Rumor Has It

by Jill Mansell

  And the best thing was, he was answering them.

  'Twenty thousand. Dollars,' he added hastily as her eyes widened. 'Ten thousand pounds, that was what I told the old guy over the phone. Which was pretty nerve-wracking, but I had to give him some kind of limit. No offence, but I couldn't risk him getting back to me, saying he'd had to go up to half a million to get you.'

  'I'm definitely not worth half a million.' Kaye shook her head. 'I can't believe you thought I was worth ten grand.' She looked at him, completely unafraid now, and said, 'Why am I? Why did you come all this way?'

  The waitress had brought them their menus ten minutes ago and they hadn't even looked at them yet. Parker said steadily, 'I can't tell you why. It'd sound…' He stopped, shook his head. 'No, sorry, I can't tell you why.'

  Kaye liked it that he couldn't tell her. He wasn't exactly blush ing, but he looked as if he might be on the verge of it. Spotting the waitress hovering at a discreet distance, she said, 'We're holding up the kitchen. Let's decide what we're going to eat. Are you hungry?'

  'Not really.' His smile was wry.

  Kaye's eyes danced. 'Nor me.'

  Chapter 49

  'LOOK AT THEM.' IT was ten thirty and Max was getting fed up. 'They haven't stopped yakking all night. Bloody hell, he's getting his money's worth, isn't he?'

  'Dad, calm down. He paid a lot.'

  'But it's late, and you have to go to school in the morning.'

  'I know,' said Lou, 'but it's only double geography first thing. Everyone sleeps through that.'

  'Here comes the cavalry,' said Parker. 'Riding to your rescue. Looks like my time's up.'

  Glancing at her watch, Kaye couldn't believe it was eleven o'clock. And here came Max, determinedly heading across the almost deserted restaurant. 'It's OK, I'll deal with him.'

  'Hi there. Good evening. We have to go now,' Max said without preamble.

  'That's fine. You go. I'm going to stay on for a bit longer.'

  'No no no.' He shook his head. 'You can't do that.'

  'Yes I can.' Kaye signaled with her eyes that everything was fine. 'We're having a lovely evening and I don't want to leave yet. I'll catch a taxi home when I'm ready.'

  'No you won't,' said Max, 'because we arranged to come here and keep an eye on you, and leaving you on your own with a stranger who could be a complete freak—no offense—would be a crazy thing to do.'

  'But that was before we met him. And Parker isn't a freak, so you don't have to worry any more!'

  Parker raised a hand. 'Hey, it's OK. He's right. We've had a great evening, but now we should call it a night.'

  Kaye felt like a teenager being picked up early from the disco by her dad. She heaved a sigh and said to Max, 'Just give us two minutes.'

  'Fine. Two minutes.' Max shot her an are-you-mad? look in return. 'No more.'

  As soon as he was out of earshot, Kaye said, 'Sorry about my ex-husband. Tact was never his strong point.'

  'He's looking out for you. That's a good thing.'

  She gazed at Parker, whose features were becoming more won derfully familiar by the minute. They'd talked about their child hoods, holidays, old school friends, embarrassing experiences, food dislikes, bizarre Christmas presents received, favorite films, and least favorite chat-up lines, darting endlessly from one subject to the next because there was simply so much to say. And still so very much to learn. Was this how it felt when you met your soul mate?

  Without even stopping to think about it, Kaye blurted out, 'So anyway, are we seeing each other again?'

  Parker's whole face lit up. 'Are you just being polite?'

  'No, not at all.'

  He relaxed visibly. 'I'd love that.'

  'Tomorrow night?'

  'Hmm.' Smiling, Parker pretended to reach into his jacket pocket. 'I'll have to check my diary, see if I'm free.'

  'At bloody last,' said Max when Parker left the restaurant and Kaye joined them at the bar. 'Job done. Let's go. I thought we'd have been out of here by ten o'clock.'

  'What was he like?' Tilly was curious.

  Kaye could feel herself glowing. 'Really, really nice.' How could she begin to explain the way she was feeling without making them think she was off her rocker? Then again, who cared what they thought? 'In fact, he still is nice. I'm seeing him again tomor row night.'

  'Over my dead body,' snorted Max.

  'OK.' Pointing two fingers at him, she fired. 'Bang, you're dead.'

  'That's what you'll be when he does it to you. Jesus Christ, don't you get it?' Max was incredulous. 'You have no idea who this man is. All you know is that he's sent you stuff, practically stalked you, and paid a crazy amount of money to cross the Atlantic and have dinner with you. So tell me, how normal does that sound, eh?'

  Kaye shrugged. 'I'm still meeting up with him tomorrow night. You don't have to tag along.'

  'Of course I do! Somebody has to! Bloody hell, I don't believe this is happening,' bellowed Max.

  Me neither, Kaye thought joyfully, but it is.

  Isn't it great?

  There were some things you really didn't expect to see on your way to work at seven forty-five on a Thursday morning, and Jack Lucas holding a wailing half-naked baby at arm's length was one of them.

  Tilly, having pulled into the filling station for petrol, queued behind a white van and observed the goings-on with a mixture of emotions. Jack's car was parked at one of the pumps and a red Fiat stood with its doors flung open in the valeting bay. A toddler was screaming in his car seat, his harassed mother attempting to calm him with a juice box. That task completed, she turned her attention back to the younger baby, peeling the sodden white onesie carefully down over its frantically kicking legs so as not to splash baby sick over Jack's polo shirt. Mission finally accomplished, she dropped the onesie into a carrier bag. The nappy-clad baby, still being held under the arms by Jack, promptly threw up again, missing Jack's jeans by a whisker. Handing it over to the mother, he went over to his car and reemerged with a pack of tissues which the woman gratefully took from him.

  The white van drove off. Tilly moved up and began filling her car with petrol. Further along the row of pumps, Jack was now doing the same. Having mopped clean her bawling infant and stuffed it back into its babyseat, the mother effusively thanked Jack—her knight in shining armor—before driving off.

  Tilly was torn. Half of her acknowledged that he'd done a good thing. The other half simmered with frustration because it was genu inely beyond her how he could be so thoughtful one minute and so selfish the next.

  Nodding across at her, Jack called out cheerily, 'Morning!'

  'Morning.' Conflicting emotions continued to tussle inside Tilly's chest. In his sand-colored polo shirt, faded Levi's, and desert boots he was looking… God, pretty damn fit. His dark hair glistened in the morning sunlight, and as he handled the fuel nozzle, she could see the way the muscles moved beneath the gleaming tanned skin of his forearm. Put it this way, if you were to make a YouTube clip of Jack filling his car with petrol, you'd want to watch it over and over again. Physically he was perfect. Which only made the other side of him that much more of a letdown.

  'See my narrow escape back there with the incredible puking baby?'

  Oh, for crying out loud, was he deliberately goading her now? 'Yes I did. What a complete hero you are. Then again, who's to say it wasn't one of yours anyway?'

  'Actually it wasn't.' He sounded amused. 'I'd never seen the woman before in my life.'

  'Oh well then, you can cross her off your list. But have you even been in touch with Amy yet?'

  Jack's smile faded. 'No.'

  The look of utter disinterest on his face said it all.

  'So you'll go out of your way to be nice to the baby of a complete stranger, but you couldn't care less about one that could be your own flesh and blood.' Tilly's tank was full of petrol now and she clunked the nozzle noisily back into its holster. 'Don't you see how cruel that is? I just don't know how you can live with yourself.'


  Jack shook his head; now she'd really annoyed him. Well, good. Someone had to say it.

  'OK, let me just tell you something. The reason I haven't spoken to Amy is because I'm not the father of that baby of hers.'

  'But—'

  'And I know that for a fact because I haven't slept with her.'

  Tilly stopped dead. What? What?

  Was he serious?

  She looked at Jack. 'You mean… you haven't had sex with her?'

  The older woman at the next pump was listening avidly.

  'That's another way of putting it,' said Jack.

  'What, never?'

  'Never.'

  'But… but, she said you had!'

  He shrugged, turned away.

  Tilly was incredulous. 'Why would she say that if it wasn't true?'

  'Who knows?' bawled the man in the Volvo behind her. 'Bloody women, law unto themselves, they drive us all bloody nuts. And you're another one.' He jabbed an irate finger at Tilly. 'Standing there, yakking away without a care in the world while the rest of us sit here in the queue waiting for you to SHIFT YOUR BLOODY CAR!'

  Eek. Tilly glanced round and saw that he was right. Blushing, she hopped into the car and moved it over to one of the parking spaces. Back at the pumps, Jack was hanging up his nozzle and twist ing the petrol cap back into place. Tilly headed on into the station shop to pay for her petrol, expecting him to follow her so she could continue the interrogation. Ten seconds later, through the window, she saw his Jag disappearing up the road.

  Tilly let out a squeak of surprise, prompting the cashier to raise an eyebrow and look up.

  'Someone just drove off without paying,' Tilly bleated.

  The cashier looked bored. 'That's because they were in the Express lane, love. You put your credit card in before you start.'

  Oh.

  Right.

  So a fleet of police cars weren't about to be sent out to catch Jack and haul him back. That was a real shame.

  What had happened between him and Amy anyway? Why had they both lied about it? Tilly couldn't begin to imagine, but one thing was for certain.

  She had to find out.

  Chapter 50

  WHEN SHE'D COME DOWN from London to work for Max, how could she ever have imagined that part of her job description would be chaperone-cum-third-wheel?

  'I've got an appointment with Matt and Lizzie Blake over in Bath tonight,' Max had said earlier. 'You'll have to keep an eye on Kaye.'

  'OK.' Tilly shrugged. Well, there were worse ways to spend an evening. 'Lou? Want to come along and keep me company?'

  'If you don't mind me getting expelled.' Lou pulled a face. 'I got a detention today for not paying attention in geography and tonight I've got my French essay to do, plus history, and a mountain of math. Calculus, yeeurgh.' Hopefully, she added, 'Unless you want to write a letter to my form tutor saying I couldn't do any of it because I had to come out with you.'

  Which was how Tilly came to be sitting, like a right Nellie No mates, all on her own at a table in the garden of the Horseshoe Inn on the outskirts of Roxborough. Well, not completely on her own. She had Betty with her. But adorable though Betty was, when it came to sparkling conversation, she was no Dawn French.

  At the other end of the garden, Kaye and her stalker were en grossed in conversation, laughing together, and generally having a brilliant time. In addition, a dozen or so wooden tables were oc cupied by customers enjoying a warm summer evening outside a picturesque Cotswold pub. They all looked as if they were having fun too. Then again, they weren't stuck with a companion who'd spent the last hour snuffling around in the grass for bits of old chips.

  Ten minutes later, Jack emerged from the pub and Tilly's heart lollopped into overdrive. As he stood surveying the scene, Betty abandoned her chip hunt and raced over to her hero, greeting him like an ecstatic groupie.

  See? Even Betty was under his spell.

  But Tilly was glad he'd turned up. Max must have told him she'd be here on her own and Jack had come over to keep her company. Which meant she could quiz him and find out what had really gone on between him and Amy. She was longing—longing—to know.

  Jack came over with Betty bouncing around his feet.

  'Hi.' Tilly beamed. 'Let me guess, Max rang you.'

  Jack nodded. 'He did.'

  'Betty, leave Jack alone. Let him sit down.' Eagerly, Tilly moved her glass of orange juice, the empty chip packet, and her handbag out of the way.

  'I can't stop.' Shaking his head, he said, 'I've got new tenants moving into the Farrow Road flat this evening. Said I'd meet them there in thirty minutes.'

  What? She had to shield her eyes from the sun that was setting behind him. 'So why did you come?'

  Jack tilted an eyebrow. 'Because Max asked me to. It's OK, I'm pretty good on first impressions. Five minutes'll be enough to check him out, see what I think.'

  So, not here for her benefit then. Now how stupid did she look? Scooping Betty up onto her lap, Tilly watched Jack head over to where Kaye and the stalker were sitting. He greeted Kaye with a kiss, shook Parker by the hand, and joined their table.

  'I'm off.' Four minutes had passed and Jack was back.

  'One thing before you go.' Tilly blurted the question out; it had been driving her nuts all day. 'Because there's something I really don't understand. Why would Amy say she'd slept with you if she hadn't?'

  He shook his head, smiled slightly. 'I don't know.'

  Which meant he did.

  'And if it's true that you didn't sleep with her, why didn't you tell me that before, instead of letting me carry on thinking you had?'

  'OK, now listen to me.' Jack regarded her steadily. 'What did I tell you months ago? I said I never discussed my sex life. Never have, never will. Because I have certain standards.' His eyes glittered. 'If you and I were to… have any kind of relationship, would you be happy to know that I was off telling everyone all about it? Regaling them with all the details? Well, would you?'

  Tilly flushed and shook her head. 'No.'

  'No, you wouldn't. And neither would any girl. So I respect that and say nothing.' Pause. 'I shouldn't have told you about Amy this morning, but this baby business was getting out of hand. So there, that's your answer. Happy now?'

  Well, that told her. Feeling thoroughly chastened—and frus tratingly none the wiser—Tilly brushed away a hovering insect and murmured, 'Yes.'

  'Good.' Jack pulled his car keys out of his pocket, ready to leave. With a wink he added, 'Who knew I had morals? Tell me you aren't secretly impressed.'

  After chastising her like that? Not a chance. Ignoring this, Tilly said, 'What's the verdict on Kaye's stalker?'

  'Seems OK. Not obviously howling at the moon. Kaye's keen.'

  'Just a bit.'

  'Right, I'm off.' He bent down to ruffle Betty's ears. Betty promptly rolled over, squirming with delight and shamelessly wag gling her legs in the air.

  'Bye then.' Tilly put on a brave face. God, you really knew you were in trouble when you wished you could swap places with a dog. To say that Kaye was keen on Parker Price was an understatement. She was besotted. When he'd said his good-byes and left the Horseshoe at closing time, you could tell she was longing for him to kiss her. Possibly if Tilly hadn't been there, he would have. But a chaperone wouldn't be doing her job if she were to allow that to happen so she hadn't discreetly waited around the corner, but had stayed put instead.

  Then Parker's taxi had taken him back to his hotel, and Tilly and Kaye walked with Betty the short distance into the center of Roxborough.

  Well, Tilly and Betty walked. Kaye was probably floating along a couple of inches above the pavement. And keeping her attention was like trying to get a kitten to read a book.

  'He's just lovely, isn't he? You do like him, don't you? Honestly, I can't remember the last time I felt this comfortable with a man, it's like we've known each other for years…'

  'Excuse me.' Tilly's tone was accusing. 'Did you just skip?'

  '
Sorry?'

  'Skip. You know.' She pointed at Kaye's scarlet-sandaled feet. 'Oh my God. You did, didn't you? You actually physically skipped.'

  And instead of looking guilty and ashamed and issuing an im mediate flat-out denial, Kaye grinned and shook back her hair. 'Well, maybe I can't help it. That's how he makes me feel!'