All She Ever Wished For
Page 39
With that, loud applause broke out as Kate smiled at the room. It had indeed been a long journey – and not just for the painting either. And yet take a look at me now, she thought. She was in a better place than she had been for years, she was far more fulfilled, more independent, much more like the Kate Lee of old. Work offers had begun to pile in for her – she’d been invited to be a spokeswoman for several charities and even better, the gallery had even offered her an honorary position on its board, something she was particularly excited about.
Meanwhile she was still living with Mo while actively house-hunting and loving every minute of it. And as if that wasn’t enough, to her total astonishment she’d even been asked out on a date. By an old friend of Mo’s, as it happened, a sweet, genuine man, who was almost the complete and total opposite to Damien.
Yes, life was most certainly looking up, Kate thought, as loud cheers now began to break out all around the room. She took a moment to look proudly around her, before her eyes lingered back on the painting.
You’re home, was all she could think. You’ve finally come home.
Hugh Lane can be at peace now and you know something? Maybe I can too.
*
‘Wonderful speech, wasn’t it?’ said Jasper to Bernard, where they both stood at the side of the room, champagne flutes in hand.
‘Absolutely top-notch,’ said Bernard. ‘And did you hear that the gallery have invited Kate Lee to take a position on its board? A most welcome addition too, I should think.’
‘Absolutely,’ Jasper nodded in agreement. ‘So when this bunfight is over,’ he went on, ‘how about a little nightcap back at the club?’
‘Oh, I’d love nothing more,’ Bernard beamed delightedly, thinking what a perfect evening this had been too. A Rembrandt restored to its rightful place and now a lovely sherry at the club to round things off. Bliss.
‘Wonderful,’ said Jasper. ‘In that case, I’ll just call Mother and tell her I’ll be a little late home.’
EPILOGUE
TESS
Six months later
Tess checked her watch for the hundredth time that morning. 9 a.m. on the button. Neither too early nor too late, just bang on time. She was driving through Monkstown village scanning the streets for parking, and her mind was already made up. She’d walk in, grab a paper, order a coffee, wait exactly the same length of time as it took her to drink it, then if he hadn’t turned up by then, she’d hand the paper back and leave. No raised eyebrows from anyone else, nothing. She’d just look like someone who was just on their way to work and who’d dropped off for a quick caffeine hit, nothing more. Potential for mortification? Zero.
The weird thing was that she’d had absolutely no contact from Will in the past six months, nor he from her. She purposely hadn’t given him her mobile number and, probably sensing that she needed time out, he hadn’t pushed her for it either. So absolutely anything at all could have been going on in his life in the interim, she thought, her mind racing.
He could have met someone else by now. He could even be in a serious relationship. He might have forgotten all about her and this daft arrangement, which was frankly starting to feel a whole lot dafter by the minute.
As for Tess, though, the last few months had flown by. She’d busied herself in work and taken on a shedload of new clients. And she’d had a great time while she was at it, catching up with Monica, Stella and all of her other friends and really getting to spend quality time with her family, as opposed to just rowing over wedding arrangements the whole time. Thanks to her promotion to Assistant Manager at work, she’d even saved up enough to put a deposit on an apartment in town, close to where she worked. It was tiny, of course, but that didn’t bother her. As soon as the sale went through, it would be her own, lovely, independent home – hers and no one else’s.
Not only that, but her mum and dad were both doing fantastically well too. Her dad had proven to be such a dab hand at painting and decorating, that he’d gone into business with another pal of his and already, they had more work than they could handle.
‘Just think, we’ll soon have enough money saved to be able to go out and visit Gracie in Canada,’ her mum had told her delightedly. Because that was the other big development in Tess’s world; Gracie had finally saved up enough to make the big leap to Toronto, to take up her dream job as a graphic designer. Tess missed her of course, but the whole family Skyped her regularly, in fact so much so that Gracie had started to complain, ‘ah here, I don’t talk to you lot this much when I’m back home.’
So all in all, Tess had been having an absolute ball for herself, loving every minute of being single and free and having fun.
And yet somehow Will had lodged himself into the back of her mind and just wouldn’t go away.
Bingo. She discovered a free parking space and was just about to reverse in … and that’s when she saw it. It was the same one, unquestionably. A black convertible sports car that she’d once joked about, saying it reminded her of the Batmobile.
Opening her car door, she stepped out into the nippy autumn morning and strode across the street to Salt Café.
I have absolutely no idea what the future will hold, she thought. But I do know one thing. I’m ready to take a risk again. I’m ready for something. And maybe this whole thing with Will would just fizzle away to nothing, or maybe they’d go the distance. Who knew?
But one thing was for certain. Nothing would come of it unless she took this one leap of faith.
So smiling to herself and taking a deep breath, she walked up to the café door. Opened it and stepped inside.
THE END
Footnotes
Kate
fn1 An extract from More Sinned Against than Sinning, The Unauthorised Biography of Kate King.
Acknowledgements
Thank you, Marianne Gunn O’Connor. I’m very lucky to be your client, but even luckier to be your friend.
Thank you, Pat Lynch, for everything. Next lunch in The Farm on me.
Thank you, Vicki Satlow, for all your tireless hard work. Really hope to see you very soon.
Thank you to Charlie Redmayne for your incredible generosity and for making all your authors feel so special.
To all at Avon, what can I say? There really are no words to thank you all for everything you’ve done for my books. You’re a fabulous team and it really is a joy to work alongside you. Special thanks to Oli Malcolm, Helen Huthwaite, Caroline Kirkpatrick, Helena Sheffield, Kate Ellis, Hannah Welsh and Jennie Rothwell.
Special thanks to Natasha Harding, whose incredible hard work shows on every page of this book.
Thank you to Rachel Eley for being such a fabulous copy-editor.
Thank you to all at HarperCollins Ireland, especially Tony Perdue, Ann-Marie Dolan and Mare Byrne. What a terrific team you make.
Thank you to all at Kate Bowe PR, especially Kate and Sarah Dee. And thank you to Light Brigade PR in London, with a special shout-out to Sabah Khan.
Thank you to my family and friends, for putting up with me when I need to shut the world away ‘so I can just make this deadline’. Mum, Dad, you’re the best. Paddy, Sam, Richard, Maria and especially my Aunt Lilla, thank you all.
Thank you to my lifelong friends, Karen, Susan, Clelia, Marion, Fiona, Alison, Pat, Fionnuala, Frank and Tony. What would I do without any of you?
Thank you to my writer buddies, for all your friendship and support. Special thanks to Sinead Moriarty, Liz Nugent, Monica McInerney, Patricia Scanlan, Aidan Storey, Morag Prunty, Martina Devlin and Sarah Webb.
And in case you were wondering, there’s one very special person who I’ve left till last, my editor Eleanor Dryden. Dearest Eli, there are no words to thank you for everything you’ve done. It’s been a privilege to work alongside you all this time, and I wish you nothing but joy and success in the future.
Which is why this book is fondly dedicated to you.
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About the Author
Claudia Carroll is a top-ten bestselling author in the UK and a number one bestselling author in Ireland, selling over 670,000 copies of her paperbacks alone. Three of her novels have been optioned, two for movies and one for a TV series on Fox TV. In 2013, her tenth novel, Me and You, was shortlisted for the Bord Gais Popular Choice Irish Book Award. She was born in Dublin where she still lives.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
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Personally, I Blame My Fairy Godmother
If This is Paradise, I Want My Money Back
Do You Want to Know a Secret?
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Remind Me Again Why I Need a Man
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