‘Yes,’ said Sunni. ‘You’ll have to fly to Scotland.’
‘I do,’ Alicia agreed. ‘I will. I’m going to. But I'll need a bag.’ She swung the car into the road and back towards her apartment to repack the suitcase she had unpacked less than three weeks previously.
Chapter 33
Jamie
AButler Christmas was a traditional family celebration with all the trimmings. Amanda Butler pulled out all the stops to make this time of year special for everyone. There was a gigantic tree in the lounge draped luxuriously in tinsel and baubles and glittering with fairy lights. The sweet smell of oranges and gingerbread and Christmas roast permeated through the house, and there was always festive music jingling through the halls from somewhere, usually the kitchen, while Amanda prepared the main meal for her family.
When Jamie arrived on Christmas morning, his senses were greeted with all this and the sound of his siblings trying to talk over one another as they helped their mother with the meal. It was mainly Sean, Eilidh and Cara trying to compete for air. Niall was in Australia, where he lived, and would not be returning for the winter holiday this year. Nate and Cal were calmer and more collected than the others – more likely to listen than expend energy trying to be heard.
‘Hey!’ Jamie greeted each of his siblings with a hug. ‘What’s happening?’
‘Yep, nothing. But what’s happening withyou?’ Cara, easily the nosiest of Jamie’s siblings, was peeling potatoes. As an actress, she was being offered increasingly larger roles. Cara’s interest in people meant that she never missed a trick in terms of people’s love lives, and Jamie recognised the inflection in that one word as a hint to tell them about Alicia.
‘Not a lot’s happening with me either.’ He placed a bottle of wine down on the kitchen table and hoped he could get away with pretending things were as boring as before. ‘Frank and Katie are finally going to move out of the cottage, so I can rent it out, and I’ve pinpointed a good agency to approach about marketing for the business.’
‘Sounds productive,’ said Cara, and Jamie nearly managed a sigh of relief. ‘But bo-ring! Come on, J, that’s not the most happening of all your happenings, is it?’
‘Cara!’ Cal, the eldest of all the Butler siblings, warned his younger sister. ‘Come on, leave J alone on Christmas Day.’
With a subtle wink, Jamie thanked his elder brother, who was never one for gossip and protected his own privacy as closely as any movie star might. He’d been involved with a limelight-hungry socialite up until a year ago, but now, thankfully, he’d found true happiness with the stunning red-headed American author, Bea, who was sitting at the table next to him arranging mini bouquets of dried flowers. Cal understood Jamie didn’t want to be harangued for salacious detail about Alicia on Christmas Day. Or ever.
‘That is pretty much all that’s happening,’ Jamie told Cara. It was the truth. It was all a non-event. He’d arrived back from LA the previous day without having seen Alicia.He would try his best to keep up his spirits in front of the family. They didn’t need to know how empty he felt inside, how much wished Alicia could share his family Christmas. Cara was dogged in her pursuit of gossip but the finality in Jamie’s voice told her not to push it any further. Jamie rarely showed anything but good humour, so when he was serious it was non-negotiable.
There was also an unspoken rule this Christmas between the siblings that there would be no arguing. Their father’s illness had put things into perspective, and nobody wanted things to be anything less than perfect, especially not when their mother was making so much effort.
Cara returned to the potatoes, her head bowed.
‘Does anyone have any gossip at all to satisfy Cara?’ Jamie asked the room.
‘I’ve mined them all for detail already,’ said Cara. ‘Cal’s all loved up with Bea, which is great, but they’re more sweatpants and shared popcorn than salacious gossip…’
Cal laughed. ‘Whatever you think, Car.’
Cara continued. ‘Niall is thousands of miles away so I’m out of touch on any developments there. Sean seems to think that the perfect woman will walk into the cooperage one day…’
‘Well, she will.’ Sean cracked open a beer. ‘She’ll also walk out again without paying me slightest bit of notice, but she will walk in, I know that much.’
‘How’s it going, Nate?’ Jamie turned to his youngest brother before Cara could start laying into her triplet for the lack of action in his love life, too. ‘How’s that injured wildcat you had in last week?’ He presumed Nate would rather focus on the rescued animals he’d devoted his life to looking after than answer Cara’s questions.
‘Belle? Aye, she’s doing well.’ Nate’s face lit up whentalking about animals. ‘She should be ready to go back into the wild next week. Going to be hard as we’ve all grown attached and want to take her home.’
‘I wanted to take her to be a therapy cat at school,’ Eilidh joked, ‘but Debbie Downer here said no.’
Nate shrugged and smiled fondly at his sister. ‘Sorry, Eils.’
‘Anyway,’ Eilidh continued brightly to Jamie, ‘What’s this I hear about new artwork for the bottles?’
‘Ach, I’ve had to abandon that idea,’ Jamie admitted. ‘Negotiations with the artist have hit a dead end.’
Amanda stopped layering the trifle, an addition to the Christmas pudding already prepped months ago. ‘Oh, your dad will be disappointed,’ she said. ‘He loved those pieces.’
‘Aye, Mum. I loved them too.’ Jamie was as gutted as anyone about this. He supposed there was still a chance that Alicia could agree to the use of her work but not to ever seeing him again, however it was unlikely. Their personal and professional lives overlapped too readily. He’d kept things from her and she wasn’t prepared to forgive him, even though she had got the wrong end of the stick when it came to his feelings. ‘I’ll work something out.’
‘There’s always that sexy painting of you,’ Sean suggested.
‘There’ll be no need for sexy paintings or anything of that sort.’ Everyone turned to see Jimmy Butler in the doorway. He had forgone his wheelchair, but appeared unsteady on his feet and Jamie went over and took his arm. ‘We’ve got ourselves a deal,’ he said as Jamie led him to his seat.
