One Hundred Proposals: A feel-good, romantic comedy to make you smile. Holly Martin
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Название: One Hundred Proposals: A feel-good, romantic comedy to make you smile
Автор: Holly Martin
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
isbn: 9781472097927
isbn:
‘I had dinner with Jules tonight, she found it amongst his things.’
He pulled me down next to him on the sofa.
‘How’s your gorgeous niece?’
He was delaying, trying to distract me, and I let him as I curled up at his side, the letter in my hand.
‘Beautiful, getting more beautiful each day. God she looks like Jack. The same dark hair, the same eyes. Even the same feet. It breaks my heart that she’ll never know him. He would have made a wonderful father.’
‘He met her though. Got to hold her. And when’s she old enough you can tell her all about him. Play all the practical jokes on her that he played on you.’
‘I’d like that.’
He looked at the letter. ‘Do you want me to read it to you?’
‘No, I want to read it.’
I stared at it. He stared at it. It would have been so much easier if the letters were like the Howlers in Harry Potter, where the envelope would simply shout the contents at you, whether you wanted to open it or not.
‘Come on love.’ Harry put his arm round me. ‘It’s a big deal, I get that. But are you not dying to see what he says. I know I am.’
I quickly slid my thumb under the flap and ripped open the envelope. The letter inside was small, so no huge reams of big brotherly advice then.
I pulled it out and opened it. Harry respectfully waited for his turn to read it. As I started to read, Harry’s fingers stroked the back of my neck.
Dear Stinky,
Stinky Sue, his childhood name for me that had stuck and was subsequently shortened to Stinky, or rather childishly Stinky Poo, or even just Poo. I smiled. I loved my brother so much.
So I’m dead, that kind of sucks. And I had the best practical joke to play on you too. Took months of planning and I was just about to spring it on you when the whole leukaemia thing took over. I’ve asked Jules to finish it for me, so I’d watch your back if I were you.
My biggest regret about dying is not being able to whip your arse on Mario Kart again. You know that I was the better driver and that last time we played you won purely because I was tired from the chemotherapy. But if I thought you were going to go easy on me because of my condition, I was sadly mistaken. I don’t know how you can live with yourself, beating a dying man at a video game. You could have let me win.
I laughed at this.
Know this, as revenge, I put my toe nails in your bed and hid several more around your flat. I know toe nails freak you out. Every time you find one, think of me, and know that I’m watching you. And not in a big brotherly protective way, but in an evil, stalky kind of way. If I can, I’ll rattle my chains and moan a lot now and again just to scare you. I swear, if I can come back and haunt you I will.
Ok now for the serious bit. I talked about this with Jules but with everything else that happened in the last few weeks we just never got round to talking about it with you. I want you to be Bella’s godmother. She needs a wonderful aunt and I know that you will always be there for her, with trips to the zoo and sleepovers and I know you will spoil her rotten. But also I know that if anything were to happen to Jules there is no one else in the world but you that I would want to raise my daughter.
I swallowed a lump in my throat.
I love you and I’m so very proud of you. I want you to be happy. I know you so well and I bet any money that Harry is sitting next to you whilst you read this, probably holding your hand. Tell him I said hi, and that Chelsea sucks, that will piss him off.
‘He says to say hi to you,’ I said.
‘He mentions me?’ Harry smiled proudly.
‘Yeah he says Chelsea sucks.’
The smile fell from his face at the slur on his beloved football team. ‘I’ll give him Chelsea sucks. He’s only saying that because he’s dead and he knows I can’t argue back.’
‘He loved to wind you up.’
Harry smiled, fondly. ‘What else does he say?’
‘Here.’ I leaned into him so he could read the letter too.
And one more thing I want you to do for me, my dying wish – and you can’t refuse a man his dying wish. Tell Harry you love him, that you’ve always loved him and always will be in love with him.
I gasped with horror and snatched the letter back from Harry.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘How far did you get?’
‘The bit about the toe nails, let me read the rest.’
‘NO! No way. It’s private.’
I leapt up out of his reach.
‘We don’t have secrets from each other, we tell each other everything.’ Harry stood up, his eyes dark with mischief. ‘Don’t make me take it from you.’
‘It’s nothing, just… it’s private.’
Harry leapt forward and I turned to run but he caught me around my waist, pulling me back against him. He snatched the letter from my hand and held it up high so I couldn’t reach.
‘Harry, no.’ I leapt up to get it but failed.
‘Now let’s see what little sordid secret you’re keeping from me.’
He started skim reading out loud. ‘Aw, he wants you to be Bella’s godmother, that’s sweet. And he says he loves you, that’s nice, he says hi to me, Chelsea sucks…’
‘HARRY, PLEASE!’ I screamed with such desperation that Harry stopped reading and looked at me.
‘You really don’t want me to read this do you?’
I shook my head frantically. My cheeks were burning and I could feel tears of humiliation pricking my eyes. ‘Please don’t read it, I’m begging you.’
He released me and handed me back the letter without another word. I grabbed it, nearly sagging with relief.
‘Is it something horrible?’
I moved away from him, sitting on the other side of the room, and tried to calm down my heart.
‘No, something that Jack only wanted me to know. Something private for him.’ I couldn’t look at him in case he saw the lies.
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