Dave pawed at Jessie’s jeans and she gave him a hug. ‘See? He loves me.’
Emily was looking at Lottie for help.
‘Emily’s right. We need to do absolutely everything we can to find his owners.’
‘What if we don’t find them?’ asked Jessie, scratching Dave’s tummy when he flopped on the floor like a hopeless drunk. She pinned Lottie with a hopeful stare.
‘Then he’ll need a new home.’ Emily’s eyes widened and Lottie shrugged, she couldn’t lie to her.
‘Can I have him then?’ asked Jessie, her head swivelling around to look at each of the adults in turn in the hope of a positive response.
‘I’ll be looking after him while we try to track his owners down. So you can always visit him while he’s with me,’ said Joe, with a broad smile.
‘Maybe he’s Meghan Markle’s dog,’ said Emily, with a giggle.
Joe was looking puzzled. ‘What’s this? Royalty?’
‘Oh, it’s a really long and very fanciful story,’ said Lottie. ‘Trust me, you don’t want to know.’
The front doorbell sounded and Lottie went to answer it. Her mother beat her there, which in itself was a huge surprise as Angie usually did absolutely nothing more than she had to. But when Angie opened the door and the visitor was revealed, Lottie knew why her mother had raced to open it.
The Meghan Markle lookalike was on the doorstep. Angie stepped forward and performed an elaborate curtsey. Lottie couldn’t contain her laughter. ‘Honoured to meet you, Ma’am,’ said Angie.
The young woman was wearing what looked like anexpensive pale cream coat with a sumptuous matching fur collar. Lottie hoped it was fake fur. She was strikingly pretty, but up close it was even more obvious to Lottie that she wasn’t the Duchess of Sussex. It really was a ‘Should have gone to Specsavers’ moment.
‘Hello,’ said Lottie, joining her deluded mother at the door.
‘Lottie,’ snapped Angie, and she waved at her to join her in a curtsey.
Lottie ignored her. ‘How can we help?’ She knew her grin looked a bit manic, but she simply couldn’t dilute it. It was one of the funniest things she’d ever witnessed; and more importantly, it would provide a lifetime of amusement as she would never let her mother live this down.
The woman dragged her eyes away from Angie, still bent low mid-curtsey. ‘Hi. I’m not sure if y’all can help me, but I was told you might know where I can find Joe Broomfield.’
Lottie’s grin vanished. A million questions flooded her head. ‘Er, um …’ The woman was still waiting. Lottie pulled herself together. ‘Yes. Of course. Joe is here. Come in.’ She pulled the door wide open. ‘Oh, do get out of the way, Mother.’
Lottie heard the kitchen door open and turned to see Joe walk into the hallway. He froze mid-step.
‘Joey!’ shouted the American, and she strode towards him on her very high heels.
‘Megan?’ Joe couldn’t have looked more shocked if the Queen herself had cartwheeled up the hall. ‘Megan. Hi.’ She threw herself into his arms.
‘Surprise!’ said Megan, stepping back to appraise him.
‘Yes. It’s definitely that,’ said Joe, colouring up.
An unpleasant shiver went through Lottie, and she belatedly shut the door as Angie, at last, stood up straight.
‘So Joe knows the Duchess of Sussex?’ whispered Angie, looking more than puzzled.
‘Bloody hell, Mother. How many times? She isn’t Meghan sodding Markle,’ said Lottie. But she did want to know exactly who she was.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
In the kitchen, Emily got Jessie a glass of squash and listened as she recounted her dog walk in fine detail. She was a lovely child, full of enthusiasm and zest for life, like her father. She thought of Zach. One of the many things she loved about him was his honesty. She’d never had any reason to doubt that what he’d said about his wife was completely true. Zach had always made her out to be a brilliant mother and a wonderful person, but now Lottie had sown a tiny seed of doubt in Emily’s mind. Perhaps Lottie had a slightly different perspective on Melissa, or even more likely, Zach had chosen to forget any non-perfect qualities. That frequently happened when people passed away, especially if they died young and tragically as Melissa had. But she could recall Zach saying that Lottie and Melissa had been the best of friends, so surely Lottie had no axe to grind. In which case, it was even more odd that Lottie would cast doubt on Melissa’s being flawless.
She wished Lottie would tell her. She didn’t mean to be unkind, but to know that Melissa wasn’t perfect would make her feel a whole lot better. It felt like she had set a standard Emily could never live up to. Of course she hadhad partners who’d had significant exes before, but those conversations had been brief and easily forgotten. A quick share of their pasts, and then they’d focused on the now. But Melissa was different: she kept popping up, and she was always going to, because she wasn’t an ex – she would forever be a huge part of Zach and Jessie’s life. Melissa was Jessie’s mother, and Zach was keen to keep her memory alive for Jessie’s sake – which Emily totally understood, and 100 per cent agreed with. But right now, she wasn’t entirely sure how she would cope with it.
Zach was a great dad, there was no question about that, but however hard he tried he was never going to fill the space Melissa had left in Jessie’s life – quite simply, nobody could. Jessie had been a baby when her mother had been killed, so she had no recollection of her at all. Emily’s heart ached for the little girl. She couldn’t imagine growing up without a mother. Emily and her own mum had a close relationship; they always had, but now she was an adult they were more than mum and daughter, they were friends too, and Emily couldn’t imagine not having her there through all the trials and tribulations of life. Just being apart from her this Christmas, with everything that was going on, had been hard.
