Read All Because of You (Lakeview #2) for Free Online Page B

Dublin frequently, which is how Liz and Eric had first been introduced.
    But while neither Tara nor Eric had made too much of his relationship with Emma, throughout the course of that visit Emma used every possible opportunity to let Liz know that she and Eric had been much more than good friends.
    “Does Eric still snore like a train then?” she’d asked Liz, within two minutes of meeting her. Then she added with a beatific smile, “I could never get a wink of sleep with him.”
    Her smug tone left Liz in no doubt that she wasn’t just referring to Eric’s snoring. She’d been so taken aback by the comment that she hadn’t been able to think of a decent reply, something that would sort the girl out once and for all. Not to mention that she was doubly surprised that she could be so unlike her genial good-natured sister. 
    But there was no point in rising to the bait; any fool could see that Emma was an immature and attention-seeking little madam and anyway, so what if she and Eric had been together? They weren’t together any more, were they?
    And she might have been a little madam but at the same time she was Tara’s sister, so at the time Liz decided that there was no point in causing trouble. 
    “Tell me how long you two were together again?” she’d asked Eric, not long after Emma’s first visit. 
    “Not sure to be honest. About a year on and off, I suppose,” he’d replied off-handedly.
    “Really?” Liz wrinkled her nose. “I don’t mean to sound nasty, but what on earth did you see in her? I couldn’t take to her at all – she’s so different to Tara in every way.”
    Eric shrugged. “Yeah, she can come across a bit standoffish, but she’s alright when you get to know her.”
    Which you obviously did, Liz wanted to say, but decided against it. There was no point in causing trouble between them. Emma would probably love that and Liz wasn’t going to let the little witch have her way. And in all honesty, she didn’t really know what to make of her. Did Emma still have residual feelings for Eric, or was she simply one of those immature women who got an idiotic thrill out of staking a past claim on another’s boyfriend? Liz didn’t know and, for the most part, she didn’t care.  Emma would soon toddle off back home and Liz wouldn’t have too much to do with her.
    But when a few years after they married, she and Eric began to think seriously about moving to Lakeview, where Tara’s sister still lived with her parents, Liz was no longer so sure.
    She was furious with herself for letting the girl mentally inveigle herself into their relationship like that – despite the fact that it had been years since Emma’s relationship with Eric. She and Eric were married, had a gorgeous son, and their relationship was as good as it could possibly get. They’d barely spent a day apart since they’d first got together and deep down Liz knew that their relationship was as ideal as anyone could hope for. Yet there was something about Emma that unsettled her, that had always unsettled her, though she wished with all her heart that she didn’t feel this way. She tried to tell herself that there was no real reason to feel threatened by the girl or her previous association with Eric, yet she had to think very seriously about going to live in close proximity to her husband’s ex.
    Despite the fact that she was now thirty-one years of age, Emma still lived at home with her parents, the reason being, according to Tara, that she found it difficult to hold down a job. 
    But it seemed Emma’s employment requirements were very specific. She’d left school without proper qualifications, hated office work, refused to work in retail and following a brief stint in the village café, would “never again lower herself” to serving tables. So instead, Mammy and Daddy looked after her while she sat on her pert backside waiting for the perfect job to come to her. 
    “Which is?” Liz had asked Tara.
    “Last I