staying at yours. We can just become one of those big, modern, dysfunctional families!’
    ‘You mean we aren’t already?’ Will said wryly.
    But Lizzie was on a roll, clapping her hands excitedly and leaping down from the worktop. ‘How could you say no – just look at his little fluffy face! Plus, it would be really good
for all the kids . . .’
    ‘Alright, Lizzie, give the girl a chance to breathe. Obviously Holly needs to talk to Milo about it first. She can’t just come home with a timeshare puppy, no matter what loopy
scheme you two cook up.’
    Holly fidgeted a little, as that’s exactly what she’d been planning to do. Firstly, because she could probably keep a Shetland pony in the spare bedroom and Milo wouldn’t
notice and secondly, because of The Other Problem – the elephant in the room – the detail that Holly was almost too embarrassed to admit to. Somehow, inadvertently and without any prior
knowledge, she had married a man who didn’t like dogs!
    What kind of a person didn’t like dogs? More to the point, what kind of a person sat and listened to his fiancée going on and on about her plans for the future – the kids, the
dogs, the country practice – and never said a word? Not once.
    Yet another indication that Holly should have done more due diligence before saying ‘I do’.
    Lizzie, suspecting strongly that Milo’s aversion to dogs had more to do with not wanting to lose any more of Holly’s attention, for once kept quiet. She could see her friend wavering
and was silently cheering her on to make the right decision.
    She had her own suspicions about why Holly and Milo’s marriage was falling apart, although she was obviously madly biased in her friend’s favour. She knew that Holly had been drawn
in by Milo’s strong, capable, caveman routine, but now it just seemed to her that Milo wanted to control Holly’s every move. To Lizzie’s discerning eye, he seemed to resent
Holly’s return to work, he openly begrudged all the time she spent with the boys and he missed no opportunity to put her down. As Holly’s friend and champion, Lizzie found it hard to
keep quiet.
    Holly started attacking another packet of crisps, in grave danger of pinging them everywhere. Eric was instantly alert, summoned by the rustle of