Free The Keeper of Secrets by Amanda Brooke Page B

streets.’
    â€˜Really? Well, I’m sure your daddy meant she could be a supermodel on the catwalk,’ Angie said.
    â€˜Yes, that’s exactly what I meant.’
    Rick had a fixed grin as he stared at Angie. Holding his gaze, Angie said, ‘Why don’t you boys retire to the dining room while we girls do what we do best? Cook something up for our men.’ She reached over to tickle Charlie’s sides. ‘And that means you, too.’
    â€˜Charlie’s chief cook,’ Rick told her. ‘I think he wants to stay here and help Mummy. Don’t you, Charlie?’
    â€˜No, he doesn’t,’ Angie replied for him. ‘Here, I’ll carry your juice in for you.’
    â€˜It’s OK, let me,’ Chris offered and with some effort, he herded the men out of the kitchen, leaving Angie and Elle to their own devices.
    â€˜I’m sorry, Angie.’
    â€˜You know, even if there had been the remotest chance of a reconciliation, there’s no way it’s happening now. I’m not letting Rick take the credit.’
    â€˜So there was a remote chance?’
    Angie spoke slowly and deliberately. ‘No, Elle. I have no time for a man who has to wait for an invitation to dinner before he’ll think about fighting for his marriage. Now, back to more pressing matters,’ she said, picking up her drink and the pace. ‘I want you to tell me exactly what’s going on. I love you to bits, Elle, but I was being polite about the supermodel thing. Your makeup hasn’t completely camouflaged the dark circles under your eyes. What on earth’s happened?’
    Elle knew they wouldn’t have long; there was no time to sugar-coat her news. ‘I was right. He was having an affair.’
    Angie’s jaw tightened and her words were taut. ‘I knew it!’
    â€˜He spent all his married life living a lie, we all did …’ Elle stopped. She looked at Angie and caught the flush rising in her cheeks as her friend looked away. Her blood ran cold. ‘You thought I was talking about Rick, didn’t you?’
    Angie twisted the wine glass in her hand. ‘It did sound like that was what you meant,’ she said in a lame attempt to dig herself out of a hole.
    â€˜You really think he’s having an affair?’
    â€˜Don’t you?’ There was genuine surprise in Angie’s voice, but then her face softened as she had second thoughts. ‘Sorry, Elle, you’ve got enough to deal with as it is. Please don’t listen to me. I’m only looking for new ways to demonize the man that causes you such misery.’
    â€˜I’m not saying it’s never crossed my mind. He does go off the radar quite a bit,’ Elle said. ‘And last Saturday, when he said he was called away to work … Where did he go?’
    â€˜You really could do better.’
    Elle laughed bitterly. ‘My dad would say I already have, but it doesn’t matter what’s best for me. It’s all about what’s best for Charlie.’
    â€˜The two aren’t mutually exclusive. If you’re happy then Charlie will thrive and if Rick never appreciates you, and if he does have … outside interests,’ Angie added diplomatically, ‘then how can you be happy?’
    â€˜Do you know what’s really sad? It wouldn’t bother me if Rick did have someone else. Actually, I think I’d feel relieved. With any luck, he’d leave. Then I wouldn’t have to make the decision.’
    â€˜You’re really thinking about it, aren’t you?’
    Elle avoided the answer by looking at the kitchen clock on the wall. It was eight o’clock. ‘I’d better get Charlie to bed. Could you start taking the soup into the dining room for me?’
    With some brief instructions, Angie was left to serve up and to wonder if her friend was finally beginning to see sense.

11
    When Elle tucked Charlie up in bed he had a