The One You Really Want (42 page)

Nancy turned. The man with Zac was a couple of inches shorter than him and a couple of decades older. Amongst the trendily dressed diners and baroque decor he stood out as they wove their way between tables, in his brown speckled V-necked cardigan, white shirt, brown corduroys and polished brogues. His grey hair was cut short and neatly swept back from a face that was oddly familiar.

‘You know,' said Rennie, mystified, ‘Zac has the weirdest taste in men. And my God, what does
he
look like tonight? Is it some kind of kinky new thing, d'you suppose, to dress up like Percy Thrower?'

Nancy gave him a nudge because Zac's fine blond hair was tied back in a ponytail and he was wearing a moss-green sweater over a paler green shirt and plain dark trousers. She knew who the older man was. She just didn't know what he was doing here.

Clearly ill at ease, Zac approached her and said in a rush, ‘Hi, Nance, sorry about this, I tried to reach you earlier but your phone was switched off. This is my father, William Parris. Dad, this is Nancy who works for me.'

‘Zac's friend.' William nodded cheerfully, shaking Nancy's hand. ‘I've heard all about you, love. Good to meet you at last. And many happy returns of the day.'

‘Dad turned up unexpectedly this evening,' Zac went on hurriedly. ‘Look, I know they won't be able to squeeze in another place, so we'll be off, but Dad just wanted to come and say hello before—'

‘No problem.' Rennie indicated the waiter with whom he'd just had a word. ‘All sorted, they can fit another chair round the table if we all breathe in. William, let me introduce you to everyone. I'm Rennie, this is Carmen and this is Rose . . .'

‘God, I'm sorry,' whispered Zac as William was whisked away to meet the others. ‘The doorbell went and there he was. No warning, nothing! He just announced he'd come to stay for a week. I mean, what could I do? And I certainly wasn't planning on bringing him along tonight—'

‘It's fine,' Nancy said, because Zac was sounding panicky. And notably un-camp.

‘But I'd written it on my kitchen calendar and he spotted it. As soon as Dad realised it was your birthday there was no stopping him, he
insisted
we—'

‘Really, it doesn't matter a bit,' Nancy patiently repeated.

‘But it
does
,' Zac blurted out, ‘because what if someone
says
anything? You know, about
me
. . .'

‘They won't. I'll tell Rennie,' Nancy promised, because this was clearly whom Zac was most bothered about.

‘And it's not only that.' Zac gazed at her in anguish. ‘I . . . er, well, I kind of let him think you're my, um . . .'

‘He thinks I'm your girlfriend.' Belatedly realising what he was struggling to tell her, Nancy smothered the urge to laugh.

‘I'm sorry. I told you I was a hopeless case.' Zac shook his head apologetically. ‘And it's not a complete lie. I'm sure I'd fancy you if I was straight.'

Which was quite flattering in its own way.

‘OK, don't panic. We'll get through this. You'd better sit by me. We'll put your dad next to Rose. And don't worry,' Nancy assured him. ‘Everything's going to be fine.'

The waiter brought an extra chair and laid another place at the table. Nancy tried not to notice how happy Tabitha looked, next to Connor. The menus arrived, orders were taken and in his comfortable West Country drawl, Zac's father explained what had brought him to London.

‘I had to get away from my next-door neighbour. Divorcee,' he explained with an economical shrug. ‘Driving me mad, she is. You know how it is when you're not remotely interested in someone and they've got a bit of a crush on you? Well, that's what's gone and happened with Margaret.'

Inwardly wincing, Nancy avoided glancing across the table at Connor.

‘What's she doing?' said Carmen.

‘What isn't she doing, more like.' William pulled a rueful face. ‘Let me tell you, I'm not getting a minute's peace. The blessed woman's knocking on my door at all hours, asking me to help her with this and that, bringing me food, inviting me along to the social club.'

‘Maybe she's just being friendly,' Mia suggested.

‘Hmm. I know what kind of friendship that one has in mind.' William gave Zac a back-me-up look. ‘Am I right, son? Not backward in coming forward is Margaret. Rang my doorbell at ten o'clock last night in her negligee, begging me to go over and get a spider out of her bath.'

‘Ah, the old spider in the bath trick,' Rennie said with a grin. ‘Carmen's always trying that one on with me. Subtlety's never been her strong point either.'

‘Rennie has delusions of desirability,' said Carmen. ‘Ignore him.'

‘Anyway, I'd just about had enough,' William went on.

‘Margaret was putting pressure on me and not taking no for an answer. I needed to get away and I've never been to London before. So I just thought what the hell, let's go for it. And here I am.' He spread his hands happily. ‘I've escaped. Come to visit my son for a week or two. And meet this lovely girlfriend of his in the flesh.'

This last pronouncement was greeted with something of a startled silence. Nancy took a big gulp of wine. Everyone was looking at her. After a pause, Rose said brightly, ‘Well, it's lovely to meet you too, William. We'll have to make sure you enjoy yourself while you're here.'

‘And I promise not to ask you to come and get spiders out of my bath,' said Rennie. ‘Not in my negligee anyway.'

Tabitha leaned across, almost setting fire to Nancy's sleeve with her cigarette. ‘I must say, you're a dark horse,' she exclaimed. ‘I didn't even realise you and Zac were an item! To be honest, I thought he was—'

‘God, sorry, I'm a clumsy oaf,' Connor exclaimed, having managed to knock his cutlery into Tabitha's lap.

‘I hope I'm not going to be making things awkward for the two of you.' William turned to Nancy, concerned. ‘I won't be in the way, will I?'

‘Absolutely not.' Shaking her head vigorously, Nancy realised she was going to have to have a private word with Tabitha. ‘We're taking things very slowly; you won't be in the way at all. Um, Tab, you couldn't come out to the ladies with me, could you? I need to borrow some mascara.'

‘Hang on, let me just pull this fork out of my leg,' said Tabitha. ‘Connor's just tried a spot of DIY liposuction. I think it's his way of telling me my thighs are too fat.'

Connor put his arm round Tabitha and planted a kiss on her cheek. ‘There's nothing wrong with your thighs. Stop fishing for compliments.'

Tabitha was clearly overjoyed to be here with Connor. Mia was delighted Tabitha was here with Connor. And it was obvious that Connor was enjoying himself. Nancy, her stomach tightening, tried hard to be happy for them too. It wasn't easy, feeling like a wallflower at your own birthday dinner. She was so lucky to be here, surrounded by friends. Why on earth couldn't she get this stupid crush out of her system? Why did Connor have to be so nice and live next door?

 

‘I only moved down here a few weeks ago myself,' Rose confided to William as their main courses arrived, ‘so if you want showing around, I'd be happy to help. But only if you'd like me to,' she added hastily. ‘I won't turn into a stalker, I promise.'

William's face softened. ‘Of course you won't. I'd love a hand with the underground - can't make head nor tail of it at the moment. And I've heard all about you too. Zac tells me you're the best knitter he's ever had working for him.'

‘Och, he's a lovely boy. You must be very proud of him, doing so marvellously, people from all over the world buying his clothes.'

‘I am, I am.' William nodded. ‘I mean, I know it's a funny job for a grown man, but Zac always had it in his head to be a designer, even from a lad. And who knows what'll happen now that he and Nancy have got together?'

Not a lot, thought Rose.

‘You and I could end up as in-laws,' William went on with enthusiasm.

Hmm. Diplomatically Rose said, ‘Well, maybe we shouldn't get too excited. As they said, it's still early days.'

‘Yes, but wouldn't it be great?'

It would be astounding. Breaking into her monkfish
en croute
, Rose said, ‘Now stop it. You know there's nothing more likely to put children off than parents frantically matchmaking. They have to make their own decisions.'

William leaned sideways and murmured, ‘I know, but I've been waiting so long for something like this to happen. You see, Zac's never been exactly . . . well, he hasn't shown much sign before of getting himself settled down.'

Oh dear, thought Rose. Someone was going to have to tell him. It wasn't right that William didn't know.

‘Sorry about earlier,' Tabitha murmured in Zac's ear. ‘Nancy told me in the loo. I spend my life putting my big feet in it. Now listen, this bag of hers is seriously fantastic. Can I ask how much it retails for?'

‘Three fifty.' Zac didn't betray his surprise that someone who was got up like Tabitha should be interested in a bag that cost that much. Her dress sense might be abysmal, but women and bags were an unfathomable law unto themselves.

‘Is that your best price?' Tabitha was gazing longingly at Nancy's bag.

‘My God, you drive a hard bargain.' Zac smiled. ‘OK, OK, three hundred.'

‘Any colour I like?'

‘Any colour you like.'

‘Waiting time?'

‘Two weeks,' said Zac.

‘Excellent. My boss is going to love this.'

That explained it, then. The bag wasn't for Tabitha after all. To show how generous and broad-minded he was, Zac said untruthfully, ‘I like your top.'

Tabitha looked smug. She was wearing a sleeveless pink and white striped rollneck sweater with sparkly bits in it. ‘Vintage. I was over at my mum's last week and she was chucking a whole load of stuff out. This came from Marks and Spencer twenty-five years ago. Practically the time I was born! You'd never know it, would you?'

‘Never,' Zac solemnly agreed. What had Nancy told him Tabitha did for a living? Financial journalist, that was it.

Well, that explained a lot.

 

Carmen was touched that Mia should be so indignant on her behalf, but it was a faintly bizarre experience being lectured to by a sixteen-year-old.

‘Forget him,' Mia declared between mouthfuls of asparagus. ‘Honestly, what a loser. You're way better off without someone like that, believe me.'

Mia evidently had never known a moment of self-doubt in her life. Humouring her, Carmen said, ‘So what would you advise in future?'

‘Well, the way I see it, you have a number of choices.' Putting down her knife and fork, Mia swished back her blond hair and with an air of importance began counting on her fingers. ‘Next time you meet a man you like, you could just say, now look here, the thing is I'm really rather rich but because I've been mucked about in the past you have to understand that you won't be getting your sweaty paws on a single penny of my money because none of it is
ever
going to come your way.'

Sweaty paws. Attractive.

‘Right.' Carmen nodded solemnly, envisaging herself announcing this to some open-mouthed potential suitor. ‘Is that what you'd do?'

‘Maybe, I'm not sure. Depends on the man.' Mia was entirely serious. ‘Or you could do what you did with Nick and hope that the next man might be a bit more understanding than that wazzock when you tell him the truth.'

‘I'm not going through that again,' Carmen said bluntly. ‘Next?'

‘OK, so maybe
having
all that money is the problem. In which case, have you ever thought of getting rid of it?'

The girl really was a case. ‘Have a bonfire, you mean?'

‘Nooo. Give it away to charity! All of it!' Spreading her hands in a gesture that signalled aren't-I-fantastic? Mia exclaimed, ‘Then you'd be poor again and all your problems would be over!'

‘That's the worst idea I've ever heard.' Carmen shook her head, struggling to keep a straight face because Mia was so young,
so
idealistic. ‘One, I give plenty of money to charity, but there's such a thing as being too generous. Two, Spike earned that money, he worked his socks off for it and he'd go mental if I gave it away. And three, I don't want to be poor again. I'm sorry, I'm just not that unselfish.'

‘Oh well, it was a long shot.' Mia shrugged. ‘To be honest, I probably wouldn't want to do that either.'

‘Any other ideas?'

‘Find someone rich.'

Great. Back to Hugh Hefner.

‘Rennie already had that idea,' said Carmen.

‘Did he?' Mia speared a cherry tomato with her fork. ‘Interesting.'

‘Why is that interesting?'

‘Well, Rennie's rich.'

Carmen choked on her drink. Spluttering and feeling hot, she said, ‘What's
that
supposed to mean?'

‘Nothing. I'm just saying.'

‘Rennie's my brother-in-law.'

‘So? It's not illegal. In fact it's surprisingly common,' Mia went on, warming to her cause. ‘I mean, think about it. They have the same genes. If you like one brother enough to marry them, why wouldn't you like the other?'

Carmen took another gulp of wine. ‘I do like Rennie. As a friend. But he isn't like Spike. They might share the same genes but if you didn't know they were brothers, you'd never guess. They're different in every way.'