He's the One (37 page)

On Wednesday evening Em came over to look at Brooke’s party dress. The two friends sat in the living room, drinking wine and waiting for Brooke to make her grand entrance as she had wanted to model it for them. She’d been up in her room for ages. Liberty was about to tell her to get a move on when Brooke walked into the room. The sight of her in the stunning 1920s-style gold beaded and sequined dress silenced them. There in front of them was the most beautiful young woman, all long legs and slender arms …

‘You look incredible,’ Liberty exclaimed, with tears in her eyes. Her baby girl suddenly seemed all grown
up. How had that happened?

‘You really do, Brooke,’ Em echoed.

‘So why are you crying, Mom? Is it the wrong choice? Should I have gone for the green dress?’

‘Of course not! It’s just that you suddenly seem so grown up.’

‘It’s like that scene in
Mamma Mia!
when the Meryl Streep character sings that song to her daughter, “Slipping Through My Fingers.” You know, the one about her daughter growing up and how she misses her,’ Em put in. And then added, ‘Oh, no, I think I’m going to cry as well!’

Brooke looked at the two of them, hands on her hips. ‘You two need to toughen up, I’m not going anywhere yet. Concentrate, because I need your advice on how to do my hair.’

Liberty stood up. ‘I know, I know, it just feels like one minute you were five and now you’re about to turn eighteen. I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean when you have children.’ She smoothed back her daughter’s hair. ‘I’m thinking waves … that will look really stylish with the sequined headband. I’m sure Jez is a mean hand with the GHDs.’

‘Okay. Sounds good. So long as it doesn’t make my hair look too short.’

Liberty almost did a double take at her daughter agreeing with her so easily.

‘You’ll be the belle of the ball,’ Em put in.

‘I should bloody hope so! It is my bloody ball!’ Brooke declared.

Liberty grinned; it was funny hearing her come out with typically English expressions in her full on LA accent. She liked this feisty new Brooke.

‘So is Flynn coming on his own? Or is the evil Eve going to be putting in an appearance?’ Liberty asked,
and immediately wished she hadn’t as Brooke frowned and sat on the sofa, arms folded.

‘I don’t know. He’s been texting me from Berlin and he didn’t mention her, but then Harry told me that she was on the same trip. I didn’t even realise.’

‘Don’t worry, he really likes you,’ Liberty replied, having that impulse to make everything okay for her daughter. But this wasn’t like comforting her when she had fallen over as a little girl, or had a nightmare. It was a big bad world out there, and she was going to have to let Brooke make her own mistakes and go her own way. Much as she wanted to, Liberty couldn’t wrap her up in cotton wool and protect her.

Brooke managed a smile. ‘Anyway, he and Harry had an interesting theory about you.’ She stopped and looked unsure if she should continue.

‘Oh, yeah? What was that?’

‘Okay, don’t get mad, but after you got back from Angel’s party and were so upset, I felt I had to do something. I know you told me not to after last time, but seriously, Mom, I had to.’

‘Oh?’

Brooke took a deep breath. ‘So I went to see Cory at his house and told him he was completely out of order, treating you like that.’

‘Oh my God, Brooke, I can’t believe you did that!’

‘Wow, Brooke,’ Em said, completely agog. ‘That was brave of you. That’s quite some kick-ass daughter you’ve got, Libs. I’m seriously impressed.’

‘He claimed that you’d sent him some email saying that you didn’t want to see him any more.’

‘Of course I didn’t do that! Why would he say that?’

‘That’s exactly what we all thought – sorry, I have
to ’fess up that I did tell the gang, but they’re all really sympathetic. Anyway, Harry said what if someone hacked into your computer and sent the email pretending to be you? And the only person we could think who would ever do that would be …’

‘Zac,’ Liberty finished the sentence before her. ‘I was always changing my password because I never trusted him. But I don’t suppose it would have been that difficult to hack.’ She sighed. ‘It doesn’t matter, though. Cory has no feelings for me any more. I can’t blame him. Seeing him was a reality check.’

She changed the subject back to the party after that, but when Brooke left the room to get changed Em brought it up again.

‘So what are you going to do? It’s more than likely that Zac did send that email.’ She sounded so hopeful and optimistic, as if Liberty could still do something that would make a difference to the situation.

‘There’s nothing I can do – and I could never prove it.’ She smiled sadly. ‘I know Brooke wants it to be my happy ever after, and it’s so sweet of her, but life just isn’t like that.’

But later, when she was lying in bed unable to sleep again, she went over and over the events of five years ago, trying to remember anything of significance in Zac’s behaviour towards her when he’d returned from his trip. There was nothing she could think of, but then Zac was always very good at hiding his feelings and covering his tracks.

She sat up in bed and reached for her phone. There was no point in calling him, but there was always Tess. It was late-afternoon in LA, and she would still be in the office. Liberty selected her number.

Of course, first she had to get through Tess asking how she was and about life in the UK. Liberty had
always got on well with Tess and knew she was upset about Zac basically blacklisting her in Hollywood.

Tess didn’t even seem shocked when Liberty put the question about Zac hacking into her email.

‘I don’t know, Liberty, but it’s certainly possible. I know he used to get regular updates from Ramon, your security guard, about what you were doing and who you were seeing, because one time I overheard them talking in the office. I’m sorry, maybe I should have warned you, but I figured you probably already knew and I didn’t want to make things any more difficult for you.’

Any more difficult ….

‘I know that Ramon doesn’t work for him any longer, so it’s maybe worth trying to track him down. Zac got rid of everyone when you left. It was like he was wiping the slate clean. Disconcerting, but he’s always been like that. He’s seeing someone else now, by the way. A young actress. Blonde, brown-eyed, as different from you as is possible.’

They ended the call by agreeing to stay in touch, though Liberty very much doubted that she would see Tess again – that part of her life was over. She tried the number she had for Ramon but it had been disconnected. He wasn’t on Facebook and she didn’t have an email address. He probably wouldn’t even talk to her if she did track him down. She put her phone on the bedside table and sank back on the pillow. Brooke’s theory about the hacked email changed nothing. Cory was still lost to her.

Chapter 40

Brooke

The first thing Brooke did when she woke up on Saturday morning was reach for her phone, ever hopeful that there would be a text from Flynn. Nothing. But it was still early. He had finally admitted yesterday in a message that Eve was on the trip and things were complicated between them and that he would explain when he saw Brooke. She didn’t want there to be complications, she just wanted him not to be seeing Eve. That would be the best birthday present ever. She had been replaying that kiss over and over in her head. And she was certain it was a kiss that meant something.

Brooke put her phone back on the bedside table and noticed a small parcel, beautifully wrapped in blue-and-gold-patterned paper. It was a family tradition that her mom always sneaked a birthday present into her room while she was sleeping. It was funny. In the past she would have been desperate to know what was inside it, and whether it was one of the many expensive presents on her wish list. This year she’d
had no idea what she wanted, and when her mom had asked, simply said, ‘Surprise me’.

She pulled on her robe and padded downstairs, holding the present. Her mom was in the kitchen, hard at work making pancakes. Now this was a first. Usually it would have been Rosa making the pancakes to her own unique recipe that, as far as Brooke was concerned, produced the best pancakes in the world.

‘Happy birthday!’ Liberty exclaimed, immediately putting down the mixing bowl and hugging her daughter. Her hair, eyelashes and t-shirt were dusted in flour. It was fair to say that cooking did not come naturally to her.

‘Did you like your present?’

‘Oh, I haven’t opened it yet.’

‘Well, go on then!’ Her mom darted back over to the cooker and looked anxiously at the frying pan. ‘I so want these to be perfect! Rosa texted me the recipe. I’ve done a couple of practice batches and they worked out okay.’

Brooke was touched that she had gone to so much trouble. She sat down at the table to unwrap the present, and gasped. Wow! Her mom had given her a beautiful Hublot watch, in rose gold with diamonds. She had been asking for one of these since her thirteenth birthday. What a brat she had been … she wouldn’t have appreciated it then. But she did now.

‘Oh, Mom! You remembered! Thank you so, so much!’

Liberty planted a kiss on top of her head. ‘You are so welcome. It’s something special to mark your eighteenth. You’ve got other presents as well, but do you want to wait for Nina to come over before you open them?’

‘Yeah, that would be cool – so long as you haven’t
bought me too much and I get a lecture from her about being spoiled.’ She was only half joking. The old Brooke wouldn’t have cared less, but she didn’t want to be thought of like that any more.

The pancakes, topped with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries, yoghurt and maple syrup, were very nearly as good as Rosa’s, but Brooke told her mom they were even better. She went upstairs to shower and checked her phone again. Still nothing from Flynn, and he knew it was her birthday. She felt a pang of disappointment. All week since he had been away she had been filled with excitement at the thought of seeing him tonight, and now she was starting to feel a twist of anxiety that he might not come.

Just as she had finished getting dressed the doorbell rang.

‘Can you get that, Brooke? I’m just about to get in the shower,’ her mom called out.

She raced downstairs and opened the front door and then screamed in excitement because there, standing on the doorstep with her enormous Louis Vuitton purple-monogrammed suitcase by her side, was Kelly.

‘Oh my God! Oh my God! I can’t believe it!’ Brooke exclaimed, hugging her friend. ‘I had no idea you were coming. This is so awesome.’

‘I know! I know! I was dying to tell you, but your mom said we should keep it a secret until your birthday. It was her idea and she paid for my flight and everything.’

The two girls had a brilliant couple of hours catching up on all their news. Brooke felt that Harry and Mila were true friends but nothing could beat spending time with her very best friend. Then Nina arrived with her birthday present – a pretty vintage-style photo frame that she had filled with pictures of Brooke, her mum
and herself. ‘The Evans women, in all their glory,’ she declared. Liberty hadn’t gone too mad besides buying the watch and flying Kelly over, and had bought her perfume, make up and a dress from All Saints.

Nina surveyed the pile of presents, admired the watch and commented approvingly, ‘Just like the presents any eighteen-year-old girl would get. You really have changed, Brooke.’

She caught Kelly’s eye and could only hope that Nina didn’t know how much Hublot watches were …

At midday the party planners arrived to transform the living room and cinema room into a dance floor and chill-out area. Liberty banned Brooke from going anywhere near them, she wanted everything to be a surprise for her, so she and Kelly hung out upstairs. There was an almost tangible feeling of excitement in the house. Brooke had never had another birthday like it.

Mila and Harry arrived next. They had clubbed together and bought her a bright pink satchel bag that she had admired a few weeks ago when they had all been wandering through the Lanes, never imagining that they would buy it for her. It meant so much more to her than all the designer gifts she’d been showered with on other birthdays when she knew that money was no object. They sat on the balcony outside Brooke’s bedroom eating sushi that the caterers had provided. Brooke had wanted to crack open a bottle of champagne but her mom had put her foot down, saying she needed to pace herself and she could have a drink at six.

At two there was a loud knock at the door and Jez, celebrity hairdresser, made his grand entrance. Meeting him was like coming face to face with a much older, more tanned, camper version of Harry (if that
last part were possible). Introductions over, Harry immediately began interrogating Jez about his lifestyle in forensic detail.

‘He’s the me I am going to aspire to be,’ Harry declared afterwards. ‘He’s got a fantastic career, a Range Rover, a house in Islington and an apartment in Brighton. He regularly eats out at Nobu, Scott’s and The Ivy.’

‘A Mini-me!’ Jez exclaimed. ‘That is adorable. But frankly none of it would be worth a damn if I didn’t have the love of a good man in my life.’

‘Oh, yeah – I missed out husband,’ Harry replied. ‘Where is he, by the way?’

‘Downstairs with Liberty, being useful. He’s one of those Action Men types who has to prove his strength on a daily basis, which is perfect because it means I don’t ever have to take the bins out.’

‘I think I’m going to be single for a while,’ Harry mused, lying back on the bed. ‘Lately I’ve only seemed to be attracted to straight men.’

Jez shook his head. ‘That is a habit you have to break, it is ruinous to the spirit. Anyway, I have to get down to work! What needs doing?’

Kelly swished back her long glossy brunette hair, the result of hours and hours in the salon having extensions. Brooke knew that no one got to touch her hair except her favourite hairdresser.

‘Kelly’s good to go as she is,’ Brooke replied. ‘And I’d like a few blonde highlights at the front then my hair styled in waves.’