He's the One (33 page)

When Brooke remained where she was, too shocked to come up with a reply, Flynn reached for her hand. ‘Come on, we should go,’ he said quietly. He led her out of the gallery, a gesture she was grateful for as she suddenly felt wobbly and on the verge of tears. She couldn’t believe how badly that had turned out.

‘Come on,’ he said, ‘we’ll go and have a coffee, it’s okay.’ His being kind to her made it even worse.

‘It’s not okay!’ Brooke burst out, oblivious to the shoppers looking at them as she stopped in the middle of the pavement. ‘I’ve really upset him and I never intended that to happen. And I really thought he would want to know that my mom was here. Nina said that he was the love of Mom’s life! Why won’t he at least see her again? It seems so harsh, so final.’ She couldn’t make it tie in with the picture she had seen of Cory and her mom, gazing at each other lovingly all those years ago.

Flynn shook his head. ‘I don’t know, Brooke.’

She couldn’t bear being surrounded by so many people, and in the end they got her bike and went and sat on the beach. She’d fully expected Flynn to give her a hard time for what she’d done, but he was calm and kind, told her not to blame herself, that she wasn’t to know it would spark such an adverse reaction in Cory.

‘Do you think he just said all that because he was shocked? D’you think maybe he’ll change his mind?’ She was obsessing now. She couldn’t let this drop.

‘I think you’re going to have to leave it,’ Flynn said gently. ‘Whatever happened is between them.’

Brooke hunched her shoulders and stared out to sea. She could well and truly kiss goodbye to the fantasy of her mom being reunited with her great love.

‘It’s all my fault. If Mom hadn’t had me, she would have been free to do what she wanted. It was having me that made her choose a life with Zac. She had a horrible marriage with him, I know she did.’

Flynn put his arm round her. ‘Hey, that’s not true. Your mum loves you, and she had her own reasons for making her choices. You can’t blame yourself. Promise?’

He was gazing at her and suddenly, even upset as she was, she felt the rush of butterflies. His brown eyes were so warm; his lips were so, well, kissable. She held his gaze, unable to look away. Who was she kidding? She
really
liked him. She longed to bury her face in his shoulder, breathe in his scent.

The moment was ruined when Flynn’s phone rang. Eve, of course, wanting to know where he was. Did she have some kind of inbuilt radar, able to detect whenever he was with another girl? Brooke picked up a handful of pebbles and threw them in turn at a piece of driftwood, trying to drown out Flynn’s conversation.

‘I’m really sorry,’ he said, after he’d ended the call, ‘but I’ve got to go. I’d completely forgotten that I was supposed to be having lunch with Eve and her family, it’s her mum’s birthday.’ He pulled a face. ‘They’re all waiting for me in the restaurant. I got the dates wrong. Will you be okay?’

Not really
, she wanted to say.
Not at all
. ‘I’ll be fine, thanks. At least I know now. Everyone was right. What my mom and Cory had belongs in the past.’

Chapter 35

Liberty

Liberty poured herself a large glass of white wine. It seemed the wrong thing to do after working out at the gym but she didn’t really care. Seeing Cory again had pushed her into a dark place. She had been trying to put on a brave face, throwing herself into organising Brooke’s party, buying a new dress for Angel’s, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the look of disdain on Cory’s face as he’d told her to go. It felt as if it was burned into her consciousness. She would never forget it.

She glanced up as Brooke walked into the kitchen.

‘Hi, honey, where have you been?’ She forced herself to sound cheerful, even though she felt anything but.

‘Just in town.’ Her daughter seemed subdued too. She did that teenage thing of slumping at the kitchen table as if she didn’t have the energy to sit up.

‘Have you had lunch? I could make us poached eggs?’

Brooke shook her head. ‘I’m not hungry.’

Liberty was about to launch into a speech about how
important it was to eat healthily and regularly when Brooke said, ‘I need to tell you something.’

‘Oh?’ Liberty took a seat opposite her. Maybe it was something to do with Flynn. Liberty was convinced her daughter had a massive crush on him. At least that was one teenage boy she approved of.

‘I went to see Cory Richardson,’ Brooke blurted out.

Liberty was so stunned that for a moment she couldn’t quite take in what her daughter had said. It was like having two parts of her life that she had always kept entirely separate collide.

But Brooke continued, ‘I went to see him at the gallery. I wanted him to know that you had split up from Zac and moved here.’

‘What on earth did you do that for?’ Liberty exclaimed, leaping out of her chair. ‘You had no right to do that! I wouldn’t dream of interfering in your life!’

Brooke seemed taken aback by the strength of her reaction. ‘Well, I know he’s the love of your life! And you wasted all those years with Zac, and I wanted to help you.’

‘No one can help me! I’m not some little project. Cory and I are finished; we were finished years ago. He’s married with a son. He doesn’t need silly little girls thinking that they can fix something that isn’t even broken. Honestly, Brooke, I thought you had grown up since we’ve moved here, but you’re still that spoiled girl who thinks that just because she wants things to be a certain way, then that will happen. Well, let me tell you, life isn’t like that.’ Liberty had gone too far but she couldn’t stop the pent-up anger and hurt all coming out.

‘I’m sorry. I did it for you,’ Brooke managed to say. She was on the verge of tears, but Liberty still raged at her.

‘Well, next time, don’t fucking bother! I’m perfectly capable of sorting out my own relationships.’

At that Brooke grabbed her bag and ran out of the room. Liberty drained half the glass of wine. She heard the front door slam. It was just as well. Right now she needed some time out from her daughter.

But by nine o’clock she was getting worried. Her anger had passed and now she felt terrible for shouting at Brooke. She had called her daughter and texted her but received no reply, and she didn’t know any of Brooke’s friends’ numbers. She paced around the house, unable to settle, clutching her mobile. She was just about to call Marco at the restaurant and see if he could give her Mila’s number when her mobile rang. It was Nina.

‘I’ve got Brooke with me. She’s fine now. We’ve had a few tears but she’s calmed down. D’you want to come over?’

Brooke refused to speak to Liberty when she walked into her mum’s living room. She had her headphones on and was listening to music. She stared resolutely ahead, refusing to acknowledge her. Hardly surprising. Liberty knew she had some bridge-building to do.

‘Give her a few minutes,’ Nina advised. ‘Come on, I’ll make you a cup of tea, it looks like you need it.’

‘I can’t believe I shouted at her like that.’ Liberty sat at the familiar oak table that had been in the house since she was little and still had the wonky letter B which Brooke had scratched into it when she was three, so proud of being able to form the letter that she wrote it everywhere. Now Liberty traced her fingers over it.

‘Well, you did, and now you’ve just got to make things up. Maybe it’s all for the best that it’s out in the open. Secrets don’t do anyone any good. So what are
you going to do about Cory? You’ve still got unfinished business, whatever he says.’

‘I don’t know, Mum.’ She genuinely felt lost. All she wanted to do was make things up with Brooke. She drank her tea and then ventured into the living room.

‘Can I sit down?’ Liberty asked her daughter, gesturing at the space next to her on the sofa. A shrug was all she got from Brooke, who kept her headphones on.

‘I’m really sorry I shouted at you. I understand why you did what you did. I reacted like that because I saw Cory last week and he made it clear that he didn’t want to see me again. I guess I was taking all my hurt out on you.’

Now she had Brooke’s attention. ‘Really? He said that to you?’

‘Yeah.’ She tentatively reached out and rubbed Brooke’s shoulder. ‘It was a blow. But at least I know now. Please forgive me, Brooke.’

‘Oh, Mom! That’s so tragic,’ she exclaimed, reaching out and hugging her.

‘It’s going to be okay,’ Liberty said, hugely relieved that her daughter had forgiven her.

‘Who needs men anyway?’ Brooke said as she pulled away. ‘They’re all assholes.’

‘Just because I swore at you, doesn’t give you a free pass,’ Liberty shot back.

‘And enough of swearing off men, neither of you means it.’ Nina had caught the comment as she walked into the room. ‘And I definitely don’t. And if you two have finally made up, you can bugger off. I’m expecting a gentleman caller.’

‘Ooh! Who’s that?’ Brooke asked.

‘He’s called Chris and he’s a chef. A man of few
words, but very good at other things, if you know what I mean.’ Nina winked at them, to Brooke’s outrage.

‘TMI, Nina, TMI!’

But they were all laughing as Liberty and Brooke said goodbye.

Chapter 36

Brooke

After seeing Flynn on Sunday Brooke found that she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Obsessing would be more accurate. She kept looking at his Facebook page and clicking through all his photographs. Eve had put up a picture of them both at the family lunch, smiling away for the camera. The beautiful, happy couple. Brooke felt a pang of longing for something that she couldn’t have. She forced herself to click ‘like’ even though she definitely did not like, not one bit.

Oh, God! It was fucked up and hopeless but Flynn filled her thoughts. There was nothing she could do – there could be no campaign to attract him as there had been with Christian, she was going to have to deal with the fact that he was with Eve and out of reach. Besides, she didn’t even think that she was his type of girl. And so Thursday night found her going out on the date with Seb, the guy from the gym, even though by now she had zero interest in him. She would far rather have stayed in and watched TV, so that didn’t bode well.

He had booked a table at an Italian restaurant and from the moment Brooke sat down his conversation revolved around how many calories their respective meals contained and how her exercise regime was going. Yes, he was good-looking, but man, he was mind-numbingly boring! Why hadn’t she realised this when she first met him? He could be used as a way of getting criminals to talk: lock Seb in the room with them and just let him drone on and on and the perps would confess all. Shit! They’d probably confess to things that they hadn’t done – anything to avoid him listing the calorie content of every single food! Brooke could barely stifle the yawns that threatened to overwhelm her. If he didn’t stop, she’d end up face down in her four-hundred-and-seventy-five-calorie mushroom risotto (though he said it might well be over five hundred). She had already nearly finished her large glass of white wine, which she now knew was over two hundred calories … but, God, she needed it to get her through this date … and she was going to need another at this rate.

‘I can always do some personal training for you. It can make all the difference to your motivation and achieving your goals. And I’d give you a discount. Your mum too, if you like.’

Hmm, Brooke didn’t like the way Seb’s eyes lit up when he mentioned her mom … she wasn’t sure if it was because he knew what Liberty looked like or whether he was thinking of the fee he could charge. And though she was working out how she could leave the meal early and never see him again, she was also keen to discourage any idea about him being her personal trainer.

‘Oh, thanks so much for the offer, but I’m happy working out with my friend.’

‘Oh, yeah, the curvy one. She’s got quite a long way to go, hasn’t she? I guess I could train you both. I’d have to make sure she didn’t hold you back, though.’

She really didn’t like Seb’s dismissive tone when he talked about Mila. ‘Like I said, I’m really happy with the way things are right now, I don’t want to change anything.’

‘So tell me more about LA – what are the current exercise crazes? The new diets? The States are always a couple of years ahead of us, aren’t they? That’s why I’d love to live out there, to feel like I was where things were happening.’

Brooke shrugged. Only a few weeks ago, she would have liked nothing more than to talk endlessly about LA. But nowadays she felt less and less like doing that. She was putting down roots here. LA was starting to feel like her past.

‘To be honest, I don’t know. I haven’t kept up with them. My friend Kelly is really into Zumba, but that’s big here now, isn’t it? And sometimes we’d do the Roga class at Santa Monica Pier where you go running with a group and then have a session of yoga, looking out at the Pacific – that was cool.’

Seb seemed disappointed that she didn’t have more to tell him. Clearly, she was not the girl he’d thought she was. He was silent for a few minutes, sipping his mineral water – he had refused wine, too calorific of course – apparently he only allowed himself alcohol one night a week. But he wasn’t a man to be quiet for long.

‘You look stunning in that dress,’ he commented.

Brooke was wearing a cobalt blue skater-style dress that showed off her long tanned legs. ‘Thanks.’ Please don’t let him say anything cheesy like she’d look stunning out of it … She wouldn’t put it past him. He
had the look of a man who might say panties.

‘Yeah, you’ve got the perfect figure for it. My ex had one of those dresses.’ Seb winced. ‘In red. She kept wearing it, even when she was carrying too much weight. What is it with girls and food? When they’re after you they keep fit and are slim, and the minute they get you, they pork out again and let themselves go.’ He shook his head, as if he was very disappointed in and had been let down by the whole of womankind.

A new word, learned from Harry, sprang to mind –
tosser
. ‘Yeah, but if you really like someone it shouldn’t matter if they gain a few pounds here and there.’ Brooke couldn’t quite believe that she was saying this. Only a few months ago, the very thought of it would have been unimaginable to her. She had been so hung up on her appearance. She used to weigh herself every single day, obsess if she ever put on an ounce and then starve herself and exercise manically until she had lost it again. But since moving here she had stopped that cycle. She felt better, and honestly didn’t think her weight had suffered from it. Clearly skipping meals was not good for you – now Brooke ate healthy food, three times a day, and allowed herself the odd treat.