Now, a few days on, Kat was hardly able to believe that her stay was at an end. It had been the most romantic Christmas of her life, even if not exactly as expected when she’d booked the break all those months ago. The past four days had gone by in a delicious blur. From the Tremaines’ party (where she and Alex had danced cheek to cheek all night), to long frosty walks on the cliffs, to eating hearty pub food by open fires, this holiday had been truly magical. They hadn’t been apart for a moment but instead had talked non-stop, filling in the details of the lost years and delighting in getting to know one another all over again. Each morning Kat had woken up with the same smile on her face that had been there when she’d drifted off to sleep with Alex’s arms around her the night before. Now every day felt like Christmas.
Tonight was their last evening and Kat felt a pang of sadness at this thought. Being in Cornwall had been so perfect, an escape from reality, and she was certain there was magic in Polwenna Bay. They’d spent today walking the cliff path to Fowey, where they’d eaten moules marinière, mopping up the sauce with hunks of crusty bread and chatting in between mouthfuls, before hiking back. The weather was still bright and cold; the bracken and brambles on the cliff path had been thickly iced with hoar frost and the views falling sharply away below had made them both gasp. The path was steep and walking back had been hard work. All the muscles in Kat’s body were aching now – including a few she hadn’t known she possessed. A hot bath was in order.
Kat let herself into the hotel room, her face glowing from a mixture of cold air and exercise, and headed for the bathroom to run a deep bubble bath. After many parting kisses, Alex had continued down the cliff path into the village for a farewell drink with Zak, while she’d taken the route towards the hotel for an hour of pampering before the quiet dinner in the hotel they planned to have.
What would happen once they left this enchanted part of Cornwall, Kat wasn’t sure – but she was excited to find out. She could hardly believe just how much her world had changed in such a short time. The girl who’d travelled down here on the Christmas Eve train felt like somebody from another life.
And her marking pile was totally untouched! Oh well, there’d be time for that later.
Kat was still in her bra and knickers, trying to decide what dress to wear to dinner (old faithful LBD or the pretty red velvet number she’d found in Fowey?), when there was a sharp knock on the door. Wrapping a towel around herself, she went to open it – fully expecting to find Tom, desperate for the latest info. Honestly, Kat thought with a wry smile, why couldn’t he get his excitement from watching EastEnders like everybody else?
But it wasn’t Tom outside. Instead, it was a very beautiful woman dressed from head to toe in designer clothes, and who didn’t look at all impressed to see Kat.
“Where’s Alex?”
Kat stared at her. The woman didn’t need any introducing: her face had graced magazine covers on both sides of the Atlantic. This visitor was Alex’s ex-wife, Krissy.
And she clearly wasn’t in the least bit interested in finding out who Kat was.
“Alex isn’t here,” Kat said. She was so shocked to see Krissy that it was amazing her voice was working.
“Typical Alex,” Krissy drawled. Eyes the same cool blue as mouthwash flickered over Kat, and Krissy’s perfect top lip curled upwards. She obviously found Kat lacking – and in her half-dressed, windswept state, Kat could see why.
“The girl on the reception desk seemed certain he was staying here, with you,” Krissy insisted, poking her head around the door frame. “Are you sure he isn’t in there?”
Kat bristled. “Unless he’s under the bed or in the wardrobe, no.”
Krissy shrugged her bony shoulders. “Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time, honey! That man will never change, no matter what he says. Jeez, to think I believed him when he said he’d be there no matter what.”
Kat felt her blood turn to ice water. Alex had said he’d be there for Krissy? Krissy his ex-wife? But they were divorced. Their relationship was over.
Wasn’t it?
Or had Alex not been entirely truthful? Had he just been telling Kat what she wanted to hear? Had he been playing her?
Kat felt sick. Surely not. Alex loved her. He’d said so.
“He promised me he’d stay in touch – just visiting friends, he says – and what does he do? Turns his cell phone off,” she continued. “Well, I’m not leaving until I see him.”
“But you’re divorced,” Kat blurted, and Krissy looked at her askance.
“Everyone’s divorced in LA. What the hell has that got to do with anything? I have to see Alex and I’m going nowhere until I do.” She strutted into the room and lowered herself onto the sofa, one painfully thin leg crossed over the other, then glanced down at her Rolex. “Goddamn. We don’t have time for this. Our flight’s at ten.”
Their flight? Alex and Krissy were flying somewhere?
“What sort of man abandons his child at Christmas?” Krissy was muttering to herself, catching sight of her reflection in the dressing-table mirror and fluffing up her hair before checking her watch again. “How typical of Alex to vanish when something else comes along. We don’t have time for this! We’ve got a plane to catch.”
Kat had the sensation that she was descending very, very fast in a lift. This was exactly how Alex had behaved towards her, wasn’t it? The opportunity of an exciting life in America had beckoned and he’d been off before she’d even had the chance to blow the candles out on her birthday cake. Whatever was going on with him and Krissy it was clear that there was unfinished business between them. The woman had tracked him down to Polwenna Bay from LA, for heaven’s sake. They weren’t over at all! He’d lied to her. How he must have laughed.
“I need to get dressed,” Kat told her visitor. “I suggest you wait for Alex in the hotel’s drawing room. He won’t be long.”
“I hope not,” said Krissy. “Private jets only have so many slots they can reserve on the tarmac. If we miss our next one, I swear I’ll never forgive Alex. I will make his life hell. I was promised a romantic New Year in Paris and I’m damn well having it!”
Once Krissy had flounced out of the room, Kat shut the door and leaned against it while she fought a rising flood of panic. Alex had arranged to fly his ex-wife to Paris for a romantic New Year, had he? So much for I want to leave the shallow world of fame and fortune behind and live a simple life. He’d totally played her and like an idiot she’d fallen for it, hadn’t she? Kat’s vision swam. They’d even been on Rightmove and picked out a couple of pretty harbourside cottages to view, holding each other close as they’d scrolled through the details and dreaming of the perfect life they were going to lead. Alex had told her he would write songs, and Kat was planning to search for jobs in Fowey. It seemed beyond cruel that Alex could say all this and not mean a word of it. What kind of person was he?
Why go to such lengths? If he’d just wanted a quick fling there must have been no end of local girls who’d have killed for a night with Alex. Kat had seen the looks the barmaid in The Ship had cast in his direction, and even Issie had admitted that she would have been tempted. Wasn’t it enough for Alex to have broken Kat’s heart once? Did he really need to prove to himself that he could do it again?
Kat dashed her tears away furiously. There would be time enough for those later, when she could look at the smithereens of this supposedly perfect Christmas that Alex had chosen to smash. Right now she had to focus on packing her bag and getting as far away from here as was possible. The quicker the better too, before Alex arrived. If she saw him then Kat knew she would crumple into a broken heap, longing for him to hold her and promise to make everything all right.
He couldn’t do that of course. He was the one who had ruined everything.
She had to cut her losses now, Kat decided as she flung her towel onto the bed and pulled her jeans and sweater back on. Socks and boots followed; her new red dress she stuffed into the bin, unable to bear the memory of ho
w Alex’s eyes had lit up when she’d stepped out of the changing room. Then she crammed the rest of her clothes into her wheelie bag.
“What’s going on?” Tom asked when Kat marched through the lobby. His trendy spiked red hair seemed to stand up in alarm and his eyes were huge with disbelief. “You’ll never guess what! Krissy’s only arrived demanding to see Alex. You know, Krissy the model. I’ve stuck her in the drawing room with her little g—” Suddenly noticing that Kat had her luggage in tow, his mouth fell open. “What! And now you’re off? Can somebody please tell me what’s happening?”
“I need a taxi,” she said.
“What for? You can’t go like this. What about Alex?”
Kat rounded on him. “Never mind Alex! His wife’s here! She can deal with him.”
“She’s technically his ex-wife,” said Tom, always a pedant when it came to the minutiae of celebrity lives, “and I think that when you know why she’s here you won’t mind.”
“Don’t bet on it,” said Kat through clenched teeth. Spotting a cab waiting outside the hotel with the engine still running, she shoved past her old friend and pushed the heavy door open.
“But, Kat, you need to know—”
The rest of Tom’s words were swallowed up as the door slammed behind Kat. She didn’t want to hear them in any case. If he hadn’t taken it upon himself to interfere in the first place then she would be up in her hotel room having a nice relaxing time watching television, or perhaps having spa treatments. She might never have known the soaring joy and breathtaking happiness of the past few days, but neither would her heart now feel as though somebody was slashing it with a thousand razor blades.
“The station,” Kat said to the cabbie as she threw open the door and fell inside. “As fast as you can please.”
“I’m supposed to be waiting to take someone to the airport,” the cabbie began, but the look on Kat’s face was enough to stop him mid-sentence. With a shrug, he spun the car around and headed down the drive.
Now that she was in the back of the cab where it was dark and safe, Kat allowed the tears to fall. Silent and despairing they slipped down her cheeks, drowning all her hopes and washing away her happy memories of the past few days. The lights of the hotel’s Christmas tree blurred and danced as the cab drove past before turning out of the gates and heading into the evening.
Kat didn’t allow herself to look back at the hotel – but if she had, she might have seen the small girl whose worried little face was pressed against the drawing-room window as she watched her mother’s waiting taxi pull away…
Chapter 13
“She’s here and she’s gone! You’ve got to do something! It’s a disaster! A total and utter disaster!”
Tom shot out from the reception desk and flew across the lobby, talking so fast that he made even less sense than usual. All Alex could decipher was a garbled tale of random comings and goings. It was only when a small, mop-headed whirlwind tore out of the drawing room, hurling itself at his legs and clinging to his knees, that he realised what was happening.
“Daddy! Daddy!”
Emmy tightened her grip as though she was never going to let go. Instinctively Alex scooped her up into his arms and held her close, burying his face in her dark curly hair and breathing in the baby scent of his little girl. Oh God. He’d missed Emmy so much. Every day without his daughter was tinged with an aching loss. You learned to live with it, got used to bearing it even, but it never got easier.
“What are you doing here, munchkin?” he asked, lifting her above his head and spinning around while she shrieked with laughter. Thrilled as he was to see Emmy, wasn’t she supposed to be spending Christmas with her mother? That was why Krissy had made such a fuss in the first place and why he’d not been able to join her.
“Daddy! Daddy! Santa brought me a pink bike! With a bell! I’ll show you when we go home!”
The word “home” tugged at his heartstrings because Alex knew he’d never share a home with Emmy again. He was lucky to even see her as often as he did, and only then it was when Krissy grew bored or wanted to go somewhere more exciting and without a child in tow. Her boyfriends generally weren’t too keen on Emmy tagging along, and that was when Alex would get a phone call or an unexpected visit.
They weren’t usually cross-continent though…
Alex spun Emmy around some more and his daughter’s laughter grew even louder.
“More! More!” Emmy cried, and he obliged by whirling her through the lobby, around the Christmas tree and past the reception desk where the icy Ella looked on with disapproval. Alex didn’t care about that in the least and neither did he care why or how his daughter had appeared in the hotel. What did that matter? It was just so wonderful to see her again.
“Stop that, Alex. Put her down at once. You’ll make her sick.”
The clipped words were the verbal equivalent of being doused by a bucket of cold water. Instantly Emmy stopped laughing.
Krissy. Of course. He should have known his ex-wife wouldn’t be far away. Lowering Emmy to the ground and taking her small hand in his, Alex turned to see a familiar figure framed in the drawing-room doorway and regarding him with irritation.
“Why do you always have to get her overexcited?” Krissy said. “She’ll never settle now.”
There had once been a time when Alex, like most of the male population, couldn’t get enough of feasting his eyes on Krissy. Even now, when everything about her set his teeth on edge, he could still appreciate the lean lines of her body, her perfect features and her mane of thick blonde hair. She was dressed in a deep blue Chanel suit and looked ridiculously glamorous for a small Cornish hotel.
“What on earth are you doing here?” Alex asked. He felt Emmy press herself against his legs and he squeezed her hand. Krissy hated noise and mess and disruption – all the things that generally came with having a child. He didn’t doubt that she loved Emmy, or rather that she loved the idea of dressing her up and showing her off on photo shoots, but most of the time he suspected that his daughter was left with a succession of au pairs and Hispanic helpers. He always knew when a new man was on the scene because Krissy would be particularly keen for Alex to take his turn to “co-parent”.
There had to be a new man now, Alex realised, and as usual Krissy wanted space. But to fly across the Atlantic to leave Emmy with him was a first. This had to stop. It wasn’t fair.
“What are you thinking, dragging Emmy all the way here?” he asked in disbelief.
“Aren’t you pleased? I thought you might like to see your daughter at Christmas,” Krissy said sharply.
“Of course I’m pleased. You know I always want to see Ems, but I’m confused. I thought you were busy? Isn’t that why I couldn’t join you for Christmas? Like we’d planned?” Alex held her gaze and his ex-wife looked away, her mouth beginning to droop with petulance. She hated being questioned.
“I’m clearly not as busy as you are. It didn’t take you long to find some company for Christmas,” Krissy said pointedly. “Well, tough luck. Now it’s your turn to do some childcare. Rodrigo’s taking me to Paris for New Year and I can’t hang about. His private jet’s waiting at Exeter.”
Alex stared at her. “Who the hell is Rodrigo?”
She fluffed her hair. “You wouldn’t know him, Ally. He’s big in finance. Very big.”
He must be if he was flying Krissy across the Atlantic by private jet just so she could dump her child, thought Alex darkly. He didn’t say a word, though, because there was no point.
“Rodrigo wants to take me to Paris and there’s nobody able to take care of Emmy. Consuela’s away for Christmas and there’s simply nobody else available. Even my mother said no,” Krissy was saying, looking most put out. “Anyway, it’s time you took some responsibility. I really need a break.”
From what? thought Alex.
Ignoring the incredulous look on his face, Krissy crouched down and gave Emmy a swift kiss. “Have a lovely time with Daddy, sweetie! Be good. Mommy love
s you! See you soon!”
“But where’s her bag? Her things?” Alex couldn’t believe his ex. Or maybe he could, because this was typical Krissy. She’d caught the irresistible scent of a millionaire and there was no way anything – such as the inconvenience of looking after her own daughter – was going to stop her snaring him.
She waved a red-nailed hand. “I didn’t have time for all that. Take her shopping. She’ll love it! Now, I have to go. I’ve wasted enough time already. Turn your phone on in future too. I’ve been trying to call you for two days.”
“If you couldn’t get through on my mobile for some reason, why didn’t you just call the hotel—” Alex began, but Krissy was already striding out of the hotel and waving at a cab that had just pulled in. He knew his ex was lying. She could easily have contacted the hotel if she’d wanted to: he’d left their details with her. The truth was that this wasn’t his ex’s style. She just wanted a fait accompli. It wasn’t the first time and he didn’t suppose it would be the last.
Had this really happened? Had Krissy seriously just abandoned their daughter to fly off with her latest squeeze?
“I’m so sorry, Al, we couldn’t stop her,” said Tom, looking mortified. “Apparently she just charged in demanding to know where you were. We’ve had a junior member of staff on reception this afternoon. She must have located your details on the computer. I’ll have a stern word about that. We take confidentiality seriously and—”
“It’s not your colleague’s fault,” Alex cut Tom off mid-apology. “Trust me, it’s easier to stop a tidal wave than Krissy when she wants something.”
“I’m hungry, Daddy,” Emmy said, tugging his hand. “Can I have a cookie? The food on the plane was yucky. I don’t like oysters. They’re all slimy.”
Alex ruffled Emmy’s curls. Typical of Krissy not to have thought about Emmy. “I’m sure we can find you some dinner, sweetie.”
This word jolted him. Dinner! He was supposed to be having dinner with Kat, the last dinner of their stay here. He’d had something very special planned too. Alex’s free hand stole into his jacket pocket and closed around a small box. His stomach lurched. Would she still want him now that he had a child in tow?
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