No Child of Mine by Susan Lewis Page B

she took it.
    ‘She’s so sweet,’ the lady commented, as Ottilie continued to stare at her.
    Erica didn’t answer. She needed this woman to be gone. She must close the door now, put the shopping away and go upstairs.
    Brian could see to Ottilie when he came in. He always did anyway. Brian always saw to Ottilie. Brian always saw to Ottilie. She’s so sweet. Brian always saw to Ottilie .
    *
    ‘Are you OK?’ Alex murmured breathlessly.
    With his eyes still closed, Jason said, ‘Mm, I’m great. How about you?’
    She smiled, and wrapped herself more tightly around him, loving the feel of her naked skin against his. These moments when they lay entwined after making love were, in their way, even more precious to her than the act itself for how safe and cherished he made her feel. He’d become so central to her life over the last eighteen months that she could hardly remember now what it was like before she’d met him. Nor did she particularly want to when she was so happy. Looking back almost always made her feel sad.
    The tech run had gone brilliantly earlier, everyone had been on great form so they’d sailed through it, making Jason laugh till he ached and Alex want to squeeze and kiss every one of them in pride. Being on such a high no one had felt ready to go home, so they’d all tramped off to the pub where impromptu rehearsals had inevitably broken out, along with wild ideas for publicity, costume changes and how they were going to cope with the paparazzi when they hit the West End.
    Four days to go and Jason’s mate Grant had already delivered half the technical gear they were going to need for the opening night, and knowing Grant as well as she did, Alex had no worries that the rest would turn up in plenty of time. Her biggest concern was the set; however, Steve Perry, the local artist and landscaper who’d designed it, had simply told her to chill, his blokes were on it and no way were they going to let anyone down. Then Mattie had announced that every last ticket for the opening night had now been sold.
    How amazing was that?
    Terrifyingly amazing actually, but brilliant too. This was going to be the Mulgrove Players’ third production in as many years, and Hailey’s Gender Swap was definitely attracting as much if not more interest as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Blithe Spirit . Alex just hoped her Aunt Sheila and Gabby did manage to come, especially when they’d missed the previous two shows. It would mean somuch to her, having them there, provided the performance went well, of course, but she wasn’t going to worry herself about that now. They had three more rehearsals scheduled before Saturday night so if anything did go wrong, there was still plenty of time to put it right.
    ‘You know, you still haven’t told me what you wanted to talk to me about,’ she reminded Jason as he raised an arm for her to rest her head on his shoulder.
    ‘Mm?’ he murmured sleepily.
    ‘You said earlier, on the phone ...’
    ‘Oh yeah, that’s right.’ Taking a moment to bring himself round, he rolled on to his side so he could look at her in the moonlight.
    She’d all but stopped breathing. If this turned out to be what she thought it was she knew exactly what her answer would be, though obviously she understood that they wouldn’t be able to go public or buy a ring or anything until he’d got a divorce from Gina.
    ‘I’ve been thinking,’ he said, tucking her hair behind her ear, ‘that I should do this house up a bit for you. No, hear me out,’ he urged, as she lowered her eyes to cover the crush of disappointment. ‘I know you don’t want to spend money you don’t have when you’re going to sell it, eventually, but I could get all the materials at cost, and the labour, or mine anyway, would come for free.’
    Managing to smile into his eyes and love him for the generosity of his offer, she put a hand to his face as she reminded herself that it really wouldn’t have been right for him to