The scent of cinnamon swirls through the air.
Soft velvet couches and wing-backed chairs are scattered around the atrium, but the place is empty.
Cillian heads to reception to check in, while I soak up the magnificent architecture. The deep wooden panelling. The mosaic flooring beneath my Louboutins. The ornate staircase covered with the same thick red carpet as the steps. It’s not hard to believe this is the home of a rock star for most of the year.
I swivel slowly on my heels, so busy looking up at the intricate coving that I don’t see the glamorous older lady next to me until I crash into her, knocking her to the floor.
‘Oh, my goodness! I’m so sorry. Are you okay?’ My right hand flies to my mouth. I offer my left to help the woman sprawled across the ground. With flawless make-up and a tailored dress, she’s immaculately put together. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say she’s in her mid-fifties.
‘Watch where you’re going.’ She uses one of the wing-backed chairs to pull herself up, pointedly ignoring my extended hand.
‘It was an accident. I’m so sorry.’
She eyes me with an owlish curiosity, smoothing down her dress.
‘Mother?’ Cillian appears besides me, scanning the woman from head to toe. ‘What happened?’
Ground swallow me whole. Thank God I’m not Cillian’s real girlfriend. What a way to meet the prospective mother-in-law.
‘Ahh, Cillian, there you are.’ There’s no mistaking who the man swaggering in from the bar is. His silver eyes are the exact same shade as both Cillian’s and Phoebe’s. Salt and pepper hair flops across his forehead, thick on top and cropped short at the sides. His sharp grey suit screams wealth. The smarmy way in which his gaze grazes my chest screams wanker.
Cillian’s mother’s mouth drops open into a small O. ‘Is she with you?’
Cillian splays his hand across my lower back and tingling sensations zip up my spine, despite our current situation. ‘Mam, this is Ava Jackson, my girlfriend. Ava, this is my mother, Lillian.’
I don’t miss the way his body tenses as his focus shifts to his dad. ‘And this is my father, William.’
‘It’s a pleasure to meet you.’ Unlike his wife, William Callaghan has no problem taking my hand. He raises it to his weathered lips and holds it there for longer than is appropriate, all the while absorbing every inch of me in an overfamiliar gesture.
I snap my arm back and force my brightest smile. ‘It’s wonderful to meet you both. Cillian’s told me so much about you.’ I address Lillian again, ‘And I’m so sorry again for knocking you. I was so engrossed admiring the interior, I didn't see you.’
‘Hmm.’ The icy façade thaws a fraction. ‘I suppose it can be distracting when it’s your first time somewhere like this.’ Her pupils roam over my dress and narrow.
Good job she can’t see what I’m wearing underneath it. Or not, as the case might be.
‘Actually, I spent last Christmas Day here.’ I’m not one to brag that my brother is a mega famous movie star. In fact it’s something I never usually mention to anyone who doesn’t already know, but it’s a great ice breaker, and I want her to know I’m not just after Cillian for a free ride.
‘Christmas Day?’ Lillian takes the bait.
‘Yes. With Ryan and Sasha, and Jayden and his wife Chloe. My brother’s a good friend of theirs.’
‘Oh, is your brother in the music business too?’ William touches my hand again, completely unnecessarily. A small but unmistakable growl rumbles in Cillian’s throat. Lillian pointedly glances away. The poor woman. How does she put up with him?
‘No, he’s an actor.’ I retract my hand again, placing in on Cillian’s rock-solid pec and offer my sweetest smile.
‘Oh, how interesting. Has he been in anything we might have seen?’ William’s tone is so patronising I almost laugh in his face.
‘Probably. His name is Nate Jackson.’ I suck in my lips to stop myself laughing.
William splutters, masking it with a cough. ‘Wow, that’s impressive.’ He gives Cillian a knowing nudge in the ribs, but Cillian doesn’t spare him a glance.
‘The others will be arriving any minute.’ He presses a kiss to my temple in a convincing show of affection. ‘Let’s go up and get settled.’
I hope that’s code for ‘let’s go up and get ruffled’.
‘How about a drink in the bar?’ William claps his palms together noisily.
‘Give us an hour.’ Cillian reluctantly agrees.
