‘Yes, well, apparently, she has no family, so I imagine she’s very grateful,’ I said.
‘She’s had a terrible childhood. Her parents died in a car crash, you know.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know that,’ I said. ‘Thing is, she told me the other day that her dad was a New Yorker “born and bred”， but I remember her saying her father was Italian – from Sorrento,’ I added.
‘Perhaps he’d spent time in Italy – or America? Her parents were killed driving home from an evening out. She was really young, left just her and her sister – she told me last night, at the restaurant.’
As my own father was killed in a car accident, this was something I could relate to – if what she said was true.
‘Mmm, so you two were talking quite a bit last night,’ I said. ‘I noticed she’d saved a place for you right next to her.’ I smiled at him, letting him know I was watching, but at the same time not overreacting. ‘In fact, she sat everyone where she wanted to at the restaurant, didn’t she? And what did I hear her saying to you about a private chat… something about the website?’
‘Oh, just talk really. Like you said before, she thinks we have this big business, and I don’t have the heart to tell her that our Jamie’s not a millionaire son of property magnates,’ he laughed. ‘She’s keen to get involved in our Instagram account. Says she’d photograph the buildings and make them look sexy.’
‘Sexy? Has she seen what kind of property Taylor’s manage?’
‘Yeah, Dad nearly choked on his linguine,’ he laughed.
‘I told you, Dan, she’s imagining glossy skyscrapers and penthouse apartments with hot tubs on the roof. I don’t know how she’s going to make a few blocks of flats and warehouses look sexy.’ I giggled. ‘She really has got the wrong idea, and it’s not really fair if Jamie’s allowing her to think Taylor’s is a global property enterprise or something.’
‘He does like to impress the ladies, our Jamie, and let’s face it – he’s never let the truth spoil his chat-up lines.’
‘Someone should explain to her,’ I said, wondering if that person should have been me.
‘To be fair I did try. I wanted to break it to her gently, I said we’re a small company doing small projects.” But do you know what she said?’
I shook my head, intrigued.
‘That Jamie had told her I was too modest! That I put the business down and try to make out it’s nothing.’
‘Jamie’s a bit much sometimes, isn’t he?’ I smiled. ‘He tells these amazing stories about his adventures abroad, and it’s great to listen to, he has such an imagination, but I’ve always wondered if he adds his own colour.’
‘Yeah, he’s been like that since we were kids,’ Dan frowned, ‘always wanted the biggest, the best – and if he hasn’t got that, he still says he has. But Ella said he’d also told her I had no ambition, which pissed me off.’
There had always been some disconnect between Dan and his brother, which had been kept at bay by Jamie often being on the other side of the world. I wondered how it was going to play out when they started working together.
‘Mmm, I’d take what she says with a pinch of salt,’ I sighed. ‘If you ask me, it’s not just Jamie who has an interesting relationship with the truth. I wouldn’t be surprised if she told you he’d said something, when in fact he didn’t. She was probably trying to cause trouble, she’s come between me and Joy, and she tries to come between me and you too.’ I gave him a warning look.
‘You might be right, but I’m sure she isn’t trying to cause any trouble,’ he said. Dan just saw what was presented to him, a fragile, innocent rose who was vulnerable and needed protecting. That’s why he’d found it so easy to cheat, I reasoned. Because he liked to protect people, and figured Marilyn – and probably the stewardess before her – needed him more than me. ‘It wouldn’t be in Ella’s interests to cause trouble between me and Jamie. We’ve got to work together,’ he said, obviously still considering this.
I just nodded. I wasn’t going to get into all that again. Tonight I was going to change their minds. She wasn’t the angelic little flower they all thought she was. This was a woman who for some reason seemed hell-bent on tearing us all apart.
‘Technically, now she’s married to Jamie, they’ll have half the business,’ Dan suddenly said, like he’d only just realised the implications.