From Notting Hill with Love...Actually (28 page)

“Yes?” Sean asked, looking mystified.

“Next time she goes out, sir, just make sure she takes a key with her, OK?”

As the two policemen ambled away together down the road, Sean held his finger to his lips and pulled me silently inside the house. Then he gently closed the door behind us. “What’s he talking about, Scarlett?” he whispered. “What’s been going on?”

“It’s a long story, Sean.” I looked around the house. It seemed very quiet. “Has everyone gone home?” I asked, keeping my own voice low. “Why are
you
still here?”

“Oscar and Ursula have left, yes. But I didn’t want to go home until I knew you were back safely. Your father is in the lounge. But David and I have been trying to keep him calm.”

“Thanks,” I said gratefully. “You didn’t have to stay.”

“I wanted to.” Sean smiled. “You don’t need to worry about your mother either. Ursula and Oscar found her in a café down the road. And she’s fine.”

“How did they…oh, it must have been Kelly’s they went to. And she’s really OK?” I asked him. “You’re not just saying that? What did they say?”

“She’s fine, Scarlett. A bit shaken up, but once you’ve spoken to her and explained I’m sure all will be well again.”

How did Sean always know how to make everything right?

“You look frozen, Scarlett,” he said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Why don’t you go upstairs and put something a little warmer on? I’ll make you a cup of tea and then you can deal with your father. Five more minutes won’t hurt, will it?”

I nodded at him gratefully. “You’re too good to me, Sean, do you know that?”

“Yes,” he said, smiling, “I do.”

I began to climb the stairs and then I turned back. “Wait, you said before you and David had been working
together
to keep Dad calm? How did that happen?”

Sean shrugged. “I guess we both had something in common for once.”

“What’s that?”

“We both love you, Scarlett,” he said, looking up at me for a moment before he disappeared into the kitchen. I heard my father’s voice from the lounge, and David replying, so I quickly ran up the stairs to my bedroom, dissecting Sean’s last comment as I went.

What did he mean—love? Did he mean love as in “care about”? Or love as in “fall in love”?

I rubbed at my forehead. Now was not the time to be throwing even more complex questions into my pounding brain. I knew there were going to be plenty of those later.

When I’d got changed and tidied up I ventured downstairs again. I stood in the hall, taking deep breaths to calm myself. David emerged from the bathroom while I was standing there. He jumped when he saw me. “So you decided to come back?”

“Yes, and I’m really sorry for storming out the way I did earlier…So, how’s Dad?”

“He’s a bit shaken after seeing your mother, which is understandable. But I’ve been keeping him calm with the inside of your friends’ liquor cabinet—so you may have to replace a few items before they return home.”

“Sure, I will. Thanks, David…for everything. I know it can’t have been easy for you being here tonight with Sean.”

“Hmm, that…I think we have a lot to talk about, Scarlett—and soon. But right now you have a more important issue to deal with waiting for you in the lounge.”

I hugged David. “What was that for?” he asked, holding me in his arms and looking at me with a puzzled expression.

“For putting up with me and understanding. You’re too good to me, David, do you know that?”

“Yes,” he said. “I do.”

I froze, realizing that I’d just said the same thing to Sean a few minutes ago.

“But that’s all right,” David continued. “Because I love you—and I know once this is all over everything’s going to return to normal again. These hitches are only temporary ones.”

I was about to ask him what he meant by temporary hitches, when Sean appeared from the kitchen carrying two mugs.

Quickly I wriggled from David’s embrace.

“Scarlett,” Sean said, not looking me in the eye. “I’ve told your dad you’re back, and he’d like a word when you’re ready.`

“Ah, right,” I said, looking with trepidation toward the lounge door.

“You’d best take these,” he said, passing me the mugs, one of which was my tea and the other a mug of black coffee. “He might be needing it.”

I took the mugs from Sean as David dived for the lounge door to open it for me.

“Good luck, sweetheart,” he said as I passed him.

When did David ever call me that?

“Thanks,” I said as I saw Dad sitting on the sofa flicking through the channels on the TV. I glanced back at Sean standing in the hall.

“Go for it, Red,” he mouthed silently as David closed the door behind me.

My father looked up as I entered the room.

“I brought you some coffee,” I said, holding the mug out as a peace offering.

Dad looked at the coffee mug and then he looked at me. And for one awful moment as we stood staring at each other I thought he wasn’t going to take it.

“Thanks,” he said, eventually reaching out and taking the mug. With his other hand he switched the TV off with the remote control.

I sat down next to him on the sofa, strangely in the exact place I’d sat with Mum only a few days previously.

“I’m really sorry, Dad,” I began, taking a deep breath. “I should have told you about finding Mum here in London and that I’d been spending time with her. It was wrong of me to keep it from you.”

Dad just looked at me over the top of his coffee mug while he sipped steadily at its contents.

“But I just wanted to get to know her a little better first before things kicked off—as I was sure they would do when you found out. And for once it seems I was right.”

I gave a little smile, hoping to lighten the moment. I didn’t like it when my father was silent like this. It wasn’t his usual style at all.

Relieved I’d made the first move, I relaxed a little and tried to lean back against the cushions behind me. But they were further back than I thought, so I kind of toppled backward and had to balance my tea high in the air like some sort of circus acrobat to prevent myself getting scalded.

My father leaned across, lifted my mug away from me, and placed it safely on a glass coaster on the table in front of us.

“Do I still have to look after you even after all these years?” he asked, speaking for the first time.

“Looks like it.”

Dad placed his own mug down now too.

“Why, Scarlett?” he said, looking at me with sadness in his eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to come and find her?”

“I didn’t know I was. It’s all just happened by accident.”

“You mean this wasn’t the reason you wanted some time away—so you could come and find your mother?”

“No. I hadn’t even thought about it. I mean, yes, I had thought about her, obviously, but I didn’t come to London so I could find Mum. I came to prove something else.”

“What?”

Oh. Now I was cleverly digging myself out of one hole by burying myself deep in another.

But it couldn’t get any worse, could it?

“I came here to try and prove to you and to Maddie and to David that movies do exist in real life. And that I’m not wasting my life by loving them so much.”

My father rolled his head back and closed his eyes.

“Oh, Scarlett, not this again.”

“Yes, this again,” I said, standing up. “And do you know something? I was right, because since I’ve been here I’ve managed to live my life in…” I tried to do some quick calculations in my head. “I don’t know how many movies, Dad, because there have been so many I’ve lost count. So movies do exist in real life, because I’ve proved it!”

“With your mother’s help, no doubt,” my father muttered. “I bet she was there goading you along. I can just see her loving all this. I bet it took her right back.”

I stood and looked at my father sitting on the sofa. He was scowling down at the carpet, caught up in his own thoughts and recriminations. And suddenly I felt I was fighting Mum’s battle as well as my own.

“Actually, Mum had nothing to do with any of my movie scenes. I only met her for the first time a few days ago. But she has told me the
whole
story as to why she came to leave you in the first place.”

My father’s eyes darted up at me.

“She’s what?” he said in a low voice.

“I asked her to. I wanted to know everything that happened back then. But why, Dad? Why would you risk it all happening again? Did you want me to run away, like Mum?”

“Oh, my darling Scarlett, no, of course I didn’t.” Dad stood up now too and reached his hand out toward me. “It…it’s complicated.”

“Tell me, Dad, please. I need to know your side of the story too. So I can fully understand.”

He nodded and gestured for us to sit again. Then he took a deep breath.

“As much as it hurts me to say this, Scarlett, you’ve always been like your mother—not only in looks. So however hard I tried I could never get rid of the memory of her altogether. And unfortunately, I could see you beginning to make the same mistakes she did.”

“So you thought you’d send me away, just like you did her?” I asked. “How was that going to help?”

My father shook his head. “No, let me finish, Scarlett. You have a good life and a good job—no, business; it belongs to us both equally. And more importantly, you have a good man who wants to marry you and spend the rest of his life with you. David
is
a good man; you do know that, don’t you?”

I nodded. “Yes, of course I do.”

“But you still weren’t happy, Scarlett. I could tell that. You were growing increasingly dissatisfied with everything—just like your mother was all those years ago. It frightened me seeing you beginning to turn into her. So when David came to see me and told me how worried he was about you, I knew I had to do something to help.

“So that’s when I suggested we give you the same chance I had your mother. I knew it was a risk—but it was a risk worth taking for your sake.”

“But why—what would it achieve if it didn’t work out the first time?”

“That’s true—it didn’t work out well for
me
back then. But I’m guessing it worked out well for your mother. I bet if you ask her now she’s glad she took the opportunity to get away from me and didn’t continue living what she would now consider the boring life I have.”

I decided now was not the time to be telling Dad about Mum’s very colorful, yet quite unstable past.

“But what I still don’t get is why do it all again? Why persuade David to do something that worked out so badly for you?”

“Because I love you, Scarlett—and there’s nothing that means more to me in my life than your happiness. But I knew if you married David, and continued the same way as you were, you wouldn’t ever be truly happy and neither would David. You’d always be wondering ‘What if?’ I know what it’s like living with someone like that, Scarlett. I did it for long enough, and let me tell you it’s far from easy. And what if it had gone on longer and you’d ended up like your mother? I wouldn’t want that for you or for David. Even though I wouldn’t change our time together for the world, Scarlett, the aftermath of one parent leaving and trying to bring up a child alone is so hard I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

I was feeling really guilty now. I was putting my dad through all this unnecessary hurt. He’d done so much for me, and this is how I was repaying him.

“Plus, Scarlett, I
knew
if you went away on your own for a while you’d almost certainly try to live out this wonderful life you think everyone has in the movies, and I hoped you’d quickly realize that no one really lives like that—and it’s all made up. Then if my plan went well, you’d return home and be content with what you’d got. You’d be happy with David and happy with me—just like your mother wasn’t able to be.”

“Oh, Dad,” I said, leaning forward across the settee and putting my hands over his. “I’ve always been happy with you—that was never in question. You were right though; I
was
unhappy with the way things were back in Stratford. But what if it had gone wrong, what if I
had
found something better—then what?”

“Scarlett, only you can answer that question.
Have
you found something better?”

I thought hard. Had I found something better here in London than I’d known back home? I’d met new friends, had new experiences, yes. But was it better than my life before? I tried not to think about Sean.

I took a deep breath. “Yes, I have, Dad. I have found something better since I’ve been here. It may not be something life-changing in the way either of us hoped it might be when I left, but it’s certainly changed mine for the better. And that something is Mum.”

I waited for the explosion to come from my father. But strangely it didn’t.

He sat back on the sofa looking thoughtful.

“Is that the
only
thing you’ve found since coming here, Scarlett? Your mother?”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean, you said yourself you only met up with her in the past few days. What about the rest of the time you’ve been here? You must have met some other people and had some other experiences you’ve learned from?”

Just what was my father getting at?

I picked up my tea from the table and casually took a sip of it. Yuck, it was barely warm now.

“I’ve made a few new friends since I’ve been here, yes.”

“And?”

“And what? What are you trying to say, Dad?”

My father stood up and walked around Belinda and Harry’s lounge for a few moments, supposedly inspecting the few ornaments that they allowed in their minimalist interior.

“I spent quite a bit of time with both Sean and David this evening,” he said, suddenly spinning round to face me again.

“Yes, they said you had.”

“And do you know what they both spent most of their evening talking about while they were with me?”

I shrugged. “Football?”

“Scarlett!” My father came over to the sofa and placed his hands purposefully on the back. “You silly girl. They both spent nearly all their time talking about you tonight. I don’t know what exactly you’ve been up to while you’ve been here in London—nor do I want to know,” he added, holding up his hand as I opened my mouth to protest. “But what is obvious to me, and anyone else with half a brain, is that these two men both care about you very much.”

I thought about David and Sean waiting for us in Belinda and Harry’s house right now. They hated each other, and yet tonight, just like Sean had said, they’d put aside their differences to help me.

Dad sat down next to me again. “You need to be careful, Scarlett. Or someone’s going to get hurt.”

“But I don’t want to hurt anyone, Dad. I never do. I didn’t want to hurt you or Mum either. I just want everyone to be happy for once in my life.”

“But sometimes your actions, intentional or otherwise, can have a ripple effect. You have to think carefully before you make your choices in life, Scarlett. Use your head for a change.”

I sighed. If only Dad knew the truth. I had been using my head for far too long to make my choices—especially those involving David.

“Sean uses his head,” my father said out of the blue.

I stared at him. “What do you mean?”

“He uses his head. In his business
and
in his personal life as far as I can see.”

“And how do you know this?”

“I spent some time with him earlier tonight. We talked business—”

“Yes, I know,” I said, cutting Dad short. “I saw the two of you together earlier, but what’s that got to do with Sean’s personal life?”

“If you’ll let me finish, Scarlett. As I said we talked earlier, and while you were out, Sean was also gone for some time too: ‘A little business to attend to,’ he said.”

“But I thought Sean was here all night with you and David?”

Dad shook his head. “No, David was here with me for most of that time. Sean got back just before you did.”

Sean was out tonight doing business deals? So much for me thinking he’d been worrying about me all evening.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said, trying to sound like I didn’t care. “Sean’s business is pretty important to him.”

Maybe
he
and
David
weren’t that different after all.

“It surprised me, Scarlett. Until then I’d thought Sean was completely focused on you this evening, and I’d been impressed by that. But when I found out what he was up to while he was away from the house, my opinion of him began to sway even more.”