Page 21

Pete

Closing the front door on Jake’s retreating back, Pete leans his forehead against the cool wood and takes a deep breath.

What a shitshow . Although he knows Emily will be heartbroken if this is the end of the road for her and Jake, Pete can’t help but feel a tiny bit relieved that she might be able to go off to university without Jake as an anchor around her neck.

The murmur of voices coming from overhead tells him that Natalie is upstairs with at least one of the older kids, and he lets his breath out in a long stream.

He needs to find Vanessa while Natalie is otherwise occupied, and get her out of here.

Pausing as he reaches the open patio doors, Pete looks out onto the garden, his eyes running over the guests in search of Vanessa.

For a moment, there is no sign of her and his heart skips, thinking that perhaps she realised what a mistake she was making and left, before a familiar peal of laughter comes from the shade of the apple trees at the rear of the garden and he spots her dark hair.

Oh hell, no . Stu stands beside Vanessa, laughing as she reaches out and touches his arm.

Mari, Stu’s wife, stands to one side, her expression unimpressed, and Pete pushes his way through the other guests until he reaches them, panting slightly.

Of course, she would latch on to Stu.

She must remember him as Pete’s flatmate from first year.

‘Pete? You all right, mate?’ Stu frowns at him, and Pete nods, his mouth suddenly dry.

‘I can’t believe Vanessa is here!

’ Stu gestures in her direction and Vanessa raises her glass to her lips, giving him a coy smile as she does.

Mari just raises an eyebrow.

‘She was saying you guys are doing a brilliant job on that new housing estate. It must be weird to be working together after all this time.’

‘Yeah, it is a bit.’ Pete’s tone is sharp and Stu frowns for a moment, glancing between Pete and Vanessa.

‘I mean … it was weird to see Vanessa’s name in my inbox after so many years.

But everything seems to be OK between us – working together, I mean.

’ Pete’s laugh is too bright, too loud, its jagged edges catching in the air.

‘Anyway, sorry to interrupt you guys, but could I just borrow Vanessa for a moment?’

‘It was so good to see you again, Stu. It’s been a long time.

What is it? Twenty years?

’ Vanessa shakes her head.

‘And it was great to meet you, Mari. I’m sure we’ll run into each other again soon.

’ Vanessa gives Stu’s hand a squeeze, smiling at Mari, and then follows Pete across the grass, her heels sinking into the soft ground.

Behind them, Pete hears Mari raise her voice to Stu as they walk away.

Once they reach the patio doors, Pete gives Vanessa a little shove in the small of her back to get her inside, and then he grasps her elbow and drags her into the cloakroom, out of sight of the other party guests.

‘Gosh, Pete, there was no need to be so rude. I wasn’t going to say anything to Stu about us, if that’s what you were worried about.

’ Vanessa widens her eyes, and Pete tugs at the door handle, making sure it’s tightly closed.

‘What the fuck are you playing at?’ he hisses, pressing his face close to hers.

Pete likes to think of himself as pretty easy-going, but this, today, has his blood hitting boiling point.

‘Why the fuck are you here? How did you even know we were having a party? I certainly never invited you, and what in God’s name do you think you were doing pulling that little stunt with Stu?

’

‘What do you mean, that little stunt ?’ Vanessa blinks, her face pale.

‘I was just chatting to Stu, that’s all.

It’s hardly a crime.

’

‘I mean, turning up here unannounced. At my house. Again . Chatting to Stu like none of this,’ he gestures to her, and then to himself, ‘has ever happened. Do you think you’re being clever?

’ How did she know about the party?

All Pete can think is that she’s been on his laptop.

Looked at his calendar, seen everything that he and Natalie have planned, which isn’t much admittedly, but even so.

He often leaves his laptop on the desk while he walks around site, and he’s not exactly James Bond.

His password is NatEm99.

Hardly uncrackable. The thought of her poking around his private files makes him feel grubby and unsettled.

There’s something … intense about it.

Stalker-ish, almost. ‘You shouldn’t be here.

’

‘Pete, calm down.’ Reaching up, Vanessa winds her arms around his neck and pulls him closer, her perfume invading his senses as her mouth meets his.

For a moment – just a brief, tiny moment – there is the flicker of desire in Pete’s belly, and then he grabs her hands and pulls them free, pushing her away from him.

‘I knew you didn’t mean it,’ she says, running her tongue over her lips.

‘I knew you’d see sense in the end.

’

Pete pauses, his eyes narrowing.

What the hell is she talking about?

Of course he bloody meant it.

And then it’s as if a light bulb goes on over his head and he sighs, scrubbing his hands over his face.

‘Jesus Christ, Vanessa. When I texted you to say I didn’t mean things to end like that, I was talking about what I said about your dad.

That was wrong of me, I should never have thrown your dad back in your face.

But the rest of it …

I stand by what I said.

’ Pete pushes away the thought of Natalie stiffening in his arms for a second before she returned his kiss after his speech.

‘I love my family, Vanessa. I want to be with them, not you.’

Vanessa lets out a sound as though Pete has punched her in the stomach, and when he looks up he sees her face harden, her shoulders pull back.

Even so, there is something sloppy about the way she’s looking at him, as though she can’t quite focus.

Too late, Pete realises that in the short time Vanessa has been in his house, at his daughter’s party uninvited, she has sunk more than her fair share of wine.

‘Vanessa … Ness …’ Panic chills Pete in a cold wave that drenches him from head to foot.

‘Don’t … Don’t overreact.

’ Aware that Natalie is just upstairs – literally above their heads – Pete wants to get Vanessa out of the house as soon as possible before she can make a scene.

After what’s already happened at the party with Emily and Jake, Pete doesn’t know if he can handle much more today.

In fact, he’s wishing he’d never pressed Natalie to hold this bloody party in the first place.

‘Are you kidding me?’ Vanessa’s voice cracks, her mouth tightening into a thin line.

‘You are the one who pursued me, Pete. Oh, Ness, I’m so miserable, my wife doesn’t understand me, she’s let herself go, she doesn’t want to fuck me .

’ Her voice rises and Pete glances up at the ceiling, praying Natalie can’t hear them.

‘Ness, please. I think you should go, we can talk about things later.’

‘Oh, can we? No, I think we can talk about it now, Pete.’ She spits his name in his face.

‘You chased me. Taking me out to dinner, kissing me in the office, making it clear you wanted me. Reminiscing about the past … You knew exactly what you were doing.’

‘Vanessa …’

Her eyes are glassy when she turns her gaze on him now, her mouth trembling as she speaks.

‘I waited for you – do you know that? After you ditched me for Natalie. I was so sure you would see sense eventually. We went through so much together – your parents moving to Oz and you staying behind, my mum and her many men – I didn’t ever really believe you could just throw it all away, like what we had was nothing.

’

‘Vanessa, that was over twenty years ago. We were kids.’

‘I waited ,’ she says again, a hint of urgency in her voice.

‘And then when you came to work on the site, it was like you’d never left.

You must have felt it, Pete?

We still had that connection.

I told you things I had never told anyone before and I thought finally I had someone who would actually listen to me, properly.

You made me feel special, Pete.

You made me think you weren’t happy with Natalie.

You said she was ill, that she made you miserable.

You made me fall in love with you all over again.

’

‘That’s not fair,’ Pete says, a sour taste filling his mouth.

‘You knew I was married. You knew I had kids – a new baby, for God’s sake.

You can’t honestly have thought I would leave my family, leave a tiny baby?

’

Vanessa looks up at him, and Pete realises with a sickening lurch that there is hope in her eyes.

Hope, and a steely determination to not let go of whatever she thinks she’s found.

‘So, if there was no baby then things might have been different? Is that what you’re saying?

’

Jesus Christ. Something hard lodges in Pete’s stomach, a sensation so unfamiliar to him – to kind, easy-going Pete who hates to cause a fuss – that it takes him a moment to realise what it is.

It’s hate. Hate, mixed with a healthy dollop of fear, for this …

this mad woman who caught him in a moment of weakness and nostalgia and now holds all the cards, who can bring everything tumbling down around him.

‘Get out.’ Pete feels the ball of hate grow larger, as Vanessa stares at him, until he’s sure it’s going to burst out of his skin.

‘I mean it. Everything that happened between us was a mistake, do you understand? Get the fuck out of my house and stay the fuck away from my family.’

Vanessa lets out a soft huff of laughter, so low it’s little more than a breath.

‘Oh, Pete, did you really think it would be that simple? Like you said, you’re not my dad, so what gives you the right to tell me what to do?

’ She lifts her chin, giving him a glimpse of the Vanessa he sees at work, and reaches for the door handle.

Relief floods Pete’s body at the thought that, for all her strong words, she might just leave.

‘No man speaks to me like that and gets away with it.’ Vanessa pauses at the cloakroom door.

‘No man gets to treat me the way you’ve treated me, Pete.

Whether you like it or not, this isn’t over.

’ She stares at him, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears before she wrenches the door open, flooding the small cloakroom with music and chatter from the party, the door swinging on its hinges behind her.

Pete’s instinct is to hurry after her, out of the cloakroom, to make sure she really does leave, but he knows he has to sit tight for a few more minutes.

If someone sees him coming out of the cloakroom seconds after Vanessa, then he won’t have to worry about Vanessa spilling the beans to Natalie herself – someone else will do it in a heartbeat.

Slumping against the wall, Pete swallows hard against the wave of nausea hitting him, that same old question battering his mind.

What the hell have I done?

Straining to hear the sound of the front door opening, he wonders if he’s just made things infinitely worse.

Vanessa was intense enough while he was sleeping with her …

and she’s already shown she’s not entirely stable by showing up at his house with that file of incriminating photographs.

Who knows how far a woman scorned will go?