Free The Harder They Fall by Debbie McGowan Page B

Wales. For all of this (not to mention working from home during the daytime sleeps, even though he was officially on paternity leave, and thus utterly exhausted), James was delighted. So, all things considered, it was fortunate Eleanor had decided to take the week before the wedding off work: the locum was coming in tomorrow to have a look through the patients’ files, although it was the same doctor as had covered for her when the baby was born and nothing much had changed since then.
    She arrived home to find an empty house, other than the white envelope addressed to ‘Ms. Eleanor Davenport’ propped against the coffee jar. She frowned and set down the shopping bags, too curious to leave it until everything was put away.
    “Oh, good Lord,” she said, as she pulled the card from the envelope and realised what it was.
     
    Adele was vacuuming the hall when the post arrived and didn’t notice until the pitch of the vacuum cleaner changed. She tugged the envelope away from the nozzle and squinted at the writing on the front.
    “Mr. Daniel Jeffries and Miss Adele Reeves. Hmm.” She placed it on the telephone table (she had always wanted one, even though the phone was in the lounge) and continued on her way, little Shaunna tottering along behind her with her own mini pink version of an upright Hoover, complete with the ‘H’ logo on the front, but with the batteries removed so it didn’t play that dreadful music all the time.
     
    Kris pushed the envelope across the table to Shaunna and raised an eyebrow.
    “What’s this?” she asked, reading the front. It was addressed to the pair of them.
    “You’ll never guess,” was all he said. She eyed him suspiciously.
    “It best not be money from Andy again.”
    “Can’t be, with both our names on it,” he pointed out.
    Shaunna shrugged and put it down on the table, picking up her cup of tea instead. Kris tutted and continued folding the washing. Their sharing a house was still so entwined with having lived together as a couple that he saw nothing wrong with laundering Shaunna’s underwear. However, she was starting to find it a little disconcerting, because some of it was new and he did insist on passing comment.
    “This is lovely,” he said, holding the silky camisole up against his chest and running his hand across the smooth surface.
    “Thanks,” Shaunna replied, bending her face towards her mug of tea so that she was peering at him through her hair.
    “I don’t remember seeing this before. I bet it’s really comfortable to wear. It’d look fantastic with your red skirt. And those black pumps. Are you going to take it to Wales with you?”
    “Why?” she asked dryly. “Did you want to borrow it or something?” He stuck out his tongue at her. The teasing was a way of covering up her discomfort and he quickly added the camisole to the top of her pile of clothes. He didn’t do it on purpose.
    “I’m a bit worried about the sleeping arrangements for this holiday,” he said in a casual tone that he didn’t quite carry off convincingly.
    “Honeymoon,” Shaunna corrected.
    “How can it be a honeymoon when you’re taking all of your friends with you? I can’t even begin to imagine what James must think.”
    “I know what you mean, but we’ll be fine, even if we do have to share a bed. It’s not like we haven’t done it before.”
    “True.” Kris finished folding the last item and added it to his own pile. At some point they were going to have to brave telling everyone that their marriage was over. In an ideal world they would have said something months ago, when it first happened. Now he was desperate to avoid an inadvertent revelation, which would be inevitable if he asked for a change in sleeping arrangements. He knew he was making a big deal out of nothing; it was only for a week, after all.
     
    Now that George had his very own laptop, he was able to sit and play online games for as long as he liked, although they’d somehow lost their