Chapter 29 #2
Cara was sharp, and she caught her brother’s undertone straight away.
‘I’m sure Mambo Number Five can get here fine. Don’t go making drama where there is none, little brother.’
‘Mambo Number Five? And I think you’ll find I’m your big brother.’
‘What fiancé number is he on now? Four? And you’re older by a mere scraping of days, therefore the eldest is whoever acts more mature, and that’s definitely not you.’
Sean laughed. ‘If you say so. I never actually mentioned Connor’s name, but I believe he’s single and bringing his pal, Campbell Duff, with him.’
‘So there’s going to be two massive egos cutting about the place.’
‘I’m sure you can put them in their place – wherever you decide that might be. Take it easy on Connor, though.’ Sean gave his sister a playful nudge. ‘I think he likes you.’
Cara’s mouth dropped open. ‘What? He does not?’ She looked away and then back on a beat. ‘Does he?’
He laughed. ‘Dunno, but made you look. Actually, I think he does.’
‘Oh.’ Shock muted Cara as she processed this idea, drinking it in, letting it settle. ‘Oh.’
Sean smiled. It was nice to focus on someone else’s love life instead of his own.
It wasn’t long until the Hollywood cavalry arrived in the form of Connor and Campbell – last and, of course, the biggest draw.
The men had presence; Sean would give them that.
Even dressed casually in jeans and button-down shackets, they were unmistakably movie stars.
Although, the jury was out on whether sunglasses indoors on a stormy day before the poker had started didn’t just scream ‘wanker’.
And Campbell had gone one better with a broken leg accessorised with black carbon-fibre-effect crutches to add an accidental stylishness to his look.
Sean steeled himself for watching his wife interacting with her movie star ex. Not any old movie star either. Hollywood’s hottest eternal bachelor. Sean didn’t do jealousy, but given the dinner proposal, he would be watching closely.
‘Hey, hey, Seany!’ Connor Donoghue, the brother of Jamie’s fiancée, Alicia, bounded into Sean’s vision – although the man commanded attention from across the room by merely breathing.
Some mistook it for arrogance, but Sean knew better.
He’d met Connor enough times to see that his presence came from a natural, grounded confidence borne of growing up in Hollywood acting royalty.
The glitzy Donoghue family made the Butlers look like the Waltons.
‘Alright, Connor. Thanks for coming. I appreciate your support. It’s raised the profile hugely.’
‘Wouldn’t miss it, bro. Any excuse to come to Kinshore and see my sister and my favourite second family. Also, I hear there’s a chance to win a cask of whisky; that’s mighty generous of Jamie.’
As Sean was about to confirm this, Cherry sidled up, with hobble-along Campbell Duff leaning into his designer crutches for all he was worth.
‘Sean, this is Campbell,’ Cherry announced, meeting Sean’s eye long enough for him to see she was valiantly trying to mask nerves. ‘Campbell, this is Sean, my husband.’
Sean held out his hand and, after making an exaggerated fuss about what to do with his crutches, Campbell shook it, his handshake surprisingly firm.
‘What happened to your leg?’ Sean thought he ought to ask, although he didn’t especially want to know.
‘Och, I lost control of my golf cart. Filming a rom com, of all things.’
Sean’s urge to laugh kicked in hard, but he noticed Campbell was deadly serious.
‘Really?’
‘Aye, I drove it into a bunker during a wee chase scene,’ Campbell drawled, his accent adrift on the Atlantic somewhere between Glasgow and Chicago.
‘Oh, right. Sorry to hear that.’
‘Aye, I do all my own stunts, you see.’
‘I see. Maybe best you don’t. Was everyone else okay?’
‘Och, aye, the extra playing my caddy got knocked over, but he got away with a few wee cuts and grazes.’
Sean found it amusing that Campbell kept over-seasoning his speech with Scottish words like ‘och’, ‘aye’ and ‘wee’ as if he needed to prove his Scottish nationality after spending so long in the States. He probably had a trenchant opinion on Scottish independence, too, despite not living here.
‘I hope you heal well and are better soon. I’m sure the Scottish air will help.’
‘Aye, that and I’ll drop in for some of my maw’s food. Thanks, big man.’
This parting shot made Sean grind his molars. ‘Big man’ might be a Scottish term of endearment, but he and Campbell were not on that footing, and Campbell was not the salt-of- the-earth Glaswegian he was playing here. Plus, his ex was Sean’s wife. The overfamiliarity curdled in Sean’s gut.
‘Sooo… You married Cherry?’ Campbell posed a pointless rhetorical question. Which would be fine if he hadn’t followed it with: ‘Congratulations. Never thought I’d see the day when “Gangsta” Paradise settles down.’
Cherry visibly tensed at being talked about as if she weren’t here.
‘Settling comes to us all eventually,’ Sean said, ‘like wrinkles and saggy balls.’
‘Ach, not to me, pal. Wrinkle-free, perky-balled bachelor ’til I die.’ Campbell winked firmly and pointed to the side of his eye as if to show that there were no crow’s feet on him. ‘Some of us aren’t made for the mundane life. Variety and action for me, like in my movies.’
‘I see. Well, some of us get that variety and action in our married lives.’
It was hard to miss Cherry’s disapproving glare, which Sean fully understood – veiled comments about their sex life weren’t called for here – but surely he’d earned the right to prod this man a little.
‘I can well believe it,’ Campbell said in another inappropriate turn. ‘I expect you won’t mind a night off that action. Enjoy the care home ceilidh, or whatever counts for entertainment around here, while I take your wife to dinner in the big bad city. All platonic and for charity, of course.’
What the actual…? Surely Cherry had told him this was not happening. But for Sean to demur this second very public invitation would be churlish – even if he evidently wasn’t being asked to join them this time, because he’d be busy at the “care home ceilidh”.
Turning to Cherry, he saw the faltering in her eyes. Campbell had caught her off guard, too. Sean softened his expression, letting her know she didn’t have to do this – the extra money wasn’t important.
‘It’s very generous of you, Campbell,’ Sean said, ‘but we couldn’t ask you to donate all that money. It’s too much. Your presence here is enough.’ That would hopefully keep him quiet.
But Campbell was one step ahead.
‘Och, that’s a shame. The charity will be disappointed. I called them, you see, and had a good chat about what that money could do. An awful lot, as it turns out. They’re very excited.’
You gallus wee fucker. Sean was furious at being backed into a corner like this, but he would not put Cherry in a compromising position, no matter whether Campbell had talked to the charity or not.
‘I’m sorry, Campbell,’ he began.
But Cherry cut in.
‘Maybe we need to rethink, Seany? It’s super generous of Campbell. And the charity would really benefit from that money. Think of all the lives it could help – people like your dad.’ She smiled a little too sweetly.
‘Aye, such a good cause, such a good cause.’ Campbell nodded reverently. ‘Motor Neurone Disease ravages so many lives. So sorry about your father. I enjoy a wee dram of his whisky.’
Sean was at sixes and sevens. First there was Cherry pretending she was up for this, and then his dad thrown into the mix by Campbell.
Dad, if you’re up there, make this shit be over, for the love of God.
He took Cherry to the side and spoke to her in hushed tones. ‘Cher, you said you didn’t want to go to dinner. What’s going on?’
‘I know.’ She stood on her tiptoes and adjusted the collar of his shirt in a way that was far too sexy for optimum concentration levels. ‘But I won’t let that amount of money go by, not when I know how much it means to you. You get that, right?’
‘Aye.’ What else could he say? Well, probably a lot if she hadn’t been working her fingers over his collar like she was about to undress him.
‘By all means, press for more, though.’ Cherry winked a heavily mascaraed, glittering eye at him.
Fuck. How can one eye be so seductive? But she has a point.
Sean turned to Campbell, the words spilling out of his mouth before he could stop them. ‘How much was it again?’ he asked. ‘￡500K?’
Campbell laughed, but Sean held fast to gravitas. He had one chance, and he would not back down. If this man wanted to fly his wife to Edinburgh in a helicopter, and she was willing, he could cough up to charity. Big style.
‘Aye, okay, you could be right.’ Campbell leaned on his crutch and appeared to think. ‘Maybe I did say ￡500k. And you and Cherry can take a bit off that for yourselves. You know, for “painting the nursery” or whatever.’ He nodded sagely at Sean as if they were sharing some sort of secret.
What the actual fuck?
“Painting the nursery”? What the hell had Cherry said to him?
It sounded very much like she’d told him about their marriage hanging in the balance.
Quite how much she’d revealed was uncertain, but Sean already knew it was too much.
Even when he’d spoken to Jamie, he at least tried to keep things as coded as possible.
And Jamie was his brother; he could be trusted, implicitly.
‘We’re fine, thanks, Campbell. But I’m sure the charity will appreciate the money.
I don’t see why you shouldn’t go out for dinner with Cherry, as long as Cherry’s fine with it.
’ He could barely look at her, so seeing her flying off in a helicopter might be a good thing.
‘I would come, but old Agnes Anderson has me booked for the Gay Gordons at the care home every Friday night.’ Sean hoped Cherry noticed he hadn’t called her ‘my wife’.
He was not in the mood. The money for charity would be good – he’d be a fool not to take it – but it felt weirdly like she’d been spilling about their private life to Campbell, who seemed completely indiscreet.
He caught her eye and, funnily enough, she tried to smile, but she would not be getting one back from him after that.
‘Now we’ve got that sorted, I think I need a drink.
’ Oblivious to the tension he’d caused, Campbell scanned the room.
For him, being half a million quid lighter was like a normal person emptying their pocket of a spare tissue.
‘Where can I get a whisky sour around here? Can Jamie get one for me? Jamie!’ Campbell raised his arm like he was calling a waiter, and Jamie, who was standing near the bar, saw but simply waved in return.
Sean leashed back the amusement that threatened to burst out. Campbell and Connor were staying at Jamie’s house, so Jamie would have the measure of him.
‘Jamie’s not here to wait on us, bud,’ Connor interjected. ‘Plus, you’re already off your chops on pain meds, so I don’t think a drink is a good idea if you want to get past the first table. And lunchtime.’
‘That is a fair point,’ Campbell conceded.
At least Connor seemed to have him under control, and perhaps Campbell’s terrible judgement could in part be explained by pain medication.
As for Cherry, he wondered what her excuse was.