More Than Just One Night (The Selwood Sisters Novellas) Read Online Free

have left, please? All of them.”
    She replaced the phone and grimaced at Lily. “Something godawful has happened here today.”
    Lily’s expression became serious. “Tell me
about it.”
    “I’ve just been through a very embarrassing
meeting.”
    Lily waited.
    “It was a mediation. You’ve heard about the
Pearson project?”
    “Yes. I’ve seen the figures.”
    “Well, today was the mediation where we were
supposed to thrash out a solution. However, it turned out that the mediator
was…someone I knew.”
    “I don’t understand. How was that a problem?”
    Cora blew out a breath. “When I say I knew
him, I mean I knew him. Not for long, but really well.”
    “Oh.” Lily started to smile, but bit her lip
as if she wasn’t sure a smile was appropriate. “You mean you had a fling with
him?”
    Cora nodded.
     “Gosh. And you didn’t know he was going to
be at the meeting?”
    “No way! I never expected to see him again,
so it was a heck of a shock.”
    “I’m sure it was.” Lily’s eyes were wide now.
    “And as a result, the mediation had to be
called off.” She shook her head. “It was so embarrassing.”
    “I can imagine.”
    “And now I’m avoiding Eric because he’ll have
plenty to say about it, and I might be the boss, but that won’t stop him. He seems
to think that he still has to look out for Paul’s interests.”
    “Well, they were best friends for a long time.”
    “Yes, but Paul’s been dead for six years, and
if Eric had his way I’d be faithful to Paul forever.”
    “But you don’t want to be?”
    Cora sighed. “I have been, of course, until
now, and I still would be if I hadn’t met Alex. It’s not as if I make a habit
of…gah! I’d never given it a thought until I met him, and then…”
    “And then what? Did you fall in love with
him?”
    “Oh my God, no. Nothing like that, but it
was…good to feel attractive again. I thought I was way past it.”
    Lily hesitated. “I’m probably not the world’s
best judge since I left school and got married all in the same week, but I
think after six years, you should be allowed to move on if you want to.”
    Cora managed a small smile. “Don’t forget, I
hadn’t had much more experience than you when I married Paul. Seems to be a
Selwood thing to marry too young.”
    “I wasn’t too young,” Lily said indignantly.
“I wouldn’t want my daughter to be married at eighteen, but it all worked out
for Brandon and me.”
    Cora made a non-committal sound in her
throat. “But look at Gwen. I know she regrets not waiting until she was older
to marry Stuart. Now she’s divorced with a seventeen year old daughter and
she’s only thirty-six.”
    “Well, things were a bit different with Gwen,
weren’t they? She was always trying to compete with you.”
    Cora sighed. “Typical middle child syndrome.”
    “I suppose so, but it’s true. She wanted what
you had, or better. You were married at nineteen and pregnant at twenty, so she
had to beat that and be pregnant at nineteen.”
    “And then you beat both of us.” Cora pulled a
pile of papers across the desk towards her. “Let’s just hope that none of our
daughters follow our examples.”
    “Agreed.” Lily took the hint, and stood. “Before
I go, where did you meet this man? Is he local? Do I know him?”
    “No. God, no, he’s not local. I met him in
Sydney at that conference I went to a few weeks ago.”
    “Ah, yes. I thought you seemed distracted
when you got back.”
    Distracted was an understatement.
    “Are you going to see him again?”
    Cora squirmed. She wished she could deny it,
but she’d never been in the habit of lying to either of her sisters and
couldn’t bring herself to do so now. “I’m having dinner with him tonight at The
Clarendon.”
    Lily broke into a smile. “So, you’re going to
date him, then?”
    “No, no. It’s one dinner, that’s all.”
    “Oh. What a shame.”
    After Lily had left, Cora looked at the messages
Joan had given her.