Chapter 2 #3
God, she’s cute, Will thought. I wouldn’t half mind seeing her without that dress on.
Immediately, he gave himself a mental slap, appalled at where his mind was straying.
He had been down that road once before – how far he didn’t know – but he should have learnt his lesson.
The O’Neills had taken him in when his life was falling apart, and he was repaying them by lusting after the baby of the family.
‘I heard what happened with Tom’s hair,’ Kate was saying. ‘It was really nice of you to get yours done in sympathy.’
‘Well, we couldn’t hang the poor sod out to dry, could we?’
‘It looks cool.’ She gestured at his shaved head. ‘It suits you.’
Will smiled wryly. ‘It doesn’t look so cool now Phoenix has turned up. We look like wannabes.’
‘Well, it looks cooler than this.’ Kate pointed to her shining mahogany hair, which had been scraped back from her face and piled on top of her head, complete with flowers. ‘It actually hurts. I wish I could take it down.’
‘I’m sure it’d be okay now that the photographs are done.’
‘Oh, I think I’d be allowed to, I just don’t think it’s possible. Even if I took out all the pins and stuff, it’d stay exactly where it is. I think the hairdresser sprayed some kind of all-weather woodstain on it. It’d withstand a hurricane.’
‘It does look sort of… sturdy.’
‘Just what every girl wants – sturdy hair.’
‘Well, I’d better go over and say hi to Phoenix and the guys. Why don’t you come and meet them?’
‘Oh, I’m sure they don’t want to be bothered by a load of plebs.’
‘They’re not exactly surrounded by adoring fans,’ Will said. ‘Everyone’s so concerned about not bothering them that no one talks to them.’
‘Still…’
‘Come on,’ Will coaxed, holding out a hand to her. ‘I’ll tell them that’s not your real hair,’ he teased when she hesitated.
Will started pulling her in their direction and she allowed herself to be persuaded.
After all, she’d be the envy of everyone in the room.
Better still, Brian was a huge Walking Wounded fan and he’d be sick when Kate told him she’d got to meet them.
It would serve him right for being so unsupportive and not coming to the wedding.
It felt surreal to be in the midst of so many famous faces – especially to see such an iconic figure as Phoenix in the flesh. The closest she had seen these people in real life up to now was from the front row at their concerts when Will had got her and Lorcan VIP tickets.
‘Everyone, this is Kate,’ Will announced adding, as promised, ‘The hair isn’t hers – it’s an impostor from another planet.’
‘Hi, Kate.’ Phoenix smiled and shook her hand. His wife’s smile was tense but there was warmth in her eyes.
Up close, Phoenix’s piercing blue eyes were more penetrating than ever, especially now he’d had his head shaved.
Summer towered over him, and he spoke so quietly that Kate had to lean in close to hear him, but he had charisma you could almost touch.
‘And what happened to you?’ He gestured at Will’s head. ‘Did your hair get abducted by aliens?’
‘Long story,’ Will said ruefully, then continued the introductions, ‘This is Rory, Tessa, Georgie…’
Owen was as stunning up close as he was in all his pictures.
He had a wild mop of thick black hair and eyes so dark you couldn’t see the pupils, framed by long, spiky lashes.
His pale washed-out face bore a permanent five o’clock shadow, but there was something boyishly innocent about his face, which was at odds with the excess baggage under his eyes.
His elder brother, Rory, had a craggy, prematurely lined face and weary eyes that made him look old beyond his years.
Kate had already recognised the petite blonde draped over him as Tessa Bond, an English television presenter and heat-seeking missile with a fluffy, bubbly persona. They seemed an unlikely pairing.
Georgie nodded at Kate, her eyes quickly slanting away shyly.
A tiny, sullen-looking girl with a cloud of soft dark hair and huge green eyes, she was ravishingly pretty but did her best to disguise it with ugly clothes and confrontational body art in the form of multiple piercings and tattoos.
She was dressed in baggy sports clothes, a jewelled belly-button ring her only concession to wedding attire.
Will was stumped when he came to Owen’s girlfriend, a pretty blonde whom he had not met before and didn’t expect to meet again. Owen was sweet to his girlfriends, but he had the attention span of a four-year-old with ADHD. At least he had better taste than his brother, Will reflected.
‘This is Fiona.’ Owen did the honours. ‘And I’m Owen,’ he said, flashing Kate a smile that made her feel like Angelina Jolie. He was alternately swigging Jack Daniel’s from a bottle and sucking at a cigarette.
‘Oh yes, I know.’ Kate giggled.
‘For God’s sake, put out that cigarette, Owen,’ Will ordered. ‘You know it’s illegal to smoke in here.’
‘Oh, it’s okay,’ Owen said, taking another puff. ‘It’s not nicotine.’
‘Well, that’s illegal everywhere,’ Will told him, exasperated. ‘Always has been.’
‘Oh, right.’ Owen stubbed it out dutifully.
Tessa peered at Kate’s hair and smiled smugly.
‘Don’t worry about your hair, Kate,’ Owen said, ‘Tessa’s lips aren’t hers either. She got them off a duck-billed platypus at the zoo.’
Tessa shot him a murderous look, but Kate was the only person unwise enough to laugh, and Tessa rewarded her with an even more homicidal stare.
‘So, what are you up to at the moment, Tessa?’ Will asked, to distract her.
‘I have a book coming out next week, believe it or not.’ She gave him a dazzling smile, the frothy persona back in place now that the attention was on her. ‘Imagine, me – a book! And it’s not just pictures, it’s got words and everything.’ She giggled flirtatiously.
‘What sort of book is it?’
‘Well, it’s sort of about the journey I’ve been making over the past year and what I’ve discovered about—’
‘It’s a diet book,’ Rory said flatly, before she could get into her stride.
‘It’s not a diet,’ Tessa corrected him sharply. ‘It’s an eating plan for life.’
‘Oh, that’s… er… such a new concept,’ Will said.
Kate stifled a snort.
‘Yes, and it’s sort of my personal story, too, the journey I made and what I discovered about myself along the way.’
‘Right,’ Will nodded politely. ‘Sounds great!’
‘Oh yeah, a real page-turner,’ Owen muttered.
Phoenix slunk off, mumbling something about seating.
As Tessa and Rory drifted off to find more drinks, Owen made trout lips behind Tessa’s back.
‘You’ve made an enemy for life there, Kate,’ he smiled at her conspiratorially.
‘And what about you, you slut?’ he mocked Will.
‘I thought there’d only be your big toe left to pull you out by, you were so far up her jacksie. ’
‘I was not!’ Will protested. ‘I was just being polite.’
‘Don’t know what Rory’s doing with her,’ Owen went on.
‘I don’t imagine it’ll last long.’ Will said. Tessa’s relationships weren’t renowned for their longevity.
‘Don’t be so sure,’ Owen said darkly. ‘I think Rory’s looking for a father figure.’
‘A father figure? Tessa?’
‘Yeah. You know – someone to tell you you’re shite and beat the crap out of you.’
* * *
Tom and Rachel had spent so long posing for photographs that all the guests were sozzled by the time they were summoned to dinner.
As everyone piled into the ballroom and took their seats, Helen noticed to her extreme annoyance that Walking Wounded had commandeered a table for themselves, scuppering the seating plan she and Rachel had spent weeks arranging.
She wasn’t the only one put out by their piracy.
‘Phoenix was supposed to be sitting beside me,’ Tina was complaining to Will. ‘I can’t believe he’s abandoning me to go and do the gang thing with the band. First you and now him. I don’t know why I bothered coming!’
‘I’m not abandoning you. I’m the best man. I have to sit at the top table.’
‘Now I’ll get stuck with some bloody randomer!’ Tina huffed.
Just then Helen came bustling up and overheard her. ‘Sorry, Tina,’ she said, ‘but there’s nothing I can do. Your lot have rather landed us in it, I’m afraid, Will.’
‘Should have known better than to try and separate the inseparable,’ Will said coolly. ‘And please tell me you weren’t trying to fix Georgie up with someone.’
Helen smiled guiltily – she was an enthusiastic matchmaker.
She ran a singles club purely as a hobby, inspired by her sincere desire to help others achieve the state of wedded bliss that she enjoyed.
‘And another thing,’ she leaned closer to whisper in his ear, ‘I think Owen and her are doing coke.’
‘Probably,’ Will agreed. ‘And I’m sure they’re not the only ones.’
‘Yes, but I mean out on the table, in front of everybody.’
‘What?’ Will groaned. He wished people wouldn’t invite the band to their parties and then expect him to nursemaid them.
He had warned Rachel that if she insisted on asking them to her wedding he wouldn’t be responsible for policing their behaviour.
Still, there was more at stake here than the smooth running of Rachel’s wedding. ‘Right, I’ll have a word with them.’
‘Thanks.’ Helen turned to Tina. ‘I’ve put Kate’s friend Freddie beside you, Tina,’ she said, then placed a firm hand on Tina’s back to propel her to her seat.
Will went over to the band. Sure enough, Owen had all his gear out and he and Georgie were chopping out lines of coke in view of everybody. ‘For God’s sake, Owen, put that stuff away,’ he said impatiently. ‘If you must do it, at least go into the bog.’
‘Hey, don’t sweat it, Will,’ Owen said. ‘It’s a private party.’
‘So what? Surely even you know that stuff’s illegal!’
‘Yeah, but we’re among friends, aren’t we? Who’s going to shop us?’
‘So, you know every waiter and waitress here personally, do you?’ Will countered.
‘No, but—’