Free Tempting Fate by Jane Green Page B

head, she starts to feel depressed, berating herself for being so ridiculous, for acting like a lovelorn teenager when she is a forty-three-year-old married mother of two.
    ‘Mom? Mom? Mom!’ She breaks out of her reverie to see three sets of eyes staring at her.
    ‘Hmm?’ She is still worlds away.
    ‘What’s the matter with you?’ Olivia’s voice is filled with teenage disdain. As she tilts her head, her dark hair tumbling over her shoulder, her full lips in a pout, Gabby sees, suddenly, the beauty she is becoming.
    ‘Nothing.’ She smiles. ‘Sorry. Just thinking about everything I have to do.’
    ‘Can you take me to Benefit tomorrow? I need some make-up,’ Olivia says.
    ‘Benefit?’ Gabby blurts out. ‘What’s wrong with CVS?’
    Olivia gives her a withering look. ‘At seventeen? I need the good stuff for my skin now.’
    ‘I go to CVS!’ pipes up Alanna.
    ‘For make-up?’ Gabby looks at her eleven-year-old in horror.
    Alanna shrugs. ‘Just mascara. And maybe lip gloss.’
    ‘First of all, no,’ Gabby says to Alanna. ‘You shouldn’t be wearing any make-up at this age, and Olivia, I don’t know about Benefit. That stuff’s expensive. Can’t we please just go to CVS?’
    ‘No!’ Olivia says. ‘Everyone goes to Benefit, and I can’t wear the stuff from CVS any more. It gives me allergies.’
    Gabby looks at her sceptically. ‘Since when?’
    Olivia doesn’t break eye contact. ‘Since it started giving me allergies.’
    ‘Well, what do you need? Maybe we can go to Benefit, but it depends how much you need. I don’t mind buying one or two things.’
    ‘Thank you, Mom!’ Olivia leans over and plants a kiss on Gabby’s cheek. They both know they will be walking out of the store with a bag filled with make-up. Olivia is delighted she will get her way; Gabby is happy not to have a fight on her hands and can go back to thinking about Matt.
    The more she thinks, the more humiliated she becomes. She wishes she hadn’t sent the blossom, wishes she wasn’t sitting here feeling stupid for having done so, wishes she hadn’t responded to anything, and certainly not with the overt flirtation she now deeply regrets.
    ‘I’m going to bed.’ Gabby leans over to kiss Elliott, then the girls, all transfixed by
The Voice
.
    ‘Stay!’ Elliott says. ‘You always watch this with us.’
    She stands up. ‘Not tonight. I’m tired. I’m going up to read.’
    Her book manages to take her mind off the lack of response, although she allows herself another read of his emails before she switches off the light. Perhaps it is her turn to write back, she thinks suddenly, making sense of his silence throughout the afternoon. Perhaps that’s what he’s waiting for?
    But no. She can’t. Stop this, she tells herself. You are a grown-up getting yourself worked into a state over a man you don’t care about. If you’re getting attached to some outcome here, it’s you that’s doing it, not him. This is ridiculous, and I’m not going to respond any more.
    Feeling much better, she switches off the light, curls up and goes to sleep.
    At 2.34 a.m., Gabby wakes up. Next to her, Elliott lies on his back, snoring loudly.
    ‘Ssssh,’ she says loudly, close to his ear. He doesn’t move. ‘Elliott, you’re snoring,’ she says, pushing him so that he rolls over gently, still fast asleep.
    Gabby slides her iPhone off the nightstand and scrolls through her emails. Junk, mostly. And one from Matt.
    Her heart pounds as she creeps out of bed and into the bathroom, refusing to read the email until she is alone and safe; it is a treat she wants to savour.

Ms Sloth – I love the picture of you curling up on the sofa in the fall. And your description of spring makes me long to be there – I’m going to have to start marking off the days. I went surfing today, which is the greatest advantage of living here. I’m attaching a picture taken with a group of my surf friends. Surfing, to me, is the greatest feeling in the