Another Glass of Champagne

by Jenny Kane

  Table of Contents

  Another Glass of Champagne (Another Cup of... Series, #5)

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five

  Chapter Forty-six

  Epilogue

  Another Glass of Champagne

  Jenny Kane

  Fortysomething Amy is shocked and delighted to discover she’s expecting a baby – not to mention terrified! Amy wants best friend Jack to be godfather, but he hasn’t been heard from in months.

  When Jack finally reappears, he’s full of good intentions – but his new business plan could spell disaster for the beloved Pickwicks Coffee Shop, and ruin a number of old friendships... Meanwhile his love life is as complicated as ever – and yet when he swears off men for good, Jack meets someone who makes him rethink his priorities...but is it too late for a fresh start?

  Author Kit has problems of her own: just when her career has started to take off, she finds herself unable to write – and there’s a deadline looming, plus two headstrong kids to see through their difficult teenage years...will she be able to cope?

  A warm-hearted, contemporary follow-up to the runaway success Another Cup of Coffee by bestselling author Jenny Kane.

  To the people behind the characters of Amy, Jack, Rob, Phil, Paul, Kit, and Peggy.

  You know who you are.

  Thank you.

  To all my friends at Jurassic Costa in Devon, for serving me an insane amount of coffee while I wrote this novel.

  And to Greg Rees, who has supported me throughout the writing of the entire Another Cup of ... series. Without Greg, Amy, Jack, and Kit would never have made the leap from my imagination to five separate stories.

  Jenny x

  Prologue

  Sticking her head out of the bedroom window, Amy took a huge lungful of fresh air. Even though her morning sickness had passed with merciful speed, the aroma of the paint she and Paul were decorating their spare room with was making her decidedly queasy.

  ‘I thought this was supposed to be odourless paint?’

  ‘It is.’ Paul smiled at his wife as he put down the yellow paint-covered roller. ‘Why don’t you take a break? There’s not much left to do now.’

  Amy leaned against the windowsill. ‘I’m fine – and anyway, it’s my own fault. I should never have got on my hands and knees to paint the skirting board. Thank you for not saying “I told you so,” by the way.’

  Sinking onto the chair Paul had placed in the middle of the decorating chaos, Amy rubbed a palm over her bump in wonder. It seemed to be getting bigger by the hour, never mind by the day. ‘Have Phil and Rob managed to make any contact with Jack yet?’

  ‘Not a word.’ Paul scraped the remains of the paint from the roller tray onto his brush and dabbed at a patchy place on the wall. ‘Rob hasn’t had any replies to his texts and emails. He reckons Jack is probably somewhere really remote with no Wi-Fi.’

  ‘Hmmm. Well, I hope he resurfaces soon, or I’ll have had this baby before he even knows I’m expecting one.’

  Paul stretched his arms above his head to loosen the muscles cramped from painting. ‘He’ll turn up sooner or later. Jack always does.’

  JUNE

  In which we catch up with the regulars of Pickwicks Coffee Shop.

  There are many changes afoot...

  Chapter One

  Saturday 4th June

  The beep of the low battery warning on Kit’s laptop snapped her out of the daze she had been lost in for the last half an hour.

  Grateful that the sound had gone unnoticed by Peggy, who was zipping around the tables of Pickwicks Coffee Shop serving customers, Kit shut down her computer. She didn’t bother pressing the ‘save’ button first, because she hadn’t typed a single word worth saving.

  Kit checked her watch. There were about twenty minutes until Amy was due to arrive for a chat and a cuppa. It would be good to see her friend; Kit just hoped Amy wouldn’t want to talk about her pregnancy too much. She wasn’t sure why, but she couldn’t face baby talk today. It certainly wasn’t because Amy went on and on about her impending motherhood. In fact, now she thought about it, Amy talked about it surprisingly infrequently, especially considering she was coming to parenthood so late in life.

  Digging her diary from her copious shoulder bag, Kit flicked through its pages. The deadline for the completion of the novel she was supposed to be working on was drawing ever closer. It was already impossibly close when she factored in that she was four weeks behind her schedule.

  Despite the warmth of the day, she shivered as she wrapped her hands around her mug of coffee. She was never behind schedule. Peggy, Pickwicks’ owner and her good friend, often joked that she was as punctual as a full stop. But recently, her mind seemed to drift off into a world of its own without the slightest provocation, and she didn’t seem to have the power to stop it.

  It wasn’t that her ever-fertile imagination had stopped working, or even that her mind was constantly throwing ideas for future books at her – it had always had done that. This was a new, far more disconcerting feeling of a disconnection from the words that always lived in her head.

  If she was honest, this lack of control over her writing frightened the life out of her. Although it hadn’t been that many years since Kit had won her first proper publishing deal – she had since been lucky enough to have a short string of novels published – she sometimes felt life had been very much easier when she’d been a struggling writer of erotica. All she’d had to do back then was produce a couple of short stories a month for an American website. The ideas had never stopped, and if ever she got stuck over a particular story request, Peggy was always ready with a saucy suggestion.

  Those days were well and truly gone, and suddenly Kit missed their simplicity.

  Only once before had she felt this off-kilter. That had been when Amy first arrived in Richmond, innocently tipping Kit’s relationship with Jack – their mutual friend and mutual ex-boyfriend – into total confusion. Not least because Jack, now happily gay, had never told Kit when they’d been together that he’d once loved another girl. It hadn’t mattered that their own doomed relationship had been years before – Kit had found her always low self-confidence rocked to the extent where she began to doubt everything and everyone in her life.

  Still, Kit told herself as she
sat a little straighter in her wooden chair, that’s all history now. The situation between herself, Amy, and Jack had felt insurmountable at the time, and yet it had worked out for the best in the end. And so will this. It’s only writer’s block, for goodness’ sake, it happens to every writer at some point! You’re going to be fine.

  ‘My goodness, woman, you look like the proverbial beached whale!’

  Amy grinned at the teasing smile on her former boss’s face. ‘Thanks, Peggy. I know I can rely on you to be ready with a huge compliment!’

  ‘Huge is the word, and you are more than welcome!’ Taking advantage of a lull in custom, Peggy followed Amy to where Kit was working, and pulled out a chair for her friend before sitting down herself. ‘So how long have you got to go now?’

  ‘Only two months, which is nothing like as long as I need to get ready, or even get my head around what's happening to me! I have far too much to do before the baby comes, although we’ve almost finished decorating the nursery at last. I haven’t even managed to find anyone to cover my job at Home Hunters yet.’

  Amy thanked Megan, Pickwicks’ chief waitress, as she delivered a tray of drinks and half a huge carrot cake for the three friends, before asking Kit, ‘I don’t suppose that lovely husband of yours fancies coming back to the business while I’m on maternity leave?’

  Kit shook her head. ‘Not a hope. It did cross my mind after Phil gave up running Home Hunters that he might have withdrawal symptoms and want to go back, but he took to running the bookshop like a duck to water. I can’t see him ever going back. And he wouldn’t have the time, to be honest. Did I tell you that they’re so busy now, he and Rob have employed a guy to help them with their new educational courses at Kew?’

  Amy beamed. ‘No, you didn’t. That’s fantastic! I bet Jack would be thrilled for them if he was here.’ Suddenly pensive, she picked up her cup, ‘I don’t suppose either of you have heard from Jack?’

  Peggy shook her head as Kit said, ‘Not a word. I thought he’d keep in touch with you though, Amy, even if he went quiet on the rest of us.’

  ‘Paul says he’ll turn up eventually, but I’d rather like to be able to tell Jack about this bundle,’ Amy patted her stomach, ‘before he or she stops being just a bump in my jumper. I might ask him if he wants to be godfather.’

  Kit nodded. ‘Jack is godfather to the twins, and although he’s a dreadful role model on the morals front, both Thomas and Helena have always found him great fun, and say that having a gay godfather is, and I quote, “Well cool”.’

  Peggy had never understood the loyalty Jack’s two ex-girlfriends felt for him considering how appallingly he’d treated them both. She certainly wouldn’t want anyone who’d stood her up on her wedding day – albeit only in the role of usher – to be a godparent to her child, but she simply asked, ‘How long has he been AWOL for?’

  Amy frowned. ‘It must be more or less four years since I last saw him, and about twelve months since I last spoke to him. It’s not so much being AWOL as missing in action. How about you, Kit?’

  Peggy and Amy exchanged glances as they saw Kit staring blankly into her soup bowl-sized cup of black coffee.

  ‘Kit? You with us?’

  ‘What? Oh, sorry, guys. I didn’t get much sleep last night, I phased out for a minute. What was the question?’

  Peggy had noticed how distracted Kit had been lately, although instinct told her that she shouldn’t ask her friend about it yet. ‘When did you last hear from Jack, honey?’

  ‘I’m not sure, must be at least a year. That is very Jack though, isn’t it. I bet he’d get a kick out of the fact that we’re all back here wondering where he is and if he’s OK.’

  Amy, who’d had similar thoughts herself, grimaced. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised – although I’d like to think that at his age he’s finally grown out of playing those games.’

  Kit and Peggy laughed in unison. ‘No chance!’

  ‘I assume he’s either still travelling around the world – or working in someone’s garden, using that horticultural qualification he got after Paul and I got married.’

  ‘Sounds possible, and of course,’ Kit let her inner storyteller go in a way she wished she could on paper, ‘if Jack has spent all the inheritance his grandfather left him, he could have got a job in the grounds of some posh house, had a torrid affair with the heir to the manor, and be in the middle of a society scandal.’

  Amy smiled as Peggy divided the carrot cake into mountainous slices. ‘That sounds entirely possible, and I sort of hope it’s true! The boyfriend bit, I mean, rather than the scandal bit.’

  Pulling her plate closer, Kit shrugged. ‘I’m not sure he’d risk another relationship, not after Toby hurt him like that. I suspect he’s reverted to full-on sleeping around mode.’ Realising she had sounded rather curt, she added, ‘I’d like to be wrong though. If he settled down a bit, he might come home.’

  Megan, laden with a tray of used cups and saucers, walked into Pickwicks’ kitchen just in time to see Scott pull open the dishwasher, ready to put in a pile of baking tins. ‘Room for a few more bits and pieces?’

  Peggy’s husband winked at her. ‘For you, anything!’

  ‘Thanks, Scott.’ Megan began to stack the china between the trays.

  Leaning his tall frame back against the sink, Scott stretched out his right leg which, ever since he’d been involved in a road accident several years earlier, had a tendency to stiffen up as soon as he stood still. ‘How busy is it out there?’

  Megan frowned; Scott suddenly looked unusually serious. ‘Empty customer-wise. It’s just Amy, Kit, and Peggy chatting at the moment. Everything alright?’

  ‘Wait there a second.’

  As Scott disappeared, a sense of foreboding crept over Megan. Did Peggy and Scott have bad news? Were they going to cut her hours? Guilt played around in the back of her mind. Had they worked out that she was considering hunting for a new job? They couldn’t have, she hadn’t told anyone. But if she and Nick were ever going to move in together, let alone save up for a home of their own, then she was going to have to start earning more than she did as a waitress...

  Feeling more irrationally disloyal with every tick of the wall clock, Megan was relieved when Scott and Peggy came into the kitchen.

  ‘Kit’s keeping an eye on the shop for us.’ Peggy smiled at her waitress. ‘No need to look so worried, honey, we aren’t about to sack you or anything. We’ve come to a decision, and we wanted you to be in the know, as it could affect you directly.’

  ‘Affect me?’ Megan looked from Scott to Peggy. ‘How?’

  Scott dug his wife in the ribs. ‘Don’t freak the girl out by being so mysterious, woman. Explain properly.’

  ‘Sorry, Megan, but we don’t want anyone else knowing, not yet anyway. This is just between the three of us, OK? Top secret.’

  ‘Um, yes. Right.’

  ‘The thing is ... we’re doing well at Pickwicks, and have been for the last few years, and a lot of that is thanks to you and your hard work. We’ve been mulling over the idea of opening another branch for a while now, and we’ve decided to go for it. So, assuming we can find suitable premises, we’d like you to manage the new place. What do you think?’

  Chapter Two

  Saturday 4th June

  Staring out of the train window, Jack exhaled a long, slow breath. Was this how Amy had felt when she had first come to Richmond after her years of self-imposed exile in Scotland? Sort of excited, but absolutely terrified at the same time?

  Jack wondered if, once he’d worked up the courage to go and see her, Amy would notice the parallels between their situations. A smile crossed his face. However she reacted, she would forgive him for not being in touch over the past few years. Amy always forgave him. For everything.

  In his mind, he’d left Richmond for a good reason. Although he knew Amy accepted he’d needed to leave, he was less sure she understood why – which was why he’d decided to break off even phone and email contact with her
. It was also why he hadn’t told any of his friends where he was; just to see if that helped.

  It wasn’t that Jack wasn’t happy for Amy and Paul to be living the fairytale, but the fact that they were together, while he was still alone, was sometimes hard to take – especially when he knew Amy’s love could have been his if only he’d been prepared to risk it all those years ago. This nagging thought – one he accepted was utterly ridiculous, as he knew that he’d never have been able to ignore his sexuality, even for Amy – made him a rather less kind human being than he would have liked. He knew that until he could get past feeling he was missing out on something that all his friends took for granted, they were better off without him and the chip on his shoulder.

  Amy would understand, he was sure. Kit, on the other hand, might not be as understanding...

  Jack’s smile disappeared. Years ago, back when they were dating, Kit would have forgiven him anything – but since Amy had come back into his life, and both women had become good friends in their own right, Kit had become much stronger. Jack had learnt that Kit had always hated how he could make her doubt her strength and resilience. These days she was so much more equipped to deal with him and his bullshit – and he knew it.

  Perhaps he shouldn’t be coming back. After all, he knew he was as emotionally messed-up as ever – but he had to go somewhere, and anyway, whether he wanted to admit it or not, he’d been getting homesick.

  Plus he’d had to get away from Kent...

  Opening his eyes, Jack sighed as the train’s sudden slowing announced that they were arriving at St Pancras. Here he was again. Back in London, fleeing from yet another cock-up in his love life, and with nowhere to call home. He wished he hadn’t so rashly sold his place in Mortlake – he’d got far less than it was worth, too, in his haste to make a clean break.

  There were several Tube connections to Richmond Jack could have chosen to see his old friends straight away, but as he stood in the bustling station, he found himself unable to move a step further.

  It wasn’t like him to be assailed by doubt, but this time it was different. Whatever he did, he always managed to upset people. He never meant to; usually he never even saw his offences coming. On this occasion however, he knew that if he was going to go ahead with his latest plan and really make it work, he was going to cause trouble for some of his friends.