Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn (31 page)

‘I’m in hospital?’ Max asked finally.

Bonnie nodded. ‘You were unconscious when we got here. In fact, you were out of it by the time the ambulance arrived at the shop.’

‘Ambulance?’

‘Lights, sirens and everything.’

‘Kind of embarrassing…’ he croaked.

Typical Max, thought Bonnie, no matter how serious the situation was, he’d always try to make light of it. ‘We’ll forgive you this once.’ She squeezed his hand gently. ‘I didn’t know how to contact your parents or anything, so I’m afraid it’s just me here for now.’

Max gave her a tired smile. ‘I don’t mind. Thank you.’

‘It’s ok.’

Max’s eyes began to close again. ‘Don’t leave me, Bon,’ he murmured.

‘I won’t,’ Bonnie said, her eyes filling with the tears that kept threatening to fall. ‘Not ever.’

And as Max went back to sleep, she finally wept.

Sixteen

Bonnie stamped her feet as she waited at the glossy black door. It had taken her a while to find the right street, tucked away as it was at the far end where the Waterlands housing estate met nearby farmland. Max had warned her it was tricky to locate, but even with his directions, it had taken her a frustrating half hour longer than she had anticipated. She tried to breathe slowly. Getting herself in a flap was not going to make her useful to anyone and Max needed all the help he could get.

Max’s house was almost brand new – period-styled, exclusive and detached on a corner plot overlooking a broad expanse of empty fields. The cul-de-sac was quiet and peaceful. His garden was green, but bare and functional – the odd easy-care shrub breaking up the sweeping lawn but little in the way of colour. Bonnie had half expected him to have a vegetable plot and a goat tied up… Perhaps they were round the back, she mused.

Just as she was wondering whether he had heard her knock, the door opened. He looked tired and drawn, his skin, if possible, paler than it had been during his time in hospital, but his face lit up as he gave her a weak smile.

‘I didn’t think you were going to make it.’

Bonnie’s tension evaporated and she returned his smile with one of her own. ‘Nurse Cartwright reporting for duty.’

Max shuffled painfully into the hallway, allowing Bonnie to follow him. She wondered whether to help him back to his living room, but in the time she took hesitating, he had veered into a doorway off the hall and already dropped into a chair with a heavy sigh.

‘Sorry,’ he said ruefully. ‘I’d have baked a cake but… y’know…’

Bonnie took off her coat and laid it on the arm of the sofa. ‘Don’t be daft. I just wanted to see how you were. It’s me that should be looking after you.’ She ran an appraising eye over him. ‘When was the last time you had a drink?’

‘G&T for breakfast,’ he said, the ghost of a cheeky grin appearing.

‘But you’ve got people who can come in and help you?’ Bonnie asked, ignoring the quip.

‘Max sighed. ‘People have got their own lives, their own worries. Everyone I know works or has family commitments. It’s bad enough that I’m expecting the
warehouse staff to keep everything ticking over at work without getting people involved at home. I’ll be absolutely fine.’

Bonnie looked at him sternly. ‘Yeah, sure you will. Now what do you want for your dinner?’

***

‘Max will be far too ill to come,’ Bonnie told Linda for the third time. ‘He’s still recovering from a burst appendix, remember.’

‘He’ll be ok,’ Linda replied sagely, ignoring Bonnie’s warning, as she had done every time it was issued.

They were sitting in Linda’s brand new conservatory. The smell of fresh paint still clung to the walls, and the windows, with their stark white frames, overlooked a new decked patio area. Linda had insisted that they take their mugs of coffee in there as they planned Jeanie’s leaving party. She checked over the list again. Without looking up from it, Linda asked carelessly, ‘Have you told Max any of this stuff you told me?’

‘Like he’s going to give me a second chance,’ Bonnie replied. Her friendship with Max had grown stronger than ever since his illness, but Bonnie was convinced now that she had blown her chances of anything more. She didn’t blame Max; she blamed herself, and had to be content with what they now had.

‘I think you’d be pleasantly surprised,’ Linda replied airily. ‘He’s never stopped being nuts about you, as far as I can see.’

‘I’m just glad he’s ok,’ Bonnie said. ‘And that he’s talking to me again.’

‘He was talking to you before.’

‘Not properly, like he is now.’

‘He hasn’t got much choice when you visit every day, has he?’ Linda looked up with a wry smile. ‘If I didn’t know he was still recovering from his operation, I’d think you two were having it away or something.’

‘Well,’ Bonnie excused, colouring. ‘There’s nobody else to check on him, is there? Not since his mum and dad went back to France. Anything could happen to him while he’s all alone in that house.’

‘He’s not that ill now,’ Linda remarked. ‘Personally, I think he’s milking it so that you’ll carry on going round.’

Bonnie frowned but Linda cut off any argument she was about to make.

‘Speaking of France,’ she asked, ‘still no word from
Le Grand Dick
?’

Bonnie laughed. ‘No, thank God.’

‘How about Hot Holden?’

‘He’s all loved up now with a girl from another band. She’s as empty headed as they come by all accounts but she seems sweet enough.’

‘That was one crazy year,’ Linda remarked as she sipped her coffee.

‘It was,’ Bonnie said with a distant smile, ‘but this year is going to be nice and quiet.’

‘That’s what you think.’

‘Now, don’t be getting any ideas at this party.’ Bonnie wagged a finger at Linda. ‘No locking me in fridges or getting me so drunk I’m trying to snog your garden gnomes.’

‘Moi?’ Linda put on a shocked tone.

‘Come on, then,’ Bonnie said, tapping the list with her finger, ‘let’s get this sorted some time this weekend.’

‘So,’ Linda went back to the page where hastily scribbled notes vied for her attention. ‘Your mum has let all her friends know it’s at my house?’

Bonnie nodded. ‘Friends – check.’

‘Paige is doing music…’

‘She’s putting together a playlist on her ipod of all Mum’s favourite stuff.’ Bonnie grinned. ‘As you can imagine, she’s loving every minute of that.’

‘Serves her right for making me listen to terrible music every time I come round to your flat.’ Linda scribbled on the paper. ‘Music and friends… I’ll sort the food out.’

‘I can help with that.’

‘I’ve watched you make butties, Porthole Jim,’ Linda said. ‘I’ll take care of the food. You can go on a booze run and do balloons and stuff.’ Bonnie was silent and Linda looked up at her. ‘What?’

‘I can’t thank you enough for doing this for my mum. You’re so good to me. I really don’t know what I’d do without you.’ Bonnie’s voice began to tremble slightly. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do without my mum either…’

Linda dropped the list and pen onto the rattan table and put an arm around Bonnie. ‘You’re going to be just fine,’ she said gently. ‘Your mum is going to Spain, not
Saturn. And you know that I’ll always be here for you. We’re mates, and that’s what mates do.’

Bonnie looked up and tried to smile. ‘I know you’re right. It’s just that whenever Mum talked about it, I felt like it would never really happen. And now it’s almost time for her to go.’

‘Yep. It’s hard but you’re going to have to get used to the fact that things will be different now. But Paige is not a baby anymore and hopefully, Henri is finally out of your life, so maybe things will be easier in a lot of ways too.’ Linda squeezed her shoulder. ‘And there’s all those lovely free holidays to look forward to as well.’

‘You’re right, as always,’ Bonnie sighed.

***

Bonnie and Paige arrived at Linda’s house early to set up the music and unload the booze from her car. They had been a little surprised that Jeanie had made an excuse to come later by herself when Bonnie had offered to pick her up on the way, but Jeanie had seemed adamant that they go on without her. Linda was already dressed in a sequined black top and palazzo pants, her hair piled elegantly on her head. Bonnie smiled to herself – if Linda’s other parties were anything to go by, at the end of the evening that elegant hair would be hanging around Linda’s face in sweaty ropes and she’d be wearing a pair of plastic boobs over her own as she staggered drunkenly around the house singing
My Old Man’s a Dustman
.

‘You look lovely,’ Bonnie said as she kissed Linda lightly on the cheek.

‘Ta, ducky, so do you,’ Linda smiled. ‘And Paige... wow!’

Paige had opted for understated elegance too, as opposed to her usual jeans and t-shirt or tiniest hotpants available. She wore a short, ditsy flowered dress, fitted at the bodice and flaring out from the waist. It showed off perfectly her newly budding curves. The addition of opaque tights had made the dress look classy, rather than tarty, and Bonnie’s heart had almost burst with pride when she saw how beautiful her daughter looked. Bonnie herself had gone for a tried-and-trusted number – her forest green vintage dress. She had wanted to buy something new but in the end decided that she couldn’t justify the expense, and it wasn’t like anyone was going to be there that she needed to impress.

Paige gave Linda an embarrassed but pleased grin. ‘Thanks, Linda.’

‘Everything is done,’ Linda said with obvious pride.

‘Blimey, you don’t mess about, do you?’ Bonnie said as they followed her into the kitchen where plate upon plate of bright and tempting finger foods lined the surfaces.

‘Mum went to Iceland,’ Linda grinned.

Bonnie laughed and went to inspect a plate of chicken kebabs. ‘I think mum cooked these from scratch! They look amazing, Lind. I wish I had your catering skills.’

‘Well, when you live to party like me, you have time to practise. Unlike some of us who are too busy chasing pop stars around town...’

Bonnie grinned. That particular standing joke between her and Linda was one that was likely to take a long time to be forgotten. It was funny, but Bonnie didn’t mind it so much now, in fact, she had begun to look back on her encounters with Holden almost fondly. They had done a lot to change her life in some ways, and for the first time in many long months, Bonnie actually felt happy and content with her lot. She had begun to realise that happiness could be found in many places, and you didn’t always need a man to make it happen.

‘Mum is coming later by taxi.’

‘How come?’ Linda asked as she popped half a stuffed cherry tomato into her mouth.

Bonnie shrugged. ‘She just said she wasn’t ready and for me to go on without her. She wouldn’t hear of me waiting.’

‘Who’s coming tonight?’ Paige asked.

‘Your nan’s crowd from Leathers all said they’d be here. Some people she used to work with at the tyre factory... Fred even said he might call for an hour. And Stavros is coming...’ Linda winked.

‘Stav? But he hardly knows my mum.’

‘I know,’ Linda said, ‘but I thought it would keep John on his toes to see that another bloke fancies me.’ Paige’s mouth fell open and Linda laughed. ‘You’ve got a lot to learn about men, young Paige.’

‘I’m beginning to see that,’ Paige said.

There was no mention of Max and Bonnie didn’t push it. She had seen him earlier in the week, but with the last-minute preparations for her mum’s departure, there hadn’t been much time to get round as often as she had been. And at that last visit, although he was brighter and had made coffee for her for the first time, instead of the
other way around, it was obvious that he was still too ill to be going out anywhere. Bonnie couldn’t shake a small, needling feeling of disappointment all the same.

***

An hour later the first guests started to arrive. For a short while, Bonnie began to feel as though she was in an episode of
This is Your Life
as people that she hadn’t seen for many years began to pile into Linda’s spacious living room. Linda had removed as much furniture as was practical, and pushed the sofas back against the walls, to make as much floor space as possible. Now the room was easily as big as the function room of the local pub where they had first considered having the party. But Linda’s house was far more welcoming and Jeanie had been so touched by Linda’s offer that she agreed enthusiastically as soon as Bonnie had relayed it to her. There had been much oohing and aahing at Paige, and embarrassing tales of things she had done as a younger child, things that Paige couldn’t remember and suspected many of her grandmother’s old friends were making up. Still, she did her best to listen politely and smiled where she thought she ought to. Bonnie was certain that she would be grumbling later at home, but was just glad Paige was behaving herself for now.

The last expected guests arrived with no sign of the guest of honour, and Bonnie was about to phone her mum when there was another knock at the door. It went unheard by Linda, who was involved in relaying an anecdote about the time John broke his toe in a hilarious swimming pool incident in Turkey to a group of ageing rockers, and so Bonnie went to answer it.

Jeanie stood in the porch, smiling awkwardly, on the arm of a man.

‘This is Juan,’ she said, with uncharacteristic shyness. ‘Juan, this is my daughter, Bonnie.’

Bonnie stood at the door, staring stupidly at the pair of them. The moment had caught her completely by surprise. ‘When... what... how did you get here?’

‘They do have this invention called the airplane,’ Jeanie laughed.

Bonnie shook herself and stepped aside to let them in.

‘I am pleased to meet you,’ Juan said. ‘I have heard much about you.’ His accent was strong, but his English perfect, and he had a pleasing baritone to his voice that was almost soothing. Bonnie instantly felt at ease in his presence. She offered a hand to shake but he pulled her toward him and kissed her lightly on both cheeks. As he
stepped back, she took a moment to appraise him. He was a little on the chubby side, but in a way that looked cuddly and comforting rather than fat, his shoulder length hair was thick and wavy but steel grey and his dark eyes were full of kindness. Bonnie could see straight away why her mum had trusted him so much at that first meeting, and she instantly relaxed. If first impressions were anything to go by, Jeanie was going to be very happy indeed. This was the best gift her mum could have given her before she left, and it seemed that both Jeanie and Juan had understood the need for Bonnie to meet him before they started their new lives together in Spain; for Bonnie’s peace of mind it meant so much.