Not What You Think

by Melissa Hill

  Contents

  About the Author

  Also by Melissa Hill

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue: April

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue: London Fashion Week

  Copyright

  About the Author

  Melissa Hill is originally from Cahir in Co. Tipperary, and now lives with her husband Kevin and their dog Homer in Co. Dublin. She has worked in banking, computers and the gifts industry. Her latest novel is Before I Forget.

  Also by Melissa Hill

  Never Say Never*

  All Because of You*

  Something You Should Know

  Wishful Thinking

  The Last to Know

  Before I Forget

  * Also published by Arrow Books

  Not What You Think

  Melissa Hill

  To Mam & Dad

  With lots of love and thanks

  Acknowledgements

  Firstly, much love and thanks to Kevin for your wonderful support, advice and good humour, and mostly for keeping me sane when things get hectic – I really couldn’t do this without you. Also, to Homer, whose clever antics gave me the inspiration for Barney!

  To my family, Mam, Dad and especially Sharon, who – through phenomenal effort last summer – must have been single-handedly responsible for the majority of my book sales! To Amanda, who got away lightly last time, but who I know was with me in spirit.

  This novel relates to the ups and downs of female friendship, and I’m lucky to have some great ones – thank you Maria, Fiona, Lisa, Breda and Aine for being so supportive through it all.

  Once again, thanks to Ger Nichol, for guidance and endless encouragement. To Poolbeg – especially Paula, Brona and Lynda for making my first time out such an enjoyable experience, Sarah for Herculean publicity efforts, and Gaye for insightful editing and enthusiasm – working with you all is such a pleasure.

  Many thanks to booksellers throughout the country for promotion, wonderful displays and great welcomes, and to my local bookshops – Bridge St Books, Wicklow; Eason, Clonmel; and particularly the Book Nook, Cashel, for tremendous support throughout the summer. Also, massive thanks to John and Carmel Dolan and all the staff of SuperValu, Cahir for promoting the book so enthusiastically – you have no idea how much I appreciate it. To friends and neighbours in both Tipp and Wicklow for lovely comments, good wishes and great support.

  To all the journalists who were kind enough to give me and the book a mention, particularly Tony Butler in Tipp, and Lynne Glanville in Wicklow, and to the reviewers who said such nice things – thank you so much. Also, to Carol and Denis at Tipp FM for letting me natter away and take up so much airtime!

  To fellow writers Clare Dowling and Mary Hosty for lovely dinners, all the Irish Girls for helpful chats and good craic, but particularly to Sarah Webb for invaluable advice and for being so welcoming to a first-timer.

  To all those who shared their stories and provided me with the special insights that made this story possible. I am immensely grateful and hope I have done you justice.

  Finally, a colossal thanks to everyone who has bought and read the book. With lots of fantastic books on the shelves, I’m amazed that so many people took a chance on an author they’d never heard of, and I very much appreciate it. Also, many thanks to those who sent lovely emails telling me how much they enjoyed it – I hope I managed to reply to you all. Hearing from readers is one of the most rewarding parts of being a writer, so please, drop me a line any time.

  www.melissahill.info

  Prologue

  April

  CHLOE KNEW SHE should be concentrating on her driving, but she couldn’t help it. She just couldn’t look away. There it was, glistening attractively in the afternoon sunshine, newly polished and extraordinary, adorning the third finger of her left hand. Was there anything in the whole wide world more exhilarating than an engagement ring – your own engagement ring?

  Chloe didn’t think so.

  “So what do you think I should wear on Sunday?” her best friend Lynne asked.

  Chloe groaned inwardly. Lynne had been chattering down the phone about her latest shopping trip for the last twenty minutes. Chloe loved a good natter about what to wear as much as the next girl, but she just wasn’t in the right frame of mind for discussing the merits of see-through strap bras as opposed to strapless ones – not today. She was just too excited.

  “Lynne, I really have to hang up – there’s a garda patrol car ahead,” she said, deciding she’d better pay more attention to the road.

  “Oh, OK.” The other girl sounded disappointed. “I suppose I’ll see you at Alison’s barbecue – you and Dan are going, I presume?”

  “Should be,” Chloe replied. “I’ll talk to you later – wish me luck!”

  “Oh, yes, I forgot you were going down there today. Good luck!”

  After they had said their goodbyes, Chloe hung up and tossed her mobile onto the passenger seat. Of course she and Dan would be at the barbecue on Sunday. Chloe had picked up an amazing Gharani Strok beaded top to go with her cropped Karen Millen trousers especially for the occasion, and she would be damned if she was going to miss the opportunity to show it off.

  She shivered with excitement as she approached Wicklow town. It was a pity that Dan couldn’t come with her today, but he had simply laughed when she suggested that he take the morning off to drive down here with her.

  Sometimes Dan didn’t understand how much all of this meant to her.

  Chloe weaved through the busy main street – she hadn’t expected the town to be so thronged. Then, attempting to negotiate a narrow stretch of road between cars parked on each side of the street, Chloe was horrified to find that not only had she clipped her own wing mirror, but her Rav4 had actually shattered the mirror of the Astra parked on her right.

  Yikes! Heart pounding, Chloe drove on as if nothing had happened. There was no one in the car, and she didn’t think anyone had seen her, so if she could get away with it . . . Anyway, it was the driver’s fault for parking on double yellow lines, she reassured herself. What else could he expect? She was no Michael Schumacher after all. Anyway, she was in a hurry – she just didn’t have time to wait around and discuss broken mirrors today. She could always pop back later and leave a note and her mobile number on the windscreen or something. Maybe. Oh dear, why did this have to happen today – and a broken mirror of all things! If Lynne were here, no doubt she’d start going on about seven years’ bad luck and all that. Lynne was unbelievably superstitious and, on an important day like today, Chloe did not want to even think about the possibility of bad luck.

  Finally finding a parking space jus
t off the main street, Chloe removed her sunglasses and checked her reflection in the rear-view mirror. She applied a fresh coat of Mac ‘Siss’ lipstick and touched up her foundation. Eventually pleased with what she saw, she got out and locked her Jeep, but couldn’t help checking her reflection once more in the driver’s window. Using her sunglasses to tuck her blonde bob behind her ears, she straightened her skirt and began walking purposefully down the street. She smiled when a gang of teenagers loitering outside a video store wolf-whistled as she passed them by. Probably admiring her long legs. Well, Chloe thought with a self-satisfied grin, they were worth admiring.

  Minutes later, she approached the store. She pushed open the door of Amazing Days Design and walked directly to the sales counter.

  “Hello, I’m looking for Debbie, please. I spoke with her on the telephone yesterday,” she said in a businesslike tone.

  The teenage sales assistant regarded her with a bored look. “She’s on her lunch,” she said rudely, without looking up from her magazine.

  Chloe’s eyes widened when she noticed that the girl was reading an article entitled Oral Sex – To Give Is More Blessed Than To Receive?. Hardly a good first impression in a place like this, she thought. And what sort of a way was that to treat a customer?

  “Well, I’m sure you can help me then,” she said. “I’m here to see some designs –”

  “Hi, Chloe!” The aforementioned Debbie arrived in the door, apparently back from her lunch break. “Sorry to keep you waiting, but I didn’t think you’d be here until after two o’clock.”

  Chloe said nothing. According to her watch it was already after two. Still, she supposed she’d better not be too uptight about it. “I know I’m a little early, but I’m dying to take a look,” she said then, with as much cordiality as she could muster but secretly hoping they didn’t apply this laissez-faire attitude to every aspect of their business.

  “Well, I came up with a few designs that I think might be suitable. Come in the back and I’ll show them to you.”

  Chloe eagerly followed Debbie towards the rear of the store.

  “You said on the phone that a friend recommended me?” Debbie probed.

  “Alison Caffrey – well, she’s Alison Kelly now,” Chloe explained. “Everyone was raving about her invitations a few months back and when I began planning my own wedding I asked her for your details.” It had absolutely killed Chloe to have to ask stuck-up Alison for the Amazing Days Design number, but if she and Dan wanted the best she had to bite the bullet and admit to their friend that she had loved her invites.

  “Ah, yes, Alison,” Debbie recalled. “She chose the gold-inscribed linen, if I remember correctly. But you said you were looking for something a little less traditional?”

  Chloe nodded. Actually, something a lot unlike Alison’s. She couldn’t have people saying that she was stealing her friend’s idea. Not in a million years. These designs had better be good.

  “Well, take a look at these and see what you think,” Debbie said pleasantly. “I used the details you gave me on the phone last week, and came up with a few personalised samples.”

  Chloe gasped when she saw the assortment of cards on the table.

  “These are gorgeous!” she said, examining a white hammer-effect card with a picture of a cute smiling flowerpot ‘couple’ on the front, and tied with a scarlet ribbon – the colour of Chloe’s bridesmaids’ dresses. It was pretty but perhaps a little bit tacky – she had been hoping for something a little classier. Then, a second card caught her eye: this one was plain white with an embossed silver stained-glass-effect border, and elevated silver hearts in the centre.

  She opened the second card, and felt her heart leap with pride as there, inscribed in silver foil, were the words she had been waiting to see:

  Mr John & Mrs Rita Fallon,

  Request the pleasure of the company of

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  On the occasion of the marriage of their daughter

  Chloe Maria,

  to

  Mr Daniel Ignatius Hunt

  at St Anthony’s Church,

  Donnybrook,

  On Friday, September 25th

  and afterwards at the reception in

  The Four Seasons Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

  “Oh, they’re really beautiful!” she exclaimed, putting a hand to her mouth.

  She was getting married. She was really getting married. Chloe had been dreaming about her own wedding for most of her twenty-eight years, yet she didn’t think that it had really hit her, not until then – not until she’d seen the words written down like that.

  Of course, she’d done all the other things – reserved the Sharon Hoey dress, ordered the flowers, booked the hotel – but the dress was just a design, it wasn’t yet hers, and the flowers were just a ‘concept’ in the florist’s artistic little head. But here now, Chloe was holding in her hand tangible evidence of her forthcoming wedding, and she didn’t think she had ever felt so exhilarated in her entire life.

  “Are you all right?” she heard Debbie ask kindly.

  Chloe turned to her, blinking back tears.

  “You know, it’s lovely to see a reaction like yours,” Debbie continued, when Chloe didn’t respond. “I’ve always thought that the wedding invitations should be chosen with as much, if not more, thought as the wedding dress. After all, the invitations herald the entire showpiece. Your guests get to see those before they get to see the dress, the flowers and the rest of it.”

  “No, it’s nothing – I’m just being silly,” Chloe said, collecting herself. She really shouldn’t have let Debbie see her react like that. Now the woman would probably charge them a fortune.

  “It’s all right, dear,” Debbie said, obviously mistaking Chloe’s change of expression for embarrassment. “You don’t need to explain anything to me. Now do you want a cuppa while you pick out the design you want, or will I just leave you to it?”

  “I think the design chose me,” Chloe said, unable to let go of the silver-embossed card she grasped in her left hand.

  “You’re sure? You don’t need to OK it with himself, or anything?”

  “No, it’s my decision and he’ll be happy to go along with my choice. Anyway,” Chloe added dismissively, “you know what men are like.”

  How dare that woman undermine her relationship like that? As if she would have to ‘OK’ it with anyone!

  “I do indeed,” Debbie agreed, seemingly unaware of her customer’s affronted feelings, “but you’d be surprised. I had a couple in here last weekend, and your man was calling all the shots and wouldn’t let the girlfriend get a word in edgeways. I tell you, he was one of the fussiest divils I’ve ever come across, enquiring about the origins of the paper we use, and the environmental friendliness of the ink and all that. And the same fella was wearing a leather jacket! The misfortunate wife-to-be was mortified by the time they left the place.”

  Chloe said nothing. How unprofessional! In her eyes, the customer was always right, and she wasn’t too impressed to hear Debbie gossiping merrily about one Amazing Days Design client to another. Still, she supposed Debbie couldn’t help it. Idle chitchat was no doubt a way of life down here in the country. Chloe would have preferred to employ a wedding-stationery design company from Dublin, but nothing in the city had come dose to Amazing Days Design. Such unprofessional conduct was obviously the price you had to pay for dealing with a company down in the sticks.

  She chuckled inwardly. Dan would murder her if she said something like that in front of him. Her fiancé had been born and bred in Longford and was proud of it. Still, being well-educated as he was, his roots didn’t show, and to Chloe that was the main thing. Not that Mr & Mrs Hunt were farmers or anything like that – nothing of the sort actually. Although semi-retired, Dan’s father owned a construction company and Mrs Hunt had ‘supported him’ throughout his working years. Something Chloe wouldn’t mind doing for Dan once they got married. She hated her job as legal secretary
to one of her father’s partners in his solicitor’s practice. Although, she supposed there were some perks. Like taking time off on a Friday afternoon to choose wedding invitations, for example.

  Chloe sighed as she studied the invite. She wouldn’t mind Dan getting just a teeny bit more involved in the wedding plans, but it wasn’t really his thing. Anyway, he was just too busy – especially at this time of the year. Most of the companies on the books of O’Leary & Hunt Chartered Certified Accountants had their accounts year-end in March, which meant that by the middle of April Dan was up to his eyes preparing profit and loss accounts and balance sheets. Chloe could hardly expect him to traipse around after her at the weekends, or take afternoons off just to choose their wedding stationery. Anyway, he would probably only be in the way.

  “Embossed Silver Hearts it is then,” Debbie said, writing the details in her order book, which Chloe noted seemed to be full of bookings. She wasn’t surprised. The company had really created a name for itself, and it wasn’t difficult to see why. It was a pity though that so many people seemed to have heard of them. Was she doing the right thing here? Would Amazing Days Design invites be two-a-penny by the time their wedding came around, and would everyone poke fun at Chloe’s lack of originality?

  “The wedding is when – September?” Debbie said, a pen in her mouth. “And you said you want matching place-cards and evening invites too?”

  Chloe nodded.

  “OK,” Debbie said, studying the order book, “I should have them ready for about the first week in July – how does that sound?”

  “Well, I’d actually prefer earlier,” Chloe said quickly. “We’ll need them well before then.”

  First week in July indeed! That was four months away – how long did it take to run off a few invites?

  Debbie looked apologetic. “The card you’ve chosen is one of our newer designs for this year and, unfortunately, stock for the full set won’t be available until early June. And, of course, I’ll need a few weeks from then to work on the inscriptions.”

  “Of course,” Chloe resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Well, she thought, at least now she knew that her chosen design would be original.