At four a.m., Dominic’s phone vibrated on his bedside table, pulling him out of a patchy and unfulfilling sleep. He rubbed his eyes and reached for it. When he finally managed to focus on the screen, he found a text from Peggy that read: Studio tour done. Lyle amazing! Where did you find him?
Dominic grinned. It hadn’t hurt that he worked in the TV industry. While he was pretty disconnected from the big Hollywood studios, he’d worked with a few people over the years who did and had prodded a few contacts.
I know people who know people, he replied, and then he added, Did C like it?
His heart seemed to bang in his ears as he waited for her reply. It arrived twenty seconds later.
She LOVED it!
He texted a smiley face back and sat there in his bed, the glow from the phone screen lighting up his face, feeling pretty pleased with himself. Peggy had been keeping him updated this way since she and Claire had left for America.
He tapped in the next text: So all going well?
There was a longer wait for Peggy’s reply this time.
Yes …
Dominic stared at the little dots at the end of that lone word. They seemed to speak more than the actual letters did. What’s up?
A few seconds later, his phone rang. It was Peggy. He picked it up. ‘Is everything okay?’ he asked, frowning so deep lines appeared on his forehead.
‘Mostly,’ she replied. ‘Hang on.’
There was a lot of bumping and banging and muffled noise on the other end of the line.
‘Right. I’m out in the hotel corridor now and I can speak a bit more freely,’ Peggy said. ‘We’re just chilling in the room after having our dinner.’ She giggled. ‘All this texting back and forth with you … Claire thinks I’ve got some man wrapped around my finger. If only she knew, right?’
‘Right,’ he said. ‘Peggy? What does “mostly” mean?’
‘Ah.’
‘I know you said Claire enjoyed the tour, but is she not enjoying the trip as a whole? Is there something else I need to do?’
Cripes, this was difficult. Is this how Claire felt every time she planned a trip for someone, always worrying she’d made the perfect choices, got them their money’s worth? If it was, she never seemed fazed by it.
Peggy cleared her throat. ‘It’s something I couldn’t quite put my finger on at first. Claire just doesn’t seem her normal self.’
Dominic’s pulse started to pound. ‘Do you think she’s ill? Do you need to take her to a doctor? I got great insurance if you do!’
‘No. Nothing like that. Calm down. It’s more that I get the sense something’s missing from the trip.’
‘Well, what can I do? How can I make it right?’ He started wracking his brains for the thing he must have left off his list, the thing he needed to book to make Claire’s holiday perfect. ‘What do you think that missing thing is?’
Peggy laughed softly. ‘You, you big lummox!’
Dominic tried to process that, and failed. ‘Me?’
‘Yes, you. She’s experiencing all these emotions about these wonderful experiences you’ve been giving her and I don’t think she knows what to do with them, because the person who created it all is not here. On some deep level that I’m not even sure she’s fully aware of, I think she knows there’s more to this trip than meets the eye.’
‘Me going out there was never part of the plan,’ he said gruffly.
‘Well, change the flipping plan then!’ Peggy replied, sounding more than a little exasperated. ‘You need to get your butt on a plane right now.’
Dominic shook his head, even though a part of him was aware she couldn’t see him. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ he said slowly. Wouldn’t it just look as if he’d been manoeuvring behind Claire’s back for his own ends? She’d hardly respond well to that.
‘Dominic? What are you afraid of? Just come. She needs you.’
Then there was shuffling, scuffling noise and muffled talking. He could hear Peggy saying something along the lines of, ‘No … No … It’s fine … I’ll be finished in a minute.’ Then her voice came loud in his ear. ‘That’s Claire getting suspicious. Gotta go!’
And then she really was gone. He stared at his phone.
Go to LA? Was she nuts?
She’d wanted to know what he was scared of? Everything!
He had no idea if Claire was even ready to see him again, let alone speak to him, let alone turn up on her dream holiday. It was a long way to go to get shot down in flames.
He knew how badly that felt, how much it stung when you put everything you had on the line for a woman and she looked you up and down and decided to return you for a refund. But one thing that Peggy had said kept worming its way through his brain. She’d said Claire needed him.
He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had thought that about him, but he also didn’t want to be the one to let Claire down again.
While he was turning that thought over in his mind, looking at its shape from every possible angle, his gaze drifted to the indistinct lump of his rucksack that he’d slung in the corner of his bedroom.