Free The Fallout by Tamar Cohen Page B

was out for a meal in Soho and called her to say she’d just seen Dan having dinner with a woman.”
    â€œDan has dinner with lots of women. That’s part of his job.”
    â€œI know. I said that. Listen, you don’t need to get testy with me!”
    Hannah glared at him. But rather than feeling guilty, her defensiveness just added to Josh’s sense of grievance. It was all right for her. She was at home all day. She was probably enjoying having all these people around all the time, all this activity, all this drama. She ought to try working in a proper job, where you went out all day and looked forward to getting home for a bit of peace and quiet.
    â€œAnyway,” she continued, “this friend had no idea Sasha and Dan were splitting up. If that’s what they’re doing. She only made a big thing about Dan and this other woman as a joke, apparently, but Sasha came straight here to drop off September and now she’s off in hot pursuit.”
    â€œDo you think it’s her? Sienna? ”
    â€œGod knows. I’d bloody murder Dan if it was, after all his promises. Sasha says she’s sure it isn’t but she wants to put her mind at rest. She promises she’s just going to look through the window. She’s not going to make a scene or anything.”
    â€œYeah, it’s not as if Sasha’s the making-a-scene type, after all!”
    Hannah made a face.
    â€œShe promised me she wasn’t going to, anyway. She didn’t even seem that bothered, she just said she knew she was being stupid but she wanted to see for herself, then she’d come straight back. She’ll probably be here any minute.”
    â€œYeah, unless she’s stabbed him through the heart. You did frisk her for sharp objects, I hope?”
    â€œLook, like you said, Dan works with lots of women and does a lot of business over dinner. Sasha is just overreacting to everything at the moment. I’ll bet you anything she comes through the door in the next half hour absolutely mortified.”
    â€œSasha doesn’t do mortified, Hannah. Sasha only does vindicated or ‘Now I’ll make this into an amusing story to make myself look cute and quirky.’”
    â€œWhy are you so down on her suddenly? Don’t you think she’s having a hard enough time without her friends turning on her as well?”
    Hannah rarely raised her voice, and as Josh gazed at her in surprised reproach, he noticed for the first time how tired she looked. Her blue eyes looked almost colorless against the dark mauve shadows underneath. This situation was taking its toll on her, too.
    â€œI just wish things could go back to how they were before,” he sighed, uncomfortably aware he was sounding a bit like his own four-year-old daughter.
    As if on cue, from the hallway came the sound of Lily’s panicked voice.
    â€œMummy! Daddy!”
    Glad of the distraction, he strode off into her room. Nudging open the door with its pink gingham letter L interwoven with yellow and white daisies, he was thrown off guard by finding September sitting perched on Lily’s duvet, gazing at him impassively, while a just-woken Lily, eyes still wild and confused from sleep, cowered at the other end of the bed, rubbing her arm.
    â€œTember woke me up,” she whined. “She pinched me.”
    September continued gazing levelly at him.
    â€œCouldn’t sleep,” she said, by way of explanation. “Don’t like your bedroom.”
    â€œBut you shouldn’t have woken Lily up, should you, September? And you shouldn’t have pinched her. That wasn’t kind, was it?”
    â€œYou’re not kind,” said September, her voice rising dangerously. “You’re mean and I don’t like you!”
    Her face crumpled in on itself and she started crying.
    â€œWhat the hell is going on in here?”
    Josh had no idea how Sasha could have got in so suddenly. He hadn’t been