‘And if I stayed here tonight… would I need to go book a connecting room?’
‘No.’ That one was the easiest answer of them all.
‘Zac, is this crazy? I swear I’m normally pretty sane and rational but this… You know I look for you everywhere. I’ve come to this airport every year, just because I hoped I’d see you and I was over the moon when I found you last year. And that’s so wrong because I was engaged, and yet…’ She stopped, running out of words, so he took over.
‘I’m normally pretty sane and rational,’ he copied her words, incredulous that they’d both been searching for each other all these years. ‘But I look for you everywhere too. Every time I come through this airport, I go to every bar, every lounge, every coffee shop, hoping I’ll see you too. When I found you last year, it felt like my heart stopped. Tonight, it felt like it finally started again. And I’m not a mushy guy who usually says stuff like that.’
‘I’m not a mushy woman who usually likes it,’ was her perfect reply.
‘So Ollie and you?’
‘My best friend.’
‘And me?’
She stepped forward, raised her face to his, then kissed him. ‘Let’s start with being the guy I meet in airport hotels and see where we are by morning.’
EPILOGUE
SIX MONTHS LATER
It was a gorgeous July morning, and a small crowd was already starting to form outside the old church on Newart Street, on the South Side of Glasgow. Most of the bystanders were local residents or fans, desperate to get a glimpse of Ollie Chiles, who was holding a press conference that morning to announce what was happening with the timeworn, neglected building. The banner outside was a bit of a giveaway, right enough – The Moira Chiles Academy of Music and Drama. As far as the neighbourhood was concerned, the place hadn’t even opened yet, but already it was making a difference. The crowd of lads who always hung around the end of this street drinking and getting up to no good had been given jobs working on the site, on the condition that they turned up on time every morning and put in a solid day’s work. Not one of them had missed a shift yet.
Amidst the chaos of the building site inside, preparations were underway to introduce some of the key members of staff to the media that was congregating in what would have been the vestibule of the old church. Ollie and Calvin were on their third cups of coffee, as they finished preparing what they were going to announce.
‘You know, every time something goes wrong with the construction, I think I could be spending my retirement on a sun lounger in Marbella… but I wouldn’t swap this chaos for the world,’ Calvin said. ‘I mean look at me. I have dust on this Tom Ford suit, and I’m not freaking out. I’m like a different man.’
Ollie’s million-dollar grin was as wide as ever. In fact, his grin had been a pretty permanent feature lately. Filming had wrapped on the latest season ofThe Clansmanat the beginning of May, and he’d spent every moment since in Glasgow, working here full time with Calvin and the rest of the team, and sleeping in his own bed every night. This morning, when he’d woken up, he’d realised that he’d never been happier. Although part of that might have something to do with the woman who had been lying next to him.
As Calvin went off to greet the press, Casey Lowden came into the room, her dark hair swept back in a ponytail, no make-up on, paint stains on her dungarees. He thought he’d never seen a more gorgeous sight in his life. ‘Ollie Chiles, you really need to stop looking at me like that or we’ll never get any work done,’ she said, slipping her arms around his neck and going up on to her tiptoes so that she could kiss him.
‘That would be fine with me,’ he said, grinning as his lips met hers.
This was the way it had been since they’d got together in January. He’d returned to LA from Drea’s incredibly beautiful, romantic wedding and cleared out all his stuff from the home he’d shared with Sienna, into a small but stunning apartment just off Sunset Boulevard. Thankfully, Sienna had been out of town that weekend – footage on social media showed her dancing in a Vegas club with Van and an entourage of people he didn’t even recognise – so there had been no awkward reunions or recriminations. In fact, they’d only spoken through lawyers since then, and their quickie divorce was already doneand dusted. Her insistence on a pre-nup when they got married, and the fact that they’d never integrated their finances, meant that they both walked away with their own earnings, their own assets, and for him, a large dose of relief.
Anyway, he’d been organising his new crash pad when Casey had called him to say she was in town for meetings. They’d met at the Mondrian for drinks, and she hadn’t left his side until she had to come back to shoot her next scenes onThe Clydeside. After that, they’d made the long-distance thing work, but it had been bliss to wake up next to her every morning since he got back to Glasgow. This was his base now, and he would travel when he was working on location, but other than that, this was where he was going to be.
‘Right, Ollie Chiles, put that woman down. I brought you up better than that.’ As always, Moira liked to make an entrance.
‘Don’t worry, Moira, it was me leading him astray,’ Casey joked back. Casey’s relationship with his mum was like night and day compared to the one his mum had had with Sienna. The two of them had hit it off straight away and that hadn’t changed as they’d got to know each other better. Casey gave him a quick peck on the lips. ‘I need to go get ready for the press conference. I’ll see you there.’
Calvin had amassed an awesome group of talent to spearhead the academy, but Casey was Ollie’s favourite member of the board. The deal was that this was a free academy, open to the young people of Glasgow for both full-time and part-time courses and lessons. The other big acting names would run workshops, fund raise and keep the profile of the centre high, but Ollie and Calvin were the main investors.
‘You know, son, I’m not sure whether I love her or you more,’ his mother teased him, with a cheeky wink, before plonking herself down on the chair Calvin had vacated. ‘In case I haven’tsaid this in the last twenty-four hours, I couldn’t be prouder of you, Ollie. Or more grateful to be back on dry land.’
One of the first appointments they’d made at the academy was a powerhouse singing talent, who had forty years of experience in the business. And Moira couldn’t wait to pass everything she knew on to the next generation. Neither could her best mate, one of the actresses who would be volunteering to teach drama, and who was currently wafting in, kaftan trailing behind her.
‘Darling, why are you sitting down?’ she asked Moira. ‘We have press to greet and people to charm. Let’s go.’ Jacinta McIntyre, ever the consummate professional, wafted right back out again, taking Moira, before pausing to greet two new arrivals in the doorway.
Kara gave both her mum and Moira quick hugs, as she passed them, feeling yet another huge wave of nostalgia at seeing the two women together again. They’d been inseparable since Moira had come home and moved into Jacinta’s spare room and Kara was pretty convinced that they were out most nights living their best lives. As they definitely should. They’d even been polite and friendly to the man standing next to her.
‘Ollie, Josh is here and he just wants to run through the key points of his speech.’
Ollie immediately got up to shake Josh’s hand and Kara appreciated that Ollie was making an effort too. It helped that Josh had redeemed himself for the lack of judgement that had caused her to call off their wedding, by offering to run the PR for the academy free of charge. Of course, it was great profile for his company, and there were already lots of overlaps with his existing client base. He still represented the Clydeside Studio, but he had dropped Corbin Jacobs, who had last been seen doing an advert for washing up liquid, as people in the industry hadstrangely become reluctant to work with him. Kara tried not to relish his downfall, but it wasn’t easy.
‘I’ll leave you two to get organised – the construction manager has a couple of questions for me about the wardrobe department.’
‘Dinner later?’ Josh asked her.
