Freya North 3-Book Collection: Love Rules, Home Truths, Pillow Talk. Freya North

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СКАЧАТЬ on tiptoes to kiss and kiss him some more. Calmly, he encircled her waist with his arms, lifted her up and continued to walk towards Patisserie Valerie while Thea laughed and embraced him as he carried her.

      ‘Oh here, this is for you,’ Saul said. ‘It’s only silver – but I thought it was very you. The jeweller is Ian’s sister.’

      Outside Waitrose, Thea looked at the ring. It was inscribed.

      ∞ I have spread my dreams under your feet ∞

      ‘Tread softly because you tread on my dreams,’ Thea said quietly, completing the stanza. She loved that Yeats poem. She looked at Saul, elated, awash with love and brimful of excitement for their future. Their dreams were shared, their future spread ahead. For Thea, not even the most sumptuous wedding in the world, or the most gorgeous flat on the market, or the most expensive ring from Tiffany, could actually better the dizzying happiness she felt just then.

      ‘Well done, mate,’ Richard said to Saul, slipping his racquet into its cover.

      ‘But you slaughtered me,’ Saul laughed as they headed from the court to the showers.

      ‘I meant about Thea, you prat!’ Richard said with a friendly shove. ‘Sally told me you’re buying a little love nest together.’

      ‘We’ve signed up our flats with Cohen & Howard,’ Saul called over the shower cubicle.

      ‘Wise,’ Richard affirmed. ‘Did they drop their commission?’

      ‘You bet,’ Saul said, ‘I mean, both properties should be a doddle to sell. And we both bought at the right time.’

      ‘Well, if you need an architect,’ Richard laughed.

      ‘Discount?’ Saul joshed, grabbing a towel and throwing one to Richard.

      ‘Yeah, right,’ Richard laughed. ‘Anyway, what are you looking for and where?’

      ‘I thought I’d have a tough job suggesting Thea relinquish her Crouch End affections,’ Saul mused, ‘but actually she’s really into the idea of central London.’

      ‘There are some great developments near Covent Garden,’ Richard informed him, ‘the Drury Lane end. I know of one not yet released – I could try and organize a viewing.’

      ‘That would be cool,’ Saul thanked him, ‘I know Thea likes the idea of Bloomsbury too. But she’s seen too many Merchant Ivory films.’

      ‘I have to say, the area you’re in at the moment is fabulous,’ Richard commented, heading out from the changing room.

      ‘I’ll drink to that,’ said Saul, clanging shut the locker and following him out of the changing room.

      ‘You’ll drink to me trouncing you at squash first,’ Richard laughed over his shoulder, as they headed for the bar, ‘and then we’ll drink to you and Thea.’

      ‘And then we’ll wet your baby’s head,’ Saul elaborated.

      ‘And then we’ll raise a glass to my wife,’ Richard said.

      ‘I can’t believe we haven’t been out to celebrate Juliette’s birth,’ Saul marvelled, ‘we must be talking four months or so.’

      ‘Christ, I had to negotiate hard with Sally, let me tell you,’ Richard sighed. ‘I get tonight off only on the guarantee of a midnight curfew and the assurance of only mild wooziness as opposed to utter inebriation. And she’s factored into the equation a lie-in on Saturday and her own night out with Thea and Alice next Wednesday.’

      ‘She drives a tough bargain, your wife,’ Saul commented, raising his glass to her nonetheless.

      ‘I have my two beautiful girls,’ Richard declared with a happy shrug, ‘they have me wrapped around their little fingers – but I’m a pretty happy captive.’

       Hullo, little home. Hullo, my little slice of Lewis Caroll Living. I’ve entrusted you to some wide-boy estate agent with a dodgy goatee beard. Lance from Cohen & Howard’s Muswell Hill office. He says you’ll be a breeze to sell. And I have no idea why I feel guilty. Like I’m abandoning you to some unknown fate, like I’m turning my back on you after all the security you’ve given me. But I like to think of some other Thea chancing upon you, living here and loving it until life moves her along too. Saul says I mustn’t become emotional about selling. I walloped him for that – what a daft thing to say. Of course it’ll be an emotional process. Do you know he says it would be better for me not to meet potential purchasers? He ganged up with Lance on that one. Saul says he knows me, he says if potential purchasers don’t live up to my exacting expectations, I won’t sell to them even if they offer the asking price. But to me, that’s obvious – to him, that’s daft. Lance looked horrified.

       This home is an extension of me – an expression of who I am and how I’ve been; a living photo album, an entire diary of my last five years. All the things these walls have seen! All the comfort I’ve felt here, the safety of it all – the stains from my tears, the marks of my happiness. I could write a novel about it! I can’t possibly sell to someone who won’t love this place as I have. I’ll always love Crouch End and my memories of my gorgeous first flat will remain vivid and cherished. I was very, very happy here. When I was a single girl. All that time ago.

      The first person who walked through Thea’s front door made an offer within twenty-four hours. The second person who viewed the property half an hour later, made an offer the next day of the asking price. Lance warned the third person before they went to see the flat that he’d already had two offers within twenty-four hours of the property being on the market. That person saw Thea’s flat and offered the asking price there and then, before they’d even stood in the hallway with all the doors closed for maximum Lewis Carroll impact. Thea didn’t quite know why she declared she needed a night to think about it. And nor did the potential purchaser, who promptly raised his initial offer of the asking price by a full five thousand pounds, guaranteed a speedy exchange of contracts and volunteered details of his lawyer, his surveyor and his mortgage company. ‘Let me sleep on it,’ Thea pleaded with Lance.

      ‘Well, sweet dreams, darls,’ he said to her, ‘but you’d better get an early night because I’m telling you, they’ll be on the phone as soon as the office is open tomorrow morning.’

      That evening, Thea thought how Peter Glass calling her ‘babes’ was more classy, more genuinely affectionate than Lance’s ‘darls’. But she couldn’t let that influence her decision. She just wanted a night all alone in her home before she gave the go-ahead. She sent some goodnight kisses in a text message to Saul but it was to Alice that she sent a text: fuck fuck fuck do i sell sell sell??? Tx

      The reply was immediate: yes yes yes Axxxxxxxxx

       bloke = nice gay guy who sez flat is DIVINE!

      Thea sent back.

      sounds perfct! ;–) Alice wrote.

      r u watchng ER? Thea texted back

      yes! Alice replied, Carter damn cute

      Luka cuter! Thea responded.

      fone СКАЧАТЬ