I tried my best not to laugh, but it didn’t work. ‘That was an isolated episode years ago, and besides, Jack grows fruit.’
‘No animals?’
‘Well, the odd stray, but no. No animals. He owns a cider farm.’ As I’d told him before, but somehow he seemed to have forgotten.
‘Cider? Cool. Maybe I could buy some off him.’
‘And maybe you could open a Californian market for him. Our apples in the West Country are world renowned.’
‘Is that so?’
‘Absolutely.’
He took my hand. ‘This is a gorgeous corner of the world. Thank you for agreeing to have me in your home. You and me together! A sizzling combination, sweets. To flying sparks…’
‘To flying sparks,’ I agreed, wondering if at that rate how long it would take us to progress from flying sparks to flying crockery.
21
Friends With Benefits
‘How’s Writer’s Paradise?’ Alice asked over the phone the next morning.
‘He’s driving me nuts, Alice,’ I hissed into my mobile. ‘Sometimes I wonder if he even likes Stella. He wants her more polite, less polite, louder, softer, a procrastinator, a go-getter and I…’
‘But this is good,’ Alice countered. ‘He’s putting your heroine through her paces.’
‘I thought my editor had already done that,’ I muttered as I laid the Pyrex dish on a trivet in the middle of the table.
‘But an onscreen Stella is much more alive!’ Alice continued. ‘She’ll have a face, even though we don’t know whose yet.’
I wanted to argue that she already had a face even before the movie, but decided against it. Alice and Luke saw things the same way. I guess I was the odd one out, the one who knew absolutely nothing about the big screen. Plus, I wasn’t about to quibble with whomever got cast or anything, just as long as she could act and do Stella justice.
I was beginning to wonder whether I’d made a colossal mistake inviting Luke to stay. Jessica was a dream guest, and I was growing fonder and fonder of her every day. But Luke? He was a handful. Of all the producers in Hollywood who could have come across my book, why did it have to be demanding, gorgeous, flirty him?
‘Breakfast is ready, Alice. Gotta go. Call me when you’re down next month and I’ll have something nice for you to eat.’
‘I’ll bring the wine,’ she chimed.
‘Sounds like a plan,’ I said and rang off. Good old Alice. I owed her everything. It seemed like I owed a lot of people everything: Alf, my Ice Cream Ladies, Emma, Jack. And the only way I could pay them back was to be there for them as much as I could.
When I went downstairs, Luke was already up and stirring coffee. It was still something I’d never get over, something utterly surreal. Imagine coming down the stairs one morning, and out of the blue, some Hollywood star is standing in your kitchen in his boxers (not that Luke was) having his morning coffee.
‘Mornin’,’ Luke said as I padded into the kitchen. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I had to check on Jessica. Chloe opened her eyes for a moment and harrumphed – it was so funny. If I’d had a stranger in my room I’d have jumped six feet!’
‘No worries,’ I said, and we stood shoulder to shoulder, looking out to the garden. The irises were late this year. And I had a whole lot of gardening to do. I felt him turn to me.
‘I’m glad I had you to help me look after her, Nina.’
I shrugged. ‘You’re doing fine. Better than any father I’ve ever seen.’
‘Better than Phil…?’ he asked softly and I looked up from my coffee.
‘Oh.’ I giggled. ‘Anyone else would be more broody than him.’
‘It’s so strange, Nina…’
‘What is?’
‘That thanks to your book, I feel like I’ve known you forever.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘And I feel like I’ve known you forever, thanks to Google.’
‘Thank God for that,’ he chuckled. ‘Do you miss not having him around?’
‘Who, Phil? You must be joking. The kids do, though. I’m just glad our family life is back on track now.’
‘Their life was never off track, Nina. Not with someone like you at the helm.’
‘Yeah, well, there were some tough times. Up until a few weeks ago, actually. If you hadn’t come along I don’t know what I’d have done.’
The scale of what I’d said hit me when I saw the expression on his face. But it was true. I shrugged, hiding my face in my mug. ‘My financial situation was so dire I was about to lose the house, the kids’ places at school… everything.’
He took a sip, never taking his eyes off me. He had that way of looking at you that made you feel all his attention was concentrated solely on you. He made women feel special, and I had to confess that his charm was beginning to rub off on me. Particularly as he was such a loving father.
‘Was… all of it autobiographical?’ he wanted to know, but kept his voice low in case I decided I wanted to pretend I hadn’t heard his question. Classy guy, no doubt. A bit nosy, but then again, I knew it was for the sake of the movie. Why the hell would he care about my life otherwise?
‘Oh, some things. There was, of course, lots of poetic licence. I am a writer, after all.’
‘Hm. What about the cliff scene? Did you really think that he wanted to push you off it? And did you really write that message in your diary to the effect that if you were found dead it would most likely have been him?’
‘Of course not,’ I said hotly. Phil had never been a violent man, but there had been more than one instance in which I felt he wasn’t capable of parenting. I just couldn’t risk it. I could feel my blood draining from my face. I should never have left that in there, I now realised.
‘Okay,’ he said softly. ‘We all have our secrets.’
‘No, that one isn’t true. But
