Second Chance - Jane Green [141]
‘Who?’
Holly starts to smile. She had been sitting at the kitchen table with Will, both of them sharing their concern for Olivia, when they heard the noise of the first cars arriving. She was stunned when she looked out of the window and saw all the commotion. Stunned but unsurprised. A part of her had been waiting for this. And then she heard a frenzy outside and, as she watched, a black Jaguar with tinted windows pulled up and Pearce Webster climbed out, striding quickly and purposefully towards the front door, ignoring the shrieks and shouts and the frenzy that his arrival inspired.
‘Shit,’ she whispered, and Will turned towards her questioningly.
‘Mummy!’ Oliver piped up. ‘You just said a bad word.’
‘Look!’ She pulled Will over to see. He immediately ran to the front door and opened it, pulling Pearce in and slamming the door in the face of the snappers.
‘I’m Will.’ He extended a hand as Holly quivered in the corner. She’d never been in the presence of someone so famous before, and even though she tried to think of him as merely Saffron’s boyfriend, or lover, the fact was she had seen every film he’d ever been in and read almost every piece of gossip ever written about him, and here he was! Two feet in front of her!
‘And I’m Pearce. Good to meet you,’ he said, shaking Will’s hand, then he turned towards Holly.
‘Hello.’ She blushed like an idiot. ‘I’m Holly. These are my children, Daisy and Oliver.’
Pearce was so… ordinary. If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t know. He came into the kitchen and sat down as Holly made tea. He asked questions about the house, about them, and then, finally, about Saffron.
‘She’s not good,’ Holly said. ‘I mean, she’s great, obviously. She’s Saffron. But she’s drinking.’
‘Out-of-control drinking?’
‘Shit-faced,’ Holly said, nodding.
Pearce shook his head, lost in thought. ‘Do you know if she’s called her sponsor?’
‘I don’t know,’ Holly said. ‘I just know that we all feel lost. None of us knows what to do.’
‘It’s okay,’ Pearce said. ‘You aren’t supposed to know. That’s why I’m here.’
Saffron doesn’t say a word. As she walks in Pearce rises from the bed he was sitting on in the darkened room, and she flies into his arms.
They stand there, hugging each other tightly for a long time, as the photographers’ shouts recede. Nothing else matters except these two people, locked together in this darkened room.
‘You’ve got some friends,’ Pearce whispers, kissing her hair, her cheeks, her nose, her mouth. ‘They’re worried about you. They called.’
‘You’re here!’ Saffron wipes the tears off her cheeks as she pulls back to look at him. ‘I can’t believe you’re here. Oh God. The press. Everyone will know.’
Pearce shrugs. ‘They know. They got me on the highway and now they have pictures of me walking into the house. Fuck it.’
‘What about Marjie?’
‘I just had to be here,’ Pearce says. ‘I couldn’t bear hearing that you were struggling. We’ll figure it out.’
‘A day at a time, right?’ She smiles up at him.
‘Exactly.’ He pulls her into him, marvelling at how perfectly her head fits under his chin. ‘A day at a time. I have the Big Book downstairs. Would you be willing to have a meeting? Right now? With me?’
Saffron looks up at him, feeling for the first time in days that she can breathe, that everything will be all right. ‘Yes.’ She exhales loudly. ‘It’s exactly what I need.’
Chapter Thirty
The first flakes come quickly, swirling slowly over the Connecticut countryside, twirling around trees, floating softly down to the grass. Softer, fatter, wetter, the snow – flakes fall faster and faster, no longer swirling, now simply settling on the ground, turning the trees and barns white, landing on the tongues of overjoyed children bundled up in snowsuits and sent outside to play in the first snow of the season.
They are warning drivers to stay inside. Warning that this first snowstorm will be a big one, that unless it is absolutely necessary, people should stay inside.
However, there is a small contingent of cars