Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn (28 page)

Moments later Paige returned with a glass, which she handed to Bonnie.

‘How did last night go?’ Paige asked Holden in a small, shy voice.

‘Last night?’ Holden frowned. ‘Oh, you mean the tour?’

Paige nodded.

‘Great. You didn’t get there?’

‘We couldn’t get tickets.’

Holden gave her a half-smile. ‘I bet you could have if your mum had phoned me.’

Bonnie shot Paige a worried glance. She was still uncertain how Paige was going to react to this new and unexpected situation once all the drama of having an injured Holden Finn in their flat was over. Paige simply shrugged.

‘I guess she didn’t want to use you like that.’

‘I guess not,’ Holden said quietly, looking at Bonnie, who then put the glass to his lips and helped him to drink some water.

‘Go and see if your dad is ok,’ Bonnie said to Paige.

Paige hesitated for a moment, looking at them both in turn as if working out some puzzle, and then went to the kitchen.

‘She’s a good girl,’ Bonnie said.

Holden gave her a quizzical look.

‘Are you going to press charges?’ Bonnie asked in a blunt tone.

‘I don’t know,’ Holden replied with equal frankness.

‘Only…’ Bonnie began, ‘it’d kill Paige to see her dad go through that.’

Holden gazed at her thoughtfully. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about him?’

‘There was nothing to tell. He was missing for two years and then he just turned up one day. We’re not back together as such, but we’re a family again as far as Paige is concerned.’

‘And you’re happy?’

‘I’m…’ Bonnie paused, searching for the right reply. ‘I’m content that it’s the right thing to do.’

‘That means you’re not.’

‘Leave it, Holden, please.’

‘You’d do this for Paige?’ he asked shrewdly.

Bonnie nodded. ‘She’s my daughter. I’d do anything for her.’

Holden gazed at her. ‘You know you’re amazing.’

‘That’s silly. You don’t know anything about me.’

‘I know enough.’

‘Holden… you have to forget about me.’

‘I can’t. ‘

‘You must. Because I’m with Henri now and that is not going to change.’

‘You want to be with him?’

‘Yes.’

Holden sighed and pushed himself up. ‘If that’s really what you want, then I’ll leave you alone.’

Bonnie’s eyes filled with tears. She felt as though she was hurting him so much, but she knew that this infatuation with her was nothing more than just that – it wasn’t love that he felt, she was certain of it – and in no time he’d have some supermodel hanging from his arm. ‘Yes, it’s what I want.’

He traced the shape of her jaw line with a gentle finger and smiled. ‘It was fun while it lasted, eh?’

‘Yeah, it was in a strange sort of way,’ Bonnie laughed through her tears.

‘Don’t cry, Bonnie Cartwright,’ he said, wiping her cheek with his thumb. ‘I won’t press charges against your caveman in there.’

Bonnie laughed properly now. ‘Thank you,’ she said, leaning to kiss him lightly.

‘Ow!’ he said again, holding his jaw, but he was grinning slightly. ‘And next time you want tickets for a gig, you make sure you call me, ok?’

They were interrupted by a knock at the front door. Paige raced through from the kitchen to answer it. They could hear voices at the door and then two paramedics appeared at the living room door.

Holden’s eyes widened ‘You called an ambulance?’ he asked Bonnie in a slightly panicked voice.

‘I told you so before,’ she replied. ‘You were unconscious; I didn’t know how badly you were injured.

‘You don’t need us?’ one of the paramedics asked in an irked tone.

‘No…’ Holden began.

‘Yes,’ Bonnie cut in. She turned to Holden. ‘Let them check you over.’

‘I’m fine.’

‘Please, for me…’

Holden looked up at the paramedics, clearly torn.

‘Don’t worry,’ the female paramedic said with a conspiratorial smile, ‘we’re bound by patient confidentiality rules.’

‘I don’t care. I don’t need checking over.’

‘We’ll decide that,’ the male paramedic replied. ‘Let us take a look.’

‘NO!’ Holden almost shouted.

‘Ok,’ Bonnie cut in. ‘Calm down. You’ve got to let them do their job.’

Holden hesitated for a moment. ‘Ok. But not here.’

‘You can come with us and we can sneak you into A&E by a secret entrance,’ the female paramedic said. ‘We’ll get you treated if you need it and make a few phone calls to get you taken home.’

‘There are forms we have to fill in, though,’ the man added gruffly. ‘If you refuse treatment at the incident scene we don’t want to be held accountable.’

Holden waved a hand vaguely. ‘Whatever…’

‘But we can sort it,’ the woman said, giving her partner a barely concealed glare.

Holden looked at her gratefully; she clearly knew who he was and what sort of pandemonium his appearance at the hospital would cause, not to mention the embarrassment of being discovered somewhere he obviously wasn’t meant to be.

‘Perhaps that would be a good idea,’ he admitted. ‘Bonnie,’ he asked, ‘I don’t suppose you could phone my PA; ask her to arrange for my car to be collected?’

‘You left your car on this estate?’ Paige squeaked. She exchanged a look with Bonnie. Once word had got across the internet that Holden had been at their flat, the appearance of a car with a personalised number plate nearby would corroborate that fact.

Both Bonnie and Paige seemed to realise this at the same time.

‘You’d better give me your keys,’ Bonnie said to Holden. ‘I’ll drive it wherever you need me to.’

One of the paramedics pulled out a treatment case.

‘I said not here,’ Holden insisted, glancing at the kitchen doorway. ‘I’d rather just go straight to the ambulance.’

The ambulance crew hesitated, looking at each other uncertainly for a moment, before the male gave a sigh of defeat.

‘At least let me get a wheelchair or something for you.’

‘No way, that would draw even more attention.’

The man opened his mouth to argue, but then seemed to realise the futility of it. ‘I’ll go and get the paperwork from the ambulance. If we’re going ahead with this, we’d better document it properly.’

While he was gone, Paige retrieved Holden’s hat and glasses from the hallway outside.

‘You’re probably going to need these.’ She handed them over with a small smile.

‘And you’re going to need these…’ Holden said, turning to Bonnie and handing her his car keys. ‘And thanks… you know, for everything.’

Bonnie resisted the impulse to raise her eyebrows in surprise as she took the keys from him. Her overly possessive partner had punched him in the face and he was thanking her? Could this day get any weirder?

***

Holden managed to get out of the building with surprisingly little fuss, Bonnie slipping out shortly afterwards to drive his car back to the point arranged with his PA, leaving Paige alone to explain, as best she could, to a thoroughly confused Henri what was going on. Within the hour, Holden had texted Bonnie to say he’d been treated, told there was no serious damage, and a driver was coming to collect him. She could only hope that this would be the end of the whole sorry business, and that Holden would keep his promise not to involve the police.

When she arrived home, Bonnie was horrified to find a group of about twenty teenage girls outside their flat talking to Paige.

‘What’s going on here?’ Bonnie asked. The day had gone from crazy to crazier and all Bonnie wanted was for the dust to settle while she had a quiet cup of tea. And she needed to have a serious heart to heart with Henri too – he had always been volatile, but this tendency to lash out at every man who spoke to her had got a lot worse… and it had to stop.

‘Is it true?’ one girl asked.

‘Is what true?’ Bonnie said carefully.

‘That he was here?’

‘Who?’ Bonnie glanced at Paige, who was blushing furiously. ‘What’s my daughter been telling you?’

‘That Holden Finn has been here. That…’ the girl stopped as Paige shot her a warning glance.

‘Whatever Paige has told you is complete rubbish,’ Bonnie said sternly. ‘So you can all go home.’

There was a collective groan as they all looked towards Paige, who simply shrugged and looked slightly mortified. Bonnie pushed past them and into the flat.

Henri was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for her. ‘I think you need to explain why that man was at our house with flowers.’

‘Didn’t Paige explain who he is?’ Bonnie said, dropping into another chair and taking her coat off.

‘What Paige told me doesn’t explain why he was here looking for you.’

‘I’m too tired for this now,’ Bonnie sighed as she pushed herself away from the table to put the kettle on.

Henri grabbed her wrist. ‘Sit down.’

Bonnie pulled her arm free. ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’

‘You’re driving me insane, that is what is wrong with me. You make me think that you want me and then you turn cold when I come near you. Strange men appear from all over the place and claim to be in love with you…’ he stared at her, suddenly making her feel chilled to the bone. ‘You are meant to be with me.’

Bonnie snatched her coat up from the chair. ‘That all ended when you abandoned me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and talk to our daughter.’

***

Bonnie found Paige in her room, lying on her bed and typing on her ipad.

‘Have you come to tell me off for dropping you in it?’ Paige asked, looking up as she heard Bonnie come in.

‘No,’ Bonnie said, sitting down next to her on the bed. ‘I’ve come to say sorry.’

Paige sat up. ‘What for?’

‘I’m sorry that you had to be here when all that madness just happened.’

‘It’s ok, Mum. I know you couldn’t help it.’ Paige put the ipad to one side. ‘So…’ she continued, ‘what was going on?’

‘Me and Holden…’ Bonnie paused. How ridiculous was it going to sound when she told Paige the truth? But there was nothing else she could tell her that wouldn’t sound just as ridiculous. ‘We sort of had a
thing
.’

‘Like a dating thing?’

‘Kind of.’

‘So he liked you?’

Bonnie nodded and Paige’s eyes widened.

‘And you liked him?’

‘I thought I did at first,’ Bonnie replied. She looked thoughtfully at Paige. Her daughter was growing up fast. Perhaps it was finally time to start treating her as an
equal, to start confiding in her. She took a deep breath. ‘You see, when your dad left us, it hurt me, more than anything ever did before. And I felt like I would never love again. But then there was Holden – this perfect man that I would never have. And if I loved a perfect man I could never have, then he could never hurt me…’ she watched as Paige listened intently. ‘Does that make sense?’

Paige nodded. ‘I suppose so. But then we went to the concert…’

‘Yes. And God only knows why, but Holden seemed to take a shine to me that night.’ Bonnie carefully edited the story as the memories came back to her. It was one thing treating her daughter as an equal, but some things were not to be shared with anyone else.

‘Did you have dates with him?’ Paige asked, her dark eyes wide.

‘One, sort of date.’

‘Just one? Why didn’t you carry on seeing him?’

Bonnie shrugged. ‘It didn’t feel right.’

‘It wasn’t because Dad came back?’

‘No.’

‘Was it because of Max?’

‘It wasn’t because of anyone. I realised that even the most perfect seeming person isn’t perfect.’

‘Was he horrible?’

‘Not horrible… just not right for me. And I wasn’t right for him either, he just couldn’t see it.’

‘Dad was really angry when you’d gone to take Holden’s car back.’

Bonnie gave her a half-smile. ‘I bet he was.’ Her smile faded. ‘Are
you
angry with me?’

‘For going out with Holden Finn?’

‘For not telling you about it.’

Paige grinned. Of all the reactions Bonnie had expected, this was the least likely.

‘You think I’m angry about it?’ Paige laughed. ‘It’s amazing! How many girls can say Holden Finn has a crush on their mum?’

***

Exhausted from all the excitement, partly to escape from the continued black looks from Henri, and partly in readiness for work, Bonnie had fallen into bed at around nine and had, against all odds, slept as soon as her head hit the pillow. When the alarm had gone off at six the following morning, it felt as though she had barely climbed into her bed five minutes before.

Yawning and shouting a last warning to Paige that she needed to get her backside out of bed if she was going to make school on time, Bonnie opened the door of the flat to leave for work.

That’s when the flashes started. She leapt back in shock as she was confronted by a crowd of people, pointing microphones and Dictaphones at her, taking photos and filming, all shouting at once.

‘Bonnie… is it true that you’re seeing Holden Finn?’

‘Bonnie, what sort of kisser is he?’

‘
Daily Mail
here… is it true that your husband and Holden had a fight over you?’

‘How long have you been seeing each other?’

‘Are you going to get married?’

Bonnie slammed the door shut again and leaned against it, her mind in a whirl. How the hell was she going to get to work? Outside, she could still hear frantic chatter and people calling her name.

She took a deep breath and opened the door again. The noise doubled immediately, flashes popping and people waving in her face for attention. Bonnie held up her hands for quiet but nobody seemed to take any notice. She began to explain, struggling to make herself heard over the din. Finally, she shouted at the top of her voice.

‘QUIET!’

A shocked silence fell over the gathering.

‘I don’t know who has given you this information,’ Bonnie began, trying not to show her nerves, ‘but it’s wrong. I’m not and never have been seeing Holden Finn.’

She paused, waiting for them to disperse, but the din simply began again, the questions louder and more insistent this time.

‘Have you slept with him?’

‘Did you go on tour with him?’

‘What does the future hold for you both?’