Free Thinking of You by Jill Mansell

“I’m so glad I met you tonight.”
    â€œMe too.” She watched as he rose to his feet and reached for his car keys.
    â€œI’d better get back. Saturday morning, OK? Elevenish, or is that too hideously early?”
    Ginny shook her head. This was the start of her new life and as far as she was concerned Saturday couldn’t come soon enough. “No problem. Eleven o’clock’s fine.”
    ***
    The trouble with ex-husbands was you could always rely on them to notice things you’d much rather they didn’t.
    And, naturally, to take huge delight in pointing it out.
    â€œHa!” Gavin pointed a triumphant finger at her as he came down the stairs.
    Ginny was determined to bluff it out. “What?”
    â€œYou fancy him.”
    â€œI do not .”
    â€œOh yes you do. You fancy the pants off him. And you’re going red.”
    â€œOnly because you think that,” Ginny protested. “Not because it’s true.”
    â€œI don’t think it, I know it. I heard you.” Smirking, he launched into a wickedly accurate imitation of her, repeating random overheard phrases punctuated with girlish giggles and slightly too loud laughter.
    Why couldn’t she have an ex-husband who lived five hundred miles away? Or in Australia? Australia would be good.
    â€œYou were eavesdropping.” Ginny curled her lip accusingly to let him know how she felt about such low behavior.
    â€œI was making sure you were safe. It was my job to listen to what was going on. Fine chaperone I’d be,” Gavin remarked, “if I sat upstairs with my Walkman clamped over my ears. You could be screaming your head off and I wouldn’t hear a thing. I’d come down to the kitchen just in time to see him stuffing the last bits of you down the waste disposal. Then you’d be sorry.”
    â€œAnyway, he’s moving in on Saturday.” Ginny was defiant. “And I don’t fancy him, OK? He just seems really nice and we get on well together, that’s all.”
    â€œHmm.” Gavin raised a playful eyebrow. “Very well indeed, by the sound of things. Good-looking, is he?”
    â€œAverage,” said Ginny. “Better looking than the other three that came round here tonight. Four, actually.” To get her own back she pointed at Gavin. “Including you.”
    He grinned. “This is going to be interesting.”
    Ginny felt a squiggle of excitement. Interesting.
    She hoped so too.
    Â 

Chapter 10
    By eleven o’clock on Saturday morning the house was all ready and, as if in celebration, the sun had come out. Perry Kennedy would be here soon. Ginny, working on not sounding as if she fancied him, had been practicing her laugh as she tidied around the kitchen, making sure it didn’t get too loud or high-pitched. Of course, once Perry had settled in and they became more used to each other, things would hopefully settle down and she’d stop feeling so—
    Oh God, that sounded like him now! Flinging the dishcloth into the sink, Ginny wiped her hands on her jeans and fluffed up her hair. The throaty roar of a sports car outside died as the engine was switched off. She went to the front door and opened it.
    â€œHi there.” Perry was already out of the car and waving at her. Today he was wearing a dark blue sweater, cream jeans, and Timberlands.
    â€œHi!” Ginny watched as the passenger door opened to reveal a slender woman with a mass of long, red-gold curls and pale, freckled skin. She was staggeringly beautiful and wore a long black coat falling open to reveal a pale gray top and trousers beneath.
    â€œThis is Laurel.” Perry ushered the slender woman toward Ginny. “My sister.”
    Oh, phew, of course she was. All that incredible red-gold hair—what a relief.
    â€œHi, Laurel, nice to meet you.” Ginny shook her hand with enthusiasm.
    Tonelessly, Laurel said, “Hello.”
    â€œCome on then,