The Doris Day Fan Club were gathered—minus their president—in Maggs’s front room. Bev, Maggs and George took the three-seater settee, Peggy, Candy and Abby perched on chairs brought in from the dining room and Kitty and Grace were sharing an armchair, which had started off with much giggling and comments about how much fun it would be snuggling, but had descended rapidly into squabbles about whose elbow was where and just exactly how much of the other’s fat bum was hogging the seat cushion.
That left one armchair up for grabs. Or it would have done, if Dominic had not been sitting in it.
‘Thanks for coming here this evening,’ he said, looking round the group. His heart was pounding. He knew these people were important to Claire, and he knew he had to win them round to have a chance of getting her back.
Abby scowled a little. ‘Somehow it doesn’t feel right … Meeting without Claire.’
The rest of the group looked from one to another in uneasy agreement. Dominic swallowed.
‘We trusted you,’ Candy said, her arms folded across her flowing grey cardigan. ‘Claire trusted you. I don’t even know what we’re all doing sitting here!’
He shot a pleading look at Maggs. She sent him one back that very clearly said, You asked to meet them, now it’s up to you, sunshine.
Great. He’d only just got the hang of saying what he felt to one woman. Now he had to deal with a whole roomful. Still, if that was what he needed to do, that was what he was going to do. He glanced at George, wondering if he might find a male ally, but George was glaring at him as hard as if he’d had the audacity to wound not just his president, but his darling Doris.
He cleared his throat. ‘I guess that you know all about me now.’
That didn’t win him any points for honesty or ingenuity, just a few more hard stares, a few more arms folded across bodies.
‘It’s very long story, and most of it is my own stupid fault, but I really didn’t want to hurt Claire, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I did. She’s …’ He broke off, horrified by the hoarse tone in his own voice. He shook his head and looked them in the eyes as he carried on talking. ‘Well, you all know how special she is …’
There were a few grudging nods amongst his audience.
‘And, well, you see …’ He closed his eyes. There was really only one thing for it, wasn’t there? He had to rip the plaster off and let it all out there, no matter how much it stung. He licked his lips and opened his eyes again. ‘I’m a stupid fool who didn’t come clean when he should have, because I thought she was far too good for me and would tell me to take a hike, and I really didn’t want that, because … because I’ve fallen in love with her.’
Peggy, who’d been pinning him with a laser-beam stare he’d been trying to ignore since he’d entered the room, said, ‘But which guy is in love with her? Too-good-to-be-true Nick or the guy who steals milk and leaves sarky notes?’
He shrugged helplessly. ‘Both of them.’
All of him.
‘And I think she was starting to feel the same way too, but I managed to mess things up in a most spectacular fashion. I’ve learned my lesson, really I have, and I’d do anything to have a second chance with her, but I need your help to do that.’
Bev, who didn’t often say much, piped up. ‘That’s all well and good, dear, but why should we help you? We don’t want any part in seeing our Claire hurt again.’
A murmur rumbled round Maggs’s living room.
‘Perhaps it would make things clearer if I told you just how I needed your help?’ he said.
Peggy and Candy looked at each other, some silent message passed between them and then Peggy said, ‘Go on. This I’m dying to hear.’
Okay. Dominic sucked a quick breath in. This was it. If he fluffed this up, they’d never say yes and he’d never get Claire to forgive him. ‘A friend told me I had to show Claire how much she means to me. Not just in words, in actions. So … I’ve been planning something.’
Candy raised her eyebrows. ‘More secrets? More surprises?’
He shook his head. ‘I’ve been planning a holiday for her.’ Candy frowned. ‘But she’s already going on—’ Then she stopped and her mouth fell open. She looked at Maggs and then back at Dominic. ‘That’s you? This Hollywood competition thing is you?’
Dominic nodded. The film club took a few moments to gasp and comment and mutter to each other about the revelation.
‘It came to me in the middle of the night. Claire and I have talked loads about travelling, about holidays and places we’d like to visit, but I know for a fact that she hasn’t taken a trip herself for quite some time.’
Maggs nodded. ‘This was why I let him come and talk to us. I thought we should at least hear him out. That girl works too hard and doesn’t think enough of herself.’
Dominic continued, ‘I’d been planning a nice, relaxing holiday for myself with Claire’s help, but I suddenly realised I wanted to do it for her instead.’
‘Okay,’ Peggy said, looking slightly less fierce. ‘You can keep talking … for now.’
Dominic sat forward in his armchair. ‘At first I thought of white sand and palm trees.’ But he’d almost instantly discarded that as too obvious. ‘And then I thought of all the questions she asked me about my travels, and wondered about a safari or a trek to some remote location.’
‘She would like that,’ Kitty said. ‘She always talks about the most interesting places. Some I’ve never even heard of!’
‘That’s because you thought Caracas was a musical instrument,’ Grace said smoothly and earned herself an elbow dig for her trouble.
‘Girls!’ Maggs said sternly. ‘Let’s keep to the point!’
All eyes turned back to Dominic. Okay, here goes, he thought. This was not only his moment of inspiration, but the ace up his sleeve. ‘But then the other night I turned on the TV and I stumbled upon an old film on one of the movie channels. Usually, I’d have just kept flicking. I almost did. But then I saw a familiar pair of blue eyes on the screen, along with a snub nose, freckles and a dazzling smile.’
‘Doris!’ Abby said, so loudly she surprised herself and blushed.
‘Yes,’ Dominic said. ‘Doris. It was a film about a woman fighting with a train company about lobsters.’ He frowned. ‘Since I missed the beginning of the movie, I never did work out why.’
‘Well,’ Kitty said, sitting up straighter, ‘it was all because they …’ She trailed off as she caught Maggs’s eye. ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled. ‘Not the point.’
‘No,’ Dominic said, allowing himself a little smile. ‘And the lobsters didn’t really have anything to do with my idea, either, but I had a flash of inspiration as the credits rolled. I realised I needed to scrap safaris and palm-fringed islands and think about Hollywood instead.’
‘That’s all very nice,’ Candy said. Her expression hadn’t thawed one bit. ‘But isn’t it just another excuse to manoeuvre her into doing what you want? She goes on what she thinks is a prize-winning trip, only to discover you waiting in her hotel room?’
‘Oh, no,’ Dominic said quickly. ‘I’m not going with her.’
‘Oh,’ Candy said, the wind firmly removed from her sails.
‘There are no strings attached. If she comes home and she still doesn’t want to talk to me then I’ll take it on the chin. At least I’ll have given it everything I’ve got.’
‘Including the contents of your bank account,’ Grace said. ‘A trip like that can’t be cheap.’
Dominic shrugged. ‘She’s worth it, isn’t she?’
Peggy uncrossed her arms. ‘You really are thinking about her, aren’t you?’
He nodded. ‘I’m trying to. Do you all think it’s a good idea?’
One corner of Peggy’s mouth curled up and she nodded back at him. ‘I think she’s going to love it.’
‘I hope so. It’s already booked. She goes at the end of next week, the twenty-third. Flights, hotels, transfers.’ Once again, he took the time to look each of them in the eye. ‘So what do you say? Will you help me?’
Peggy and Candy looked at Maggs. ‘I think we need a moment to ourselves to discuss that,’ Maggs said.
Dominic nodded, rose and left the room. He wandered down the hallway and stood in the middle of Maggs’s kitchen, just to be sure he was out of earshot. It was an agonising ten minutes before she summoned him back in.
He couldn’t waste time walking across the room and settling himself back into that armchair, so he just looked at them from the door, holding his breath. ‘Well?’
The vice-president stood up, disturbing the little dog at her feet. ‘The verdict is that we’ll help you.’ Before Dominic could get too excited, she added, ‘But if you do anything to mess with my Claire again, I’ll deep-fry a sensitive part of your anatomy and feed it to Barney here. Are we clear?’
Dominic nodded. ‘Crystal,’ he croaked, resisting the urge to cross his legs, and then watched as one by one, wary smiles began to break on the faces of the Doris Day Film Club. Kitty clapped her hands together and squealed. ‘This is so exciting!’
Candy leaned forward in her chair. ‘One thing I don’t get … If it’s all booked already, what do you actually need us to help with?’
‘The basics are there,’ he explained, ‘but I know from Maggs that Claire has wanted to go to Hollywood since she was a little girl and, of course, we all know how much she loves Doris.’
Sighs and muttering all round. The atmosphere in the room was definitely thawing.
‘What I need from you lot is some ideas for Doris-related things she can do while on the trip. I did a bit of research myself, thought she might like to visit the house in Beverly Hills that Doris used to live in, and maybe even the one at Toluca Lake, but aside from that I’m stumped, and I thought your collective knowledge would come in useful.’
Now he got proper smiles from a few of them. ‘Of course we’d be happy to help with that,’ Bev said. ‘If anyone deserves a trip like this, Claire does.’
They spent the next hour making suggestions, looking up things on phones and tablets. Dominic made copious notes and they all drank gallons of tea. When they’d finished, he had more than enough material to keep Claire busy in California for a month.
‘Thanks,’ he said again and again, as the film club members eventually drifted away, back to their own lives. ‘I’m really grateful.’
And then he was left with just Peggy and Maggs. ‘Right,’ said Maggs and stood up, waking the curly-haired thing that might be Cockapoo sleeping on her feet. ‘Time to get serious. I say we drag ourselves into the kitchen, set up at the table and whittle this wish list down to something usable. I’ve got a particularly nice lemon drizzle cake to help us along our way, even if I do say so myself.’
Peggy and Dominic smiled at each other and followed her down the corridor.
‘Are you sure you don’t want to go on the trip instead of me?’ Peggy asked, this time without the saucy look in her eye. ‘You could surprise her. It would be very romantic.’
He shook his head.
‘Don’t you even want her to know it was you who did all this?’
‘I’ve asked Maggs to tell her when she comes back.’
Maybe the trip might have changed her perception about him by then. Maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe she’d think he was trying to worm his way back into her good books and throw it all back in his face, but he had to try. At least he’d have dug deep and given it everything he had.
They arrived in the kitchen and Dominic spread his notes out on the table.
‘Now,’ said Maggs, easily slipping into the role of commander-in-chief, ‘which of these zillion and one Hollywood tours do we think she’d like?’