‘Come on,’ Will coaxed, holding out a hand to her. ‘I’ll tell them that’s not your real hair,’ he teased when she hesitated.
Will started pulling her in their direction and she allowed herself to be persuaded. After all, she’d be the envy of everyone in the room. Better still, Brian was a huge Walking Wounded fan and he’d be sick when Kate told him she’d got to meet them. It would serve him right for being so unsupportive and not coming to the wedding.
It felt surreal to be in the midst of so many famous faces – especially to see such an iconic figure as Phoenix in the flesh. The closest she had seen these people in real life up to now was from the front row at their concerts when Will had got her and Lorcan VIP tickets.
‘Everyone, this is Kate,’ Will announced adding, as promised, ‘The hair isn’t hers – it’s an impostor from another planet.’
‘Hi, Kate.’ Phoenix smiled and shook her hand. His wife’s smile was tense but there was warmth in her eyes.
Up close, Phoenix’s piercing blue eyes were more penetrating than ever, especially now he’d had his head shaved. Summer towered over him, and he spoke so quietly that Kate had to lean in close to hear him, but he had charisma you could almost touch. ‘And what happened to you?’ He gestured at Will’s head. ‘Did your hair get abducted by aliens?’
‘Long story,’ Will said ruefully, then continued the introductions, ‘This is Rory, Tessa, Georgie…’
Owen was as stunning up close as he was in all his pictures. He had a wild mop of thick black hair and eyes so dark you couldn’t see the pupils, framed by long, spiky lashes. His pale washed-out face bore a permanent five o’clock shadow, but therewas something boyishly innocent about his face, which was at odds with the excess baggage under his eyes.
His elder brother, Rory, had a craggy, prematurely lined face and weary eyes that made him look old beyond his years. Kate had already recognised the petite blonde draped over him as Tessa Bond, an English television presenter and heat-seeking missile with a fluffy, bubbly persona. They seemed an unlikely pairing.
Georgie nodded at Kate, her eyes quickly slanting away shyly. A tiny, sullen-looking girl with a cloud of soft dark hair and huge green eyes, she was ravishingly pretty but did her best to disguise it with ugly clothes and confrontational body art in the form of multiple piercings and tattoos. She was dressed in baggy sports clothes, a jewelled belly-button ring her only concession to wedding attire.
Will was stumped when he came to Owen’s girlfriend, a pretty blonde whom he had not met before and didn’t expect to meet again. Owen was sweet to his girlfriends, but he had the attention span of a four-year-old with ADHD. At least he had better taste than his brother, Will reflected.
‘This is Fiona.’ Owen did the honours. ‘And I’m Owen,’ he said, flashing Kate a smile that made her feel like Angelina Jolie. He was alternately swigging Jack Daniel’s from a bottle and sucking at a cigarette.
‘Oh yes, I know.’ Kate giggled.
‘For God’s sake, put out that cigarette, Owen,’ Will ordered. ‘You know it’s illegal to smoke in here.’
‘Oh, it’s okay,’ Owen said, taking another puff. ‘It’s not nicotine.’
‘Well,that’sillegal everywhere,’ Will told him, exasperated. ‘Always has been.’
‘Oh, right.’ Owen stubbed it out dutifully.
Tessa peered at Kate’s hair and smiled smugly.
‘Don’t worry about your hair, Kate,’ Owen said, ‘Tessa’s lips aren’t hers either. She got them off a duck-billed platypus at the zoo.’
Tessa shot him a murderous look, but Kate was the only person unwise enough to laugh, and Tessa rewarded her with an even more homicidal stare.
‘So, what are you up to at the moment, Tessa?’ Will asked, to distract her.
‘I have a book coming out next week, believe it or not.’ She gave him a dazzling smile, the frothy persona back in place now that the attention was on her. ‘Imagine, me – a book! And it’s not just pictures, it’s got words and everything.’ She giggled flirtatiously.
‘What sort of book is it?’
‘Well, it’s sort of about the journey I’ve been making over the past year and what I’ve discovered about?—’
‘It’s a diet book,’ Rory said flatly, before she could get into her stride.
‘It’s not a diet,’ Tessa corrected him sharply. ‘It’s an eating plan for life.’
‘Oh, that’s… er… such a new concept,’ Will said.
Kate stifled a snort.
‘Yes, and it’s sort of my personal story, too, the journey I made and what I discovered about myself along the way.’
‘Right,’ Will nodded politely. ‘Sounds great!’
