Amelia relaxed among friends, old and new. And when she finally bundled herself up against the cold again after Rupert made them all a hot cider before they went on their way, Amelia headed back to the apartment, through the swarms of shoppers and commuters, people out to take in the wonders of Christmas in the city, with the feeling this would be a holiday to remember.
She wasn’t wrong.
She opened the door to the apartment to find Kyle lounging on the sofa, iPad on his lap, bottle of vodka in one hand. His jaw dropped; he was well aware he’d been caught red-handed.
She snatched the bottle from his hand and at the same time saw a face on the iPad. ‘Who’s that?’
‘A mate.’ He clicked to hang up the call but not before Amelia saw the face again, the tattooed neck of Derek, idiot extraordinaire, so-called friend of Kyle’s but the biggest bad influence on the planet, who Amelia thought was still under lock and key at Her Majesty’s pleasure.
She snatched the iPad away.
‘Are you trying to suck all the fun out of my life?’ he roared at her.
She held the bottle of vodka aloft, some of it slopping out. ‘Damn right I’ll put a stop to this sort of fun. You’re underage in England, you’re well underage here. Where did you even get it?’
‘I found it in the back of the kitchen cabinet.’
‘So you stole it.’
‘You told me yourself, nobody has lived here for a long time. I don’t think anyone will miss a bit of vodka.’
‘Not really the point, is it?’ She screwed the top back on. At least it was half full – he couldn’t have had all that much seeing as he wasn’t slurring and stood his ground in front of her right now. She’d got well versed at spotting the signs of underage drinking, knowing when someone was spinning her a story. It was par for the course in her job, and she’d seen Kyle drunk before, more than once. No wonder Connie had fallen apart when it happened, because it was horrible. He’d been a mean drunk, out for trouble like the loser mates he’d hooked up with, including the guy he’d just been talking to.
She set the bottle down in the kitchenette. ‘You’ve let me down and we only just got here.’
‘I let everyone fucking down! What, do you expect me to hold your hand and skip around New York for the next few weeks?’
‘No, but I would hope for a little bit of respect.’
‘Yeah, well you shouldn’t have any expectations as far as I’m concerned. I told you, I’m not worth bothering about.’
Her attempts to diffuse the situation fell on deaf ears when he stormed off to his bedroom and gave the door an almighty slam.
In the still of the lounge Amelia sank into the sofa. Right now she wished she had accepted Rupert’s offer of a double Baileys, the option Darcy had gone for as she neared the end of her own working day. Then at least it might have softened the blow of finding Kyle.
Over the years, Amelia had built a strong bond with Kyle and for the most part she’d enjoyed having him around. When he was little she’d taken him to the park to play football, she’d pushed him on the swings, even got to know other mums who assumed Kyle was hers. Sometimes she hadn’t even corrected them. It wasn’t until the last couple of years, when Kyle’s life became more problematic and Connie relied on her even more, that Amelia had begun to really question who the parent was supposed to be. But by that time she was so close to Kyle that saying no to her sister would be saying no to him too. And she couldn’t bear the thought of that. He didn’t have many people in his corner as it was.
Her fingers hovered on her phone as she pondered whether to tell Connie about this, the fact he was in contact with someone who spelled trouble, how she’d caught him with alcohol again.
But she put her phone down, and after doing her teeth took herself off to bed and oblivion.
Maybe tomorrow would be a better day.
Chapter Five
Cleo
‘I hate you!’ Ruby shrieked at the top of her voice before running in tears from the kitchen at their home in Connecticut.
Cleo opened the pantry door again in the vain hope that the ingredients to make cupcakes had magically appeared and had been hiding in there all along. They had one egg, no self-raising flour, only demerara sugar and the icing sugar packet was light enough you could’ve assumed it was empty. She’d meant to check what they had and then go to the store yesterday if necessary, but somehow, in between running the market stalls, the Little Knitting Box and making sure she’d posted all of her holiday cards to England, it had completely slipped her mind. Ruby had set her alarm this morning to get up extra early and make them before school so they’d be fresh, and she’d been in the kitchen tying on her apron when Cleo sat up in bed remembering what she’d promised. She’d come down to get started and realising they didn’t have the ingredients had been like taking a blow to the stomach, the pain enhanced when Ruby screamed at her.
‘She didn’t mean it.’ Dylan’s comforting hand rested on Cleo’s shoulder. He’d been working in the study but Ruby’s voice would’ve alerted someone from three streets away, it was that loud and venomous.
She shrugged him off. ‘I’ll drive down to the bakery, see what I can find. I don’t have to send twenty-four cupcakes like Ruby wanted, a small container of a few will be enough.’ It wouldn’t be for Ruby, who was devastated, but it would at least be an effort on her part. She wished Ruby had mentioned the cupcakes again yesterday but she’d been at her mum’s after school, no doubt with Prue in her ear about Daddy’s other half and how she’d never measure up. There was a brief time Cleo had thought Prue had moved on enough to be mature, to the point where if her own kids were having trouble accepting Cleo, Prue would reason with them and be on Cleo’s side. But no such luck. Prue had always liked to cause trouble, and she wouldn’t mind betting Ruby would soon be telling her all about this little mishap.
She grabbed her purse and called up the stairs to Ruby, asked her if she’d like to come and help her find something, but she got no answer.
‘Leave her to calm down. She needs to shower and get ready for school anyway, and by the time she’s done that you’ll be back from the bakery with the cakes.’ Dylan wrapped Cleo in an enormous hug. It was hard to stay mad at him for long. Not that she really was; it was more frustration that he didn’t seem to get how scary it was for her to have Ruby, who had always got on with her famously, suddenly turning against her.
