No Matter What (114 page)

She’d introduced Ethan to JJ when Bobby had brought him to visit her on set one day, because it had been essential that her son got on with JJ and he had, almost immediately.
 
JJ was a natural with Ethan, knowing just what to say to him, how to make him laugh and Ethan had opened up to him straightaway, chattering away ten to the dozen about school, his friends, his favourite music.
 
That had sealed the deal for
India
.
 
Once that was sorted there was nothing else stopping them from letting the world know.

She was just putting the finishing touches to her hair when there was a knock at the door of her hotel room.

“It’s open!” she shouted, checking her reflection in the mirror.

JJ walked in, shutting the door behind him.
 
“Room service,” he smiled.

India
turned to look at him.
 
He looked so handsome, so sexy, in a dark suit, white shirt and dark tie.
 
Her beautiful man, and in just a couple of hours time everyone would know she’d finally put Michael Walsh behind her and moved on.
 
Including Michael himself.
 

She walked over to JJ, straightening his tie.
 
“I’m not sure I ordered you actually,” she smiled.

He pulled her close.
 
“Call me a freebie.
 
You look amazing.”

She was wearing a white strapless sheath dress and high silver strappy heels, her hair piled up on top of her head.

“It takes work, you know.
 
Thank my fabulous hair and make-up team.”

JJ kissed her gently, his hand resting in the small of her back.
 
“Rubbish!
 
You look beautiful no matter what, but especially when you’re lying naked, underneath me, and I’m deep inside you ...”

“Don’t, Joe, come on … we haven’t got time.”

He tilted her chin up and kissed her again.
 
“Take a rain check, gorgeous, because I’m going there later.”

“And you’ll be very, very welcome,” she smiled, her mouth almost touching his as she spoke.
 
She could feel the now all-too-familiar weakness in her knees as he kissed her neck just below her ear.
 
“Joe ... are we ready for this?”

He looked at her.
 
“Are you having second thoughts?”

“I’m thirty-nine years old in a couple of weeks, I’ve got a four year old son, two failed marriages and more baggage than LAX sees in a week.
 
You
should be the one having second thoughts.”

“Well, I’m not.”

She looked into his eyes.
 
“Once we go public they’re probably going to dig everything up, you know that don’t you?”

He smiled, stroking her cheek.
 
“Yeah.
 
I know.”

“These past few weeks have been incredible, Joe.
 
Having you all to myself ... and now I’m going to have to share you.”

He took her hand, turning it over and running his thumb over her tattoo.
 
“None of this is gonna change the way we feel about each other.
 
Is it?”

She slid her fingers between his, kissing him gently.
 
“No.
 
It isn’t.”

“So ... you’re sure about this then?
 
About us?
 
Because I sure as hell am
India
.”

She nodded.
 
“Yeah.
 
I’m sure.”

He smiled again and she felt her heart skip that proverbial beat.
 
“Then let’s get out there and let everyone know.”

***

She sat in the back of the car holding tightly onto JJ’s hand, her stomach turning a million somersaults that she knew were all to do with nerves.
 
Was she
really
ready to go public with this?
 
Was she really ready for another relationship?
 
A relationship that everyone would now be watching?

JJ squeezed her hand, sensing her nerves.
 
“It’s gonna be ok, baby.
 
It’s gonna be fine.”

She looked at him, smiling, leaning over to kiss him quickly.
 
“I know.
 
I guess I’m just a bit wary of what people are going to say.”

“Does that matter?”

She looked at his handsome face, stroking his cheek lightly with her fingers, shaking her head.
 
“No.
 
Not really.
 
Not anymore.”

But maybe she cared more than she should have done about one person’s reaction in particular.
 
She cared about Michael.
 

The car pulled up outside the venue and
India
took a deep breath, smiling at the man she was about to launch into her crazy, unpredictable world.

“Hold on tight, Joseph Foster.
 
This could be a bumpy ride.”

He laughed, kissing her once more before the door of the car was opened, the noise of the crowd almost deafening, along with the sound of what seemed like a thousand cameras all going off at once.
 
Both she and JJ were on the guest list for this premiere.
 
It was just that no-one was expecting them to turn up together.

He got out of the car first and
India
could hear the screams getting louder.
 
He was a bit of a heart throb was JJ Foster.
 
‘Covert One’ had turned him into a pin-up, no doubt about that, and his fans had certainly turned out in force tonight, making India even more nervous than she had been before.

He held out his hand and she took it, taking another deep breath as she stepped out of the car, clinging onto his hand like there was no tomorrow and he looked at her, smiling.
 
This was it.
 
It was time.

As they walked along the red carpet, hand in hand, people slowly started to realise what was going on and within seconds reporters had started shouting questions at them as the paparazzi snapped away furiously.
 
JJ slipped his arm around her waist and looked at her again.
 
India
nodded, and he slowly lowered his mouth down onto hers in a kiss that had the cameras - and the crowd - going wild.
 
It was a kiss that India felt with every inch of her being, a kiss that meant they’d done it now, they’d gone public, just like they’d planned, and India felt like she was floating on air as she pulled away from him slightly, resting her forehead against his, smiling at him.

“No regrets?” he whispered, stroking the small of her back.

She shook her head.
 
“Absolutely no regrets.”

“
India
!
 
India
, are you and JJ a couple
?”

“How long has it been going on,
India
?”

“Were you together before ‘Covert One’
?”

The questions were coming thick and fast, being thrown at them from all directions as they were guided this way and that to talk to the press or have their photograph taken and it was crazy, but nothing that neither of them hadn’t been expecting.
 
It had been a long time since
India
had embarked on a relationship after her divorce from Michael and this was big news in the circles she moved in.
 
She only wondered what those close to her were going to say when they found out she’d been keeping this from them.
 
And, more than anything - even though she knew she shouldn’t really care – more than anything she wondered what Michael would think.

***

Kenny sat forward as he watched the TV, watched as
India
kissed JJ Foster in full view of the world and announced that they were very much a couple.
 
And had been for a few weeks now.
 
He was right; he knew he’d been right.
 
But that didn’t make it any easier to stomach.

“Reece!
 
Reece, get over here!
 
Have you seen this?” Kenny shouted, causing Ethan to look up from his book to see what was going on, jumping off the sofa and running over to the TV.

“It’s mommy!” he shouted, sitting down on the floor and looking up at the screen, pointing to it.
 
“Mommy’s on TV with JJ, Uncle Kenny!
 
Granddad!
 
Mommy’s on TV!”

Reece came over to see what all the commotion was about, his eyes going straight to the TV screen and the sight of his daughter as she held tightly onto the hand of JJ Foster, telling everyone they were together.
 
He watched as the handsome young actor looked at India as though she was the most beautiful thing in the world, he watched as he kissed her gently and it was obvious to Reece that his little girl had fallen hard for this new man, and while part of him was happy that she appeared to have moved on from Michael, there was still a part of him that wondered if she really had.
 
Without knowing what had actually gone on between her and her ex-husband he had no idea what to think.

“So.
 
Looks like you were right then, Kenny.”

Kenny got up, unable to look at the TV anymore.
 
It was making him feel sick. He’d known it all along, well before Ethan had let it slip earlier, but it didn’t make it any easier to swallow.

“Yeah,” he sighed.
 
“I was right.”

Ethan was still sitting cross-legged in front of the TV, excitedly watching his famous mum on the screen.
 
“Mommy looks beautiful, doesn’t she, Uncle Kenny?”

He turned round to look at Kenny and Kenny forced a smile.
 
“She sure does, kiddo.”

Ethan turned his attention back to the TV.

“Are you ok?” Reece asked, only too aware of how hard this was for his daughter’s best friend.
 
Her very best friend.

Kenny shrugged.
 
“There’s not much I can do now, is there?
 
You saw the way she was looking at him.”

What could Reece say?
 
That it was early days and who knew whether this relationship would last or not?
 
That if Kenny held on maybe one day she’d finally love him like he wanted her too?
 
 
He couldn’t say any of that because he wanted
India
to be happy and if she was happy with JJ then that was fine by Reece.
 
He didn’t want to give Kenny any false hope.
 
Maybe it was time for him to move on now, too.

“I’m going home,” Kenny said, grabbing his jacket and going over to say goodbye to Ethan, who’d moved away from the TV now his mum wasn’t on it anymore, ruffling his hair.
 
“See you tomorrow, kiddo.
 
You be good for grandma and granddad.”

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Reece asked again.
 
“You don’t have to go you know.
 
Martha and I would love you to stay for dinner.”

Kenny shook his head.
 
“Thanks, Reece, but I just want to be on my own right now.”

Reece nodded, understanding exactly what he was going through.
 
“I wish I could make things right for you, Kenny.
 
I really do.”

Kenny smiled.
 
India
really was lucky to have Reece as a father.
 
He was one of life’s genuine nice guys.
 
“I know, but I’ll be fine.
 
Really, I’ll be fine.”
 
He just hoped he’d one day feel as confident about that as he sounded.
 
Because, without
India
in his life, he was nothing.
 
Kenny needed her.
 
He just wished he’d realised how much a damn sight earlier than now.

***

Layla couldn’t believe her eyes.
 
JJ and
India
Walsh?
 
But she was, like, forty or something now, wasn’t she?
 

She sat down on the edge of her bed and towel dried her blonde hair as she watched the two of them on TV, looking like a couple of lovesick teenagers, all big Hollywood smiles, him clinging onto her like she’d disappear if he let her go.
 
If only she would
, thought Layla.

So, JJ had dumped her for
India
.
 
She’d been replaced by someone almost ten years older than her.
 
What was wrong with him?
 
Layla was younger than
India
and, in Layla’s eyes, she was far prettier.
 
She had no kids, no ex-husband’s, none of that baggage and yet JJ still wanted to be with this older woman.
 
She couldn’t believe it.
 
She thought they’d had something.
 
They’d had fun together, hadn’t they?
 
And if the wonderful Ms Walsh hadn’t turned up they’d still be having fun now, she was sure of that.
 
What was it they all saw in her?
 
Kenny Ross, Michael Walsh, and now JJ Foster.
 
Layla couldn’t see it herself.
 
She couldn’t see what they all saw that made them worship the ground she walked on.