Illusions of Love (12 page)

She shook her head, and he looked at her through narrowed, slightly confused eyes.
 
‘No.
 
I’m not.
 
I never was, Joe.’

‘Then… why are we doing this,
India
?
 
If you’re not going back to him?’

‘Baby, please, don’t do this to yourself.
 
It’s killing me, Joe.
 
I can’t do this anymore, okay?
 
I just can’t do it anymore.’

He came closer, leaning forward, resting his hand on her hip as he breathed in the smell of her, wanting to be this close one more time before he let her go completely.
 
Something he knew he had to do, even though it was the last thing he wanted.

She put a hand on his cheek and smiled, letting him pull her closer, looking into his eyes as she remembered those dark days just before her accident, those days that had followed the shattering revelations that had caused JJ to walk out of her life.
 
Those days when she’d thought she couldn’t go on if she didn’t have him by her side.
 
Was she really ready to believe that she could say goodbye to him so easily after all of that?
 
Yes, she was.
 
She had to.
 
To stay with him just wouldn’t be fair, because she wasn’t in love with him the way she used to be.
 
And she couldn’t live a lie.
 
‘I’m sorry, Joe.
 
Really.
 
I’m sorry.’

He pulled away from her, certain now that his initial fears were nothing but true.
 
She’d never really put her feelings for Michael Walsh aside, and until she finally managed to do that she was never going to be able to truly move on.
 
But this time JJ knew that
he
was going to have to accept that he had to, because this had just turned into something he really didn’t have the energy to fight for anymore.

***

Candice had chosen two of her stylists’ designs to appear on the runway and Charley felt stupidly excited.
 
To anyone else it might not be that great an achievement, getting a hairstyle out there on a fashion runway, but Charley felt like a proud parent as she punched in Vince’s number, eager to tell him everything.

‘Vince, guess what?
 
She’s using two of our hair creations in the show!’
 
Her voice was loud and excited, bypassing “
hello
” or “
how are you?
” and Vince laughed as she carried on talking, far too quickly, but he loved hearing her so happy.
 
‘I tell you, we’ve got ourselves one hell of a team here in
L.A.
, I am
so
proud of them!’

‘I’m so proud of
you,
honey.
 
You’re the one out there, working them hard and getting results.’

‘But without you giving me this chance… Oh, Vince, I’m just so excited!
 
The contacts Candice is putting my way means that
Charley’s
is really up there now.
 
I just wish you were here to celebrate with me.
 
I mean, Lily’s great and all that but, she’s not really all that big on adult conversation just yet.
 
I miss you, Vince.’

‘Hey, I miss you too, baby.’
 
And he did.
 
He missed her like crazy but just hearing the excitement in her voice was enough to make him realise the only thing he wanted to know – that she was happy.
 
Besides, he had enough things here in Vegas to keep him occupied, because whenever Michael and
India
were in close proximity to each other then a complicated scenario was never that far away.
 
And one such scenario appeared to be materialising right now.

‘How’s
India
?’ Charley asked, waving goodbye to Saskia, her salon manager, through her open office door.

Vince sighed down the phone, something which made Charley think that maybe things weren’t going all that smoothly over in
Las Vegas
.
 
A sigh like that was never a good thing with Vince.
 
‘Well,
she
seems fine.’

‘So, why the big sigh?’

‘Because I’m not sure Michael’s quite got the message.
 
She’s made things pretty clear to him, but… well, I kinda knew the two of them working this closely together wasn’t gonna be a breeze.’

‘I’ll call her.
 
I could do with catching up on some girly gossip.’

‘Yeah, you do that, honey.
 
I’m sure she’d be real happy to hear from you.’

‘She won’t do anything stupid, Vince.
 
I know her, I know she’s changed over these last few months.
 
She’s stronger now, she’s put a lot of things behind her, so I know she won’t do anything stupid.
 
Ooh, by the way, how’s the lovely Dominic MacDonald?
 
I’ve heard
so
much about him back here in
L.A.
, I can’t wait to ask
India
what he’s
really
like.’

‘Well, she certainly seems to be working fine alongside him.
 
They’re getting on like a house on fire.’

‘Really?’ Charley gasped, now desperate to talk to
India
.

‘Yeah, really.’

Charley was all too aware of the heavy sigh still evident in Vince’s voice.
 
‘Is that proving to be a problem?
 
India
and Dominic getting close, I mean?’

‘Only for one person.’

And it was obvious who Vince meant by that.
 
‘What do
you
think of Dominic then?’ Charley asked.
 
Her husband was usually a very good judge of character so she’d be interested to hear what he thought of
India
’s co-star, because
she
only knew him as this hot-looking actor whose movies she never said no to watching.

‘I haven’t really had all that much to do with him to be honest… Oh, gotta shoot, baby, there’s a call on the other line that I’ve really gotta take.
 
I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?
 
I love you, Charley.’

‘Love you too, Vince.’
 
She smiled as she hung up the phone, sitting back in her chair and closing her eyes as she let the day’s events wash over her.
 
Today had been a good day, but then, every day had been a good day since she’d met Vince Maine.
 
It was just the days before he’d arrived in her life that she chose to forget.

The sound of a window banging shut made Charley jump, and she leapt up from her desk, that feeling of unease suddenly creeping back over her.
 
She’d thought everyone had gone.
 
Saskia had been the last to leave, she’d told her to make sure of that, to make sure that everyone else had left before she did.

 
Grabbing her bag and keys she locked her office door and went to do one last check of the salon, going into every room, closing every window, locking every door.
 
This was crazy!
 
She’d never been this paranoid before, what was wrong with her?
 
Why was she so jumpy?

The noise of a car backfiring outside made her swing round, her heart almost stopping dead in her chest.
 
Jesus!
 
She needed a drink.
 
Her nerves were shot to pieces all of a sudden.
 
Maybe she just needed some time away from
L.A.
, some time with Vince.
 
Things
had
been pretty manic round here and she hadn’t really had a day off in months.
 
No wonder she was on edge.
 
She needed to take some time out and relax, that was all.

She leant against the reception desk and tried to get her breath back.
 
She had to pull herself together.
 
She had a lot of work to do, and this show was only a day or so away now.
 
All she had to do was get through the next few days and then she and Lily could pack up and head to Vegas for some time with Vince.
 
That thought alone would keep her going.
 
Not long now and she could take a break from this place, because she obviously needed it.

Taking one last glance around the salon, finally satisfied that this sudden paranoia was nothing more than her tired mind playing tricks on her, she punched in the alarm code before letting herself out and double-locking the doors behind her.
 
Another day was over.
 
And she was one step closer to another dream.
 
That’s all she should be focusing on.
 
That’s all she needed to be thinking about.
 
Because anything else she might be feeling really was just all in her imagination.

***

He threw his cigar down on the floor, standing on it with his boot, squashing it into the concrete as he watched her from across the street, his eyes never leaving her.
 
She was still one hell of a good-looking woman, even if she
had
changed somewhat over the years.
 
She was a mother now, a wife.
 
A businesswoman, and who’d have thought?
 
Charley
Maine
– an upstanding pillar of the
Beverly Hills
community.
 
Did any of them know about her past?
 
Did any of them know what she’d used to do before she’d turned into the perfect woman she was so obviously trying to be?
 
Or did they just choose to ignore her past because of who she was connected to?

Pulling his hat down further over his eyes he stepped back into the shadows as she walked away from the salon, tossing her long dark hair back over her shoulder.
 
But what if those connections were taken away from her?
 
How would she cope then?

He smiled to himself before turning and walking away, reaching into his jacket pocket for another cigar.
 
It was almost time.
 
And he didn’t expect her, for one second, to be anywhere near prepared for what was about to happen.

CHAPTER 9

Kenny knew that everything Layla had said to him a few days ago had been right.
 
Well, most of it anyway.
 
She’d made him realise that there
was
a life for him out there, after
India
.

After
India
.
 
He’d been living life after
India
for God knows how long now.
 
He really had to learn to move on, and he was determined to do that, just, maybe not with Casey.
 
He’d messed her about so much and he didn’t want to hurt her any more than he already had done.
 
It wasn’t fair on her.
 
But it wasn’t fair on him either, standing still like he was, clinging onto some vain hope that India would one day tell him that she should never have left him, because that was never going to happen.
 
Not now.
 
Because, from what he could gather, she was getting a lot of attention from Dominic MacDonald over there in Vegas.
 
Someone he just couldn’t even begin to compete with.

He looked up as Layla sat down beside him, offering him a coffee which he gratefully accepted, and he needed it.
 
It had been a long day on set and he could do with a caffeine kick.

‘JJ’s arriving back in
L.A.
today,’ she said, not looking at Kenny, but he looked at her.

‘I wasn’t aware he’d left.
 
Where’s he been?’

This time she did look at him.
 
‘Didn’t you know?
 
He’s been in Vegas.
 
To see
India
.’

‘Not giving up without a fight then?’ Kenny sighed, knocking back a mouthful of thankfully strong coffee.
 
Layla knew just how he liked it.

‘Seems not.
 
Although, from what he’s told me, it’s a fight he’s all but conceded.’

Kenny looked at her again.
 
‘The divorce is finally happening then?’

‘That’s the way it seems to be heading, yeah.’

He watched as her expression changed, her eyes looking down as a sadness washed over her.

‘She told him it had nothing to do with Michael.’

Kenny sighed again, sitting back in his chair.
 
Hearing that was a relief in one respect, but it must have been one hell of a kick in the teeth for JJ.
 
She was still leaving him, even if there didn’t seem to be any valid reason why.