“It’s a boy!” He beamed. “Zachariah Daniel Meyer. Zack. He is the absolute fucking business, bruv.” He flung his arms around Jake, lifting him up in an almighty, triumphant bear hug.
“How’s Diana?” asked Ruth. She waited for the twins to finish hugging before kissing Danny warmly on the cheek. “Can we see them both?”
“In a minute, yeah,” said Danny. “They’re just getting cleaned up. Diana was amazing. Amazing! I can’t believe she went through all of that, without so much as an aspirin.”
“Nor can I,” said Ruth with feeling. “When I have a kid they can knock me out cold. Twenty thousand bucks for one night and no doctor? That’s more than painful enough if you ask me.”
Jake grinned and suddenly remembered everything he liked about her.
“Congratulations,” he said, returning Danny’s smile. “I’ll nip down to the gift shop and get her some flowers.”
“Don’t bother,” said Danny. “She only has eyes for the baby. She won’t even register.”
“That’s OK,” said Jake, who suddenly felt an unaccountable need to be by himself and get some air. “I ought to stretch my legs anyway. You two go on in. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
Outside, the sun was just beginning its descent into the horizon, and a rainbow of blues, reds, pinks, and purples oozed into the late-afternoon sky. The day was so clear you could see the ocean glinting at the end of Santa Monica Boulevard, some twenty-three blocks away. Had it not been for the roaring traffic belching out gas fumes, the palm-lined street would have looked positively beautiful.
As it was, Jake barely noticed his surroundings, nor the deafening rush-hour sound track as he wandered toward the flower shop on the corner, lost in his own thoughts.
He had a nephew.
Danny had a son.
He knew he ought to feel delighted, and he did, for Danny. Danny, who, a few short months ago, had felt that the best of his life had already passed, that love and happiness and success had all slipped permanently through his fingers. Jake doubted there was another human being on earth this evening who felt quite so completely happy as his brother. The thought made him smile.
But at the same time, Danny becoming a father threw his own life into harsh relief. Ruth was a terrific girl. Terrific. But he didn’t love her. If he’d been under any illusions about that, they’d shattered with resounding clarity in that waiting room a few moments ago. He would have to break up with her, now, before her expectations really became set in stone. The thought of hurting yet another woman twisted his insides like a gallstone. When the fuck was he going to bring a girl some happiness? When was he going to find happiness himself? Become a father? Settle down?
He tried to picture himself with a wife on his arm and a child on his knee, and realized for the first time in his life that he wanted to be in that picture. He did. He wanted what Danny had. So why did he keep screwing things up for himself?
Maybe what he’d told Aunt Agnes had been the truth. He wasn’t cut out for relationships. He might fantasize about becoming a father, but he entirely lacked the skill, or the genetic makeup, or whatever it was he needed to turn that dream into a reality.
He’d been thinking for a while now about getting away. Maybe, if Scarlett ever came back from bloody Scotland and took over the reins at Flawless, he could take a six-month sabbatical? Perhaps go back to Freetown and work with Dr. Katenge. Do something useful for a change.
Opening the door to the flower store, the mingled scent of freesias, stocks, and lilies was so overpowering it made him feel nauseous.
“I’ll be right with you,” the girl at the counter shouted. “I’m just finishing up here.”
She was serving another customer, a girl, handing her an enormous bouquet of white roses. The girl had her back to Jake, so he couldn’t get a good look at her, although he did glance admiringly at her ridiculously long legs in a pair of faded corduroy True Religions.
“Oh, no, no. I don’t need the plastic wrap. Just leave them natural.”
Her voice echoed around the empty store. Jake felt his stomach flip like a tossed coin. He’d know that singsong, posh English accent anywhere. The most beautiful sound in the world.
“That’ll be sixty dollars and fifty-five cents please,” the shop girl was saying. Scarlett fumbled in her trouser pockets, dropping notes and change everywhere in her usual, scatterbrained way.
“Here. Let me.”
Inside, his heart was racing, but Jake’s voice rang out clear and strong. Scarlett spun around, blushing to the roots of her gorgeous mahogany hair.
“Oh. Gosh. You’re not supposed…what are you doing here?” she stammered.
“That’s my line,” said Jake. “I thought you were in Scotland.”
For ten of the longest seconds in history, they stared at one another, neither knowing what to say next. Then, to Jake’s surprise, he felt his legs carry him forward and his arms opening. The next thing he knew, Scarlett had fallen into them with the exhausted relief of a marathon runner finally crossing the finish line.
The kiss went on for so long the shop girl started to worry they were going to rip each other’s clothes off there and then, and began to cough loudly from behind the counter.
Taking the hint, Jake pulled away, still clasping both Scarlett’s hands in his.
“How did you know I was here?”
“Perry told me,” said Scarlett. “I went straight to the store and he said Diana was in labor and you’d taken off. The flowers were for Diana,” she added lamely.
“Good.” Jake grinned. “White roses don’t really float my boat. I’ve always been more of a blowjob man.”
“Jake!” Scarlett blushed and giggled.
“Oh, Scarlett,” he said, suddenly serious. “I’ve been such a dick. I know we’ve got a lot to talk about, and we can’t just pick up where we left off. You’re probably thinking I’m the same old Jake Meyer and it’ll never work out, not in the long run. But I’ve changed, I really have. Since Danny became a father—”
Now it was Scarlett’s turn to grin. “And when was that, exactly?”
“About forty minutes ago,” said Jake. “Look, I know it’s complicated. We need to take things slowly. But I love you; I fucking love you so much, and—”
“Jake?”
Ruth, looking small and bewildered in her white lab coat, suddenly appeared in the flower shop doorway. Diana had been too exhausted for a long visit, so she’d decided to come and find him and suggest they came back in the morning.
But one look at the two figures in front of her told her that wasn’t going to happen.
“You must be Scarlett.”
“That’s right.”
Smiling bravely, Ruth marched over and shook her rival’s hand. Deep in her heart, she had always known there was a piece missing in Jake’s love for her. And now here she was, shaking the missing piece’s hand.
Watching her, Jake had never felt smaller. Ruth was twice the man he’d ever be.
“Scarlett just arrived,” he mumbled awkwardly. “I wasn’t expecting her. I mean, I didn’t know—”
Ruth held up her hand. She was already using every ounce of her pride and strength to hold it together. If Jake started apologizing, she knew the tears would flow.
“Please, don’t. I understand.” She was looking at Scarlett, unwilling or unable to meet Jake’s eye. “I wish you both the best.”
“Ruth!” Jake called after her. But she had already bolted out the door and was half walking, half running down the street.
“I’m so sorry,” said Scarlett sincerely. “It was selfish of me. I should never have come. Your life’s moved on, and here I come like the ghost of Christmas past, hurting everybody and—”
He stopped her with a kiss. The cashier started coughing again. The poor girl sounded like she had advanced TB.
“My life started the day I met you,” said Jake, “and it stopped the day you left. Promise you’ll never leave me again. Never.”
He was right; they had a lot to talk about.
But she knew she would never, ever leave him again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
TOPANGA WAS THE perfect setting for a Christmas wedding.
Thanks to good old Aunt Agnes—or Saint Agnes, as the Meyer brothers had rechristened her—and her timely investment in Solomon Stones, Danny had bought the 1920s farmhouse he had fallen in love with over the summer and spent the past few months refurbishing it. Diana broke down in tears the day that she and Zack moved in—Danny had insisted that they finish the work first so as not to expose the baby to any dust, and he wanted their first family home to be perfect before his darling girl saw it. And in Diana’s eyes, it truly was.
“Oh my God. It’s a fairy tale,” she sobbed, gazing in wonder at the freshly planted cottage gardens and the gleaming new whitewash on the facade. “I feel like Snow White.”
Inside it was even more charming, with not so much as a hint of Danny’s bachelor taste in evidence. The old pine floors were simply stripped, the walls painted in strong, bright colors offset by clean, white Shaker furniture, and all the original features, like the wood-burning stove in the kitchen, had been salvaged and lovingly restored. Best of all was Zack’s nursery, a charming, quaint room in the attic, where Scarlett had covered the walls with a mural of an enchanted forest.
“It’s an early wedding present,” she told the delighted Diana. “It’s been ages since I did any painting, so I really had fun with it. You don’t think Zack’ll be frightened, do you? It is a bit spooky in parts.”
“It’s magical,” enthused Diana. “He’ll love it. It’s like a dream. The whole house is.”
The guests who filed down the garden path into the huge tent at the bottom of the hillside thought so too.
“It’s a little piece of England, isn’t it?” Nancy was saying to Isobel, one of Scarlett’s model girlfriends from Notting Hill. “Don’t you feel like you’re back home?”
“Well, yes, apart from the fact it’s eighty degrees and blue skies in the middle of December,” laughed Isobel. “And the whole double wedding thing is frightfully Hollywood. I don’t think Scarlett’s mother is a bit amused.”
“No.” Nancy frowned. “Probably not. Then again, when is she ever?”
Caroline, clinging onto Hugo’s arm for dear life as he led her to her seat at the front of the tent, radiated icy disapproval in a vintage Hardy Amies suit and hat. Half of the guests seemed to have dressed for a barbeque, in cheap sundresses and flip-flops. Two of them, she noted with horror, were actually barefoot! The whole ghastly, hippie setup was a far cry from the church wedding at Drumfernly that she’d always dreamed of for her daughter. But then again Scarlett had always been willful, always insisted on going her own way. If only cursed Agnes hadn’t encouraged her, they wouldn’t be here, sharing their daughter’s wedding day with a gaggle of North London Jews and eccentric Californians. They’d be safely at home, ensconced in the sanity of Drumfernly.
Then again, as Hugo had gently reminded her, if it hadn’t been for Agnes, they wouldn’t have Drumfernly to go home to.
In an upstairs guest bedroom, Scarlett and Diana were alone together, helping one another with the last-minute adjustments to their veils.
“This is exquisite,” sighed Scarlett, pinning Diana’s 1930s pearl tiara firmly in place. “Is it your something old?”
“Old and borrowed. It’s my mother’s,” said Diana. So soon after Zack’s birth she’d lost every ounce of her baby weight and then some, and looked tiny and childlike in her fitted Monique Lhuillier gown. “Brogan very sweetly sent me a silver cross of his mother’s to be my something old, but Danny wouldn’t hear of it.”
“I should think not,” said Scarlett.
“He said Brogan was something old and should mind his own business,” giggled Diana. “I guess I see his point.”
Brogan had written her a long letter when her engagement was announced, congratulating her on that and on Zack’s birth. Danny had been dismissive and distrustful, understandably, but Diana could tell from his tone that this time Brogan had genuinely changed. Aidan Leach’s conviction for the murder of the journalist, Scarlett’s friend, had shaken him deeply, and he finally seemed to be taking a long, hard look at his own life. For Diana, knowing that she had Brogan’s blessing closed the circle of her happiness. And even Danny had softened toward him slightly when, a week after the baby was born, he finally agreed to make Diana a fair, even generous settlement.
“What about you?” Diana smiled at Scarlett, smoothing down her antique veil. “Did you do the whole borrowed and blue thing too?”
“Of course,” said Scarlett. “Just about everything’s old—the veil, the dress. Only my shoes are new.” She poked a bejeweled Jimmy Choo sandal out from under the hem of her grandmother’s lace wedding gown and wiggled her pedicured toes happily. “My engagement ring’s blue.”
“I love that sapphire,” enthused Diana.
“And I borrowed this from Nancy.” Hitching up her skirts, she revealed a sexy lace garter belt with appliquéd skulls and crossbones all over it. “She felt the outfit needed a touch of rock ’n’ roll.”
In the corner of the room, Zack gurgled happily on his sheepskin play mat.
“You and Jake’ll be next,” said Diana, catching Scarlett’s adoring glance in her son’s direction.
“One thing at a time,” laughed Scarlett. “Jake’s only just grown up himself, remember.”
Downstairs in the study, Danny did his best to calm his brother’s nerves.
“What if she backs out?” Pacing the tiny, wood-paneled room like a caged leopard, Jake looked as green as the newly irrigated farmhouse lawn. “What if she takes one look at me in there and comes to her senses?”
“She’s had ages to come to her senses,” said Danny, handing him a lit cigarette. “If she was going to do it, it would have happened by now.”
“Her family hate me,” said Jake, inhaling deeply.
Danny shrugged. “Diana’s family hate me. So what? You’re not marrying the parents.”
“But what if her dad gives her a last-minute pep talk?”
“He won’t.”
“Or one of her Lord Snooty ex-boyfriends stands up when they say ‘If anyone knows of any reason why these two may not be joined in holy matrimony,’ and she listens to him, and—”
“Jake.” Danny put a firm hand on his twin brother’s shoulder. “This isn’t a church service, remember? We don’t have that bit.”
Jake looked faintly mollified.
“Thank God for that. How long until kickoff?”
Danny consulted his watch. “Twenty minutes.”
Jake groaned. So long?
“I think I need a brandy. Make it a double.”
Most of the guests had filed into the tent by now and were milling around talking and laughing and enjoying the canapés and champagne before taking their seats.
Nancy had secured herself a good corner vantage point from which to observe the throng and was thoroughly enjoying a good bitch session with Perry.
“Look at Julia Brookstein’s skirt!” she whispered, knocking back another big slug of bubbly. “It’s so short you can see her lipo scars from here.”
“Mmm,” Perry agreed. “Greta Saltzman’s aging so much better. Although the caramel highlights were a mistake. What do you think they’re talking about?”
“The size of Jake’s cock, I expect, and how much they’re going to miss it,” said Nancy.
“D’you think they will miss it?” Perry asked archly. “Do you think our boy has fidelity in him?”
Nancy scowled. “He’s not my boy. And he’d damned well better have. If he plays around on Scarlett, I’ll personally sever the infamous Meyer meat with a rusty hacksaw, and that’s a promise.”
“Ouch!” Perry winced. “Must you be so graphic, sweetie? Ooo, who’s that?” His sharp eyes zeroed in on an impossibly chiseled man i
n a formal tuxedo jacket who was making his way to the front row.
“Some wannabe from Santa Monica Boulevard,” said Nancy. “Apparently Scarlett’s brother picked him up in a gay bar last night and brought him along.”
“Nooo!” Perry looked suitably shocked. “I thought the brother was out to lunch? And still stuck halfway in the closet?”
Nancy shrugged. “Me too. I guess LA is helping him find himself.”
On the other side of the tent, Minty Meyer adjusted her canary-yellow coatdress and matching hat and smiled through gritted teeth at Caroline Drummond Murray, who was staring resolutely in front of her, doing a good impression of someone waiting for root canal surgery.
“Look at Lady Muck over there. Who does she think she is?” Minty hissed at her husband. Happily drunk beside her, he was admiring the endless pairs of silicone breasts as they filed respectfully past him. “Rudy Meyer, are you listening to me?”
“Of course, dear.” He nodded dutifully, wondering how long a write-your-own-vows service for four was likely to take and how soon it would be before someone fed him something more substantial than a caviar blini.
Just then Danny sauntered in, beaming from ear to ear, with a wriggling Zack in his arms.
“You couldn’t take His Majesty for me, could you, Mum?” he said, handing the bundle to an instantly ecstatic Minty. “The au pair girl was supposed to get him off Di hours ago, but apparently she was last seen disappearing into the woods with a handsome Englishman and hasn’t been heard of since.”
“Just as long as it wasn’t your brother,” muttered Rudy. “When are we getting started?”
“Any minute,” Danny assured him. “The fathers are on their way up to get the girls now.”
Right on cue, the string quartet picked up their bows. (They were also barefoot, much to Caroline’s chagrin, and the viola player had visibly dirty toenails!) The last remaining stragglers took their seats to the strains of Handel’s Messiah while Danny made his way to the dais, a simple, white wooden circle with what looked like a maypole in the middle of it, smothered in Scarlett’s favorite Michaelmas daisies. He was joined a few moments later by a still-green Jake, as nervous as Danny was relaxed.
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