cider from his jacket. ‘This is what we need to celebrate Emma’s move.’

‘You already knew?’ I asked.

‘I told you – Jack’s helping me move,’ Emma said.

‘Why do I feel left out? Have I really neglected my best friends so much that I didn’t even know one of them was moving away?’

‘Easy, old girl,’ Jack said. ‘Don’t get upset. We’ve all been busy – that’s life.’

‘You knew,’ I shot back. ‘I’m a terrible friend, caught up in my own life. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.’

‘Nina, you’re making a big deal out of nothing,’ Em said, squeezing my shoulder.

I wiped my eyes. ‘I just don’t want to lose you guys. You’re moving away, Jack’ll end up marrying someone who doesn’t like us and that’ll be the end of that. You guys are my family.’

‘Well, maybe we should accept that things do change, Nina,’ Jack said.

‘Jack, will you shut up already?’ Emma said. ‘Come on, dish up, Nina – I’m starving.’

I stirred my shrimp and courgettes risotto, and tore a few shoots of parsley from one of the pots on my windowsill, ran it under the tap and snipped it, watching it colour the top of the rice. And all the while I was wondering how many more of these meals we’d have as Three’s Company, and why things had changed so suddenly.

22

Irreconcilable Differences

Alone for once in the house, I wandered around aimlessly, realising how much I depended on my loved ones to cheer me up on a daily basis because the house felt empty without my children. Chloe was out with Ben in the village, helping prepare for the End of Summer festival. She was definitely growing up fast. Her clothes hung from her chair, her cosmetics, strewn across the dresser, spoke of a girl who was dying to be a woman, the very opposite of me.

All her belongings spoke of her, like her lip-gloss that had sparkles in it. I opened it and dabbed the tip of my finger with it. It smelled like raspberries and the sparkles caught the light, like the sea at dawn, and I promised myself that I would never let anything happen to her, nor would I ever let her fall into bad company, and possibly meet someone like Phil who would enchant her at first, and then steal her youth later. For as long as I lived, Chloe would believe in the beauty of happiness, respect, and love. I rubbed my hands together and went back downstairs to my world of hard graft.

*

When Luke and Jessica returned the next evening, he dropped a bomb on me.

‘You want to set my Cornish romcom in California?’ I wailed.

He waggled his eyebrows. ‘Yes.’

‘No! The story is set in Cornwall. End of!’

‘Chill, Nina. It’s an adaptation. Even Romeo and Juliet moved to New York in West Side Story.’

‘That was different. That was a musical.’

‘It still counts,’ he insisted.

‘Great, let’s adapt everything. Let’s turn Cornwall into California. Let’s even move Poldark and Doc Martin to the bloody San Fernando Valley. And oh, Rebecca? Let’s set that up in Beverly Hills! Why did you even bother to come all the way out here if you were going to pull this stunt on me?’

‘I told you, I needed to see how your life works. And how things developed between you and your own husband, and what drove him away from the love.’

What drove him away? Meaning it was my fault? Ooh, I’d drive some nine-inch nails into this bloke’s skull right about now. How dare he imply that I was the reason he left! And I had just invited this jackass to stay in my home?

‘Fine,’ I snapped. ‘You’ll see it wasn’t my fault. But for the record, I’m not setting this anywhere but Cornwall.’ I was about to add, Take it or leave it, but then I remembered who called the shots.

He leaned forward to peer into my eyes. Really close. I stared back, like a rabbit caught in headlights. What… was he doing now?

‘Are you wearing… glitter?’ he asked.

I swiped at my face hotly. ‘Of course not.’

He moved closer, inspecting my face. ‘Looks like glitter to me…’

‘It must have rubbed off from my daughter,’ I defended. ‘I had nothing to do with it.’

He shrugged. ‘Shame. It suits you.’

I sat up despite myself. ‘Meaning I’m like a teenager?’

He flashed his famous all-American Hollywood grin, those blue eyes twinkling. ‘Meaning you have a sparkly personality.’

I snorted and flipped through the pages of my notebook. Weeks of adapting my book for the screen, imagining my breathtaking landscapes in Technicolor or whatever it was they used nowadays, for everyone to enjoy, and now some American Hollywood playboy who hadn’t even heard of Cornwall before wanted to turn my movie into a Hollywood bonkbuster?

‘Really, you are very bubbly,’ he insisted and I put my book down and gave him one of my Get Real looks and he threw his head back and laughed like only he could. ‘Awh, man, Nina, it’s only been twenty-four hours and I’ve missed you!’

He meant he missed bossing me around, telling me what to do? I had been very accommodating up to now, but this was the cherry on top.

‘Earth calling Nina…’ he called.

‘This is not even remotely funny.’

‘Maybe not. But you are bubbly. Which is why I love this story. It’s your characters that make the story, Nina. Where they are doesn’t really matter.’

‘Oh, good, then you won’t mind leaving them in Polperro.’

‘But perro means dog in Spanish.’

‘And?’

He shrugged. There are many Latin Americans in the United States who would have something to say about a village named after a dog.’

‘Have you noticed, Luke, that there is life outside the United States?’

‘Oh, I like you when you get mad.’

‘And do you realise that this is a story about a divorced woman who lives in Cornwall? And that the tempestuous location is the symbolism of the tumult in her heart? And do you realise that many women will relate to that?’

‘Ooh, symbolism. I like the sound

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