guilty at how thankful I was to be able to lie down without being leaped upon. Lack of sleep had left me a little bit cranky and six months worth of sex in two days had left me with what Katie would have called âa fanny like a nail fileâ so when the phone rang I didnât exactly leap to answer it.
âHello.â
âOh dear. I thought you were away for the weekend?â
âCal, if you thought I was away, why did you ring me?â
âI mean, I thought youâd been away and would therefore be all sparkly and rejuvenated.â
âYeah, Iâm sparkly. Thatâs me, sparkly. Like Barbieâs party frock.â
âBarbie is an alien invader from the planet Busty. Now, do you want to know why Iâm ringing?â
I smiled down the phone, suddenly less tired. âAll right. Why are you ringing?â
There was an answering smile in Calâs voice. âBecause Iâm very bored. Oh, and to tell you that Iâve fixed your laptop.â
âWell, thatâs good. Can I still pick it up tomorrow?â
âOf course. Iâm looking forward to it. Iâve descaled the kettle in honour of your visit and built a rather nice little gazebo out of the limey bits.â
âI thought you had to have a garden to have a gazebo.â
âWindowbox gazebos are in this year, you know. So, Iâll see you tomorrow?â
âIâll be there.â I was still smiling when I put the phone down. Cal really was the weirdest creature, but he did make me laugh. That was the one thing lacking in Luke, I thought, starting to unpack, wondering whether these expensive clothes could be machine-washed. It would be unfair to say that Luke didnât have a sense of humour, although he was the kind of man who thinks off-the-wall refers to a dado rail. But thenâI winced as I sat down too quicklyâLuke had many other compensations, some of which more than made up for a lack of chuckles.
The telephone rang again and for some reason I expected it to be Cal. âHello,â I answered cheerily. âStill bored?â
The line whistled and shrieked like a haunting. âHello?â said a distant voice, eventually.
âHi, Clay. Whatâs up?â Clay never rang unless there was a problem.
âIâm coming back, Will. Can I stay with you again?â
A minor twitch of irritation. âI suppose. Why?â
The line wailed as my words twanged off the satellite and bounced back down in China. âFed up,â I made out, as the reply floated back. âDecided to take time off, find out whatââcrackle crackleââreally want to do.â
Sod. So not even a flying visit then. Good job I hadnât bothered changing the sheets from his last visit. And, a large plus, Clayâs room was in the attic, with its own bathroom. That put three doors and a well-insulated ceiling between us, should I decide to, ahem, entertain . Whilst I hadnât actually been planning nights of noisy debauchery with Luke, I wasnât going to let the presence of an older brother in the house put me off. âOf course, itâll be fine.â
But the line was dead, heâd gone. Whisked back into the world of the merchant bank, which was clearly not all it was cracked up to be. It would be exactly like the old days, brothers hanging out of windows watching my every romantic move. But this was his home as much as it was mine. I could hardly come over all Lady of the Manor and deny my siblings shelter, could I? Bugger it.
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Monday morning. Katie and I huddled in my office with a supply of chocolate biscuits, the phone on divert and a sign on the door warning Neil and Clive what happened to the last man to interrupt us.
âSo? What did he say about the fifty grand?â
âI didnât get to tell him. Every time I started to say something⦠Letâs just say, we didnât really do much talking this