The Perfect Match Read Online Free Page B

could just walk out and drive myself home?’
    Bella nodded. ‘There is that option, but mine is more exciting.’
    Alice laughed. ‘You’re not shocked at the thought of someone as old as me having a date?’
    ‘Of course not! I think it’s fab!’ But privately she was a bit surprised.
    Reassured, Alice became more cheerful. ‘So where should we meet? He’s asking me to suggest a venue. He lives in Kemble.’
    Bella considered. ‘Lunch or dinner?’
    ‘Dinner. He works in London.’ Bella’s pause made Alice worry. ‘Maybe I should suggest coffee, at the weekend?’
    ‘Dinner should be all right, but we must think of the right place.’
    ‘Yes. Definitely nowhere remotely romantic. I don’t want him to think it’s a date,’ said Alice.
    ‘I think it is a date, actually, but I agree you don’t want anywhere romantic. He might turn out to be a munter when you see him again.’
    Alice’s expression became a bit dreamy. ‘I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.’ She paused. ‘On the other hand, I expect the light in first-class carriages is very flattering and he’ll get an awful shock when he sees me again.’
    Bella began to giggle. ‘I don’t know much about first-class carriages but I shouldn’t think they worry about flattering the older woman when they design the lighting.’
    Alice glared. ‘When you’re sixty, you won’t be making “older woman” jokes, trust me.’
    ‘OK, I believe you, but where would be the best place for you to go?’
    After much discussion, Bella went on Twitter and asked for suggestions. Having considered these, they checked out websites and eating-out guides and eventually came up with a gastro pub.
    ‘But it has rooms!’ objected Alice. ‘He might think—’
    Bella wouldn’t let her finish. ‘He won’t think anything of the kind! Now email him with the details. It’s not too far; you can get a taxi if you want to drink. Or you can ring me and I can be with you in twenty minutes.’
    Alice went to her study and turned on her laptop. Oddly, given the difference in their ages, she felt reassured by Bella’s positive reaction. She was convinced it would be one dinner and then she’d never see Michael McKay again, but their meeting on the train and their subsequent conversation had been invigorating. She would enjoy the dinner too, she was sure.

Chapter Four
    A COUPLE OF evenings later, Bella walked across Jane Langley’s expansive lawn, sent there by the notice on the gate: ‘In the garden’. She felt a bit like the Boden poster girl, but she thought the print dress was probably appropriate for drinks with her friend – whom she must remember to call Jane – and her nephew. Pretty but respectable was the look she was going for. She had picked a bunch of flowers from Alice’s garden and put them in a jam jar so Jane wouldn’t have to find a vase. Even though Jane had a garden full of flowers Bella felt she couldn’t arrive empty-handed and she knew Jane would appreciate them.
    She could see them sitting where the rose grew up into the tree behind, on the chairs where she and Jane had often sat, drinking tea and eating cake. But as she got nearer, she realised Jane’s nephew looked familiar. Two steps on and she recognised exactly who he was and wished, with all her heart, that she could stop, turn and run back across the lawn to her car. There, sitting in a lovely sunny garden she knew well, was the reason she had left her hometown and her first job.
    ‘Darling! How pretty you look!’ said Jane Langley as Bella approached.
    Dominic Thane stood up.
    Two steps later Bella was face-to-face with her past.
    ‘Dominic says you two know each other,’ said Jane Langley. ‘What a coincidence!’
    ‘Yes,’ said Bella, trying to smile. ‘Hello, Dominic.’ Just for a moment, their eyes locked. He glared at her with such dislike it made her catch her breath. She’d worked hard to get away from him, physically and emotionally, and seeing him