Page 49 of Lost in Love

Chapter 14

Anna grasped at the partially clad lady knocker yet again, pushing the same thoughts as always to the back of her mind. The door was answered by Rebecca.

“Anna, nice to see you again. Harry, it’s nice to meet you. Come on in. Kat’s in the kitchen.”

Kat!A pang of jealousy shot through Anna. She wanted to be the one to call her Kat.

Anna delivered Harry to his usual seat in front of the television and helped him find the correct channel. Rebecca was working away on a laptop on the kitchen island when she entered, a glass of champagne next to her. Katherine was clearly dressed up under her apron. Her short skirt and stockinged legs made Anna suck in her breath, drawing her thoughts back to the last time she’d been in the kitchen and caressed parts of Katherine she’d once dreamed of. She wished Rebecca wasn’t there so she could close the doors and do it all over again.

“Becks, can you do Anna a glass?”

“Oh, sure.” Rebecca shot up.

Becks! They had pet names for each other; maybe they weren’t just good friends, or at least in the past hadn’t been. She felt jealous of their closeness.

Katherine approached her, taking her breath away again as she grew nearer. When she wrapped her arms around her and kissed her, slipping her tongue into her mouth, Anna almost buckled. She tasted of champagne.

Rebecca filled a glass with champagne and passed it to Anna.

Katherine returned to pottering around the kitchen, and Anna took a seat beside Rebecca at the island.

“Harry, can I get you anything?” Katherine called through to the sitting room.

“I’m all right at the minute, doc. Thanks.”

Rebecca hit a button on her laptop and then shut the lid. She turned to Anna as she took a sip from her glass.

“No tours this weekend, Anna?”

“I’ve been training two new tour guides. This is their first weekend going it alone.”

“You were the only tour guide before, am I right?”

“Yes, just me. My boss covers when I’m not there.”

“With your dad to care for too. No wonder you fainted.”

“Yes, it was getting a bit much, but I needed to make a good impression when I first started. It seems to have paid off. I should have weekends completely free now, well, to spend a bit more time with Dad.”

Katherine coughed loudly.

Anna smirked. “And Katherine, of course. So, how long have you two been friends?” Anna thought it might be a good time to extract information about their friendship.

Katherine and Rebecca looked at each other and grinned. Anna’s heart sank. An in-joke, she regretted asking.

“Rebecca pulled me out of the backwater at Cambridge.”

“She was hopelessly drunk and fell out of the punt. I was on the punt behind, working, I might add.”

“She dragged me on to her punt and got me back to shore. Her digs weren’t far away, so she let me clean myself up. We got to chatting and hit it off,” Katherine said.

“We shared a house in our remaining years.”

“Until you left me stranded in Cambridge all alone because you were called to the bar.”

“You were never alone, Katherine.” Rebecca winked at Anna.

Anna fidgeted in her seat. She was sure Katherine had a past, but it wasn’t something she wanted to hear about so soon or from someone else.