Her Sweet Surrender. Nina Harrington
Elwood came out from Amber’s penthouse apartment with a tray of the most delicious-looking bite-sized snacks, which she wafted in front of Amber. ‘Test samples for your birthday party. I need you to taste them all and tell me which ones you like best.’
Kate half rose out of her chair. ‘Hey, don’t I get to try them too? I could scoff the lot. And breakfast was hours ago.’
‘You’re next but the birthday girl has first pick. Besides, she needs fattening up a bit. What did they feed you in that hospital, anyway? I can’t have you coming to my dining room looking all pale and scrawny.’
Amber munched away on a mini disc of bacon and herb pizza and made humming sounds of appreciation before speaking between bites. ‘No appetite. It was so hot and I was asleep most of the time. And the food certainly wasn’t as good as this. These are fantastic.’
‘Thought you would like it and there are lots more to come. So tuck in.’
Kate snatched a tiny prawn mayo sandwich and chewed it down in one huge bite before sighing in pleasure. ‘Oh, that is so good. Amber DuBois, it was a genius idea to have your birthday party at Saskia’s house.’
‘It was the very least I could do. Ten years is a long time and all three of us have come a long way,’ Amber replied and raised her coffee as a toast. ‘I missed you both so much. To the goddesses.’
‘The goddesses,’ Kate and Saskia echoed and all three of them settled back in their chairs in the sunshine with the tray of snacks between them, hot Italian blend coffee and the sound of the city way below to break up the contented sighs.
‘So what have you been up to, Amber?’ Saskia asked, her eyes shielded with a hand as she nibbled on a fresh cream profiterole drizzled with chocolate sauce. ‘It must get you down when you’re unable to practise for hours like you usually do.’
Amber waved her right arm in the air and turned the plaster cast covering her wrist from side to side. ‘Frustrating more than anything, but the exercises are keeping my fingers working and I have to get used to being one handed for a few more weeks. Only that isn’t the problem. There is something missing and somehow...’ Then she gave a chuckle and shook her head. ‘Oh, ignore me. I’m just being silly.’
‘Oh, no, you don’t,’ Saskia said in a low voice. ‘We can tell that there is something bothering you. And you know that we’re not going to let it drop until you tell us what the problem is. So come on. Spill. Out with it.’
Amber focused her gaze on the terrace. Bright flowering plants and conifers spilled out of colourful planters in front of a panoramic view across the London city skyline.
‘Yesterday I was feeling down in the dumps so I pulled out my favourite music scores. If I have a spare hour or two on tour I can usually visualise the performance in my head and it is the one thing that is always guaranteed to cheer me up and have me bouncing with excitement.’
She paused and sighed low and slow. ‘But not this time. I didn’t feel a thing. There was nothing that made me want to tear off this plaster cast and play. Seriously. It’s as though all of my passion for the music has gone out of the window.’
She paused and looked from Saskia to Kate and then back to Saskia again. ‘And that’s scary, girls. I don’t know how to do anything else.’
The silence echoed between the three of them before Kate put her mug down on the metal mesh table with a dramatic thud.
‘Amber? Sweetie? It might have something to do with the fact that you have just spent months in hospital recovering from the infection you caught in India. And yes, I know that it is still our secret. We won’t tell anyone. But you have to give yourself time to recover and get your mojo back. Maybe even be kind to yourself and let your body heal, instead of running from place to place at top speed. How about that for a crazy idea?’
Amber blew out long and slow. ‘You’re right. This is the first time in years that I have been in London long enough to take stock. I just feel that I am lost and drifting on my own. Again.’
Saskia slid over to the end of Amber’s lounger and wrapped her fingers around her arm. ‘No, you’re not. You will always have a home at Elwood House. And don’t you dare forget that.’
Amber smiled into the faces of her two best friends in the world. Friends who had somehow got pushed lower and lower on her priority list over the past few years, and yet they were the very people who had come running the first time she asked.
‘I don’t know what I did to deserve you two. Thanks. It means a lot. But I won’t put you out too much.’
‘Decision made, young lady,’ Saskia said in a jokey serious voice. ‘You are coming to stay with me at Elwood House as my birthday present, and you are going to be cosseted, whether you like it or not.’
‘Oh, that sounds good,’ Kate said, and snuggled back further onto the soft cushion of the patio lounger. ‘Can I come over and be cosseted in exchange for making curtains and cushions? I could use a good cosset.’
‘You and your needlework skills are welcome any time.’ Saskia laughed and gestured towards Amber with her head. ‘I’m going to need some help keeping this one from wearing herself out getting ready for her birthday party.’
Amber dropped her head back and closed her eyes as bright warm sunshine broke through the light cloud cover. Then she turned back to face Saskia and Kate, who were looking at her. ‘It’s going to be like old times. The three of us, camped out at Elwood House. But at least this time I’m not running away from home to spite my mother by eloping with Sam Richards.’
Saskia peered at her through narrowed eyes. ‘Ah, yes. Sam.’ She nodded. ‘Were you okay? With seeing him again? Because I still cannot believe that you went there on your own.’
‘Ah. So you think I would be safe from the evil clutches of the teenage boy who broke my heart and betrayed me with one of my best friends if I stayed here in my ivory tower penthouse like a fairy tale princess waiting to be rescued.’
She laughed and said with a snort, ‘Not a chance, gorgeous. I refuse to be turned into some kind of recluse just because the press want to know why I decided to retire. Besides, I’ve been working with reporters like Sam Richards for years. He doesn’t bother me.’
Kate shuffled to the edge of her seat, her bottom jiggling with excitement while Saskia just chuckled softly to herself. ‘Really?’
Amber pushed out her famous moisture lipstick slicked lips. ‘Oh, yes. My musician friend Parvita runs a wonderful charity in India who could certainly use the fee, only...’ she sighed with a slight quiver in her voice and Saskia and Kate instantly leant closer towards her ‘...I’ve had enough of that circus who think that they can make up any kind of story and get away with it. I have helped the media sell newspapers and magazines for the last ten years. And now I’m done with it. I am not playing that game any more. And they are going to have to get used to the idea. This time I call the shots.’
Kate’s eyebrows lifted. ‘I knew it! You’re going to charge them megabucks for a full page nude shot with you sitting at a white grand piano with only discreet pieces of sheet music and fabulous jewels to cover your modesty? That could be fun.’
Amber and Saskia both turned and stared at Kate in silence.
‘What? So I have a vivid imagination?’ Kate shrugged.
Amber frowned at Kate for a moment and then blinked. ‘Not exactly what I had in mind and no, it wouldn’t be fun, not even for the megabucks. But do you know what? The more I thought about it, the more I got to thinking that maybe Sam does have something we can trade with after all.’
Kate drew back and squinted at her suspiciously. ‘Go on.’
‘I need to get the past off my back. Parvita’s charity and my birthday party are going to take all of my time and energy, and the last thing I need is a troop of paparazzi making my life even more of a nightmare.’
‘You