“Plenty of strings, but nothing knotted.”
“You mentioned family…”
“My parents live in North West London, and I’ve a married younger sister who bosses me around and tells me to find a nice Jewish girl to marry, and an older brother who thinks the same thing but doesn’t say it to my face in case I bust his nose. Between them they have dozens of children on whom my parents dote like grandparents are supposed to.” He paused, and toyed with his teaspoon. “Do you like kids, Bailey?”
“Only when they’re roasted,” I said automatically, and without really thinking about it I glanced down at my watch. He caught the action, and instantly rose to his feet, looking apologetic.
“I’ve kept you chatting long enough.”
I also rose to my feet, but I didn’t want him to think it was a put down, because I liked him, and I’d enjoyed spending time with him. But though the guy was seriously cool in many ways, I simply wasn’t sure that I was ready for a steamy relationship so soon after Freddie. I was scared of being hurt again.
Hastily I said, “It’s just that I don’t want to miss my flight. And I wanted to buy some new perfume in the duty free. I’m a dreadfully slow shopper at the best of times. It takes me ages to find the right scent.”
I was embarrassed at how lame that sounded, but Ari only raised his hands, palms up, smiling to show he hadn’t felt slighted.
I picked up my handbag and slung it around my shoulders. “I really can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done.”
Again he raised a hand in protest. “I did nothing.”
“No, really, you were there when I needed you. Twice.” Fishing out a pen from the front flap of my bag, I quickly wrote my telephone number on a paper serviette and held it out to him. “My mobile number. Call me. Please. I’d like to hear from you again.”
“Fully charged?”
It took me a moment to understand his meaning, and then I laughed. “No mistake. Fully charged battery this time.”
“Good. Then I’ll call. You can be sure of that,” he said, pocketing the serviette. “Have a good flight.”
“Thanks.” I held out my hand. He took it, and then slowly but surely he drew me towards him, and putting his arms around me, he kissed my cheek very gently.
“’Bye, Bailey. Keep in touch.”
With that, he walked away.
It was the same cheek that Kristie had slapped, but it didn’t hurt at all anymore.
Chapter 8
The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Max, Gwen’s son, was waiting for me at the airport in St Peter when I arrived after the hour or so’s flight from London. In the years since I’d seen him he’d turned from a boy into a man, but I recognised him instantly from his cheeky smile.
Holding my shoulders, he kissed my cheek in welcome, the very same cheek that had had so much attention already that same day.
“Good to see you again, Bailey. Good flight?”
“Some turbulence. I actually don’t like flying very much. And I hate heights. It’s good to be on the ground again.”
He looked duly sympathetic and walked me over to his car which he’d left in a short stay parking bay near the arrivals lounge. It was a 2-seater yellow sports car. He looked a little smug when he saw my expression.
He said proudly, “This baby’s a Lotus Elise. Hot, isn’t she?
I eyed the baby with due deference. “She’s certainly an aggressive looking little thing. Let’s hope she doesn’t bite.”
Taking my cases from me as if they weighed no more than a couple of pillows, Max flung them into the boot, before sliding into the driver’s seat beside me. Turning his head to look me over, he grinned.
“Just as well you sent us a recent snap, Bailey, otherwise I’d never had recognised you,” he said, gunning the engine and taking off like a bat out of hell.
I managed to stop myself from holding onto the dashboard for support.
“So everyone keeps saying. It’s the hair,” I muttered, quickly tying a silk scarf around my head since he had the roof down and I was anticipating a breezy ride in the half hour or so it would take to get us from the airport to the northern part of the island, to Piemont Bay, where the hotel was situated precariously atop a cliff overlooking the sea.
“Not just the hairstyle. Before you were a girl. Now you’re a woman. And a pretty good looking one at that.”
“Thanks, Max. You’re okay, too.” I flashed him a sideways glance. “You’re a lot bigger than I remember.”
His chest puffed out. “I work out.”
“Looks it.”
“You?”
In turn he eyed me briefly, and I shook my head.
“Hate gyms and exercise classes.”
“I plan to start my own gym some day, when I get the proper funds. But I have plans. I’m working on it, believe me.”
“What about the hotel?”
“What about it?”
I shrugged. Didn’t reply. There would be plenty of time later to quiz him and find out more about this side of the family. Especially if I was going to live and work amongst them.
I could feel Max’s eyes on me. He asked suddenly, “You still mad at the world, Bailey?”
I was both amused and a little surprised at the question.
“What makes you ask that? What makes you even think that?”
“That was the impression you gave when you came here with your brother.”
I said lightly, “Really? And there I was thinking I was on my best behaviour.”
“You told Megan you were still angry with your dad for leaving your mum and for getting married again.”
“Did I? I don’t remember. It was a long time ago, and it sounds like reprehensible and very impolite behaviour from me if I did say such a thing. I hope I’m forgiven now. I’d hate for my stepmother and me to start off on bad terms.”
“Guess it was understandable at the time, but it’s water under the bridge now, isn’t it? All is forgiven and forgotten, right, Bailey?”
I fixed my eyes on the passing scenery, aware of a tightening in my chest.
I said, “This is a strange conversation to be having on such a short re-acquaintance.”
“Just getting to know you again.”
I knew my tone was chilly when I spoke again, but I couldn’t seem to lighten up. “I don’t know what makes you such an expert on the subject of my innermost feelings, Max, since I don’t recall ever making you a confidante of mine.”
Max only shrugged. “Hey, I’m on your side, Bailey. Don’t take it out on me just because Colin’s a difficult man to fathom and a lousy father.”
I relaxed. I even managed to smile. “Well, that’s pretty blunt. You don’t exactly mince your words, do you, Max.”
“As the song goes, words are all we have… though don’t ask me to sing it because I can’t sing for toffee.” He paused, musing aloud. “Though why anyone would sing for toffee beats me anyway. Stupid bloody saying if you ask me.” He glanced at me sideways. “Strange what people say sometimes, without actually engaging their brains, I mean.”
“Oh, I agree. A hundred per cent.” I laughed. “But we all do it anyway and out come all the clichés and sayings we profess to abhor. I’m as bad as everyone else, I admit. I always remember one of my English teachers telling me not to be so damn stuffy and colloquial. I had to look it up afterwards. It meant wordy. Apparently I tend to use too many of them when one would suffice.” I giggled. “Like now, I guess. I’m doing it right now.”
He hunched his shoulders. “We are what we are, and everyone else can suck it up or go take a hike. Take you and me, for example. We’re all grown up now, we’ve changed. Take yourself, for example. You’ve turned into one serious babe.”
I laughed, slightly unsure if I could take whatever this guy said too seriously, but nevertheless I was glad that the mood had lightened.
He nodded. “The moment you appeared I said to myself, ‘Who’s that gorgeous creature?’
And then I realised it was you.”
“Oh, pshaw,” I said, fluttering a dismissive hand at him but pleased all the same. To cover up my embarrassment, I delved into my shoulder bag and bought out my sunglasses. The sun was still quite hot and the glare from the road burned into my eyes, but the truth of it was I sort of wanted to put up a barrier between us. He was both a man and a boy, and both were oddly perceptive.
Max went on conversationally, obviously able to jump from one thought to another with ease and without any inhibitions.
He said, “You used to be such a snotty girl.”
“Snotty?”
“Yeah. A snooty, gawky girl with long copper curls hanging down her back and you had these big front teeth that stuck out slightly.”
“I was shy, and neither snotty nor snooty,” I said defensively, flipping my sunglasses to the top of my head to frown at him. “And thanks to yours and Megan’s teasing, I got the teeth fixed.”
“We did you a good deed then. You’ve got a lovely smile now.”
Max grinned, although it didn’t seem quite so funny to me.
Max, and his twin sister, Megan, were a few years younger than me, which made them about twenty nine or thirty now. Back then we’d all been total strangers, kids brought together by the marriage of a parent. To me, the twins had seemed typical teenagers – neither happy nor unhappy about the situation. Jonti had long accepted our parents’ break up and been a normal boy content with his lot.
I guess I’d been the only one who’d felt out of place.
Still, as I remembered it, the twins hadn’t really paid my brother and me very much attention when we arrived on the island, beyond the normal cursory interest and curiosity. It seemed to me that mostly they’d left my brother and me alone to go off and do our own thing. I hadn’t minded about that.
What had hurt was that our father hadn’t shown much interest in us, though. I had sort of understood the twins’ behaviour, after all, Jonti and I had been foisted on them, and they hadn’t had much say in the matter one way or another, but I hadn’t understood my dad’s attitude at all. Why on earth had he gone to the bother of arranging to bring his children over to Jersey if he didn’t want to see us?
Though I didn’t like to admit it I suspected Gwen had had a hand in it. She must have persuaded my father to invite us. She was that sort of person. Gwen had been kind in the short time we’d spent with the family. And I’d repaid her kindness by not having kept in touch since.
Max expertly eased into the fast lane. I wasn’t sure if he always drove like a maniac or whether he did it to impress me with his tough guy act. Either way, I wasn’t about to ask him to go slower. This was his turf and he seemed to know what he was doing. Besides, I was quite enjoying the sensation of speed. Freddie had been a slow and careful driver, to the point where sometimes I’d itched to tell him to get move his arse. However, now, with the sunshine on my face and beautiful scenery as we passed to enjoy, I found I was relaxing and even getting a little drowsy.
He said, “So, Bailey, how long’s it been exactly since you deigned to visit us?”
I pulled down my sunglasses to the tip of my nose to look at him.
“Something like fifteen years or so.”
He swerved around a car that wasn’t going fast enough for him, and it blared its horn at him angrily. Max didn’t care; in fact, he just floored it even more, making the car leap forward. I tried not to grip the edge of my seat, and was glad I was securely buckled in.
“Half a lifetime ago,” said Max, easing back on the throttle to a steadier purr.
“Indeed,” I agreed, settling my sunglasses back over my eyes, putting my head back against the head rest and almost nodding off to the relentless rhythm of the motor.
I think I must actually have dropped off, because a short while later I abruptly awoke to the sound of somebody snoring before I realised it was me.
Stifling the snort in the back of my throat, I snuck a guilty sideways glance at Max as he drove along the winding road.
With the soft wind riffling through his wavy blond hair, I was reminded of a TV ad promoting shampoo for men. In truth his hair was really just a trifle too long and floppy to be fashionable, but maybe he wore it like that because he admired the way Hugh Grant had looked back in his heyday.
He was whistling along to some tune playing on the CD and seemed totally at ease in his pretty bones sitting in his sophisticated fast car; a person who seemed to be quite contented with his lot.
I sat up straight, stifled a yawn and rolled my shoulders around to take out the stiffness. It had been a long day.
“Sorry. I must have dropped off.”
He laughed, and glanced over at me. “Yes. I know. I heard you. That’s why I put the CD on, to combat the music you were making.”
“I must be more tired than I thought.”
“Getting old, Bailey. Getting old.”
“Please don’t remind me.”
For a while I just sat and listened contentedly to the music. The sky had darkened somewhat, and the air seemed fresher now and I could smell the salty tang wafting in from the sea. Idly I watched the birds wheeling and circling above me in the sky. There had always been many birds around this part of the island. I believe there was a bird sanctuary not far away. And the place was rife with caves and tunnels. When we’d visited previously, the twins had shown us a bat cave. They’d said it was empty, but I hadn’t been so sure, as I thought I’d heard rustling way above my head. They’d all laughed at me when I’d escaped as quickly as I could.
I said, “Talking of age and passing years, do you know, although you and Megan are my step brother and sister, I actually don’t know much about you guys. My fault, of course,” I added quickly, before he had a chance to remind me. “I know I’m dreadful about that sort of thing. I haven’t kept up to date with events. Are you even married, Max? Is Megan?”
He arched an eyebrow at me. “Meg’s married, I’m not. I’ve been waiting for you to come back to me, sweetheart.”
I rolled my eyes. Didn’t bother replying.
After a few moments, Max spoke again.
“I was engaged once, but it didn’t work out. We had our differences. It was mutual. End of.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m not. Plenty more fish to fry.” He laughed. “Another saying. We should make a note of them.”
The sea shimmered like molten lead to my right, glimpsed every now and then through the trees and shrubs and rocks as it emerged flickering into view.
Reckoning we weren’t far now from the hotel, and wanting to look my best before we arrived, I grabbed my bag and looked inside my make-up purse for my compact and mirror. I thought I looked a little faded, so I dabbed more concealer under my eyes and re-applied my lip gloss.
Putting away my bag I turned the conversation to a more important topic to me and asked, “So, how goes the business?”
Ever since I’d decided to come to Jersey and make a new life there, I was bursting afresh with ideas of how to improve the running of the hotel. Ways I could be of help to the whole family.
To my father.
“It does well enough in the holiday season. That’s when we’re busiest.”
Max turned off the main road and the car began climbing up a hill, at the top of which stood Hotel Pegasus, which lit by the rays of the setting sun, looked to me rather like a fantasy castle silhouetted as it was against a darkening and velvety blue sky. It sat perched on the cliff like a huge bird overlooking the sea, the tang of which was stronger now in my nostrils, and as we sped higher I could hear the booming sound of the waves growing fainter as they crashed against the rocks.
“Of course, we do get the occasional guest booking in during the winter months,” he went on. “Writers, artists, musicians, creative and arty people like that – we give them a special rate, sometimes a discount if it’s a large group booking. They come to compose symphonies or paint landscapes or simply to meditate or do whate
ver it is that people like that fancy doing in such a God-forsaken environment.”
I looked around me at the unbelievably beautiful scenery, lit now by a luminous light that was softly turning the landscape to a deepening golden-red twilight as the sun slipped down over the horizon. To me it was far from God-forsaken.
I said, “I think it’s spectacular, and you’re lucky to live in such a place of such breath-taking beauty.”
“It’s fine if you’re into loneliness and solitude. I’m not.”
“Loneliness and solitude is a state of mind. London is packed solid with lonely people and solitary souls. I can entirely understand why my father chose to live here.”
“Yeah, I get that. Colin is a great exponent of Jersey’s tax system.”
“You have no soul. This is a place where a person can breathe, and feel spiritual, and raise a healthy family.”
Max shot an oblique glance at me. “Talking of which, Bailey, what about you? Let’s bring us up to present day since we’re getting to know one another again here. No current man in your life?”
He certainly wasn’t the type to hang back on his curiosity, I thought. But I reckoned he was interested, rather than prying, so I simply shrugged and said, “Not at present.”
He sighed, rather exaggeratedly, I thought.
“I guess that’s what everyone’s looking for, isn’t it? That someone special to share your life with.”
“I guess.”
“Take my mother and your dad. A perfect pair. She tells Colin what to do, and he does what she says without complaint. They complement one another.”
I didn’t say anything. He waited a moment, then asked,
“So how’s your mother? Lara, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Lara Miller, as she is now. She’s doing fine, thanks. She’s well. She also got re-married not so long ago.”
“Yeah, I remember Colin mentioning that she got married again.” He shot me an oblique glance. “She took her sweet time about finding herself another husband, didn’t she?”
Deception Page 8