‘Let’s go,’ I said.
Ten minutes later I was clasping a glass of Orvieto in my hand and sitting happily ensconced in the corner of the snug bar with Paul, Dave and Rocco and, most bizarrely of all, I had the eerily familiar face of rock superstar, Zak Stranger opposite me. We’d walked in and there he was, perched on a stool wearing black leather trousers, a black and white striped shirt, velvet waistcoat and his customary fedora, supping on his pint. He greeted Rocco eagerly, standing up and embracing his friend in a bear hug.
‘All right, babe?’ he said when Rocco made the introductions.
‘Hi!’ I grinned inanely, failing miserably to look as though I was used to meeting living legends on a regular basis. Funny thing was, because his crumpled face, spiky hair and wonky smile were so familiar, it was like sitting down with a favourite uncle for a chat and a catch-up and any butterflies I had quickly disappeared at the sound of his friendly rasping voice.
‘So how are you finding it here?’ Zak asked later, when Rocco went up to the bar to get another round in. ‘Working with Rocco?’
‘Oh, I’m settling in slowly. It’s a completely new world to me, but I’m enjoying it immensely.’
Zak nodded sagely, picking up his pint glass, supping on the contents and leaving a frothy white moustache on his top lip. I giggled. He smiled and wiped it away with his shirt arm.
‘Rocco, he’s a good bloke.’ Zak leaned back in his seat, looking across at his best friend. ‘Don’t take any notice of all that crap you read in the papers. It’s all a load of bollocks. He’ll see you all right as long as you know what you’re doing.’ He winked at me, in a freeze frame of an image I’d seen on many a magazine cover. ‘Pandora’s the one you’ve got to watch. She can be a bit flaky.’
‘I know.’ I rolled my eyes. ‘I’ve already met her.’
Zak’s gaze met mine and he chuckled. I wanted to ask why, if the general consensus was that Pandora was a nightmare, Rocco was hanging around with her. But then I remembered. Angelic face. Heavenly figure . . . The answer was obvious.
‘What about you then, love? You shacked up with anyone?’
I might have taken offence if it had been anyone else asking. I’d only just met him and there he was questioning me about my love life. But Zak’s lack of guile and no-nonsense approach defied you to take umbrage. Besides, it felt as I’d known him forever. Thinking about it, I probably had. Well, his music at least.
‘No, I’m resting, so to speak.’
He laughed. ‘Ah, I know where you’re coming from. Me too; I can do without the hassle.’ From memory, there were two ex-wives, two long-standing girlfriends, five kids and a couple of houses dotted around the countryside. Standard rock star stuff, I supposed.
Just as Rocco came back with a fresh round of drinks, my mobile bleeped, Lexi’s name flashing up onto the screen.
‘My sister,’ I said, standing up and edging my way past Rocco. His eyes twinkled into mine as our upper bodies touched fleetingly, sending an exhilarating sensation through my body. Really, it was becoming most disconcerting how every time I got close to this man my body went into overdrive. What was wrong with me? Probably something to do with my bruised and fragile ego, I decided. It was a revelation though. I’d forgotten my body could perform those kinds of manoeuvres. ‘Excuse me a minute, would you, please?’ I muttered, aware that the two sets of eyes of the most eligible men in the country were following me as I went out.
* * *
‘Lexi! Hi! How’s things?’ I walked through the bar, pressing the phone hard to my ear to try and hear above the babble of the pub and slipped outside into the evening air, relieved to be away for the moment from the claustrophobic atmosphere surrounding Rocco.
‘Great. Absolutely dreamy. I’ll tell you all my news in a minute. But how’s it going with you? What’s it like working for a kitchen tyrant? A sex-god one at that!’ Lexi’s distinctive giggle travelled down the phone.
‘Actually, I haven’t seen much of his tyrannical side. I think he’s a bit of a pussycat really. But, yeah, it’s going well. We’re just having a drink, actually and you’ll never guess who with?’
‘Oh God, not Pandora? Please tell me that in the flesh she has spots and cellulite and looks like a dog.’
‘No, not Pandora. Although I have met her and sadly she has none of those things. No, Zak Stranger. The Zak Stranger! I’m having a drink with him now. Can you believe it?’
‘You’re kidding me. Really? How amazing. Could you get his autograph for me, maybe? God, Beth, after all this jet-setting lifestyle with all these famous people you won’t want to know me.’ She paused, an expectant silence drifting my way. ‘I don’t suppose you’ll be remotely interested in my news, then?’ I recognised a mischievous tone in her voice.
‘Lexi? Come on then tell me, what is it?’ From experience, I guessed it would be a new handbag, pair of designer shoes, an exotic holiday booked or maybe even a new man.
‘Oh Beth, it’s so exciting. Mitch has asked me to marry him. It’s all been so unexpected. We decided at the weekend. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am.’ Her words fell out in a torrent. ‘We’re going to have a small engagement party in a few weeks’ time, that’s why I’m calling, to make sure you’ll be able to come. And then we’ll get married a couple of months after that.’
‘Married? A couple of months?’ My mind was doing mental gymnastics. Mitch? Had I even met him? Yes, I remembered. He was the fit, sporty one. Worked as a personal trainer. Good-looking in an overly muscular, tanned kind of way. If that was the sort of thing that floated your boat.
‘Yes, well,’ said Lexi, taking a sharp intake of breath, ‘we want to get everything sorted before . . .’ She paused and my heart stopped as I realised with dread what was coming next. ‘The . . . baby arrives.’ I heard a nervous giggle. ‘Of course, it was a shock when we found out, but now. Oh, Beth, I couldn’t be happier.’
‘A baby?’ This was my younger sister talking. It didn’t happen this way. There was a natural order to these kinds of events and this wasn’t it. I still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that she was having sex. I was so dumbstruck, all I could do was repeat Lexi’s words. ‘A baby? But you’ve only just met him.’
Lexi spluttered. ‘Beth, you’re so funny. I’ve been seeing him for ages— at least three months.’ Exactly, I felt like blurting out. Three months. It was no time at all.
‘But that doesn’t matter,’ Lexi continued. ‘What does matter is that we’re crazy about each other and want to spend the rest of our lives together. There doesn’t seem to be any reason to wait. The thing is,’ Lexi babbled, ‘it’s true what they say. When you meet that special person you just know. I knew instantly. And Mitch says the same too. You don’t have all those nagging doubts in your head, wondering whether it’s going to work or not or whether they’re right for you. You just know.’
‘Oh, I see,’ I said, not seeing at all. Was it really possible to feel like that? To meet someone and know almost immediately he was the one. I was with Martin five years and never even got close to that feeling.
‘Well, you could at least pretend to be pleased for me,’ said Lexi, petulantly. ‘You’re going to be an auntie, isn’t that fantastic?’ My heart sank to the bottom of my high-heeled shoes.
A maiden aunt. Well, that was a pretty exciting prospect. Childless, husbandless, possibly even jobless after this little interesting interlude came to an end, my glittering future shone before me. I was sitting on one of the benches outside the pub, gazing into the still waters of the canal. The thought crossed my mind briefly that maybe I should jump in.
Dismissing my momentary self-indulgent thoughts, my mind returned to Lexi’s jaw-dropping news.
‘No, I am happy for you, Lexi, if this is what you really want and it sounds as if it is. I’m just a bit shocked that’s all. Er, gobsmacked even. Have you told Mum and Dad yet?’
Lexi laughed. ‘We’re shocked too. But happy. And no I haven’t told Mum and Dad;
I thought I’d send them an email. They’ll be made up though, won’t they?’
‘Thrilled,’ I said, nodding automatically.
‘And you will be able to come to the engagement party, won’t you? It’ll be a small do. If not, I’ll just rearrange it for another time.’
‘No, that Saturday will be fine, it’ll be great,’ I lied, hoping that the obvious amazement stretched over my face would have adjusted by then, and I could recover the ability to converse coherently in such a relatively short space of time. ‘We can catch up on all the news,’ I said, lamely.
When Lexi hung up, leaving a heavy silence throbbing in my ear, I stared at the phone blankly for a moment before wandering back into the pub.
‘Anything wrong?’ asked Rocco, standing up to greet me when I got back to the table. ‘Not bad news, I hope?’
I shook my head.
‘Just my sister. Good news, in fact. She’s getting married, and expecting a baby too. It’s all happened rather suddenly.’
‘Oh well, that is good news. From the look on your face, I thought someone had died.’
I eked out a smile. Maybe a small part of me had just died. He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me down to sit next to him.
‘Sounds to me as if we ought to have another drink to celebrate.’
‘Best idea you’ve had in a long time, mate,’ said Zak, laughing.
I laughed too, although I wasn’t sure the joke reached my insides. My mind was still swimming at the thought of Lexi’s news. We’d always been such a team, she and I. Team B beside the A-team of Mum and Dad. We’d relied on each other so heavily, confided in each other, shared everything together and now this— this mammoth thing had swept down without warning, lodging itself firmly between us.
I stared into my wine glass looking for answers, feeling outraged that there were tears pricking my eyes. What about me? I couldn’t help thinking.
Sighing, I turned to look up at Rocco who was observing me thoughtfully. I wondered how long his arm had been stroking my shoulder. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, his finger lightly traced a pattern through my cotton blouse, making me squirm inwardly with pleasure. Those deep probing eyes never left my face, and that’s when I knew. A tingling feeling swept through my veins and I realised that my eyes were smiling too. God, what was the matter with me? My head was all over the place. In that moment, in the noisy pub, I ached with longing and lust for the man sitting next to me.
That feeling Lexi had mentioned. The one that tells you you’ve found that special person. For the first time in my life I felt it.
Rocco stood up, his long rounded fingers splayed upon the oak table. Did I recognise something in his eyes too? Something unsaid? I sighed heavily. Could my life really get any worse? I’d just fallen hook, line and sinker for someone totally unattainable. But then I supposed Rocco was used to women falling at his feet. That’s what he did for a living. Chef, restaurateur, celebrity and professional player.
I’d been so certain that I wouldn’t be one of those adoring zillions. How, I wondered, had he managed to reel me in?
Chapter 8
‘God, you look rough! Are you sure you’re okay?’ Rocco asked early one morning, a few weeks into the shooting, as we stood huddled in the grounds of Zak’s country manor at some godforsaken hour.
No, I’m feeling pretty shitty actually. My head is a complete fog, I have a completely irrational and pathetic crush on you, my boss, my family are all behaving completely bizarrely, I am on the verge of an emotional breakdown and at this precise moment, I would much prefer to be tucked up in my bed. Thank you.
Of course, I didn’t say any of that. Instead, I smiled as sweetly as was humanly possible in the sub-zero temperatures.
‘Fine, thanks. Never better.’ I wrapped my arms around me, slapping myself heartily on the sleeves of my puffa jacket in my best ‘isn’t this the greatest thing to be outdoors doing outdoorsy things’ impression.
‘Hmmm,’ said Rocco, looking unconvinced. He glanced at me through narrowed eyes before walking away and joining Zak at the edge of the water.
I had to admit the gently swaying brown waters of Zak’s fishing lake did have a hypnotic quality. My gaze followed the patterns of the swirls, my thoughts distracted by Lexi and, more insistently, by Rocco, who was now sitting a few feet away, attending to his fishing line and the relative merits of the various bait sitting at his feet. Zak was sitting alongside him and if you didn’t know that one of them was a renowned master chef and the other a famous rock guitarist, you certainly wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at them, or by listening in to their conversation. Rocco was dressed in tan cords, a red and black checked shirt and a shabby old Barbour coat. He looked every inch the country squire but also incredibly sexy in the process. Zak was dressed in a similar get-up.
They reminded me of two schoolboys, best mates, oblivious to the cares of the outside world, simply happy in their shared passion for fishing. Quite frankly, I didn’t get it. What exactly was the fascination in sitting on a grassy verge, in the bitter cold, whiling away the hours at a snail’s pace, waiting for some passing fish to play ball.
‘Isn’t this just the best way to spend the day?’ Rocco looked across at me and grinned. I was beginning to suspect he had extra-sensory powers; he was making a habit of answering my unvoiced questions.
‘Yeah, great,’ I said, trying and failing to sound enthused, but in all honesty this was killing me. My bottom was parked on a checked blanket on the side of the lake, the cool dampness penetrating through into my bones. My fingers clasped the mug of coffee I’d been nursing for most of the morning.
‘Not too cold are you?’
‘No,’ I fibbed, having never felt colder in my life. It was f-f-f-flipping . . . f-f-f-freezing. In fact, I was beginning to shiver so much that I had to ease myself up from my uncomfortable position on the floor before I seized up completely. My joints protesting, I wandered over to where the film crew were setting up to start filming.
‘Are we about ready to go?’ Surely we must be. It felt as if we’d been here a lifetime. Since I’d started working with Rocco, time had flown by, but for some reason things were dragging interminably this morning. Either that or my watch had stopped.
‘Yep,’ Dave said, looking up from his camera. ‘All ready. You all right?’ he asked, looking concerned. ‘You look a bit peaky.’
God, what was the matter with everyone this morning? So I didn’t look my best in these near arctic conditions, but then who would? Pandora, I supposed. I could just imagine her in a fur-lined cape and boots looking suitably ice-queenish. Why didn’t they all just get on with what they should be doing instead of fretting over me? I nodded and sank deeper into my anorak.
‘Fine, just a bit cold that’s all. Let’s make a start then, shall we?’ Come on, come on, I was yelling inside.
Rocco and Zak had no sense of urgency. The pair of them were completely chilled in the relaxed sense, whereas I was chilled in the refrigerator sense. They were doing what they enjoyed most. Fishing, smoking, laughing, and sharing tales, mainly about the one that got away, and their previous great outdoor adventures. I knew it would make for great TV, if only for a few minutes, even if the actual filming seemed to be taking hours. The plan was that Rocco would catch a handsome brown trout or two and then we’d retire to the cottage so that he could show the viewers how to clean, prepare and cook the fish. You know the kind of thing, a hundred and one delicious ways with a trout. Only today the stars of the show— the fish that is, not Rocco, were refusing to blow bubbles.
‘It sometimes happens like that,’ said Zak. ‘That’s one of the joys of fishing. You never know if you’re going to come home with a huge catch or absolutely nothing. Really it’s not so much about catching fish, but the whole experience of being outside, at one with nature.’
I nodded sagely, as if I knew exactly what he was talking about.
‘At one with nature. Hey, that would make a gr
eat title for the book and TV series, don’t you think, Beth?’
I looked across at him. It was becoming more and more unnerving, how every time I looked at Rocco a strange sensation overtook me. Cold. Hot. Sweaty. Tingly. Today’s sensations, though, were like nothing I’d ever felt before. I was suddenly seeing two of him, both images smiling, two pairs of eyes beaming at me, looking sickeningly gorgeous. And then I noticed a different expression upon his face, or faces, one of uncertainty quickly followed by a look of terror. That’s when my knees buckled beneath me, my boots lifted off the ground and I landed with a thud on my backside, before sliding gracefully feet first down a muddy incline heading straight into the deep, cold water.
* * *
‘Ouch! Oooh, my head!’
Some hours later I shifted uneasily beneath the duvet, my hand instinctively reaching up to the scratches on my forehead, from when I was attacked by a particularly unfriendly bunch of thistles, so I was told. My bottom felt bruised and every other part of my anatomy ached with a stinging vengeance, apart from my head which simply throbbed.
‘Don’t even try to move, just lie back and relax.’ said Rocco, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, concern etched upon his face.
‘Oh God, I’m sorry. Did you catch any fish? What about the filming?’ The dawning realisation of the havoc I must have caused hit me hard in the chest.
Rocco shook his head and smiled.
‘You put paid to that, I’m afraid.’
‘Oh no,’ I protested, sighing. Any kind of movement seemed to shoot arrows of pain all through my body. ‘You didn’t need to go to all this trouble.’ I looked around the pretty room, a surge of relief engulfing me. I was safe. All I could remember was the penetrating dampness and that bloody cold. In comparison, being tucked up in the cosy, light bedroom felt blissful. Well, as blissful as you can feel when an almighty hangover moves in uninvited without having even brought a bottle along to the jamboree.
‘All this fuss. I’m fine, really. Just a silly fall, that’s all, I must have lost my footing.’ Was that what happened? Nothing was making sense at all. ‘Where’s Zak?’
WARM WINTER KISSES a feel good Christmas romance novel Page 6
