He gasped. ‘Really, Mum?’
Really, Mum. If I couldn’t do that for him now, where was the joy in making money? Of course, on the outside, I’d still be the staid, strict-ish mother who was their guide and driving force. But inside, I allowed myself to be naff and daft, making lists of all the things we’d actually have the money and time to do. It was fun!
I sat back, still holding Chloe’s hand. ‘And maybe a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum?’
Her eyes bulged even more, only this time with incredulity. ‘You mean a trip to London?’
It was ridiculous that we were going to America while they’d only been to London once. ‘Yes. We’ll plan it when we get back. Maybe we could even fly from Newquay – what do you think?’
She thought about it, looking around. ‘We would have never been able to do this before your book got noticed by Hollywood, right?’
‘Exactly. So maybe writing it wasn’t a bad thing after all?’
She bit her lip. ‘I don’t know yet. I’ll think about it.’
It was going to take me more than a tour of some snazzy film studio to win this one over, as she was determined to maintain the upper hand. But I was just as determined to turn her into a happy and polite person. Well-read wouldn’t be bad, either. I smiled. ‘You do that, sweetie.’
Would you believe me if I told you that as we exited LAX hours later, it was pouring down with rain? I thought it never rained in California. Wasn’t that how the song went?
When we were met by a stretch limo, for once Ben was at a loss for words, lapsing into a repeated ‘Wowww! Mum, look! Look at the size of the roads! And look at the skyscrapers!’ while Chloe sat in absolute silence, her blue eyes enormous with wonder. No, I didn’t think we were in Cornwall anymore.
As the rain lashed at the car, we pulled up under a mega-glass awning at a swanky hotel.
The kids weren’t the only ones impressed by the sleek luxury of our surroundings. A long white counter that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the deck of The Starship Enterprise served as the reception while young gorgeous people of every colour but one size spoke into headsets or to equally swanky people pouring in and out through the sliding glass doors.
‘Will you be having dinner in the hall or in your rooms?’ a pretty Asian receptionist asked me. She was so beautiful she could’ve been a star herself, which, a glance around me revealed, was pretty much the norm here.
‘Uhm, in the hall, please.’ I scouted around for someone as normal-looking as me and found absolutely no one. Who was I kidding? I pulled my jacket closer over my abundant chest and followed Alice and the kids who were following a porter into a lift. I mean, an elevator.
‘Thirtieth floor,’ he informed us as the doors pinged open practically a couple of breaths after climbing in.
This was the closest we’d ever come to my idea of paradise.
Our suite was the size of the ground floor of the farmhouse back home, so white and glossy I was afraid we’d dirty it with our luggage and travel shoes.
I felt like Vivian in Pretty Woman in the luxurious hotel room.
‘Dibs!’ Chloe called as she launched herself onto the white comforter of the queen-sized bed in the far corner of the room, leaving Ben and me to share the other queen. Which was fine by me. Any excuse to cuddle up to at least one of my kids without seeming too s-motherly was a bonus.
Alice and I watched the kids ooh-ing and ah-ing. And then they started to argue over the TV remote.
‘Chloe, Ben, settle down. We don’t want to make ourselves known here as well, do we?’
Alice laughed. ‘But that’s exactly what we want! For everyone to know who you are and what you’ve written. This is your time, Nina!’
I grinned. ‘You’re right. My destiny will be written in the stars, just like my heroine’s.’
‘That’s the spirit,’ Alice agreed, looking around, perhaps no longer unaccustomed to so much space after having to squeeze into her own London flat. ‘I’ll be next door,’ she said, ‘washing the aeroplane smells out of my hair.’
The exact opposite of me. I didn’t want to erase a single moment of this dream come true.
*
‘Can I have a burger, Mummy?’ Ben asked as we later pored over the menus in the hotel restaurant. Outside it was still raining, but inside, we were Walkin’ On Sunshine.
Chloe rolled her eyes and said, ‘Ben, we’ve got to act just a little bit more sophisticated now that we’re in America…’
‘Don’t be silly,’ I said. ‘Just be yourselves. Right, Alice?’
Three sets of eyes swung to her checking her teeth in the cutlery. ‘Hm? Yeah, sure. Listen, I’ve been meaning to tell you—’
‘There they are,’ came a jolly booming voice from behind my back. Behind my back being the operative words, as I would soon find out.
Alice cleared her throat and stood up. ‘Nina, kids – this is Mr Ben Stein.’
I half-rose like I’d seen in a movie and he gripped my hand so tight I thought he was trying to pull me out of my seat. He was a dead-ringer for Jason Alexander from Seinfeld but he was, at the moment, giving me the vibes of his other role, the horrible lawyer in Pretty Woman, the one that tries to shaft Richard Gere and, incidentally, Julia Roberts. Now she was a street-wise girl if there ever was one. I decided to go with my gut and be wary, because this man had our future in his hands.
Why hadn’t Alice mentioned this encounter? Weren’t we supposed to be meeting the next day? Or – God help us – had the deal been called off just as we’d been flying in or
