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‘Already back in LA, eh?’
‘Yes.’
His jaw tightened. ‘Well, you’ll be there for real soon enough.’
‘Too soon,’ she whispered, causing him to frown in confusion. Clearly he believed she wanted to go back, when in reality the thought filled her with dread.
‘This is a night for celebration, not sadness,’ he remarked suddenly, springing up and hauling her to her feet. ‘Come and sway with me on the terrace. Then, if you’re really lucky, I’ll let you take me to bed.’
Pushing away her sombre thoughts, she remembered her favourite motto. Live for now. Today wasn’t the time to change it.
Chapter Twenty
Following Charles’s confession, it didn’t take long for the media sympathy to swing straight back in Lizzie’s favour. Just, Nick reminded her rather smugly, as he’d predicted. In fact, since they’d arrived back in England, she’d been inundated with new offers sent over by her agent. Apparently she was now flavour of the month. What a crazy world she inhabited.
Almost as crazy as the life they were living in England. They’d been back three days and each of those mornings Nick had woken with her in his arms and wondered if it would be his last.
‘Lizzie,’ he called out as he returned from his first day back in the office since they’d come back. ‘I’m home.’ Wincing at the glib phrase — heck, he sounded like the returning husband — he went to hunt her down. They might be playing at being married, but the clock was ticking on their time together. Sooner or later she’d find the perfect job, and she’d be gone.
‘I’m out on the patio.’
Squinting through the glass doors, he made out her slender figure sitting cross-legged on the lounger, sunglasses perched on her head, papers in her hand. She waved, and held up a glass. He knew the signal. Diving into the fridge, he pulled out the bottle of Sauvignon and went to join her.
‘What are you reading?’
She looked at him sombrely and his heart almost stopped. ‘A contract. Maria phoned to warn she was emailing it through. It’s the perfume again, Innocence. And this time they don’t just want me to front the campaign for the fragrance, they want me to represent the whole company brand. It seems they’re jumping up and down, desperate for me to sign and get started.’
‘Which company?’ he asked quietly, his heart a heavy weight in his chest.
‘Astella.’
His hand gripped at the wine glass. Astella was the fashion house. Even he’d heard of it. Famous for its iconic perfume, chic make-up and cutting edge fashion, it was a label models and film stars clamoured to be associated with. And they wanted Lizzie.
Feeling as though he’d had the stuffing knocked out of him, Nick slowly pulled the cork out of the bottle and poured them both a drink. ‘That’s good, isn’t it?’ he said eventually.
‘Yes, I guess it is.’
He clung gratefully to the fact that she looked no happier than he was. ‘When do they want you to start?’
He watched her swallow, then take in a deep breath. ‘As soon as possible.’
His world caved in. The dread, the sickening anticipation he’d experienced for days all came to a head and he almost couldn’t breathe. It was really happening. Lizzie was going to leave him.
‘You don’t have to do it,’ he told her, his voice sounding as unravelled as he felt. ‘Stay here with me, instead.’
He saw the answer in her eyes, and his heart crumpled. ‘I can’t,’ she replied brokenly.
A lone tear slid down her cheek but he was too focussed on his own misery to take much notice of hers. ‘No, sorry, of course you can’t. You need to go back to your career, don’t you?’
The venom in his tone made her flinch. ‘Yes.’
‘Well, that put me firmly in my place, didn’t it?’ He let out a low, humourless laugh. ‘Then again, why am I so surprised? Your career has always been the most important thing in your world, hasn’t it?’ He wondered how many rungs he was below it. Or even if he was on the damn ladder at all.
* * *
Lizzie longed to deny his statement, then slap his face. Or slap first, deny afterwards. But what he was saying was true, wasn’t it? She’d put her career before her parents’ happiness, first insisting on going to America, then whining when she was lonely, forcing them to go out and see her. So no, she deserved his cruel words, though it didn’t mean she had to take them sitting down.
‘Would you be so scathing of my career if I were a doctor? A lawyer?’ She didn’t let him answer. ‘Besides, it’s my career that helps to pay for Robert’s medical needs. You seem to have conveniently forgotten I have a brother in a coma in LA, but I can’t. There isn’t a day goes by without me remembering where my brother is.’ Or who put him there.
