Maximum Exposure Read Online Free PDF Page A

roots.
    ‘Well …’ Kath finished rinsing her hands at the kitchen sink, dried them carefully on the bright red towel (carefully chosen to match the feature wall), and sat back down at the table. Despite her protestations at her husband’s loose remarks, she was the real gossip queen of the family. She leaned forward across the table, with a conspiratorial air. Martin, his wine glass at the ready, leaned forward too. Ben, feeling his overfed stomach bulging against the waistband of his jeans, made up the tight little circle, three heads close together, as if someone might overhear and report them to the Stasi.
    ‘They did say …’
    He listened. Or at least, a part of his brain tuned in to the inconsequential talk. Another part, inevitably, drifted back to the funeral. More specifically, the part of his brain that was wired to women homed in on the photographer, Daisy Irvine.
    Diz. He hadn’t thought about her for years. She’d changed in many respects, but her eyes were the same – big, expressive, slightly startled – just like they used to be when her bully of a father had shouted at her over nothing. They were grey as rain clouds but much more desirable. The mouth was the same too. Curvy. Mobile. She had lips that trembled and quivered and that you longed to still with a kiss. When they curled into a smile, they transformed the eyes from shadowy to alive.
    Stop it Ben Gillies, he chided himself. What’s this about? You’re heartbroken, remember?
    Thoughts of Martina were fading as memories began to flood back. Daisy Irvine had been a skinny little thing. Sixteen years old and never been kissed. He grinned inwardly. Ben, you liar. Remember that time they ran for shelter to the bridge over the Hailes? They’d arrived laughing and giggling and already wet and he’d taken one look at her shivering body, slight and slim under her damp shirt, and he’d hauled her into his arms and started kissing the hell out of her. She’d responded too, until some old geezer had come along with a dog. The bloody creature had jumped up on them, barking and spoiling the moment. Ben could still remember the sense of frustration, and embarrassment, and almost relief that they didn’t have to draw back from whatever might have happened next.
    ‘… I don’t know whether MacMorrow had done anything about it before he popped off.’
    Ben had lost track of the conversation, a fact that hardly escaped Kath Gillies. ‘Ben?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘You haven’t been listening.’
    ‘Sure I have.’
    What did I just say?’
    ‘That … er … that...’ That you could drown in that girl’s eyes.
    ‘I knew it! What were you thinking about?’
    ‘Does Daisy Irvine have a boyfriend?’ Damn. He hadn’t meant to say anything and now of course his mother would make something of it.
    He was right.
    ‘You fancy her?’ Kath was delighted.
    ‘No!’ His fair skin coloured easily. It always had done, so not for the first time Ben cursed this easy betrayal. ‘I was just trying to catch up with gossip, that’s all.’
    ‘He fancies Daisy, Martin! Just wait till I tell Janet.’
    ‘Mother, for God’s sake. It was just a question.’
    ‘Don’t go spreading rumours, Kath. It’ll only backfire,’ Martin rebuked his wife, getting up reluctantly to stack the dishwasher.
    ‘You were saying something about Angus MacMorrow not doing something before he died,’ Ben dredged up desperately from his consciousness in an effort to distract his mother.
    It worked, at least for the moment. ‘The Herald ’s senior sub editor retired a few weeks ago. I know they’d hired someone else but I heard at the funeral that the person was offered a better job and left them in the lurch. So I think they’re a bit desperate.’
    ‘And your point is?’ Ben, who knew perfectly well where his mother was going, was nevertheless going to make her spell it out. It was a small revenge for putting him on the spot about Daisy Irvine. His father, sensing a