‘The dream is, I find myself working for a man whose wife has very tragically died, leaving him with two lovely young children he has to bring up alone. The trouble is, he’s a billionaire who owns his own company, with hundreds of employees who depend on him, so even though he’s trying really hard to give quality time to the children, he’s finding it almost impossible. So I start working for him, and I get on really well with the children, who begin to depend on me, but to begin with he and I just don’t get on, because he’s cold and proud and arrogant, and everything has to be done his way.’
‘You aresodeluded.’
‘Shutup, Georgie. Now obviously he’s extremely good-looking, in a cruel, icy sort of way, so lots of women have their sights set on him, especially one, an aristocrat-slash-model-slash-total bitch, and I’m convinced that he’s utterly infatuated with her, and of course I’m just a plain, ordinary little thing, and there’s no chance that he’d give me a second glance…’
‘Just tragic,’ Georgie murmurs.
‘Until…’ Milly says, encouragingly.
‘Until there’s some terrible crisis with the children, and I keep calm and handle everything, and he begins to look at me with new eyes, and discovers that the aristocratic bitch is only after his money. Then he kneels before me, vulnerable for the first time, and tells me that he adores me and desires me and?—’
‘OK, I’m officially vomiting,’ Georgie says firmly.
‘Are there really employers like that?’ Oxana asks.
‘A girl can dream.’ Charlotte sighs.
‘Dream all you like,’ Georgie says. ‘The truth is that you’re more likely to find yourself with some stuck-up cow of a mother who spends her life shopping and Botoxing and shagging her personal trainer, while the husband’s some coked-out zombie of a hedge-fund manager who you only see on Sundays.’
‘Yeah,’ Milly says. ‘Leaving you to pick up the pieces with the brattish, entitled, screen-addicted kids.’
‘Wow, that bad?’ Oxana asks.
‘No,’ Georgie says. ‘Most parents are fine. And most kids are lovely. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, is my motto. Did you say you had a job waiting for you, Ox?’
‘Yes. I’ll be looking after a family on holiday.’
‘Oooh.’ Charlotte leans in closer. ‘Anywhere nice?’
‘The Greek islands. We’ll be on a yacht.’
‘Oh my God, you lucky thing.Soromantic. What are the family like?’
‘Don’t know. Rich, I guess. I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on the teenage daughter.’
Georgie grins. ‘Good luck with that.’
10
‘Eve?’ he repeats. ‘Eve Park?’
She narrows her eyes. ‘Jack… Demerell?’
He nods, and they stare at each other. ‘Well,’ he manages. ‘Of all the people Ididn’texpect to see…’
She smiles, taking him in. The worn clothes, the scruffy haircut and watchful brown eyes. The quiet but unmistakeable air of toughness.
‘So are you back living here? Or visiting. Or…?’
‘Just visiting,’ Eve says.
He nods. ‘I guess it’s a place people come back to.’
‘I guess it is. So what are you doing, Jack?’
He looks away, his eyes far-focused. ‘The short version is that I joined the army after sixth form, and they sent me to university. I became an officer, did a couple of tours in Afghanistan, and left three years ago.’
‘A lifetime.’