The Perfect Hero

by Victoria Connelly

  ‘I doubt that very much,’ Beth said but opened the book and cast her weary eyes to the printed page.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Kay rushed up to her room to get her pad and pencils but she had to stop by the mirror first, grabbing a hairbrush and attacking her tresses.

  ‘Blast!’ she said, as the fine hair floated out in a static halo. She skipped through to her en suite and ran her brush under the tap, doing her best to control the errant strands. Then she fished in her make-up bag for a lip gloss and mascara. For a moment, she worried about the dress she was wearing but she didn’t have time to get changed.

  Oli was still sitting in the chair when she re-entered the room and she had to take a moment to believe the scene in front of her.

  ‘Okay?’ Oli said, turning round to face her.

  Kay nodded, holding up the tools of her profession. She was ready to begin.

  She’d never sketched such a handsome profile before. The heroes she’d drawn for her books had always been from her imagination or inspired by the heroes from the films she watched. Never had she been presented with a real-life hero. She had to concentrate on the task in hand in order to do a good job but she knew how easy it would be to just sit and stare at Oli and end up with a blank sheet of paper. But she was working now and had to take things seriously.

  Of course, she’d had experience sketching from life at the art classes she’d attended at her local college, but they’d never had the budget for this calibre of model. They were far more likely to be shrivelled-up old men who really should know when to keep their clothes on.

  But Kay couldn’t afford to start thinking of men with their clothes off when she was drawing Oli Wade Owen – that would be far too much of a distraction.

  ‘What are you thinking of ?’ Oli suddenly asked.

  Kay blanched. It was as if he’d read her mind. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked, stalling for time.

  ‘I mean, what does an artist think of when they’re sketching?’

  Kay breathed a sigh of relief. It was just a regular question and he didn’t have the powers of telepathy.

  ‘I usually don’t think at all,’ Kay said. ‘I mean, I’m concentrating on what I’m doing.’

  Oli nodded. ‘Like acting then.’

  ‘Is it?’

  ‘A lot of my mates ask me what I’m thinking of when I’m kissing some beautiful actress in a love scene and they don’t usually like the answer.’

  ‘And what’s the answer?’

  ‘That I’m thinking of getting the job done.’

  Kay smiled.

  ‘You don’t mind talking whilst you’re working?’ he asked her.

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘What do you want to talk about?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know – anything really. Like what’s a pretty girl like you doing running a dreary old bed and breakfast?’

  ‘Do you think it’s dreary?’

  Oli cast his eyes around at the tatty wallpaper and the swirling carpet.

  ‘I know it’s not perfect yet but it will be,’ Kay said.

  ‘But what are you doing stuck out in the middle of nowhere?’

  ‘Lyme Regis isn’t nowhere!’

  ‘It’s a long way from London,’ Oli said.

  ‘And why’s that such a bad thing?’

  He raised his eyebrows in surprise at her question. ‘You don’t like London?’

  ‘It’s okay,’ she said, ‘in small doses. I actually once thought about moving there.’

  ‘Why didn’t you?’

  ‘Oh, it was just an idea. I thought my father might be there. He’d always talked about going to London.’ She looked up and caught Oli’s eye. ‘He left when I was young,’ she explained, ‘and I had this crazy idea that I could find him and make things right again – but it was just a silly dream.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Oli said.

  ‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘It was all such a long time ago but I still wonder where he is and what he’s doing and if he ever thinks of me. Especially now Mum’s gone. He probably doesn’t even know that.’

  ‘Families can be crazy, can’t they?’

  ‘Yes,’ Kay said, ‘I’m afraid they can.’ She sighed. ‘But you’re happy in London, aren’t you?’

  ‘I couldn’t live anywhere else,’ Oli said.

  Kay’s pencil hovered over the paper for a moment. That was a shame, she thought, although she could learn to compromise. After all, it would be fun to have a home in London and one by the sea too.

  ‘Where shall we go this weekend, darling?’ Oli might ask. ‘Down to Lyme or stay in town for that party?’

  Kay could live with that, she supposed, blushing as Oli looked up at her.

  ‘London’s the place to be,’ he said with a sigh.

  She wouldn’t mind – not if it made him happy. ‘Just sit still a moment.’

  ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m a bit of a fidget, aren’t I?’

  ‘You’re doing fine.’

  ‘I’m not very good at being still. I can’t even sit to read a book for more than ten minutes – I usually read my scripts on the treadmill.’

  Kay looked up from her paper. ‘Really?’ She tried to imagine it: a copy of the script for Persuasion in one hand whilst his strong, lean legs ran those miles. It was a heart-stopping image. ‘And what did you think of Persuasion?’ she asked, trying to banish the image of Oli in lycra from her mind.

  ‘The script was okay,’ he said.

  ‘I love Persuasion,’ Kay said. ‘It’s one of my favourite Austen novels.’

  ‘Well, I wouldn’t know about that.’

  Kay looked up again. ‘You haven’t read the others?’

  ‘I haven’t read Persuasion,’ Oli said.

  ‘You haven’t read it?’ Kay said in alarm.

  ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’ Oli said. ‘I tried once but it bored me to tears. It’s so slow! I think you have to be a woman to get that sort of thing. Or gay.’

  Kay looked shocked for a moment. Oli wasn’t joking, was he? He really hadn’t read the novel. Here he was playing one of Austen’s greatest heroes and yet he hadn’t even read the book!

  ‘For God’s sake, don’t tell Teresa. She’d skin me alive.’

  ‘I’m not surprised!’ Kay couldn’t help saying. ‘How can you be in the film adaptation of a novel you haven’t read?’

  ‘You don’t need to read it,’ he said. ‘What’s the point of a script if you have to read a huge book as well?’

  ‘But it’s only a small book. It wouldn’t take you long. I could lend you a copy if you want.’ Kay was about to go and get one but Oli stopped her.

  ‘Please! I really don’t need to read it.’

  Kay put her pencil down for a moment. She couldn’t concentrate now.

  ‘Great,’ he said. ‘I’ve upset you, haven’t I?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You have.’

  He shook his head. ‘You women just don’t get that Austen is a girl thing. It’s not for men.’

  ‘But Adam loves it,’ she said.

  ‘That doesn’t surprise me.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean Adam’s probably gay.’

  Kay gasped. ‘He is not!’ she said, thinking what a disaster it would be for her plans for him if he turned out to be gay. What would poor Gemma do then? She’d hate to have to break the news to her. She could just see the scene now.

  ‘Gemma, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know how to tell you. But you’re strong. You’ll get over this – you’ll see!’

  ‘I won’t! I won’t ever get over this. I may as well throw myself from the Cobb right now!’

  ‘No! Gemma – don’t!’

  God, it would be awful, Kay thought.

  ‘Perhaps you could try an audio book of it,’ Kay said, not willing to give up on Oli just yet.

  ‘Tried that,’ he said.

  ‘And what happened?’

  ‘I fell asleep in the bath. Nearly drowned.’

 
‘Oh, dear,’ she said. ‘Maybe I could read it to you?’

  Oli looked round at her, his blue eyes wide. ‘You’d really do that?’

  Kay nodded, thinking of the hours they could spend together.

  ‘That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever offered to do for me.’

  Kay smiled. Oli had redeemed himself just a little.

  ‘Can I look now?’ Oli asked.

  Kay looked up from her sketch. ‘I’ve not finished yet. You keep distracting me!’

  ‘Oh, come on. I’m dying to see.’

  ‘Sit still!’ Kay said with a giggle.

  But Oli was on his feet and crossed the room in a moment. ‘Wow!’ he said. ‘That’s really good.’

  ‘You think so?’ Kay said, looking at what she’d managed to get down in their brief time as artist and model.

  ‘Of course I think so! You should do this for a living.’

  Kay beamed him a smile. ‘I’d love to! I really would.’

  ‘Then you should. You absolutely should.’ He held her gaze for a moment, his blue eyes mesmeric and Kay could have sworn something wonderful was about to happen. Just one moment longer and—

  Beth’s head popped round the door. ‘What are you two doing?’

  The spell was broken.

  ‘I’ve been sitting in that front room all by myself !’ she said, accusation flooding her voice. ‘You’ve been ages.’

  ‘Kay’s just capturing me,’ Oli said. ‘Take a look.’

  Beth hopped into the room and looked at Kay’s work. ‘Hmmm. Not bad. But then you have got a good subject.’

  ‘Shouldn’t you be resting?’ Kay asked, furious that her special time with Oli had been interrupted.

  ‘I’m bored!’ Beth said. ‘I’ve been on that sofa for hours and I’ve missed all the fun today. It’s not fair.’

  ‘I think it’s time we got you to bed,’ Oli said. ‘Can you make the stairs?’

  ‘I might be able to if you help me,’ Beth said, her voice becoming all girly again.

  ‘Night, Kay,’ Oli said, bending down to kiss her cheek.

  Kay felt her skin burst into flame and she watched as Beth claimed his attention, placing her arm around Oli’s shoulders.

  ‘Nice and slowly,’ he said, leading her to the stairs. ‘One step at a time.’

  ‘That’s how I like it too,’ Beth said coyly.

  Kay rolled her eyes.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Gemma couldn’t believe her mother was in Lyme Regis. Well, she could. After all, it wasn’t the first time she’d turned up unannounced. As she lathered her hair with a squirt of her favourite apple shampoo, Gemma remembered the night of her performance as Lady Macbeth at drama school. It was the biggest part she’d ever taken on and she was backstage pacing up and down with nerves when somebody had screamed from the auditorium.

  ‘Kim Reilly’s here! Kim Reilly’s here!’

  Everyone had flocked to her – as they usually did – and her mother was lost amongst a mass of hysterical drama students. Gemma had been forgotten. Not one person was there to tell her to break a leg that evening and she remembered spying her mother sitting in the front row, her mouth moving as she whispered advice to her daughter, her hands wringing themselves during the ‘out damned spot’ scene as if it was her playing the role of Lady Macbeth and not her daughter.

  The party afterwards had been all about Kim Reilly too and Gemma had faded into the background.

  ‘My natural place,’ she said to herself as shampoo bubbles rinsed down her shoulders and back. She’d learned long ago that there was absolutely no point trying to compete with her mother. She just had to let her get on with it and hope that the experience wouldn’t be too painful.

  Finishing her shower, Gemma pulled on a cotton night-dress – the kind which her mother would refer to as a ‘passion killer’.

  ‘How on earth are you going to get a man when you wear something like that?’ her mother had said when she’d barged into the bedroom of her flat recently and discovered the knee-length cotton nightdress covered in humming birds on the edge of her bed. But, after a long day on set, there was nothing nicer, nothing more snugly than her beloved cotton nightdress and she didn’t care what her mother thought of it.

  Sophie had fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, her breathing deep and calming. Gemma was glad of the privacy because she’d known Sophie would only want to talk about her mother if she’d still been awake. That was the curse of being the daughter of a famous actress – everybody wanted to know everything.

  What’s it like having a famous mother?

  Lonely, most of the time.

  Aren’t you terribly proud of her?

  Sometimes but mostly I just get embarrassed.

  I bet you want to be just like her.

  That’s what I worry about more than anything else in the world.

  Gemma closed her eyes and waited to welcome sleep. Perhaps her mother would get bored with everything as early as tomorrow. She had a very short attention span and would probably find Lyme Regis very dull. A small seaside town with a few bookshops, boutiques and bakers wouldn’t be enough to occupy her for long and once everybody had made a big fuss about her and returned to the job in hand, she’d grow restless and go off in search of somebody else to indulge her. And then Gemma could stop worrying about being watched all the time. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t nervous enough about this film already without having her mother’s eye roving over every move she made and questioning her delivery.

  ‘She’ll get bored soon,’ Gemma said to herself and promptly fell asleep, dreaming of missed cues and meddling mothers.

  Kay yawned and drew back her bedroom curtains, smiling at the sea view that greeted her. Would she ever grow bored of it? she wondered. Would she ever take it for granted and not appreciate its blue beauty? And it really was blue today. After days of slate grey, the sea had changed to the most miraculous blue Kay had ever seen and it took some of the sting out of the earliness of her wake-up call.

  After showering and dressing quickly, Kay stepped out on to the landing. All was quiet and she guessed the actors were still in bed. She was just descending the stairs when Beth’s door creaked open. Kay waited, eager to enquire how she was feeling this morning but it wasn’t Beth who emerged from the room. It was Oli. He was fully dressed and it didn’t take Kay long to realise that he was still wearing his clothes from the night before. He hadn’t gone to bed. At least, he hadn’t gone to his own bed last night, had he?

  His blond hair was flopping over his forehead and his blue eyes were bleary, suggesting that he hadn’t slept much. Kay stood motionless on the stairs, hoping that the banister rails would hide her but she didn’t have to worry. Oli hadn’t spotted her and had sneaked back into his own room, closing the door behind him.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, she fled to the kitchen. Oh, God! How could she have been so stupid as to fall in love with an actor? Hadn’t Adam warned her that they always stick to their own and here was irrefutable evidence that that was exactly what they did. It was the phenomenon that Kay was only too eager to read about in the celebrity magazines – who was having an affair with whom on location? It was one of the oldest clichés in the business; the leading man always had an affair – only this time it wasn’t with the leading actress.

  ‘Just as well,’ Kay said to herself, seeing as she’d already matchmade her.

  As she put her floral pinny on and started to get breakfast ready, she tried to console herself.

  He never would have looked at you anyway, she told herself. You’re not in his league at all. It was true enough but it still didn’t stop a girl from dreaming, did it? Your head might tell you one thing but your heart would be pulling in a different direction completely. It was the same old story with Kay – just like her mother before her, she always seemed to fall for the heartbreaker, getting swept up by the romance of everything and eager to overlook the problems that were staring her in the face. And look
how that had worked out for her mother.

  Kay sighed as she remembered the time her mother had announced she was getting married again and the two of them had gone shopping to celebrate.

  ‘You’re going to be the prettiest bridesmaid,’ her mother had told her, picking out the sweetest pink dress for her to wear whilst buying herself an outrageously expensive tiara. ‘Harry is going to be so proud of us!’ They’d smiled and giggled all the way home until they’d found the badly-scrawled note stuffed through the letterbox. Harry, it seemed, had found somebody else.

  ‘Poor Mum,’ Kay said to herself.

  Was she destined for the same fate? And perhaps that was why she was always trying to matchmake people – it was her way of making up for the doomed relationship of her parents.

  It was twenty minutes later when there was a gentle tap on the door.

  ‘Hello?’

  It was Oli. Kay looked up to see his head popping round the kitchen door. Such a wonderful head, Kay couldn’t help thinking, despite the fact that he was obviously having an affair with Beth Jenkins.

  ‘How are you this morning?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘Well, something smells good in here,’ he said.

  ‘That’ll be the bacon,’ she said.

  He nodded. ‘You okay?’ he asked, running a hand through his hair which had obviously been washed since the floppy look he’d been sporting leaving Beth’s bedroom.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Kay said, smiling brightly.

  Oli frowned, obviously not convinced by her answer. ‘You seem a little – distant.’

  ‘Do I?’

  He nodded. ‘Not working you too hard, are we?’

  ‘No, of course not.’

  ‘’Cause I know we can be a pain.’

  ‘You’re not a pain,’ she said. ‘I love having you. Around,’ she added quickly. ‘I love having you all around the place. You bring things to life.’

  He grinned. ‘I’ve got the morning off. I’m not needed until later this afternoon.’

  ‘Oh,’ Kay said, having visions of him hanging around the house all day, forgetting all about Beth Jenkins and slowly falling in love with her – once she’d taken her pinny off and fixed her hair, of course.