Now and Then Friends Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Sure. Thanks for the invite.”
    â€œGood. That’s settled, then.” Lucy headed into the shop, and Claire watched her go, bemused and yet grateful for the American’s overwhelming friendliness. God knew she could use a friend.

3

Rachel
    The pub quiz was the highlight of Rachel’s week. For an hour she escaped the stifling confines of her house, dressed up, drank wine, and got to feel smart. Four ways to win.
    She hummed under her breath as she put on mascara and wondered if her new magenta sweater was too clingy. There was trying and then there was trying too hard. She definitely didn’t want to be in the latter camp, but she liked looking nice, and Rob Telford had been giving her the eye the other week, if she wasn’t mistaken.
    She hadn’t dated much in the last ten years—a few fumbled attempts hardly counted—and she wasn’t sure she wanted to date Rob Telford. But she wouldn’t mind flirting a little tonight. She could use the distraction. She’d been in a bad mood since yesterday, when Claire West had waltzed back into Hartley-by-the-Sea.
    Although, actually, Claire wasn’t the waltzing type. Mincing, perhaps. Or maybe tiptoeing. But the fact remained she was here, and it made a lot of old, hard memories resurface. Memories that didn’t directly have to do with Claire, but hurt all the same. The loneliness and isolation and pure desperation of the years after her mother’s accident. The struggle to hold on to her dreams, and then watching them all scatter.
    But she wasn’t going to think about any of that tonight. She was going to flirt and drink wine and maybe even win the pub quiz for once.
    â€œWhat are you smiling about?”
    Rachel met Meghan’s speculative gaze in the mirror. “Nothing.”
    â€œYou seem in a good mood,” Meghan remarked, and came to sit down on the edge of Rachel’s bed, bouncing lightly on the mattress. “And you’re wearing a tight sweater that shows off your boobs. Who’s that for?”
    Rachel pressed her lips together and concentrated on her mascara. “I like to look nice,” she said. “And I’m in a good mood because I’m going out for a change.”
    â€œFor a change? You go out every Thursday.”
    â€œCan we not do this, Meghan?”
    â€œDo what?”
    Rachel slipped the mascara wand back into the tube with more force than needed and was rewarded with a smear of black across her fingers. “This. This bickering. I’m not in the mood.”
    â€œYou call this bickering? Clearly you don’t remember our childhood.”
    â€œActually, I do. I remember you being monumentally lazy, eating crisps and watching telly while I did all the bloody work. Oh, wait. Nothing’s changed.”
    Her sister simply raised her eyebrows and gave her a gratingly familiar catlike smile. “Ouch. That’s harsh, even for you.”
    â€œSorry,” Rachel muttered. “I’m just . . . tense.”
    â€œWhy?”
    Rachel knew she couldn’t tell Meghan about Claire. She couldn’t even articulate it to herself, and in any case, she and Meghan never talked about that time. They’d both drawn a line across it, kept their heads down and soldiered on. “Where’s Nathan?” she asked as she grabbed a tissue and scrubbed at her fingers.
    â€œI put him to bed early. He was tired from playgroup.”
    Meghan and Nathan shared the biggest bedroom in their three-bedroom terraced house. Lily had had the little box room, but a year ago Rachel had taken it and given Lily the other double, so she had room for a desk. Now Rachel squeezed past Meghan and reached for her coat. With her bed and bureau crammed in the six-by-six space, there was barely room to breathe. There certainly wasn’t room for both her and Meghan to be in there comfortably. Sharing the same house was bad enough.
    â€œI need to go,” she