Santa Baby (11 page)

It hadn’t even occurred to Tiffany that Lily-Rose would think this.

‘Oh, sweetheart! Of course I’ll always be your sister. Always, forever and forever.’ She gave her sister a quick hug, then Lily-Rose cheered up and said, ‘I’m going to whoop your ass on the next level!’

‘Don’t be so sure … and don’t let Marie catch you saying that. She’ll have your …’

‘… guts for garters!’ Lily-Rose finished with relish.

Neither Tiffany nor Lily-Rose knew what that expression meant, and Tiffany was pretty sure Lily-Rose didn’t even know what garters were, but it was one
of
Marie’s favourite expressions. Then Chris called them all to the table and the girls abandoned their game and headed downstairs.

Sean was already in the kitchen, insisting on setting the table, while Marie sat down. She still looked slightly embarrassed by her earlier comment and Tiffany thought it would probably be best not to mention it. But she would definitely store it up for future use – that was an all-time classic!

‘You can come again,’ Chris commented as Sean sorted out cutlery for everyone and poured out glasses of water. But if Tiffany thought that was the last moment he’d be put on the spot by a member of her family, then she was mistaken as Lily-Rose made it her mission to interrogate him with a set of random questions. Within a few minutes she had established what his favourite music was: The Killers and Elbow. His favourite animal: an orang-utan. His favourite holiday destination: Crete.
X Factor
or
Strictly
: neither. Every time Sean was about to raise his fork to his mouth, Lily-Rose would come up with yet another question.

‘Let the poor man eat, Lily-Rose!’ Chris exclaimed.

‘Just one more,’ his daughter pleaded. ‘Do you have girlfriend?’

‘No, not at the moment.’

‘Why? What’s wrong with you?’

Luckily Sean saw the funny side, and smiled. ‘Where do you want to start?’ A comment which was lost on Lily-Rose, who replied, ‘You seem OK. Old but OK.’

And just as Tiffany was thinking that was surely the end of Lily-Rose’s questions, she said, ‘Tiffany hasn’t got a boyfriend any more. She dumped Billy and we all really liked him. Maybe you could be her boyfriend? Unless you’re gay. Daddy’s second-best friend Richard is gay, and that’s OK. He lives in Brighton. He always
buys
me ace presents. He bought me Justin Bieber.’

‘Very generous of him,’ Sean commented.

‘Justin Bieber is her hamster,’ Marie interpreted.

‘So … are you gay?’ Lily-Rose persisted.

Tiffany couldn’t bring herself to look Sean in the eye, but heard him say quietly, ‘No, I’m not gay.’

‘Well then, you can definitely go out with …’ But fortunately Marie intervened.

‘That’s enough, Lily-Rose, eat your dinner or you won’t be able to go on that play-date tomorrow night.’

Another piece of blatant bribery that did the trick.

‘Sorry,’ Tiffany mouthed across the table to Sean.

‘It’s OK,’ he mouthed back.

But Lily-Rose’s questions had made Tiffany herself wonder if Sean could be boyfriend potential. If she could get him to loosen up more and be a little less serious …

They were all halfway through the meal when Sean’s mobile rang. He checked the number and said, ‘I’m sorry but I’m going to have to take this.’ And he got up from the table and left the room, closing the door behind him.

‘Can I just say, gorgeous!’ Marie whispered excitedly. ‘Lily-Rose is on to something. He would be a great boyfriend. Those muscles, those brown eyes … Strong but caring, brave and helpful around the house,
and
he’s got a lovely motor.’ The last comment was not serious as Marie had no interest in cars.

‘I think we all know what you thought of Sean,’ Chris said dryly.

‘Ah, don’t be insecure! You know I love you and only you. But I’m allowed to window shop, aren’t I?’

Chris didn’t get the chance to reply as the door opened then and Sean walked back in. ‘I’m sorry to
leave
in the middle of dinner, but something’s come up and I’ve got to drive to Sussex.’ He had put his jacket on and looked serious.

‘Is everything OK with Angel?’ Tiffany asked, instantly worried for her.

‘Yes, she’s fine, I can’t say any more than that.’ He looked across at Marie and Chris and Lily-Rose. ‘It was nice to meet you all. And thanks for dinner.’

Tiffany followed him out to the hall, suddenly realising that she didn’t want him to go. ‘’Bye then,’ she said at the front door. ‘And thanks for helping us out today.’

‘No problem. I’m sure the paps will be gone in a few hours. Any trouble, give me a call.’ He handed her a card with his name and number on it.

And just as Tiffany was thinking that was it, he ducked down and kissed her on the cheek, and she felt the warmth of his lips and the graze of stubble from his face.

‘Take care,’ he said, opening the door.

‘You too,’ she replied, wondering when she would see him again and hoping it wouldn’t be too long.

ANGEL WAS IN
tears, pacing the living room. Could the day get any worse? This morning she had done a pregnancy test and it had come up negative. She had been so convinced that she was pregnant, certain that she had all the symptoms, it had been a bitter blow. Then the press had found out about Tiffany possibly being her sister and had blown the whole thing out of proportion, dragging up things from her past that she would so much rather forget. The paps had staked out the house, then followed her the whole day to and from work. She hated it when they did that. It made her feel like a hunted animal, as if she couldn’t escape. She had come home, longing for peace, to be close to Cal and Honey … and now this.

She had been confronted by two detectives from the Met who had informed her and Cal that they had intelligence of a kidnap threat against her and Honey. A criminal they had been questioning about another crime had let the information slip.

‘Come and sit down, Angel,’ Cal urged her.

‘Why us?’ she exclaimed, spinning round to face her husband. ‘Why do these horrible things keep happening to us?’ God! Wasn’t it enough that they’d had to cope with Simone Fraser stalking them, and threatening
Angel
with a knife? She still had a recurring nightmare where Cal didn’t make it in time to rescue her, and Simone stepped closer, that mad look in her eyes, the knife glinting in her hand as she thrust it into Angel over and over again …

While she was emotionally strung out and tearful, Cal by contrast was calm, rational, together. ‘We’re going to be fine,’ he told her. ‘Sean is going to review all our security arrangements. You and Honey will have full protection whenever you go out. There is nothing to worry about.’ Now Angel did go over to him. She collapsed on the sofa next to him and he put his arms round her, holding her tight.

Sean had been silent while husband and wife reacted to the news but now he spoke. ‘Cal’s right, Angel, you will have round-the-clock protection. We have always taken your safety seriously. We just need to step it up a gear and be extra-vigilant.’

‘Thanks,’ Angel managed to say. She felt physically and emotionally drained. ‘I trust you completely, Sean.’ He nodded in acknowledgement, and then tactfully left the couple alone.

‘See? Everything will be all right.’

‘It’s Honey I worry about. I don’t want her childhood being ruined. It’s not fair on her.’

Cal kissed his wife’s head. ‘It’s not being ruined. She can do everything she wants to do, like any child her age. She just needs extra protection.’

Angel leaned her head on Cal’s shoulder, trying to calm down.

‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘I thought we could do with going away for a week – just the family.’

‘And our security team,’ Angel added dryly.

‘So I’ve booked a villa in Minorca. It’s got its own private beach and is completely secure. And Gemma and Tony are going to come too, along with Jez and Rufus.’

‘What about work? I can’t just abandon the show.’

‘I spoke to Oscar and he agreed it would be good for you to have a break. He’s running a special diet and fitness series in your slot.’

Yet again Angel was grateful to her husband, who had done just the right thing to make her feel better.

‘There’s something else … we’re going late tomorrow night.’

‘What? But I haven’t packed! You know how long it takes me to pack!’

Angel had been on so many foreign trips but she was still hopelessly chaotic and disorganised when it came to packing, always ended up taking far too much and didn’t ever wear over half the things she took. A habit of hers which drove Cal – who was super-organised – mad.

‘Yep, I do, which is why I’ve packed for you and Honey.’

‘But you’re bound to have forgotten something! I’ll have to do it all over again …’

‘Babe, anything I’ve forgotten we can buy out there. We’re going to Minorca, not Outer Mongolia!’

Angel made to get up from the sofa to go and check what her husband had done, but he held her arm. ‘You stay here and I’m going to bring you in a glass of wine and bowl of pasta and then we’re going to watch a film – you can choose. And you can forget all about today.’

It was yet another of those moments when Angel wondered what she had done to deserve a man as wonderful as Cal.

‘I can choose anything?’ She had very different taste in films from her husband. He liked thrillers such as the
Bourne Identity
series, and while Angel appreciated the good looks of Matt Damon, she often found the plot confusing. She preferred a good rom-com. Cal wasn’t keen and so usually she watched those films on a girls’
night
in with Gemma – not that there’d been so many of them since the arrival of Milo.

‘Anything you like.’

‘Anything?’

‘Anything.’ Cal insisted.

She smiled. Tempting as it was to make Cal watch a rom-com and see him struggle to stay awake, she would compromise. ‘How about
The Hangover
?’

A look of relief on his face, Cal said, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to watch
27 Dresses, Made of Honor
or
He’s Just Not That Into You
? I checked out the listings – they’re all on tonight.’

‘Not tonight.’

He smiled. ‘I’ll bring supper in.’ At the doorway he paused. ‘I swear everything’s going to be all right, Angel.’

She wasn’t sure it was, but she knew that Cal had done everything he could, so instead of voicing any further unease, she simply nodded and replied, ‘I know. Love you.’

TIFFANY HAD BELIEVED
, perhaps naively, that the press would have lost interest in the story by the next day. She spent the night at her parents’ house. When she got up in the morning and pulled back the curtains in the tiny box room, she could still see a couple of paps lurking outside. She grabbed her dressing gown and padded downstairs to the kitchen where her dad was making Lily-Rose’s packed lunch, while Marie was looking at something on her laptop and Lily-Rose was taking her time over her porridge. Her dad then fussed round Tiffany, making her tea, and scrambled eggs, even though Tiffany reminded him that she was perfectly capable of making breakfast for herself.

‘I want to make sure you have something to eat before you go off to work. You had a stressful day yesterday and by the look of it –’ he gestured out of the window at the paps – ‘it might not be over.’

‘It certainly won’t be,’ Marie said, and turned her laptop round. The screen showed the
Sun
’s website, dominated by a picture of Tanya, looking as rough as ever, with the headline, ‘
Why I Had to Give My Babies Up
.’

‘Oh, God!’ Tiffany groaned. ‘Why did she have to do it?’

A pointless question she knew as the lure of easy money to Tanya, with her drug addiction, would have proved overwhelming. She quickly read the article where Tanya talked about how she had never wanted to lose her babies but knew that she wasn’t fit to look after them. Inevitably the paper ran pictures of Angel and Cal, and there was a photograph of Tiffany coming out of her flat – thankfully not the one with her in her PJs. Tanya was also quoted as saying that Angel wanted nothing to do with her. It was so unfair, so intrusive.

‘Teeth, Lily-Rose!’ Marie ordered, and reluctantly the little girl got up and left the room.

‘If that woman ends up dead with a needle in her arm then the press are responsible, giving someone like that money when they know exactly how she’s going to spend it,’ Marie said darkly. She looked over at Chris. ‘Do you think there is any chance Tanya could be persuaded to go into rehab?’

He shrugged. ‘I think it’s too late for that.’

‘What a waste of a life,’ Marie said with feeling. She looked across at Tiffany. ‘Are you OK, love? It’s a lot to have to deal with. Why don’t you phone that nice Sean and ask his advice? He was so helpful yesterday.’ She smiled. ‘And I think he liked you.’

‘Not as much as you liked him!’ Tiffany joked, remembering her step-mum’s comment about Sean’s body.

Marie blushed. ‘I told you, that was my hormones.’

Tiffany let her off the hook. ‘Anyway, I’m sure he was just doing his job.’

‘No, it was more than that. He didn’t have to bring you here, and he did. Go on, phone him.’

But Tiffany shook her head; she didn’t want to seem like a weak little girl, who couldn’t sort out her own life. She wasn’t used to asking for help with anything.

‘I’m fine, I don’t need to involve anyone else. And I’d
better
hurry up and get off to work or I’ll be sacked from another job.’

‘I’ll give you a lift to the station. I’m not having you walk there with that bunch of animals outside,’ Chris told her.

It was a nightmare journey to work. The paps crowded round as she tried to get into her dad’s van. Her dad didn’t want her to go to work at all after that, but Tiffany insisted. It wasn’t as if she loved her job, but no way was she going to let the press dictate how she lived her life. The paps even pursued them to the station on motorbikes and surrounded the van when she got out.
For God’s sake!
she wanted to shout.
Have you really nothing better to do?