AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She floated back towards the bed, on a cloud of bliss, until she spotted the clock on her iPhone.
Crapola. Ten past seven, she had a measly forty minutes to get Aldo up, clothed, fed and pack-lunch enabled. A tall order for Super Nanny, let alone a girl with the worst bed hair in the history of the world.
Chapter 18
Get a room, people. Extreme PDAs are the last thing I need this morning.
Halle glared at the couple canoodling on the bench at the far end of the reception building’s porch. They were the third loved-up pair she’d spotted this morning since slipping away from Luke, whom she’d left snoring softly in her bed, to jog over to the resort’s reception for the noon Skype call she’d scheduled with the kids. She pulled her iPhone out and plugged in the earbuds so she wouldn’t have to hear the nauseating murmur of sweet nothings being exchanged ten feet away. She wondered vaguely what Luke was going to do about his exposé, if it turned out Monroe’s methods actually worked?
The panic that had propelled her out of Luke’s arms like a rocket twenty minutes ago whizzed up the back of her neck and set her scalp alight.
Don’t be ridiculous. Monroe’s method is just a clever con. Last night was an illusion. The perfect storm of hot make-up sex and long-overdue closure. The ultimate stress buster after surviving a ten-day emotional and physical assault course.
You are not falling for Luke again. That much is non-negotiable.
Signing on to the resort’s Wi-Fi, she opened up her Skype app, checked the time and then waited for Lizzie to pick up.
Her daughter’s face flashed onto the screen, the bright smile a surprise. ‘Hi, Mum, how’s things in the US?’
Halle shifted round so only the resort building’s white-shingled wall was in view and sent up a small prayer of thanks for the grainy image quality. ‘Hi, honey, everything’s great.’ She pushed the prickle of guilt aside, promising herself there would be no more lies. Once she returned home. ‘More to the point, how are you guys doing?’
‘We’re good, but I asked first. And I want details.’ Lizzie leaned into the shot as if trying to peer past her. ‘What city are you in? And how have the signings been going?’
‘I …’ Halle’s mind blanked as the prickle of guilt became a thorn, stabbing her in the back. ‘I’m in Tennessee. And the signings have been good.’ The lie sat on her tongue like a wad of cotton wool, making the fire in her scalp flame hotter. ‘It’s not like you to be interested,’ she said, the reflex action purely defensive, until it occurred to her how hostile the comment sounded.
She braced herself for a tirade. A tirade that for once she thoroughly deserved.
‘I know,’ Lizzie said, the expected corrosive tone noticeably absent. ‘I’m sorry, Mum. I’ve been so shitty about your career the past couple of years. I feel really bad about it now.’
‘You do?’ Halle yelped, the guilt starting to strangle her, at the look of genuine contrition on her daughter’s face.
She’d waited for years for Lizzie to turn this corner and stop sniping at her every time a meeting overran, or they got stopped by a fan wanting an autograph or she had to stay late at the studio. But why did her daughter have to turn this pivotal corner today? The very morning after Halle had spent a long and energetic night getting up close and far too pornographic with Lizzie’s father … while not being on a whistle-stop book tour of the US.
Halle Best’s epic timing strikes again.
‘I mean it, Mum,’ Lizzie replied, her voice thick with an eighteen-year-old’s complete sincerity. ‘I’ve been a real baby about it. When you get home, I want a full report about the book tour. OK?’
Shit.
‘Of course, that’s fabulous, sweetheart. But when did this happen?’ Time to deflect and deny until you can regroup. ‘You seemed so upset when I left.’ And they had basically avoided talking about Lizzie’s last epic sulk ever since, in a series of rather stilted phone conversations, during which her daughter had used any available excuse to pass the phone to Aldo or Trey. But not today. Of all days.
‘I totally overreacted, as usual. So tell me more about the signings.’ The request was filled with the open curiosity and enthusiasm Lizzie had been bursting with before she hit puberty and which Halle had mourned the loss of for years. Until this precise moment. ‘What cities have you been to so far?’ Lizzie added, perkiness personified. ‘Anywhere cool? I hope you took photos.’
‘Um … no. Nowhere that exciting really.’ Unless you count a camp island on Fontana Lake with your father. She cringed, hoping the image was as grainy on Lizzie’s end. And her daughter couldn’t see the blaze of heat fire-bombing her cheeks.
‘Is Aldo there? And Trey?’ She rushed to fill the gap in the conversation before Lizzie asked any more awkward questions that would require the ability to lie like Walter Mitty to answer convincingly. ‘I need to touch base with them before the battery on my phone runs out.’ She winced, hating herself even more for the lie.
It’s official, I am going to Bad Mother Hell when I die. Where I shall be forced to go to Aldo’s parent–teacher conferences for all eternity.
‘Um, Aldo’s busy. And so is Trey.’
‘They are? What are they busy doing?’ It was nearly seven o’clock at night in the UK. Surely they couldn’t be that busy. Trey would have ensured Aldo had done all his homework and was winding down by now, ready for bed at nine.
There was a long pause on Lizzie’s end. ‘Minecraft. They’re busy building something on Minecraft.’
‘Well, do you think you could ask them to stop building whatever they’re building for a minute? I won’t keep them long.’
