Free The Heart Whisperer by Ella Griffin Page A

feel OK about not telling her.’
    â€˜Fine.’ Oonagh closed the Ladurée box and licked her fingers. ‘Let’s just forget this conversation happened.’
    Nick swallowed. An opportunity like this might never come along again. ‘Hang on, just give me a second.’
    â€˜You have about twenty-nine,’ Oonagh said, ‘before Owen comes back from the canteen, finds you here and does his King Kong impersonation.’
    Nick stood up. His heart was racing. ‘OK,’ he said, ‘do it, put me forward.’ Kelly was his biggest supporter. She’d understand.

5
    Kelly opened the fridge to get a bag of salad leaves for lunch. The cake she’d made for Claire was still there, sitting on the middle shelf covered with Saran Wrap. She took it out and put it on the table. It was too pretty to throw away. She peeled the wrap off, picked off the black marzipan stiletto and remodelled it into a black daisy with a red centre then she wrapped the cake up again and got her laptop and her jacket.
    Niamh and Rory had been Kelly’s first Irish clients. They had hired Kelly to redecorate their Regency house in Blackrock. She had taken the ferry to Brittany with Niamh and spent three days scouring the markets and they’d bonded over sofas and tables and chandeliers. She was so close to Nick that there wasn’t really room in her life for friends, but it was fun to have another couple to hang out with from time to time. She hadn’t seen them much over the last three months. They had adopted a little Vietnamese girl and they’d had their hands full. Today, Kelly knew, was her third birthday.
    Niamh’s face lit up when she opened the door. She had finger paint on her face and flour on her wrap-around dress. ‘Come in!’
    â€˜I can’t. I just wanted to drop this over.’ Kelly handed over the cake.
    â€˜Wow! Linh will love it. Just come in for a minute. I’ve been dying for you to meet her!’
    A tiny figure in a tutu flashed past the kitchen door. ‘I’d love to, sweetie,’ Kelly said. ‘But I’ve got a meeting.’
    â€˜Well, let’s get together for a walk soon, the four of us.’ Niamh’s face broke into a happy smile. ‘I mean the five of us. I’m still getting used to that!’
    The bell gave a little jangle as Kelly pushed the door open.
    â€˜Do you need any help?’ A girl smiled up at her from behind a Venetian mirrored desk.
    â€˜Just looking. Oh, this is lovely.’ Kelly picked up a dusky rose crew-neck cotton sweater with tiny mother of pearl buttons.
    â€˜Isn’t it?’ the girl stood up. ‘It’s from the Autumn collection.’
    Along with the rose there was a delicate oyster and a pale blue. Ten minutes later, the girl was wrapping all three in tissue and Kelly was handing over her business credit card. She regretted it the moment she left the shop. Her hand was clammy around the ribbon handles of the bag. They were supposed to be watching what they were spending. Nick would be horrified if he ever found out she’d blown nearly two hundred dollars like this. She’d have to hide the bag with the others.
    Eilish was dancing around the tiny room that served as a kitchen, a living room and a study area for Holly. ‘Hair we go! Hair we go! Hair we go!’ She shimmied past the desk to light the candles on the mantelpiece.
    â€˜Stop!’ Claire put her fingers in her ears. ‘Enough with the awful hair jokes.’
    â€˜Sorry! I just can’t get my head,’ Eilish tossed her black bob, ‘around the fact that we’re both getting thirteen hundred euros for one day’s work!’ She salsaed into the kitchen, pulled a bottle out of the fridge and danced back to fill their glasses, then raised hers in a toast.
    â€˜You gave yourself a year to get your acting career back on track and look what you’ve done in less than a