City Girl in Training Read Online Free PDF

myself.
    â€˜It was raining. And he was prepared to let me take it. He was really, very…um…’ On the point of sayingkind, I was assailed by a vivid recollection of impatience barely held in check behind fathoms-deep sea-green eyes. Of his heel grinding my attack alarm in the pavement. Of his sharp ‘wait here’. And my mouth dried on ‘kind’.
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜Actually, I owe him an apology.’ I swallowed. ‘And probably a new umbrella.’ Kate’s brows quirked upwards. ‘It’s a long story.’
    â€˜Then it’s one that’ll have to keep. I’ve got a date with a totally gorgeous barrister. I’d have cancelled when I realised you would be arriving today, but I have long-term plans for this one and I’m not risking him out alone on Friday night.’ And she grinned as she pushed herself off her stool. ‘Don’t worry. I’m not leaving you on your own with Sophie. She’s going to a party. I would have asked her to take you but, in her present mood, I couldn’t positively guarantee you’d have a good time.’
    â€˜No,’ I said. Relieved. The thought of going to a party, being forced into the company of a roomful of strangers, with or without Sophie, was not appealing.
    And when, an hour or so later, Sophie drifted into the kitchen on high, high heels, ethereal in silvery chiffon, a fairy dusting of glitter across her shoulders, her white-blonde hair a mass of tiny waves, the relief intensified.
    If I’d walked into a room alongside her fragile beauty, I’d have looked not just like a mouse, but a well-fed country mouse.
    â€˜Will you be all right on your own?’ Kate asked,following her, equally stunning in the kind of simple black dress that didn’t come from any store that had a branch in Maybridge High Street. ‘There’s a pile of videos if there’s nothing on television you fancy and a list of fast-food outlets that deliver by the phone.’ And she grinned. ‘We don’t cook if we can help it.’
    â€˜I’ll be fine,’ I said, trying not to dwell on the fact that, for the first time in as long as I could remember on a Friday night, Don would not be bounding up to my front door ready to fall in with whatever I’d planned for the evening. Even if it did involve sitting through a chick-flick. I tried not to picture him down the pub with his car-crazy mates—no doubt encouraged by his miraculously restored mother not to ‘sit at home and brood’. Instead I gestured ironically in the direction of the washing machine where my knickers were going through the rinse cycle. ‘I’ve got plenty to do.’
    Kate laughed. ‘Whatever turns you on,’ she said as the bell rang from the front entrance.
    â€˜Come on, Kate, that’ll be the taxi,’ Sophie said, with a pitying glance in my direction before she went to let the driver know they were on their way.
    But Kate hesitated, turned back, the slightest frown creasing her lovely forehead. ‘Was it Gorgeous George or Wee Willy?’
    â€˜Sorry?’
    â€˜Did you share a taxi with George or Willy?’
    On the point of explaining that we hadn’t actually exchanged names, I realised how lame that sounded. On the other hand, while neither name seemed to suitmy unfortunate Galahad, no one in their right mind would have referred to him as Wee Willy…
    â€˜Gorgeous George?’ I repeated. A question, rather than an answer.
    â€˜Tall, dark—’
    â€˜That’s the one,’ I said.
    â€˜And very, very gay.’
    â€˜Gay?’
    She gave me an old-fashioned look that suggested I might be even more of a hick than I looked. ‘You didn’t realise?’
    Gay? He was gay?
    No, I hadn’t realised. I’d been too busy falling into his hypnotic green eyes…
    I pulled myself together, managed a shrug. ‘I wasn’t paying that much