Paradise (3 page)

Jez and Gemma had visited Angel in Santa Monica once before but were still dazzled by the sheer luxury and size of the house. ‘It is so beautiful here,’ Gemma said, elegantly sipping her mojito.

She had changed into a stylish purple maxi dress. Gemma was a fashionista through and through, nailing all the new trends. She was constantly on Angel’s case trying to make her more fashion aware, sending her links to dresses on Net-A-Porter that she thought were ‘must haves’. Every now and then Angel would take her advice, but left to her own devices was always happiest in jeans or tracksuits.

‘It’s like a dream,’ Jez agreed from where he sat surveying the glittering Pacific Ocean and exquisitely kept gardens, the lush green lawn with its perfectly mown grass. ‘Are you sure I couldn’t move in and be your permanent hairdresser slash slave?’ He was only half joking. ‘So long as you had space for Rufus.’

‘Why isn’t he here?’ Angel asked; she was sure Ethan would have paid for his ticket as well.

Jez sighed, ‘He couldn’t get the time off. The gym’s not doing very well and Rufus is having to put in extra hours. I hardly see him at the moment. I keep saying I should book some personal training sessions with him. At least that way I’d get to see more of him.’ He looked sad for a few seconds before quipping, ‘But, hey, absence makes the heart grow fonder and the cock grow harder.’

Angel gestured at Honey, who was fortunately too engrossed in eating strawberries to listen. ‘So what’s your news, Gem?’ Angel asked. Eight months ago Gemma had suffered a miscarriage, and Angel knew it had taken her friend a long time to get over her sadness at losing the baby.

‘Work’s fine and Tony’s good. But my real news is that we’re going to try for a baby again. I feel I can put what happened behind me.’

‘Oh, Gem, that’s so good to hear. I really hope it works out for you.’

And Angel truly meant it. The months following the
miscarriage had been so tough for Gemma. It had also been a time when the two women had grown apart as Gemma had questioned whether Angel had made the right decision when she left Cal for Ethan. What made it all the harder was that Cal was Tony’s best friend, so naturally Gemma had divided loyalties.

‘So what about you?’ she asked.

‘Everything is great. I love it out here, though of course I miss all you guys. And it’s going really well with Ethan. He’s perfect for me, Gem. I’m really happy.’ Angel was aware she was gushing – she just wanted Gemma to believe her, and her friend still had a slightly sceptical look on her face. ‘You’ll never guess what he did this morning . . .’

Angel proceeded to tell them how Ethan had filled the bedroom with flowers and about the trip to Tiffany’s. But as soon as she mentioned it, she remembered the incident with his credit cards. He was supposed to be a multi-millionaire, so wasn’t it odd that his cards had been declined?

‘I thought that looked rather gorge,’ Jez said, looking enviously at the necklace.

‘It’s beautiful,’ Gemma agreed, though without Jez’s enthusiasm. She still hadn’t fully warmed to Ethan. When Angel started seeing him, Gemma had read up about him on the net and much of the press coverage had been about his many short-lived relationships. Before Angel he had been a real player, and Angel knew that her friend believed a leopard didn’t change his spots. It was a source of sadness to Angel, who really wanted her friend to accept Ethan. Plus Gemma, like so many of Angel’s friends and even her family, had seemed to think that she should be able to forgive Cal for his infidelity and take him back. It was what so many other footballers’ wives had done, wasn’t it? Forgive and forget, and accept that the odd bit of cheating was
part of the territory if you married a footballer. But Angel couldn’t do that and knew that she was right not to, whatever anyone else thought. She knew that if she did that, deep down she would always be waiting for Cal to be unfaithful again. Besides, looking at other footballers whose wives had taken them back, it seemed that only a very few never strayed again.

‘I saw Cal the other week. We all went out for an Indian meal in Hove. His football academies are going really well and he’s got presenting work on
Match
of
the
Day
and 5 Live.’ Gemma also seemed to think it was okay to bring up Angel’s ex in conversation, acting as if it was the most normal thing in the world, when the truth was just the mention of Cal’s name shook Angel up and put her on edge.

‘That’s good,’ she said cautiously. A serious knee injury had made it impossible for Cal ever to play football again. ‘I never really know how he is when I see him.’

For the last six months Cal had flown over at regular intervals to see Honey, and Angel had been back to the UK as well. Seeing Cal was always an unsettling experience; there were just too many unresolved issues between them. For the first month after she’d left him, Cal had told her he still loved her and begged her to take him back; Angel refused even to consider it. Then, once he realised she was not going to change her mind, Cal shut down. He was polite to her but gave no hint as to what he was feeling. In some ways this was just as unsettling as his declarations of love – her relationship with Cal had always been so passionate and intense it was hard to imagine that they could ever be just friends.

Angel didn’t want to ask the next question but couldn’t stop herself. ‘So is he seeing anyone?’ As far as she knew Cal hadn’t seen anyone since she’d left him.

‘Is who seeing anyone?’ Ethan was back from his meeting. Talk about bad timing! He couldn’t bear hearing Cal’s name mentioned. Whenever Cal picked up or dropped off Honey at the house, Ethan made sure he wasn’t around. It was as if he didn’t want Angel to have a past before him, which was pretty ironic given his own colourful love life.

She winced inwardly and tried to say as casually as possible, ‘Oh, just Cal.’

Ethan curled his lip and his blue eyes lost some of their warmth, but he didn’t react other than to say, ‘So is he?’

Gemma clearly guessed that this was a sore point between the couple so said breezily, ‘I don’t think so . . . he’s focussing on work right now. So how’s it going with you, Ethan? Jez and I are dying to see a baseball game when we’re out here.’

Angel shot a grateful look at her friend and also felt secretly relieved that Cal wasn’t seeing anyone. It shouldn’t matter to her what he was doing, but it did. She didn’t want to think about what that meant.

Ethan duly filled Gemma and Jez in on how the season was going so far – not that either of them had a clue what he was talking about.

‘Do you know A-Rod?’ Jez suddenly asked excitedly. ‘I was wondering if you did, because then you might be able to introduce us . . . and then I might get to meet Madonna! I mean, I don’t know if they’re still friends, but maybe . . .’ Jez
adored
Madonna; had worshipped her since her ‘Like A Virgin’ days.

‘Our paths have crossed a fair few times on the pitch,’ Ethan replied, ‘and I’ve met Madonna as well.’

Jez looked as if he might take off into orbit. ‘What is she like?’ he asked in awed tones.

Ethan shrugged. He was used to mixing with A-listers –
hell, he was an A-lister himself – but he humoured Jez. ‘Charming, tiny, lovely skin.’

‘Charming, tiny, lovely skin,’ Jez echoed back, as if he had discovered the meaning of the universe. ‘And what was she wearing?’

Another shrug from Ethan. ‘Some kinda black dress, I think, the first time. And the second time, a red dress . . . I really can’t remember.’

But that was not sufficient for Jez who proceeded to bombard him with questions. Could he guess the designer of the dress? What about the shoes? And what was her hair like? And her lipstick? And so on and so on, until Angel had to rescue Ethan by putting her hand over Jez’s mouth and exclaiming, ‘What are you like, Jez!’

They stayed chatting by the pool until the sun set. It was as if it was putting on a spectacular show just for them as the sky turned from blue to deep pink to vibrant orange. Angel felt incredibly happy to have her friends with her. She had made a few out here but none were as close to her as Jez and Gemma and she never felt she could quite let her guard down with them, whereas Jez and Gemma knew her through and through and she never had to pretend with them.

Jez and Gemma were jetlagged after their flight and crashed out pretty much at the same time as Angel got Honey ready for bed, both exclaiming about their luxurious guest rooms with en suite bathrooms filled with gorgeous Moulton Brown bath products.

Angel gave Honey her bath and then read to her until she fell asleep. ‘Night-night,’ she whispered, kissing her daughter on her soft baby cheek. ‘Mummy loves you and so does Daddy and so does Ethan.’ It was what she said to Honey every night.

She paused for a few minutes in the doorway, looking back at her daughter curled up so snug under her
Tinkerbell duvet cover, then found her gaze drawn to the photograph of Cal with Honey on his knee which stood on the beside table. It was the only photograph of Cal in the house and Angel knew that Ethan didn’t like having it there, even though he hadn’t said as much. Cal was smiling in the picture, making him look even more handsome. He was half-Italian, with olive skin and jet black hair which he always wore short. His deep brown eyes could appear distant at times, and at others full of passion. The small scar just below his right eyebrow, a souvenir from a collision on the football pitch, only made him sexier. Oh, Cal, where are you now? Angel wondered. She was sure she had made the right decision leaving him but that didn’t mean that it didn’t still hurt sometimes.

She tried to shrug off the feeling and wandered downstairs to the living room, intending to thank Ethan for the wonderful surprise he’d arranged, but he was on the phone, pacing the room, sounding furious.

‘Well, I don’t fucking know what to do about it. You’re my fucking agent,
you
sort it out. Jesus Christ, Benny, that’s what I pay you to do.’ He paused when he caught sight of Angel standing barefoot in the doorway. ‘Look, Benny, I gotta go, let’s speak in the morning.’ He clicked his phone off. ‘Hey, sorry about that, just some business with Benny.’

‘It sounded serious, is everything okay?’

‘Everything’s cool, baby.’ Ethan didn’t seem to want to discuss it. ‘Now why don’t we go outside in the hot tub and have a glass of champagne? It’s still our anniversary. And I reckon it’s time for the third surprise.’

‘Oh, no, you haven’t bought me something else!’ Angel exclaimed.

‘Nope, this one is free.’ Ethan murmured, putting his arm round her. ‘Let’s see if a thirty-year-old man who
is very much in love and in lust with a twenty-seven-year-old beauty can have sex three times in one day.’

‘Hah, I doubt it!’ Angel teased, but when Ethan kissed her and she pressed her body against his, she thought he was probably on to something.

‘
SO WHAT SHALL
we do today?’ Jez asked after he’d finally emerged from his bedroom the following morning, his highlighted blond hair carefully teased into spikes. Ethan had already left for training and Gemma and Angel were sitting by the pool, while Honey, ever the water baby, splashed in the water.

‘Your favourite thing Jez – retail! We can get a car to Rodeo Drive, have lunch at The Ivy, and in the evening Ethan is going to take us to Hyde – that really cool club.’

Angel was expecting Jez to be thrilled by the prospect of shopping and clubbing; instead he looked torn. ‘I promised Rufus I wouldn’t buy any clothes – like I said last night, things are a bit tight at the moment. He’s got me on a budget and I had to cut up my credit cards.’ Jez said the word ‘budget’ as if it was the dirtiest, nastiest thing in the world.

‘You don’t have to spend any money . . . I want to give you this.’ And Angel handed an envelope bulging with cash to each of her friends. She beamed, waiting for their reaction.

‘But there’s a thousand dollars here!’ Gemma exclaimed as she opened the envelope and flipped through the notes, ‘That is way too much.’

‘Too too much,’ Jez agreed. ‘We can’t take your money, Angel.’

‘I want you to have it,’ she urged them. ‘Buy yourselves something gorgeous.’ She wasn’t trying to be flash – she genuinely wanted to treat her friends. Money meant nothing if you couldn’t share it with the people you loved.

Jez and Gemma hesitated some more before finally giving in when Angel told them to think of it as an early Christmas present. And then they were ready to hit the stores. Lucy, the nanny, took Honey off to a toddlers’ art club and so it was just the three friends in the back of the chauffeur-driven Chrysler, laughing and gossiping.

They went into Prada and Jez bought a shirt for himself and one for Rufus. They browsed in Armani, Gucci and Valentino. In Dior Gemma bought herself some stylish black-framed sunglasses, taking nearly forty minutes to make her selection which almost drove Angel and Jez crazy, and Angel ended up buying two bikinis that she didn’t need, just for something to do. But that was Gemma: always wanting to make sure she spent the money well, and that she’d bought an ‘investment piece’, as she called it. Then it was off to The Ivy for lunch and celeb-spotting.

One of the things Angel loved about LA was that she didn’t get noticed much, or if she did people were so used to seeing stars they weren’t fazed. It wasn’t like the UK where the paps followed her every move. The press attention had been intense when she’d first moved over because her leaving Cal had been such a big story, but lately it had become more relaxed and she much preferred it that way. She was not the kind of celebrity who needed to see a story about herself in the paper to feel important, that her life had meaning.

Jez was in his element at the up market restaurant as they sat at a table on the patio with the white picket fence that he had seen in many a celeb mag. ‘That
picket fence is so iconic! It’s like the Hollywood sign,’ he exclaimed, then added, ‘Paris Hilton, two o’clock,’ out of the corner of his mouth. ‘Christina Aguilera, three o’clock.’ He was so excited he could barely eat the lobster ravioli he’d ordered. It was sweet seeing her friend so thrilled.