To think that this same vehicle had let me down, burning all our worldly possessions and leaving us practically homeless – and now, more than three years later, it represented our rebirth. A new chance in life. If, as it now was apparent, the movie wasn’t going to be made, at least I had a proper business to keep my children’s bellies and minds full of good things. Anything for my kids. I could do this.
All thanks to Jack. He was a good man. Perhaps a bit confused himself, but a good man. If Emma and he had not been an item, and if Luke hadn’t left me heart-broken… maybe we could have had something good. Even though entrusting myself yet again to another man’s sensitivity, to be emotionally involved and to involve my children, and allow them to once again invest their own fragile hearts and affections in someone who wasn’t their father, only to be disappointed and hurt all over again, was not something I could stand. I was still trying to get over Luke. Which would take me a very long time. You don’t just touch the sky and forget about it immediately.
But Jack’s kiss, I had to admit, had stirred within me feelings that I had thought long buried. But his words: Stay with me. I love you? They could have turned everyone’s world upside down. I had done the right thing, on one hand. But on the other, I wished I hadn’t fled. I wished I had let him explain what was happening to him, but I didn’t want to be party to anything against Emma. She was like a sister to me, and Jack – he must have been in a very fragile place, too. That was the only explanation I could understand. Because Jack couldn’t really be in love with me. Not with the way he’d been carrying on with Emma. They were exact opposites, yes, but made for each other. Maybe it was better that way.
‘Can I get a Nutella arancino, please?’ said a voice above me and I looked up, my heart ba-booming like a fire-cracker factory. It couldn’t be. Impossible. But there he was, leaning on my little counter with his enormous baby blues, Luke O’Hara, his usual larger-than-life self.
‘Oh my God!’ I cried. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ So much for the glamorous leading lady acting out her memorable lines, because, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what I had planned to say if he were ever to return. Not that I had expected him to, given his state of incommunicado-ness.
He threw his head back and laughed. ‘Awh, Nina! I really, really missed you.’
I shrugged, my pride keeping me from melting at his feet like he expected me to, no doubt. What should you say when your male lead ditches you for who knows how long, without so much as a phone call for months on end, but only lawyer bulletins? And when you’ve been pretty naughty yourself? Glad you agree.
‘Piss off, I’m busy,’ I said as I checked my fryer again.
He raised his hands. ‘Look, honey, I know you’re angry—’
I whirled around in the cramped space that was at least my own. Angry? Did wanting to throw all my arancini at him mean I was angry? Then yes, I was absolutely furious.
‘Why did you never answer my texts?’ I demanded. ‘Three months, you kept me waiting with nothing more than your legal bulletins!’
‘I’m not very text-friendly.’
‘Not very text-friendly? I had to ask Chloe for updates from Jess, for Christ’s sake!’
‘I’m sorry. I was in a bad place.’
‘So was I. I had no idea what was going on, whether it was good news, or bad.’
‘It’s all good news, Nina,’ he assured me. ‘The battle is ongoing, but my lawyers assure me that there is no way in hell that Lauren is getting Jessica.’
I stopped, stunned. ‘What? How can they be so sure?’
He grinned. ‘Because no judge in the world would award full custody to a parent who abandoned their kid.’
I gasped.
‘Don’t make that face, Nina,’ he said. ‘I’m fighting for my daughter, here. You’d do the same if it were for Ben and Chloe.’
‘Of course, absolutely,’ I said. I’d do anything to protect my kids. Just like my heroine in my books. And speaking of books… ‘Are you here to finish the script?’ I asked tentatively.
He grinned. ‘Everything is back on. You, me and the script.’
Oh, thank God! I couldn’t begin to tell you how relieved I was inside. Immediately our lives turned sunny again, and I actually saw Dr Ellenberg’s face in my mind’s eye. But what about us? Did he really mean what he had said? Was there even an us at all, after his absence, and after Jack’s kiss?
Jack was a mistake, said The Voice of Reason inside me. A momentary lapse of reason.
So you’re just going to forgive Luke and fall into his arms like nothing happened? argued the other side of me. Ladies, I begged. Please. There will be no falling into any man’s arms. Inside me there was a riot, but on the outside, I managed to stay cool.
‘Nice truck you’ve got yourself,’ he observed.
I shrugged, not feeling the need to hurry and explain everything to him. If he’d missed out on things happening in my life, it was his fault.
‘But you won’t need this little gimmick once your royalties start flooding in.’
I was silent, still trying to shush the two women arguing inside my brain.
‘Okay, I can see I have a lot of ice to break. I deserve it. Now how
