Page 1 of Second Chance Summer
CHAPTER ONE
So, this was what it was like to be dead.
Lily had to admit, she thought there’d be lights and a tunnel in the afterlife, not this syrupy darkness. Even the Almighty must be struggling with their energy bills.
‘Lily! Boss! Are you OK?’ The voice penetrating the darkness was not that of a supreme being unless they had a strong Brummie accent. Richie’s voice cut through the bizarre mixture of thoughts that had been swirling through Lily’s semi-conscious mind. Why was her PA using his panicked tone as if she very muchwasn’tgoing to be OK?
She opened her eyes to find herself lying on the carpet in her office with her PA staring down at her. ‘W–what happened?’ she said, feeling very groggy.
‘I don’t know. You kind of just … crumpled.’
Crumpled? How was that possible? Lily didn’t crumple. She wasn’t a crumpler. Never had been. She was strong, resilient. She was the embodiment of the metal metaphor: Woman of Steel. That’s what a journo had dubbed her a few years ago and it had stuck.
Richie’s eyes seemed huge – wide with alarm behind his trademark red-framed glasses. ‘Are you OK, hun?’
‘Yes. I’m fine. I’m getting up.’
‘Don’t you dare move! I’m calling an ambulance.’ Richie rested a hand on her shoulder. ‘You might have hit your head. You probably did – you collapsed. Right in front of me.’
‘I don’t need an ambulance.’
Lily slowly sat up, wincing at the ache in one temple.
Richie was on his knees next to her, tutting. ‘Go easy, hun.’
‘Why do you keep calling me “hun”?’ she murmured. ‘You never call me that.’
‘Because you said you’d sack me after the first time I tried it.’
‘I was obviously joking.’
‘Were you?’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘It’s better than “bab”, which my nanna calls everyone.’
‘If you dare to call me “bab”, I really will sack you,’ Lily said, smiling as she spoke, even though it made her forehead throb.
He exhaled with relief. ‘Sounds like you’re feeling better.’
‘I am.’ Lily attempted another smile but it turned into a grimace. She’d either hit her head or she had the mother of all headaches. ‘Thanks for helping me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.’
‘I know what I’d do withoutyou: have a much easier time and be able to see my boyfriend occasionally.’
‘I am very, very grateful,’ Lily said, before fixing him with pleading eyes. ‘Have you told anyone about – aboutthis?’ she asked.
‘Not yet,’ Richie said warily. ‘I’d have called the company first-aider but she’s gone home.’
‘Good! I don’t want anyone to know that I’m not … feeling one hundred percent.’
‘Lily, you’re not even ten percent. At least let me call Étienne.’
‘No!’ Lily said, horrified at the thought of her brother-in-law, an A&E consultant in a nearby hospital, being dragged into her office. ‘I’m sure he’s too busy saving genuinely sick people.’
She also didn’t want anyone knowing she’d collapsed, particularly not with the deal that was sitting in her inbox – a deal that could, potentially, affect the future of everyone at this company, including Richie.
‘And you’re sure you’re not sick?’ he said. ‘You can fire me if you like, but if you don’t get checked out by a doctor, I might resign anyway.’
Richie stood and glared at her, hands on hips. It reminded Lily of the time her mum had come home to find she’d ‘repurposed’ the dining-room table by painting it purple and green. Well, how was ten-year-old Lily to know it had been a family heirloom?
Twenty-three years later, her parents would be equally horrified – and be on their way to London in a flash – if they knew she’d been taken ill. Since the loss of her sister, Cara, Lily daren’t even admit to a sniffle or her mum had palpitations. Cara had died in a car accident two years before and losing her had turned the Harper family’s lives upside down. They now knew all too well how fragile life was.
