I couldn’t resist asking. ‘Jessica?’
He swallowed and nodded, cracking his fingers. ‘My daughter. She’s thirteen and the best thing that’s ever happened to me.’
‘I didn’t know you had a daughter.’ As a matter of fact, I didn’t know a rat’s arse about him.
‘She was born blind. Lauren and I were two kids out of drama school. When we found out that Jessica was blind, it was too much for her. So she left. I haven’t seen her since.’
I stopped eating. ‘What, not even phone calls or emails?’
He shook his head. ‘Nothing. Better that way. At least Jessica wasn’t… you know…’
Hopeful was the word I’d had in mind, but kept quiet.
He searched for the right expression, and then, having found it, rubbed the back of his neck. ‘Led on. Jessica knew from the start it was just me and her.’ He looked up with a grin. ‘But actually, it wasn’t that bad at all. Jessica’s a great kid, the way she lives with her disability.’
‘She sounds like a strong girl.’
‘She is. And you? What are your children like?’ he asked, and I smiled.
‘Chloe is thirteen, too. She’s much smarter than she thinks, and is a real rebel. Determined. Clever. Free-spirited. Ben is eight, and he loves words and cars. Anything motor-driven, really. And he has a disability as well.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
I shrugged. ‘He wears a leg brace because one leg is shorter than the other. Some doctors say it’s a bone issue, others say it’s just a ligament or a muscle. Some say to wait, while others—’ I stopped. ‘I’m sorry, this is not—’
‘No, it’s fine. I wish I had had someone to talk to who wasn’t a shrink,’ he said, then made a face at his own admission. ‘That sounds real sad-ass, doesn’t it?’
‘All parents are sad-ass,’ I agreed.
‘Was it hard, with Ben?’
I looked up, surprised. ‘Ben? No, not at all. He’s a dream. Chloe’s my bigger worry, to be honest.’
‘Chloe? But she sounds so lovely!’
‘Trust me, she was a real nightmare to raise. Especially after the break-up. Everything was my fault. Ben has always been mine, while she was Daddy’s girl, you see.’
He harrumphed. ‘So is Jessica, but not by choice. I was all she had.’
‘How did you manage… everything?’
He smiled. ‘One day at a time.’
‘But Jessica, may I ask, is there no…?’
‘Operation? No. We’ve been to the best doctors, all over the world. Jessica is missing a nerve that cannot be re-created in a lab. At least not yet.’ The muscles in his jaw tensed and I recognised my own pain for Ben. ‘But when that day comes, she’ll be first in line…’
For a while we exchanged parenting nightmares, which made me relax a little more, and I realised I had a very decent human being before me.
‘I’d like to meet them,’ he said.
I rolled my eyes. ‘Careful what you wish for.’
He chuckled and looked up. ‘You know what? I think I’m going to love Cornwall. You make it sound so… epic in your novels.’
‘I must confess, I never thought you’d come to Cornwall.’
‘Did you think we were going to email each other the dialogue beats then?’
I laughed. ‘No, of course not. I thought—I really didn’t think of the practicalities. I never thought we’d agree on anything at all, really. But you in Cornwall?’
‘What’s wrong with that?’
Come to think of it now, the very thought of Luke O’Hara in Cornwall made me want to giggle. And hurl at the same time. Would he be hunted by the villagers? Stalked by Vanessa? Loved to death by Deirdre? Shocked by Old Nellie’s potty mouth?
I shrugged. ‘I don’t know. You live in LA where the cars are fast and people are obsessed with the way they look and what they eat. I can’t see you sitting in the village pub and bingeing on pasties. You’ll die of boredom.’
He threw back his head and laughed. ‘Ah-ha, that’s where you’re wrong. I’m an Iowa boy and I’d like nothing more than to feel the Atlantic winds in my hair.’
Iowa? Google would have known that, but somehow I felt that checking it out would be betraying his confidence. Silly, I know because all over the globe were Luke O’Hara experts who knew his shoe size and had never even met him, while I’d be working with the guy and felt guilty about the slightest curiosity. That’s the way it was with meeting famous people, I guess. You didn’t want to seem to be invading their privacy.
He grinned. ‘Your face…’
I sat up. ‘What?’ Did I have salad dressing on my chin or something?
‘You really don’t know jack about me, do you?’
I shrugged. ‘I haven’t got much time for Hollywood gossip.’
‘Me neither. I hate it when people think they can impose on your privacy just because you’re an entertainer.’
I studied him, trying not to at the same time.
‘You’re doing it again.’ He laughed.
‘Doing what?’
‘Asking yourself questions about me when all you have to do is ask me.’
‘Sorry I gave you that impression. I’m not the curious type,’ I lied.
‘Well, that’s a relief.’
‘Are you always so biased towards us commoners?’
‘You are anything but common. What do you mean?’
‘I mean that when you meet someone, are you always thinking that they can’t see you as a normal bloke?’
He considered it. ‘You’re right. I’ve become jaded. Hey, would you and your kids like to come and meet Jessica, maybe break the ice before we come to England?’
Would you have needed to think about it? ‘We’d love to, thank you.’
‘Then why don’t I swing by and pick you all up tomorrow?’ he said as he helped me out of my chair and walked me to the lift. ‘I can whip up something for lunch. Have the kids bring their swimsuits. We’ll all go for a swim and maybe roast some marshmallows around the fire in the evening, after dinner. Would you like that?’
A whole day at the O’Hara mansion?
