A Chance Encounter by Rae Shaw (best ereader for academics .TXT) 📕

‘I’ll open the biscuit tin, something to soak up the alcohol.’ Hettie prised off the lid and handed out biscuits.

‘Do you ever drive, Het?’ Eva asked.

Hettie scowled. ‘Yes. A rarity but I do. I did a couple of weekends ago in fact. Something... well I had...’ Hettie focused on the spread of cards in her hand and discarded one.

‘You drove him?’ Eva rested her elbows on the table and dropped her chin on her knuckles. ‘Pray tell. What happened? Come on, tell us.’ She had a sweet smile, quite girlish. There were no rings on her fingers, only a pale band where she had worn her wedding ring. Dishing the dirt on husbands was probably something Eva enjoyed. Julianna once had, but not anymore.

The tale began innocuously enough. They had been to the seaside and Jackson had accidently rubbed sand into his eyes.

‘He let me drive home while he… Poor Noah was distraught. He thought Daddy was very sad about something because his eyes were watering. The car's an automatic anyway. I'm not incompetent.’ Hettie won the hand with a whoop.

‘While he what?’ Julianna asked.

Hettie picked up the scattered cards. ‘While he sat in the back with Noah. I moved Evey next to me.’

‘In the back?’ Julianna pictured Jackson’s long legs. ‘He didn’t want you to drive, did he?’

Hettie shuffled the pack. ‘I insisted. He was tired.’

‘Noah?’

‘No, Jackson. He won’t admit it, like a petulant child. So I snatched the keys out of his hands and told him to sit in the back with Noah and have a nap.’

‘Marvellous,’ said Zoe. ‘Just love it. Were the child locks on too?’

Hettie dealt the cards with a flick of her wrist. ‘I played nursery rhymes. Noah sang. Loudly. Most unfortunate for Jackson. He was worried I’d forgotten how to drive. He worries too much. It’s like riding a bicycle, comes back quickly when given the opportunity.’

Jackson wouldn’t have slept a wink. And it wasn’t the case that he simply allowed Hettie to drive as she had initially implied. Hettie had put her foot down on more than the accelerator.

The game resumed. Hettie kept her cards close to her chest, peeping at them from time to time. It was a reflection of her whole life, hiding things out of sight. Here, at least among friends, Hettie was revealing a different side and expecting privacy in return. Julianna rather liked seeing this version of Hettie.

Julianna glanced up to the double-glazed doors into the kitchen. Through them, she watched Jackson enter. Dressed in faded jeans and burgundy polo shirt, the man looked closer to thirty not forty. He padded about the kitchen in bare feet and put his empty coffee mug in the dishwasher. Nothing about his relaxed manner shouted chief executive. Pausing, he picked up an apple from the fruit bowl, then cocked his head, as if listening. He approached the double doors – Julianna refocused on her cards – and tapped on the glass. While taking a bite out of the apple and with a wag of his finger, he summoned Hettie.

‘Excuse me,’ Hettie said and followed her husband out of the kitchen.

‘He's so gorgeous, isn't he?’ Eva whispered.

‘Too old for me.’ Zoe sniffed her wine. ‘This is a good bottle, Julianna. You should come again and share some gossip. You must hear them chat all the time in the back of the car.’

‘I mainly drive Hettie, just her.’ Julianna wasn't lying. Jackson had his own drivers.

Zoe shuffled the cards. ‘Do you like driving?’

‘Yes.’ Julianna had learnt to drive at fifteen on a private road. She laughed and told the two women how she had driven up and down the straight stretch and performed a three-point turn at each end. ‘I'm pretty good at hand brake turns.’

The conversation shifted away from cars and chauffeuring.

She had staved off their intrusive questions. It was another part of her training to deflect. She was never off-duty; her contract stated she could be called up any time if there was an urgent requirement. Her discomfort was entirely based around the knowledge she was in her boss’s house thinking that at any minute he could snap at her to do something. He wouldn't, but the thought was there.

Hettie returned. ‘So sorry. Jackson thought he heard Evey cry and, well, he's not always who she wants.’

She yawned and picked up her cards. They played, and talked, and none of it stayed in Julianna’s head, which was strangely relaxing.

‘Julianna should get a medal for driving you.’ Eva swayed, then air pecked Hettie's cheek. The goodbyes lasted the length of the suave hallway.

‘I'm sure she will.’ Hettie winked at Julianna.

Julianna was the last to leave. As she slipped on her shoes, Hettie touched her arm. ‘Sophia and Luke would like to invite you and Mark for dinner. Just you two. Luke asked Jackson.’

‘I'll tell Mark. I'm sure he'd love to go.’ She wasn't sure. The last time he had gone to Luke's, he hadn’t enjoyed the occasion.

Driving home, Julianna played over the evening’s events in her head. She had gone with an idea firmly planted in her mind that she wouldn't fit in and it had slowly unravelled all evening, which meant she and Hettie were becoming friends. How would Jackson view that development?

Mark was still up when she reached home and as she dropped her handbag on the stand in the hallway, he called out to her from the dining room table where he sat surrounded by documents, staring at his laptop screen.

‘I thought you’d finished all that?’ she remarked.

‘Had one more look through the final report and decided to change a few bits,’ he said, without glancing up.

‘Control freak.’ She bent to kiss his head.

‘That’s me, sweetheart. Though I prefer perfectionist: sounds better.’ He rubbed his eyes and