Katy Carter Keeps a Secret Read Online Free PDF

it to myself any longer, I whisper, “I want to do something special that he knows will have taken an effort. I think he’s bought me an engagement ring at last!”
    Maddy’s dark eyebrows shoot into her curly hair. “No way! Seriously? What makes you think that?”
    Actually, I’m not sure I can remember now, but I haven’t thought about much else for hours and now it seems totally possible.
    “Just a feeling. He left early and didn’t leave me anything. I think he’s hidden a ring in the house.”
    Maddy looks worried. “Did he mention doing that?”
    “Not exactly,” I admit. I might have mentioned it a few times though, and Ollie’s bound to have got the hint. This tactic worked a treat with getting him to start putting the loo seat down and to stop eating pickled onions before bedtime, so why not for engagement rings too? “He did text ring later though.”
    “As in ring ?” She mimes a phone with her hand. “Or ring as in finger?”
    I’m not sure to be honest. Put like this it does seem a rather tenuous link.
    “I don’t know,” I confess.
    “So he might not have done it?”
    Talk about raining on my parade. Maddy Lomax is more like a monsoon.
    “I’m pretty sure he has,” I say firmly. “Come on, Mads! Isn’t it romantic? Ollie wouldn’t have just gone to work without wishing me happy Valentine’s Day, would he?”
    “He might if he’d forgotten.”
    As if Ollie would ever forget Valentine’s Day! He knows how much it means to me. Every year since we’ve been together he’s always come up with something thoughtful. From midnight picnics on the beach with thermoses of tea to a little treasure hunt in the cottage, he’s always made it special.
    “There’s no way he’d forget,” I reassure her. “This year is just going to be the best Valentine’s of all and I know exactly why. I really think he’s going to propose!”
    “In that case all those wedding magazines you keep leaving around the house will have been worth every penny,” she says.
    “I don’t keep leaving them around the house!”
    “Of course you do.” Maddy grins at me. “It’s not the subtlest hint but fingers crossed it’s worked.”
    “It’s not hinting. It’s… subliminal!”
    “Don’t get all huffy. I’m not criticising you,” my best friend says, selecting a packet of Arborio rice and dropping it into my basket. “I definitely think it’s time you and Ollie got married and were as miserable as the rest of us. Joke!” she adds when she catches my expression. “You’ve been together for ages and you’re perfect together, we can all see that. Sometimes guys just need a bit of a prod.”
    “Did Richard?” I’m curious about this. The way the Rev goes on I half suspect God nipped down from heaven and told him to pop the question.
    “Duh! Of course. You know how long it takes him to make his mind up about anything,” Mads says. “Remember how I had to persuade him to have the kids?”
    Actually I’m trying very hard to forget. Mads was a woman on a mission and got me embroiled in all kinds of mad schemes in her raise money for a second honeymoon plan. In a weird twist of fate Richard’s plans turned out to be even more hare-brained, and traumatic enough to send me screaming to the educational psychologist’s office.
    On cue, Spiderman and Donatello come charging by on a circuit of the village shop, cheeks bulging hamster fashion with sweets, and buzzing with sugar. Those two should come into school for the sex ed lessons. Ten minutes with the Lomax twins would put any horny teenager off the concept of unprotected sex, and I’d never have to teach the dreaded condom-on-the-banana lesson again.
    “I have to be the first to officially congratulate you. Don’t you dare show Frankie first or even your sister,” she orders, making a swipe for Rafferty and missing. “Come here, you little bu— buttercup!”
    “You’re my oldest friend, so of course I’ll tell you first.”
    “I’ll