‘Bea has more of an interest in the genre than some,’ Cal informed his mother proudly.
‘You do?’ Amanda stepped closer.
‘Um, yes,’ said Bea. It awkward being put in this position. It was as if Cal was leading her into telling his mother she was an author, but in amongst all these Jilly Coopers and Jackie Collinses, she was a very amateur pretender to the throne. Amanda was examining her with interest, and Cal wasn’t doing anything to help her – the floor was hers –so she had to say something. ‘I, er … I write romance myself.’
‘You do?!’ Amanda’s face illuminated with genuine interest. ‘Are you published?’
‘Well…’
‘Don’t be modest, Bea,’ Cal said with the deadpan levity he managed so well. ‘Nothing can be overplayed when it comes to my mother and romance.’
Amanda shot Cal a withering but playful look. ‘Oh shoosh,’ she said, before turning back to Bea.
‘I self-publish,’ Bea said.
‘Under what name?’ Amanda was forthright and to the point. ‘Is it your own?’
‘Um, no. My pen name is Calliope Birch.’
Amanda’s mouth dropped open. ‘Calliope Birch? That’s you?’
Bea tensed. Why was Amanda so surprised?
‘Yes,’ she murmured.
‘Well, goodness me. I’ve read all your books. I especially loved the Midtown Millionaires series. Rock Dagenham is an absolute god.’
Bea was almost speechless but spluttered out some words. ‘You … you’ve read some of my books?’
‘Oh, yes, they are unputdownable. I love them. You’re a very talented writer and you will go places, I am sure of it. In fact, from what I’ve seen online over the past twenty-four hours that you may be about to.’
‘Sorry?’ Bea had no idea what Amanda was talking about. Online? What was happening online? She might have thought Cal’s mother was confusing her with someone else, but for the fact that she named one of her series and one of her heroes.
‘We’ve not seen the internet since we left Edinburgh,’ said Cal. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘It’s her short story,’ said Amanda. ‘Wait, I’ll show you.’ She moved over to the desk to a laptop and turned it on. ‘Come and look at this.’ She motioned to Bea and Cal. You’re the talk of this romance forum.’
‘My short story?’ Thoughts were fleeting through Bea’s mind. She had written quite a few short stories in her time, and she often gave them away as freebies to her loyal fans. But she hadn’t written a fresh one in a while. That was until… The story she had posted a couple of weeks ago, the one inspired by Cal and her travels to Scotland, designed to be a teaser for the novel. That had taken off? Was this what Amira was calling about?
‘People are talking about it a lot.’ Amanda brought up athread where people were saying how much they couldn’t wait for Bea’s novel to come out and that they hoped she’d come back from her holiday soon because they needed to read the book and learn more about this hot Scottish hero, Hal Hunter.’
‘Hal Hunter?’ Cal was reading over Bea and his mum’s shoulders. ‘This story everyone is talking about has got a character in it called Hal Hunter?’
‘Yes,’ said Bea, absent-mindedly because she was still trying to read all the messages on the screen. Then she realised what Cal was getting at and stood to face him. He was staring at her with a kind of puzzled surprise. She couldn’t work out what he was thinking.
‘Can I read it?’ he said.
‘I’m not sure it’s your cup of tea,’ Bea mumbled.
‘I’d like to read it, if you don’t mind.’
‘Well, go to her website and sign up for the newsletter,’ said Amanda, not realising what was going on. But Bea knew. Cal suspected the story she’d written was about him, and he was none too pleased with the prospect of finding out he was right.
Chapter 48
Cal
Cal took his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the website for Calliope Birch. Before now, he had no need to trawl the internet to find out about Bea. Googling her name felt like snooping, and he was in the privileged position of knowing her in person and being read to first hand from her books. But maybe he should have snooped because he suspected he may have been immortalised on the internet. It wasn’t his place to make any wild and arrogant assumptions, but the name Hal Hunter was quite close to his own and, well, it was something of a coincidence if he had completely got the wrong end of the stick.
