‘That means hours,’ said Carmen. ‘I want forty-five minutes for signing.’
‘He’s going to be tired, coming in transatlantic.’
‘Maybe he can draw on some of that festive spirit and positive energy,’ said Carmen.
The woman on the other end of the phone laughed. ‘Okay. He’s all yours. Get the turn-out though, won’t you? I don’t want it to be two crazy ladies and a dog.’
‘Yes!’ said Carmen, after she’d put down the phone. ‘Ching ching ching!’
‘Oh lord,’ said Mr McCredie. ‘And that was very rude about two crazy ladies and a dog.’
‘We are going to turn a profit if it kills me,’ said Carmen. ‘Although judging by the look of this book, it will be a zillion crazy ladies and absolutely no self-respecting dogs.’
It was amazing, once she started putting it about on social media, how many huge Blair Pfenning fans there were.
‘Seriously?’ she said when Sofia mentioned she might just be able to swing by from the office.
‘Have you seen his teeth?’ said Sofia. ‘So straight!’
‘I thought you only readInteriorsmagazine and theEdinburgh Law Review.’
‘No!’ said Sofia. ‘I read! Self-help can be very useful.’
She gave her sister a meaningful look.
‘Really?’ said Carmen. ‘As useful as Rainbow Rowell? Or Douglas Adams? I doubt it.’
Sofia, though she was clearly excited, turned to Carmen seriously. This could be just the thing to put some get up and go into her sister.
‘And his advice, you know. Find something true to your spirit and your soul and do it every day.’
Carmen frowned.
‘What, make packed lunches?’
‘No,’ said Sofia. ‘Find your centring bliss.’
Carmen’s glance went to the wine fridge.
‘Not like that. Anyway. I think he’s super.’
‘I think he sounds up himself,’ said Carmen, looking at him online where there were lots of pictures of him showing off his horses.
‘“Being with my horses is the only place I can feel truly free”,’ she read. ‘See. All his friends are horses. He obviously doesn’t have much conversation.’
‘Maybe he’s rich and lonely,’ said Sofia.
Carmen sniffed. ‘Yeah, that’s what young, fit, super-rich guys with all their hair are. Suffering from a terrible lack of company.’
‘Well, you should washyourhair just in case.’
Pippa marched in with her bassoon.
‘I’m going to be leading the school show!’ she announced. ‘Mrs McGillicuddy said so!’
‘Oh darling, that’s wonderful!’ said Sofia while Pippa smiled defiantly at Carmen, as if it were a victory over her too for not having praised her enough. It had not escaped Pippa that Carmen often seemed to be siding with Phoebe, and that would not do. Not at all.
‘Congratulations,’ said Carmen, without offering to listen to it. She assumed there’d be enough of Sofia’s children doing enforced showing-off between now and the big day.
