Cupid's Way Read Online Free PDF Page A

said. ‘Let’s get back to your place and I can tell you all about my trip.’
    Frank drove a Motability supermini so narrow there was barely enough room on the back seat for Evie and her suitcase. His scalp brushed against the roof of the car every time he turned his head.
    ‘Does this thing even go over thirty miles an hour?’ Evie said when they joined the bypass.
    ‘Not with this old grouch driving,’ Mavis told her, craning her neck to see into the back. ‘He’s worried about losing his licence. Thinks if he gets so much as a ticket the police will whip it off him before you can say “bus pass”.’
    ‘Bus passes aren’t such a bad thing, are they?’ Evie watched a cyclist overtake them on the inside lane.
    Mavis put her finger to her lips. ‘Frank has a new saying – “We’re not old, we’re retro.” I think he’s in denial.’
    Evie smiled to herself. Her grandfather wasn’t the only one, by the looks of things. She leaned her head against the window and watched the familiar sights roll by. The nightclub where she’d had her first kiss. The river that ran through the centre of the city, where she’d walked hand in hand with Petey Bateman fifteen years ago, feeling buoyant and full of promise. The branch of Superdrug where she’d first experimented with make-up, and the old part of town, home to countless doorways perfect for secret snogging, or just for hanging out with her friends.
    Happy memories. Most of them, anyway.
    ‘Weren’t you affected by the storm here at all?’ she asked as they passed some hoardings behind which huge cranes posed like giant metal swans. One of the hoardings had come loose from its concrete base, slumping back on itself at an odd angle, but this was the only evidence of wind damage Evie had seen so far. Mavis started to answer, but Evie interrupted her. ‘Hold on, isn’t that where the coach station used to be?’
    Mavis nodded. ‘Another casualty of progress. It’s going to be a fancy-schmancy hotel, I heard. Or possibly more shops.’
    ‘Because what we really need around here is more shops,’ Frank said. His voice held more venom than Evie had heard in a long time.
    ‘You don’t sound too happy about it, Gramps. Has this got something to do with Cupid’s Way?’
    ‘Kind of.’ Mavis looked at her husband’s stony profile, then turned back to Evie. ‘It’s the same company – Dynamite Construction. They’re everywhere right now, and not just in this city either. We looked them up on the computer and they are huge. I mean, enormous. They’re building shopping centres and retail parks and those leisure complex thingies. And houses too, of course. All over the place. Frank says it’s hopeless, going up against a company like that.’
    Frank made a huffing sound as he flicked down the indicator. Mavis paused, but when he didn’t speak she carried on in a hushed tone.
    ‘Their CEO is going to be at the meeting today. He’s flying in from Germany, apparently. It’s got the others really het up. They’re talking as if it’s a done deal already, but it can’t be, can it?’
    ‘Of course not.’ Evie took her grandmother’s hand in hers. She was taken aback by how light it felt, dry bones wrapped in tissue-paper-skin. ‘It’s not a done deal until planning consent has been given, Gran, and even then there’s an appeal process. But we’re eons away from that stage. This is just a preliminary meeting, you said. Just for the residents of Cupid’s Way to see what’s being proposed.’
    Mavis opened her mouth to speak, but whatever she was about to say was drowned out by a torrent of abuse from the driver’s seat. Frank swerved so sharply Evie nearly hit her head on the window. He stopped the car and yanked on the handbrake. Evie pushed herself upright and peered between her grandparents’ heads.
    In the middle of the narrow street stood a white shire horse – a monster of a beast, with a long fringe over blinkered eyes and white fringing