Best Laid Plans Read Online Free Page A

be getting our name out there.’
    ‘Does he know that? You don’t make it clear to him what he’s supposed to be doing.’
    ‘Don’t tell me how to run the business. I tell you, Christine, if I dropped dead tomorrow that business would be up shit creek within months if he was in charge. Look what happened when I was off work.’
    ‘We were all upset and Mike did very well keeping things on track.’
    ‘With Shirley’s help. Thank God for her. She could run it with one hand tied behind her back.’
    She frowned, not wanting to be reminded of the office manager. No doubt Shirley, big brassy Shirley, thought she ran the show but the truth was she was not nearly as good as he thought and when Christine used to be in the office, admittedly in a part-time capacity, she had covered up a lot of Shirley’s errors. Frank gave Mike no credit for how hard he worked and how he tried his best to please him and it annoyed her that he should dismiss Monique just like that, but then Frank didn’t have a creative bone in his body so he could not understand how the creative mind worked.
    ‘Mike needs a woman who will jiggle him along, somebody to push him instead of somebody who sits aroundall day doing bugger all except paint. I wouldn’t care if they were any good.’
    He was red-faced and she knew that getting upset was not good for him. With an effort she tried to calm him down. ‘They’re not that bad. They’re quite nice in fact.’
    ‘That’s right. Defend her.’ He hesitated. ‘Did I tell you I spotted her a while back in a café in Lancaster talking to a bloke? They looked very cosy.’
    ‘Not that again,’ she said, annoyed that he wouldn’t let it drop. ‘I told you it was probably somebody she knew from school. She knows a lot of people here, Frank, so don’t try to make it out to be something it wasn’t, and for heaven’s sake don’t say anything to Mike about it.’
    ‘Ah. So you do think there might be something in it?’
    She exploded at that. ‘Will you stop it? How many times do I have to tell you that she is
not
having an affair? She’s as likely to have an affair as I am although having said that …’ she tried to lighten the mood and smiled. ‘You’re such a tosspot sometimes that nobody could blame me if I did.’
    He managed a smile too. ‘Sorry, love.’ He rubbed his shoulders. ‘God, they’re like a board. I need a massage.’ His smile widened. ‘Any chance of that?’
    Her thoughts were elsewhere. ‘You never know, there might be an announcement over Christmas.’
    ‘About what?’
    ‘A baby,’ she murmured, ever hopeful.
    ‘They can’t afford a baby. If I know you, you’d end up paying for the lot. Pram. Cot. Decorating the nursery. You name it, we’d be coughing up for it.’
    ‘I wouldn’t mind in the least. It will be our first grandchild, Frank, so we’ll have to help out all we can.’ She hesitated, deciding it was much too early to mention school fees and the plan she had for those. Her parents’ unexpected deaths in a motorway pile-up had left her in a state of disbelief and shock but later there had been some smallcompensation when she realized that they would have wanted it like that, to die instantly together, and there was the added bonus of the money and property that came her way. She was the only child so she got it all and, as well as propping up their business – a decision not taken lightly – she invested a chunk of it, which was intended to be spent on the grandchildren’s education, the grandchildren that had yet to appear. ‘Mike and Monique might have to think of a bigger house when a baby comes along,’ she added watching him closely as she allowed that little thought to sink in.
    ‘Those two have had enough out of me already.’ His frown deepened. ‘Has she said something about a baby?’
    ‘No but I wouldn’t be at all surprised. She’s been a little odd lately and it’s time, isn’t it? They’ve been married for five years and