Page 20 of Lie For Me

‘And you must introduce me,’ her mother cooed, turning to face Jack.

Lucy smiled as Jack smoothed down his shirt and stood up straighter under her mother’s scrutiny.

She took a deep breath.

Here goes nothing.

‘Mum, may I present Jack, my—’ She hesitated for a beat, even though she knew what she had to say. ‘My boyfriend. Jack, this is my mum, Valerie.’

Valerie extended a manicured hand, and Jack, the stress of the bags set aside, raised it to his lips and kissed it.

‘How charming,’ Valerie said, slipping her arm through Jack’s. ‘Lucy has mentioned you, of course, but,’ she batted her eyelashes and simpered up at him, ‘she never said just how handsome you are. Or how tall.’

Jack caught Lucy’s eye and grinned triumphantly. Lucy rolled her eyes so hard she nearly detached her retina.

‘And she never said she got her own good looks from her mother,’ Jack replied, smooth as silk, patting Valerie’s hand where it rested on his arm.

Lucy, unused to seeing this side of Jack, felt her mouth fall open.

‘Well, I can't wait for you to meet the rest of the family,’ Valerie said, as she guided Jack toward the hotel. ‘Lucy can’t keep you a secret any longer!’

Over her shoulder, she called, ‘Lucy, drinks are this way!’

Lucy mumbled something unintelligible, wafted her damp dress again, and stared at the stack of bags as Valerie and Jack retreated towards the shade of the hotel terrace.

The spaniels shifted listlessly under the tree, searching for a cooler patch of grass. Lucy could hear the clink of glasses from the terrace and sighed. She could still taste the cheesy puffs she’d eaten earlier, and her lips felt parched as she contemplated a cold glass of wine and a cool shower. She was weighing up the bags to find the two most manageable ones when Jack’s voice was in her ear.

‘Come here,’ he said, reaching round her to take some bags.

‘Oh,’ Lucy puffed happily and let go of the bags. ‘My mother released you, did she?’

‘Oh yes, when I told her it wasn’t right,’ he put his hand on his heart and pulled a face of great earnestness, ‘for me to leave you with the luggage, she let me go. Such a gentleman, she said. Said you were a lucky girl.’

‘She hasn’t seen your downward dog in yoga,’ Lucy muttered, slinging the heavier bags Jack’s way. ‘Or hung out with you the morning after a beer and curry night.’

‘Don’t be crass, darling,’ Jack said, blowing her a kiss. ‘Remember—you’re a lucky girl, and I am very handsome.’

Jack swung the bags easily over his shoulder and set off back in the direction of the terrace, where Valerie was frantically waving at them. Lucy shuffled behind, lugging one of the lighter bags and muttering something about smothering Jack in his sleep.

‘Over here, darlings!’ Valerie called. ‘Come and say hello before you check in.’

Lucy, after five hours in a hot car with no air conditioning, her dress sticking to her back, and her hair sticking to her forehead, would dearly have loved to scurry off to their room and a cold shower. Jack, however, somehow far less frazzled and wilted by the journey, despite their unexpected detour around Shropshire countryside, was divesting himself of luggage and greeting her parents. Lucy dragged the bag up the terrace steps, puffing and panting, before dropping it like a lead weight at the top. She flicked her hair from her eyes, wiped her sweaty palms on her dress and grudgingly shuffled up to the group.

‘Jack.’ Valerie was clasping his hand and gazing at him like a new favourite son. ‘This is my husband and,’ she glanced back at Lucy panting her way along the terrace, ‘Lucy’s father, James.’

Her father shook Jack’s hand vigorously, the ubiquitous large glass of red in his other hand.

‘Welcome, Jack, you’re very welcome,’ he said, pumping Jack’s hand.

Lucy locked eyes with her father over Jack’s shoulder, and he smiled broadly as he opened his arms.

‘Sweetheart, so good to see you.’

Jack stepped aside, and Lucy staggered into her father’s solid and comforting hug and inhaled his familiar smell of Old Spice aftershave, cigar smoke and a hint of merlot. James was tall and solid, with a modest middle-aged spread that Valerie’s attempts at diets had failed to fully curb. Of all her family, Lucy felt closest to her father. He was a little quieter, like her. To Lucy, he seemed like an oasis of stillness amongst the tumult and urgent energy her mother and sister brought.

‘Hi, Dad.’

‘Hello, my Lucy-Lou,’ James murmured into the top of her head.

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