To the Moon and Back

Chapter 53




It was the last week in September and Ellie had that squiggly going-on-holiday feeling in her stomach. The Indian summer had timed itself to perfection, there wasn’t a cloud in the luminous blue sky, and she and Zack were on their way to Perranporth. It was happening at last and the hardest part was containing her excitement. If Zack had any idea how much she’d been looking forward to this… well, it would scare the living daylights out of him. He’d probably lean across in a panic, fling open the passenger door of the Mercedes, and push her out.

But he didn’t know and he wasn’t going to find out. Ellie gave a little wriggle in her seat and sat back, enjoying the feel of the sun on her face and watching the scenery whoosh by as they sped down the M4. Elmo was asleep in the back of the car. Geraldine, out of hospital now and recuperating nicely, had gone to stay with her sister in Exeter. Roo and Todd were so besotted they could barely tear their hands off each other; they were like a couple of magnets who couldn’t physically stand to be apart. Best of all, Todd’s mum and Roo had met and instantly hit it off. Maria was as crazy about her son’s new girlfriend as Todd was, and plans were already in place for a mega party to introduce Roo to everyone she knew.

They’d left Berkshire behind them. Behind her, Elmo was snuffling in his sleep, paws twitching as he chased London pigeons in his dreams. He was such a city dog. Ellie took a packet of gumdrops out of her bag and offered them to Zack. ‘Want one?’

‘Thanks. Can you find me a green one?’

‘Green? What, seriously?’ She winced. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes. Why?’

‘Nobody likes green! They’re the ones you only eat when everything else is gone. You have to be desperate.’

‘Green’s my favorite,’ said Zack.

‘Well, that makes you officially weird. But also kind of useful to have around.’ Ellie found one and passed it over. ‘You can have all the yellows too, if you want.’

He glanced across at her. ‘Which are Joe’s favorites?’

‘No idea. I’ve never offered him a gumdrop.’

‘I haven’t asked for a while how things are going with you two.’

‘Fine.’ Ellie helped herself to a red one. They were the best by a mile.

‘Did you see him last night?’

She nodded, glad of her sunglasses and the sweet in her mouth. ‘Mmm.’

‘OK. That’s clever.’ Zack waited. ‘Because on Twitter this morning he posted a photo of himself taken last night at a party at the Beverly Hills Hotel.’

Ellie stopped chewing. Bugger. Zack added helpfully, ‘Which is in Beverly Hills.’

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. She finished the wine gum and swallowed it. ‘I thought you weren’t on Twitter.’

‘I’m not. Joe sent me an email yesterday. Just a friendly catch-up letting me know how things are going for him in LA. So after that, I was pretty curious.’ He said drily, ‘You don’t need to be on Twitter to look someone up.’

She heaved a sigh and fiddled with the clasp on her bag. It had only been a little white lie, but she always seemed destined to be found out.

‘Handy hint,’ said Zack. ‘In future, probably better to keep the other person in the loop so they know what they should or shouldn’t say.’

‘I’ll make sure I do that.’ The scenery was still whipping past; they were over the border into Wiltshire now.

‘You could have told me, you know.’ She could feel him glancing sideways at her. ‘Why didn’t you?’

Because I’m crazy about you and I don’t want to make a complete fool of myself. Because it’s easier if you think I’m seeing someone else.

Aloud, Ellie said, ‘It was just… embarrassing.’ It was so hard to find the words. ‘You never really seemed to approve of me and Joe in the first place. And that felt horrible. It’s like when you’re sixteen and your mum warns you against getting involved with the local bad boy. So you go ahead and start seeing him, and it turns out he’s a nightmare, a total heartbreaker who treats you like rubbish and cops off with other girls behind your back. But you can’t bear to admit to your mum that she was right.’

Zack didn’t look amused. ‘Did Joe break your heart?’

‘No, God no! It was lovely while it lasted, it just wasn’t right. Well, not right enough.’ Would he understand if she said it? Ellie gave it a go. ‘He was an eight.’

‘I didn’t dislike Joe. He was a good guy.’ Zack inclined his head. ‘He still is. But I could see he wasn’t your type.’

‘Oh.’ She was instantly on the defensive. ‘He didn’t dump me, you know. He asked me to move with him to LA.’

‘So what stopped you?’

‘Well, there’s this guy I work for. Pretty hopeless character. God knows how he’d manage without me to organize him.’ That was better, she’d made him smile. Ellie felt herself relax. ‘Honestly? It was never going to happen. You can’t move to another continent with someone who isn’t a ten.’

Another sidelong glance, another eyebrow raised. ‘And what does somebody have to do to be a ten?’

She raised her chin; he was teasing her now. ‘They don’t have to do anything. Just be themselves, and be right. Go on then, how about you?’ Time to turn the tables. ‘What makes a girl perfect?’

They were overtaking an oil tanker. The countryside continued to whoosh past. The corners of Zack’s mouth began to twitch. ‘It helps a lot if she doesn’t call me Zacky.’

***

‘OK, brace yourself.’ It was five o’clock in the afternoon, the long journey was over, and they were approaching Perranporth. Zack said, ‘Sometimes my family can be a bit overwhelming. If my mother asks any impertinent questions, ignore her.’

Ellie’s stomach was in knots; she’d thought his family knew she was just a friend. It wasn’t until they’d left the M5 behind them that Zack had explained how it had been easier to tell them they were a new couple. ‘It just made sense. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before. My family can’t keep a secret to save their lives; someone would be bound to tell Mya. Whereas this way, only we know the truth.’

Fear-fueled adrenaline was now zinging like sherbet through Ellie’s veins. The old have-to-pretend-we’re-a-couple ploy was one she’d seen in romantic films, but only ever at the beginning of the film when the couple genuinely couldn’t stand the sight of each other. Having to do it when you had a Kilimanjaro-sized crush on your boss and he really didn’t have a crush on you in return was going to be a whole lot trickier to pull off.

Minutes later they turned a corner and there it was, set back from the road at the end of a curving driveway. A long Georgian farmhouse built of pale gray stone and smothered in ivy, with a silvery slate roof and an elaborate old-style conservatory to one side. The gardens surrounding it were spectacular but not off-puttingly formal. The front door to the house was painted emerald green. Almost all the sash windows downstairs were open. Behind the house a pink and white tent was visible. The overall effect was incredibly welcoming…

‘Look at those windows flung open,’ said Zack. ‘Bet you any money my mother’s been burning cakes again.’

He brought the car to a halt. Elmo, on Ellie’s lap, gave a bark of recognition and began scrabbling his paws against the passenger window. The next moment the bright green front door opened and a horde of people and dogs began spilling out.

Was this how it felt to be Beyoncé?

‘Welcome to my family.’ Zack’s tone was dry. ‘Well? Do you think we can do this?’

If Jamie were watching her now, he’d be laughing his head off at the predicament she’d got herself into. The only way, really, was to go for it, plunge in full tilt, and act her socks off.

Ellie grinned at him. ‘Zacky, don’t panic, it’ll be fine.’

‘Darling, how lovely, it’s been too long!’ Teresa McLaren gave her son an enthusiastic hug then turned to Ellie. ‘And you must be Ellie. It’s even lovelier to meet you!’

Zack said, ‘Mum, call her Piglet. Everyone does.’

‘No, they don’t.’ Ellie shook her head at Teresa. ‘Ignore him, he just made that up.’

‘He’s a shocker. But everybody does call me Tizz, so you must too.’ Tizz was beaming; in her midsixties, she had flyaway brown hair escaping from a hastily assembled bun, Zack’s dark eyes, and a streak of flour across her forehead. She was wearing a stripy blue and white shirt over crumpled jeans and had a rangy, boyish figure. ‘We’ve been so looking forward to this. Now, let’s introduce you to everyone…’

‘Mum, why are all the windows open?’ said Zack.

‘You know exactly why, darling. Too much going on, too much chatter, and I forgot to set the timer on the oven.’ Tizz was un-repentant. ‘I burned the bloody shortbread.’

***

By eight o’clock Ellie felt as if she’d known Zack’s family for years. Well, apart from not having quite got all the names and faces of the younger contingent matched together. The interior of the house was spacious and comfortable, decorated in an eclectic mix of Gothic, suburban, and shabby chic. Zack’s father Ken, returning from a trip to the shops for unburnt shortbread and extra supplies of Bombay Sapphire gin, was tall and suntanned with a loud booming laugh, twinkling faded gray eyes, and a big bumpy nose that Zack hadn’t inherited.

Zack’s sisters were equally welcoming, each of them possessing a recognizable mix of their parents’ genes and a raucous sense of humor. Claire was the blondest, Paula the one with the wickedest, loudest laugh. And Steph, due to be married less than forty-eight hours from now, was the most laid-back future bride you could imagine, especially seeing as her twin daughters Joss and Lily were still dead set on wearing trainers with their bridesmaid dresses.

OK, Joss and Lily, identical twins, tick.

Gareth, Steph’s about-to-be husband, tick.

Paula’s children were Tom and Zaylie, dark straight hair, dark curly hair, tick, tick.

Claire and her husband Paul—no, Phil—had two girls and one boy, Suki and Belle and… hang on a sec, Lewis, that was it. Tick, tick, tick.

As for the dogs, they were a boisterous mix of Labradors, mongrels, and terriers, and Ellie wasn’t even going to attempt to work out which of them belonged to which branch of the family. It was enough for now that Elmo was having the time of his life.

So far they’d all been down to the beach to give the dogs a run before sundown, before calling in at the best takeaway in Perranporth. Then, back at the house, they’d sat outside on the lit-up terrace eating fish and chips, drinking gin, and discussing the plans for the wedding.

After a while, even better, the conversation turned to Zack when he was young.

‘He made me jump over a wall,’ Claire relayed with relish, ‘and there were ten million stinging nettles on the other side.’

Zack narrowed his eyes. ‘Only to pay you back for tipping live crabs into my wellington boots.’

‘But you deserved it,’ Paula chimed in. ‘You’d hidden whitebait in her schoolbag.’

‘Oh God, I’d forgotten about the whitebait.’ Claire was outraged. ‘They stank!’

The children were shrieking with laughter. Joss, sitting at Ellie’s feet, squealed, ‘I’m going to do the crab thing tomorrow to everyone in my class!’

‘You mustn’t.’ Zack pointed a chip at her. ‘Because it’s not funny and it’s not clever.’

Belle shook her head. ‘It is funny, I think. And quite clever.’

‘At the time it was hilarious.’ Zack’s expression was solemn. ‘The next day when I put on my wellies and got crabs grabbing hold of my toes, not so much.’

‘I could do it,’ said Zaylie. ‘I wouldn’t get caught. Everyone thinks I’m nice!’

‘I used to like these children.’ Zack scooped Zaylie on to his lap and began tickling her bare feet.

Within seconds she was reduced to helpless giggles. ‘Is Ellie your girlfriend?’

‘Yes, she is, she’s my new girlfriend.’

Ellie’s breath caught in her throat. If only.

‘Has she seen you with no clothes on?’

Oh crikey, just the thought of it. Thank goodness the lighting was dim. ‘No, I have not.’ Above the laughter, Ellie said with horror, ‘Yuk, no way.’

‘I know where there’s a picture of Uncle Zack and he’s sitting in a paddling pool naked.’ Zaylie’s face was triumphant. ‘It’s in a book of photographs in Grandma’s room, she was showing us the other day. Do you want me to get it and show you?’

‘Mum, I thought I told you to throw that one away.’ Zack looked pained.

‘Oh, darling, how could I? You were so adorable.’

Ellie kept a straight face. ‘Was it taken very recently?’

‘Very funny. I was two. And you don’t want to see it,’ said Zack.

Sometimes an opportunity came along that was simply too good to pass up. And she was supposed to be his girlfriend, wasn’t she? ‘Actually,’ Ellie’s gaze was innocent, ‘I think you’ll find I do.’