Chapter 30
Two hours and three cups of coffee later, and still there was radio silence from Charlie.
“It must be really, really awful news and he doesn’t know how to break it to me.
Do you think they could sue me for breach of contract?
I can’t give them the payment back, I’ve spent half of it,” Kate said, thoroughly miserable and full of regrets.
Regret that she’d emailed Alice, leaving a paper trail to trip herself up on.
Regret that she’d let everyone down, H most of all.
Regret that she’d ever fired off the damn begging letter to Jojo.
The shop door flew open, startling them both.
“Christ, she looks like trouble,” Liv murmured, as a woman stood framed in the sunlit doorway.
“Oh my God,” Kate whispered, staring at the silhouetted power shoulder pads and hair-sprayed helmet of hair. “It’s Fiona.”
Liv reared up cobra-like and stepped in front of Kate. “Can I help?”
Much as Kate appreciated the protective big sister act, she needed to deal with this herself. Fiona had locked eyes with her the moment she came in. There was no slinking quietly away through the back door.
“Fiona,” she said, wishing the tremor in her voice away. She wasn’t certain she could take many of Fiona’s shots today; the reader reactions online had already kicked her around emotionally.
“Kate.” Fi looked as if she was sucking a lemon.
“I’m honestly so sorry about all this, I don’t know what to say—” Kate went straight into panicky garble mode, but stopped mid-sentence when the older woman held a hand up.
“No words, please. I have a situation.”
“ You do?” Liv said, one hand on her hip. “Not half as much of a situation as Kate does.”
Kate put a hand on her sister’s arm, a silent plea to keep her cool.
“I’m not here to advise you in an agent capacity, Kate—Charlie will be in touch with you in due course—but right now I have the actual author, as in the person who wrote the damn book, sitting in his car outside insisting on talking to you, and we both know that’s a terrible idea.
If I’d arrived five minutes later he’d have barreled in here already and blown the whole thing, but as it is I’ve managed to hold him off, for now.
Trust me when I say I’ve tried my best to talk him out of this, but he’s as stubborn as an ox when he makes his mind up about something.
He’s given me three minutes to come in here and sort something out before he does it himself.
” Fiona looked at her watch. “Make that two minutes.”
“H is here, right now?” Kate stared at the doorway. Charlie was on a train from Edinburgh…if it wasn’t him, then who? “Outside?”
“Don’t ask for details, it’ll take too long to explain.” Fiona turned to Liv. “I need a head from one of these”—she batted a hand around the shop—“ridiculous outfits.”
“Custom-made costumes,” Liv corrected, waspish.
Fiona rolled her eyes. “If I can’t stop him coming in, we can at least preserve his anonymity for both your sakes.”
“Is it really necessary anymore?” Kate said. “Everyone knows who I am now.”
“But they don’t know who he is, and neither do you, and that’s the way it’s going to stay,” Fiona said.
Kate realized in the moment that Fiona wasn’t especially bothered if she was hung out to dry, as long as H wasn’t hung out alongside her.
And, despite everything, Kate didn’t want that to happen either.
“Find him a head, Liv,” she said, quietly.
Liv scanned the inventory, drumming her fingernails against her front teeth. “The storm troopers are all out for a stag do and Spider-Man isn’t due back in until tomorrow. Even the lobster is at the dry cleaner’s…” She paused, clicking her tongue. “How tall is he?”
“How should I know?” Fiona snapped, gesticulating wide and high with her arms. “Man-size.”
Kate watched Liv fight to keep her temper, and vowed to pour her a large gin when this was over.
“There’s the T-Rex,” Liv said finally.
Fiona turned to survey the huge costume, stepping away from it as if offended.
“It’s a one-piece, though. No detachable head.”
“You want my world-renowned author to dress up as a dinosaur?”
“No, you want your world-renowned author to dress up as a dinosaur,” Liv corrected. “This is your shit show, not mine.”
Fiona stared at Liv, who glared straight back. Kate looked between them, unsure which she’d place a bet on, but she thought she saw a flicker of admiration cross Fiona’s face.
“So be it,” Fiona sighed. “If it’s all there is, it’s all there is. You two leave the shop while I get him inside that thing. He’s not going to like this one bit.”
“Leave my own shop?” Liv’s arms paused in mid-air as she removed the costume from the dummy, her face suggesting she wasn’t going anywhere.
“We can just go in the storeroom for a few minutes, it’s fine.” Kate jumped in and gestured at the door behind the counter, desperate not to lose the chance to speak to H, to try to work out what to do for the best. “You can tap the door when you’re ready.”
Liv draped the costume over the counter then flipped the sign on the door over to closed. “Be careful with my T-Rex,” she said. “And my sister.”
“Are you always like this?” Fiona lowered her glasses on their golden chain and looked down her nose.
Kate grabbed Liv’s arm and steered her bodily toward the storeroom. “Knock when we can come out.”
—
Kate and Liv stood shoulder to shoulder in the tiny storeroom. It was more of a cupboard really, a pantry once upon a time when the shop used to be a butcher’s in days gone by. Bolts of material lined the shelves along with reels of ribbons and trimmings, plus a rack of wigs at the back.
“It sounds like they’re arguing,” Liv said, straining to listen as Fiona and H came into the shop.
“He was never going to take the T-Rex idea well,” Kate whispered, even though they were unlikely to be heard.
“You should have turned the radio off,” Liv muttered, frowning as she practically pressed her ear to the wood. “All I can hear is Lady sodding Gaga.”
“They’re definitely arguing.”
“Is he Welsh?” Liv said. “It sounds like Tom Jones is out there.”
“I’ve no clue, remember?” Kate hadn’t imagined H to be Welsh.
She hadn’t really imagined him to have an accent at all, and nerves kicked in at the thought of going out there to actually talk to him.
They’d shared meaningful conversations over email, but she’d always had the benefit of time to write, delete, and rewrite her replies.
She’d come to look forward to their exchanges, but everything had changed now, thanks to Alice’s feckless ex-boyfriend.
“What am I going to say to him?” she said, pressing her hands against her hot cheeks.
Liv paused. “Please don’t eat me?”
Kate side-eyed her sister and found her trying not to laugh.
“Not funny,” she said.
“You know it was,” Liv grinned, then they both jumped when someone knocked on the door. As Kate reached for the handle, Liv quickly slid her silver bangle from her own wrist to her sister’s. They shared a look that didn’t need words, then opened the door.
Fiona blocked their exit, lugging Kate out by the arm and maneuvering herself into the storeroom with Liv.
“No way,” Liv said, backing into the wall of wigs.
“His rules, not mine. I like it even less than you do,” Fiona snapped. “Let’s just get this over with, shall we?” She leaned back out and called, “Remember to disguise your accent.”
“Christ Almighty, Fiona! I’m not the only Welsh author in the world, just shut the fucking door, will you?” H roared, sending Fiona scuttling inside the storeroom with a slam of the door.
Kate turned around slowly in the small shop and found herself face-to-face with a pacing, seven-foot T-Rex. Her bracelets jangled on her wrist as she wrung her hands in front of her, unsure what to say or do.
“I’m so sorry about all of this, Kate,” H said, clutching his massive head with his clawed hands as he moved around the shop, restless. “I should have stuck to my guns. I never agreed with this ridiculous circus in the first place.”
“It’s not your fault,” Kate said. “Taking the job was my choice, and let’s face it, it’s my family who caused the leak, not you.”
He tried to throw his arms up and found himself constricted by the tiny T-Rex arms. “Christ alive, I can’t believe I’m dressed as a fucking dinosaur!
I need a bloody Scotch,” he said, swinging around so hard the weighted tail thrashed behind him.
“I’m going to make a public statement.” His deep, melodic Welsh accent was entirely at odds with his T-Rex outfit.
“Put a stop to this crock of shite once and for all.”
He was angry and anguished in turn, and Kate found herself sliding into let-me-help mode, her default for so many years.
“Look, we’ve come this far. How does you going public now help anyone? People are going to judge me for my choices just the same, so don’t do it for me. You don’t want this book attached to your name. That was always the deal.”
“But I can’t let you suffer for me,” he yelled, loud and pained, planting his claws on the counter in front of her.
He probably didn’t realize it but his snout was almost touching her nose.
The Jurassic Park theme struck up unhelpfully in her head, and much as her rational brain knew she wasn’t in any danger, she took a couple of small steps backward toward the storeroom door.
Although things would have to get significantly worse for her to squeeze herself in there with Fiona.