When they were finally standing outside their rooms, she smiled at him, gratefully, she hoped, and stuck out her hand, which he pointedly ignored.
‘That’s a bit ridiculous,’ he drawled. ‘Yes, we’ve both reached the same conclusion that this was a holiday fling best left on the island, but I think shaking hands is slightly ludicrous.’ He bent and kissed her on the mouth, but this was a fond, farewell kiss, devoid of the urgency and hunger she had become accustomed to, and it hurt like hell.
It did, however, set the tone for the next day, during which they were affable, polite and very, very busy. Flights, work that Nick suddenly remembered needed to be done and books that Rose decided should have been read.
She could already feel the mantle of England settling back over her long before the plane finally touched down at Heathrow.
She had feverishly wondered how they would actually part company when the moment arrived, but in all events it was an anticlimax. Nick spotted someone he knew and, before she could brace herself for the hellishness of the final goodbye, he was kissing her fondly on the cheek and excusing himself. Would she be okay to handle a taxi back herself? Just a couple of things he wanted to talk to Ed Duggins about…take care of yourself…hope the house lives up to expectations…The usual platitudes, but his mind was already somewhere else. He had moved on.
Rose went directly to her house. She had been there almost every day to supervise the work in progress and had left her painter and decorator in charge of replastering and wallpapering over the mess made by the builders.
At any rate, that was exciting. She was delivered to her door in a black cab and, once inside the house, wandered around taking in the changes, and there were a fair few of those. Terry had done an excellent job. Everywhere looked new and smelt new.
And it was all paid for. She told herself that she should be over the moon, but as it turned out the only thing she had to smile about was her phone call to her sister.
Lily was coming home. Just for a couple of weeks because the leading man had apparently done something unfortunate to his ankle. Filming would skirt around him, but her scenes were already shot.
Her voice down the other end of the phone was like a tonic and Rose couldn’t help herself. For once she wasn’t the one holding everything together. And for once Lily was the strong half, soothing, reassuring, safe in her own area of expertise—namely men.
‘Don’t worry, Rosie. I’m coming home and everything’s gonna be fine. Wait and see.’
Somewhere in middle America, Lily smiled to herself as she hung up the phone—Rose needed her and that felt good, and, even better, she was going to make sure that everything really was all right for her sister.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘NOW that you’ve been back nearly two weeks, I think it’s time we went out and had a good time. I’m heading back to America next Wednesday and I can’t bear the thought of leaving you alone here when you’re so miserable.’
Rose looked at her sister and tried to imagine whether she was capable of ever having a good time again. Not a word from Nick since they had returned to England. Not a phone call, not a message left on the answering machine, nothing. It was as though she had never existed in his eyes.
For Lily’s sake, she had played down her feelings, but her talents as an actor must have been less successful than she had thought because here was her sister now, looking at her worriedly, in fact the way she had looked at Lily many a time in the past. The shoe was very securely on the other foot.
‘I’m not miserable, Lily. I’m tired. And, besides, I haven’t got time to have a good time.’ Rose looked at her sister over the rim of her mug.
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
‘Sure it does. I mean, I’ve only been back at my old job a few days and you wouldn’t believe the stack of work that was waiting for me. A lovely little collection of jobs no one else wanted to do.’ Every single one of which was utterly boring, she was tempted to add, but didn’t because she was determined, after her initial confession and shameful blubbing down the phone, not to make a fuss. She had lost her head and had her moment of madness and now was time to pick up the pieces and not wallow in a tide of self-pity. At least, not in public.
‘But it’s a Saturday, Rose.’ Lily sighed dramatically.
‘Don’t worry about me, I want you to go out and have fun. As you said, Lily, you’ll be heading back in a few days. You want to catch up with all your fans before you go.’ Rose smiled at her sister. The phone had not stopped ringing since Lily had arrived back. Friends wanting to meet up and, according to Lily, who had developed a healthy streak of cynicism since working in America, not-nearly-friends who wanted to rub shoulders with someone in the movie business.