Jordan came round to her side of the car to take her arm, looking down at her pale face. ‘I should have turned back,’ he said savagely.
She forced a smile, standing erect, her head thrown back. ‘I’m fine. Really.’
‘You don’t damn well look it,’ he muttered as he ran the doorbell.
‘Thanks!’ Kelly said tautly. ‘That’s just what I wanted to hear.’
His mouth tightened. ‘You know what I meant!’
‘You meant I look awful.’ She was feeling too ill to do more than snap at him.
‘No—’
The door was opened to them by Laura herself. ‘Kelly!’ she hugged her. ‘And Jordan,’ she said more shyly.
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Am I allowed to kiss my hostess?’
Laura blushed. ‘Perhaps you should ask your wife that.’
He slanted Kelly a mocking glance. ‘Well?’
‘Kiss who you like’, she shrugged. ‘You always do anyway.’
He drew in a ragged breath, but said nothing as he bent to kiss Laura on the cheek. ‘Not much longer to go?’ he teased her rotund shape.
‘Two days—officially. Unofficially, any time,’ she smiled.
‘Not tonight, I hope?’ he said in mock horror.
She giggled. ‘You never know. You go through to the lounge, Jordan. You know the way, and I’m sure Ian would love to press a glass of whisky on you.’
He smiled. ‘He won’t have to press very hard.’
‘Kelly and I will just take her wrap upstairs.’
‘Very tactful,’ Kelly laughed once they reached Laura’s bedroom. ‘Does it really need two of us to carry a velvet jacket upstairs?’
‘You know it doesn’t,’ her friend dismissed impatiently. ‘Are things no better between you and Jordan?’
‘Worse,’ Kelly replied unhesitatingly.
‘I’m sorry, I had hoped—Is he still seeing this other woman?’
‘Yes.’
‘Ian didn’t believe it when I told him—’
‘You told Ian about that?’ Kelly interrupted in dismay.
‘I tell him everything. And he said—’
‘I don’t want to know, Laura.’ She put her hand through the crook of the other girl’s arm. ‘Let’s go and eat, before I faint with hunger!’
Half way through the dessert she thought that was exactly what she was going to do. It suddenly washed over her in waves, so much so that she thought she was actually going to faint at the table.
‘Do you feel sick again?’ Jordan was sitting opposite her, watching her intently.
She nodded wordlessly, taking a drink of the water she had requested with her meal.