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  ‘And you know what else? Scott and Ben will have invited us to their wedding. They’ll be our best friends again.’

  Us to their wedding. Our best friends. Did I hear that right?

  ‘Us? But yesterday, I asked you if you would take me back? And you said no. You said you can’t go backwards.’

  ‘I said I didn’t want to be the guy you ran back to, but being the guy you ran towards, well, that’s a different thing.’ Adam isn’t looking at me; he’s still staring straight ahead. This level of emotional chat is clearly more than he’s comfortable with. It’s not his fault, it’s his Y chromosome. To his credit, he battles on. ‘I couldn’t ask you to give it all up for me, Fern. All of that. I couldn’t risk that one day you’d turn round and hate me for making you do that. But then you gave it up because it didn’t suit you. If you’d been the type of girl who could have gone through with that farce then I had you all wrong and I didn’t want that, Fern. You had to work it out on your own, girl. I was so proud of you back there. You looked so brave and strong, telling the hottest rock singer and songwriter Britain has ever produced, the world press and your thousand guests to fuck off.’ Adam’s smiling now; it’s a broad, uninhibited smile. The best smile I’ve seen from him, or anyone for that matter, in months.

  ‘I didn’t say that exactly,’ I say with a small, shy grin.

  ‘You sort of did.’

  Once again we lapse into silence. I don’t know exactly what to say. I don’t want to rush at him, force anything, move too quickly or set any deadlines. None of these things would be right. Instead we both sit and enjoy the moment. I breathe in the smell of foliage and peonies.

  ‘Hey guys, we’re closing up now. You have to get on your way,’ calls out the guy who owns the peony stall. Adam and I scramble to our feet and splutter apologies for inconveniencing him by delaying his packing-up. The guy shrugs, not worried, not bothered.

  We start to walk out of the warehouse and towards the bright LA streets. Adam puts his arm around me. It feels just the right weight.

  ‘Tell me some more about how it might work out,’ I say. ‘You know, the future you imagine, tell me more about that. Do you really think Ben and Scott might make it?’

  ‘OK, well, let’s imagine Ben is right that Scott is gay, and you are wrong to assume he was just experimenting or indulging.’

  ‘But Ben still doubts Scott’s ability to be faithful,’ I point out.

  ‘Ah, but you might be right about Scott there. You’ve always maintained that as soon as Scott finds the right person he’ll settle down. Maybe he’ll be content and complete with Ben. Other people might catch Scott’s eye but they won’t turn his head.’

  ‘And the American market? Is his career over?’

  ‘No way. Wedding Album will go to number one. First, he can really play the jilted lover bit. That will get the sympathy gushing in and then he will tell the world he’s gay. The Americans will love Scott’s sincerity, you know, especially if he comes out on Oprah. He’ll storm America.’ I smile, delighted with this idea.

  ‘And Jess will meet someone really special and live happily ever after?’ I add, just to tie up loose ends.

  ‘Yeah, she will. It might be that guy from the Purple Lounge last night. She didn’t get back to the hotel until four a.m. and she was wearing that crazy grin of hers.’

  ‘I know the one. So, it will all be all right,’ I confirm.

  ‘Most of the time,’ says Adam.

  He pulls me towards him and we hold on to each other, enjoying our quiet moment in the baking sun. We stay like that for an age and then we break apart and set off towards the car.

  ‘Do you have any money on you for the parking lot?’ I ask.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Is it too soon to start scrounging off you?’

  ‘No,’ says Adam. ‘I’m a manager of a band now, I can slip you a few dollars. As long as you pay me back, with interest,’ he jokes.

  ‘I’m broke,’ I point out. ‘And I don’t have a job.’

  ‘Maybe you can buy the B&B off Ben. If not, you’ll have to pay me in kind,’ he grins suggestively, and I feel a faint fluttering against the lining of my stomach as excitement and hope hiccup back into my soul.

  ‘Sounds good.’

  ‘It’s too soon to propose, though, yeah?’ he asks.

  ‘A bit,’ I admit.

  ‘OK, I’ll ask you tomorrow,’ says Adam with a satisfied smile.

  ‘You do that,’ I beam back, smug in my ordinary ever after.

  Acknowledgements

  Enormous thanks go to Linda Di-Marcello for her generous support of Sparks, the children’s medical research charity. Their sole remit is to fund research across the entire spectrum of paediatric medicine. Their goal is for all babies to be born healthy and stay healthy.

  To learn more about Sparks, visit www.sparks.org.uk.

  Enormous thanks also go to Fern and Jim Dickson for their generous support of the Helen Feather Memorial Trust. The aims of the Trust are to support people with cancer and raise money for carefully selected Cancer Research Projects.

  To learn more about the Helen Feather Memorial Trust, visit www.helenfeathertrust.co.uk.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Love Lies

  1. Fern

  2. Fern

  3. Scott

  4. Fern

  5. Fern

  6. Fern

  7. Fern

  8. Fern

  9. Fern

  10. Fern

  11. Fern

  12. Fern

  13. Scott

  14. Fern

  15. Fern

  16. Fern

  17. Fern

  18. Fern

  19. Fern

  20. Fern

  21. Scott

  22. Fern

  23. Fern

  24. Fern

  25. Fern

  26. Fern

  27. Scott

  28. Fern

  29. Fern

  30. Fern

  31. Fern

  32. Fern

  33. Fern

  34. Scott

  35. Fern

  36. Fern

  37. Fern

  38. Fern

  39. Fern

  40. Fern

  41. Scott

  42. Fern

  43. Scott

  44. Fern

  45. Fern

  46. Fern

  47. Fern

  48. Fern

  49. Scott

  50. Fern

  51. Fern

  52. Scott

  53. Fern

  54. Scott

  55. Fern

  56. Scott

  57. Fern

  58. Scott

  59. Fern

  60. Fern

  61. Fern

  62. Fern

  63. Scott

  64. Fern

  65. Fern

  66. Fern

  67. Fern

  68. Fern

  69. Scott

  70. Fern

  71. Fern

  72. Fern

  73. Fern

  74. Fern

  Acknowledgements