I Knew You Were Trouble: A Jessie Jefferson Novel (17 page)

Isn’t she mad at me?

I pull away and look at her in confusion, but she steps back to make way for Gramps.

‘Glad you’re OK, kiddo,’ he says, giving me a quick squeeze before releasing me, and then Johnny’s arms are around me and he’s holding me tightly and stroking my
hair. It’s easily the longest hug he’s ever given me, and I’m so taken aback that I extract myself first. His green eyes are full of concern as he stares at me and shakes his
head.

‘Aren’t you angry with me?’ I ask.

‘Yes.’ He nods decisively.

Oh.

‘Furious,’ he adds.

Whoops.

‘But I’m glad you’re safe,’ he continues, to my relief. ‘If anything had happened to you…’ He shakes his head.

Yes, I imagine he
would
feel guilty. But maybe there’s more to it than that…

Just as I think that thought, he pulls me back into his arms. My stomach goes all fluttery. This is my dad. My real dad. And he cares about me. Quite a lot from the length of the hug going on
here. OK, now it’s getting hard to breathe.

He pulls away. ‘Don’t ever do anything like that again!’ he warns angrily, the smile gone from his face.

‘I won’t.’ I shake my head vigorously.

‘I mean it. Security is there for your protection. If I say you need a bodyguard, you need a bodyguard!’

‘I get it.’

‘Good.’ He grins and gives me another squeeze, making me think he’s got some sort of personality disorder which sends him bouncing from happy to mad in seconds.

‘I really am sorry,’ I say sincerely.

He shakes his head, wrapping his arm round my neck and walking me towards the house. ‘No. This is my fault.’

‘Come on, Jessie!’ Barney distracts us.

‘What?’ I say to Johnny, baffled by what he’s just said. ‘No, it’s not, it’s—’

‘We’ll talk about it later,’ he cuts me off, nodding with a smile at his young son jumping up and down at our feet. ‘More important things to attend to.’

I smile at him and follow Barney into the living room.

The first time I saw Johnny and Meg’s house, I was lost for words. Set high up in the hills, floor-to-ceiling panes of glass look out onto the sun-drenched terrace with its infinity pool
and view of LA far down below in the valley. At night, the stars above have to compete with the city lights, and inside it’s just as stunning.

In complete contrast to their opulent English mansion, this pad is slick and modern, with large, spacious areas and cool designer furniture. The living room runs almost the entire length of the
back of the house and is mostly a double-height space, with the kitchen off to one side. Polished concrete stairs in the middle of the living space lead up to a landing safeguarded by a low wall,
with the bedrooms and Johnny’s studio leading off it. Underneath the bedrooms, behind the living room, are the office, a gym and a private cinema.

After being momentarily blinded by the afternoon sunshine spilling in through the enormous windows, I spy Phoenix watching CBeebies on the huge flatscreen telly.

‘Phee!’ I cry, scooping him up into my arms and kissing one of his chubby cheeks.

‘Phee?’ Meg asks me with a smile. ‘I think that’s going to stick,’ she says.

Phee and Bee, my little brothers.

Apparently Meg has lined up a tutor for me. I’ll be taking lessons at home so I won’t fall behind on my GCSEs. But this week I’ll just be settling in and
getting over my jet lag. I didn’t sleep at all on the plane – too much adrenalin – so now I’m hitting the ground running, trying to go for as long as possible before I call
it a night. I don’t want to be waking up at 3 a.m. to a silent house and be raring to go.

I do, however, slip out after a while to call Stu – and Tom.

‘I can’t believe you’re gone…’ Tom’s deep voice travels down the line. ‘It’s only just starting to sink in.’

‘I know what you mean,’ I reply. ‘It all happened so fast.’

‘I’m going back to school tomorrow,’ he says. ‘It won’t be the same without you.’

‘So soon?’ I ask with surprise.

‘I need a distraction,’ he replies glumly.

‘Will you call me after school?’

‘Sure. Should I use your mobile?’ he asks.

‘No, let me give you the home number.’ He waits while I fidget through my phone and relay it to him. ‘Did you get that?’ I ask.

‘Yeah.’ He laughs and I can almost see him shaking his head. ‘I still can’t believe you’re staying with Johnny Jefferson.’

‘Mmm,’ I reply with a smile. I don’t tell him that I’m already loving it.

It doesn’t take long for Agnes to call to arrange a catch-up. Within a few days, Davey is driving me to see her with Lewis in tow. Sam still hasn’t returned to work
full-time – he’s certainly not up to being a personal bodyguard – and Johnny is taking no chances.

Agnes and I are meeting at one of our old haunts, the Skybar in the Mondrian Hotel in Hollywood. She’s already there when I arrive, sitting in the warm autumnal sunshine, tapping away on
her iPad. She’s taller than me by a couple of inches and her black hair is cut into an edgy, blunt bob. Her eyeliner, as usual, is drawn on thick, but today her lips are neutral. She wants to
be a fashion designer and always looks very cool. Today she’s wearing a yellow minidress, her legs still tanned from summer.

She’s so engrossed in what she’s doing that she doesn’t see me until I’m standing right over her table.

‘Good morning,’ I say in a plummy English accent, making her head whip up in surprise.

‘Jessie!’ she gasps, getting to her feet.

‘Hello.’ I giggle as she hugs me.

‘I can’t believe you’re back!’

‘Neither can I,’ I admit, a bit unhappily.

‘I heard what happened!’ she whispers, her face paling slightly as she pulls me to sit next to her on a bench seat running the length of the city-view window. ‘Are you
OK?’

‘I’m alright.’ I shrug, bizarrely aware of Lewis standing on the other side of the bar, near the door. I notice I’m getting a couple of curious glances from the clientele
at the bar, but people are used to seeing full-blown A-listers here in Hollywood, so hopefully I’ll be mostly ignored. ‘
None
of this feels real, to be honest. It hasn’t for
months.’

Her eyes narrow. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you had a boyfriend?’

‘Sorry.’ I don’t know why I didn’t. Or maybe I do.

‘Obviously I read about what happened,’ she adds significantly.

‘It felt pretty hairy there for a minute,’ I admit with a small shrug.

She calls out to a passing waitress. ‘Excuse me!’ The waitress comes over and Agnes turns to me: ‘What would you like?’

I order a latte and then fall into a thoughtful silence. I should have told Agnes about Tom. It’s not like we haven’t texted back and forth a few times. The truth is that I
didn’t want Jack to know. Being with Tom means I’m strictly off limits, but I guess I wanted to see if Jack would contact me of his own accord.

And he did.

Enough of that. Now Agnes needs the gossip. So I plaster a smile on my face that soon becomes genuine as I tell her all about Tom Ryder, the hottest boy in school.

‘Do you love him?’ she asks, a slight crease between her dark eyebrows.

‘I don’t know,’ I reply carefully. I glance at Lewis, but he’s pretending not to pay us any attention. ‘I think so, but we haven’t said it yet.’

She takes a sip of her coffee. ‘Jack told me he texted you.’

My heart unwittingly spikes at the mention of his name. ‘Yeah.’ I try to nod casually. ‘That was sweet.’

‘So you don’t have the hots for him any more?’

I’m not surprised by her directness – Agnes is nothing if not direct – but I still tense up.

‘You said it yourself, he’s trouble.’

‘That didn’t exactly answer my question,’ she points out.

‘I’m with Tom now.’

‘Still not answering my question,’ she notes with amusement.

‘What does it matter?’ I exclaim, my blush deepening under her scrutiny.

‘It matters,’ she replies with a smirk, and then, thankfully, the waitress returns with my latte.

‘It’s so strange to be back,’ I say, looking around.

‘Oh, no, you’re not changing the subject that easily,’ Agnes says. ‘Jack almost came with me today.’

I nearly choke on my drink. ‘Did he?’ I manage to ask between coughs.

‘He missed you when you left.’

‘That’s what you said last time. Wasn’t it: “He was bummed when you left” or something like that?’

‘More or less.’

‘Well, he didn’t bother to reply to my email. Anyway!’ I cry. ‘What does it matter? He’s not boyfriend material, and he’s on the other side of the
Atlantic.’

‘Not any more,’ Agnes says with satisfaction. I get the distinct feeling that she’s enjoying herself.

‘Well, I have a boyfriend now, so it doesn’t matter, anyway.’

‘Even though
he’s
now the one on the other side of the Atlantic?’ she enquires sweetly.

‘He won’t be for long. I’ll be going home soon.’

‘How do you see that panning out?’ she asks. ‘What’s the point of going back? Life won’t be as you left it. You’ll have to go to private school; you
won’t be able to stay in your house. Everything’s going to change.’

‘Don’t I know it,’ I mumble.

‘Why don’t you just stay in LA?’ she asks. ‘You know, move here. Permanently. You could come to school with me!’ she exclaims, her look of glee faltering when she
sees my face. ‘Or not,’ she adds, reaching for her coffee and freezing in mid-air. ‘Oh, God, I meant to tell you! Lottie’s having a Halloween party next weekend.
You’ve got to come! We’ll go shopping for an outfit together. Can we?’ she asks when I don’t answer.

‘Sure,’ I reply with a smile. ‘Why not?’

‘Great! What are you doing tomorrow?’

It’s the following weekend and, as Johnny won’t let me go anywhere without Davey or Lewis or both, we’ve swung by to pick up Agnes.

Meg took me aside earlier and gently encouraged me to indulge Johnny until he gets over the kidnapping scare. But I hope he chills out soon. There’s only so much babysitting that I’m
going to be able to take.

‘Oh my God, you look amazing!’ Agnes cries, climbing into the limo beside me.

‘So do you!’ I give her a kiss, being careful not to get my blood-red lipstick all over her.

We’ve seen each other’s outfits already – we went shopping for them together, after all – but now our hair and make-up are done and we look properly scary. And hopefully
a little sexy, too. At least, that was the plan. She’s dressed as a witch, in a black sequinned bustier and flared miniskirt, with dark make-up, messy blue-black hair extensions and a sparkly
hat. I’m the Bride of Dracula, in a shredded white lace wedding dress, my blonde hair backcombed all over the place, my eye make-up muted, but my lipstick making up for it.

‘Is… Is Jack coming? Does he need a lift?’ I dare to ask, stuttering slightly, despite my attempts to sound cool and unbothered. Dammit.

‘No, he’s meeting us there.’

My heart falls at her no, but skips at the second part of her sentence. I shouldn’t care if he’s going or not.

We all live up in the hills, so it doesn’t take long to get to Lottie’s house. Davey drives us in through the back entrance and I’m surprised to see that all of the mansion
lights are off. It looks deserted, but Lottie lives in a log cabin guesthouse in the garden and I can hear the music pounding through the limo doors as we approach. The mansion probably has twenty
bedrooms, but Lottie still finds it cramped, thanks to her dislike of her dad’s most recent wife.

Johnny has deemed the security at the Tremway mansion sufficient, so Lewis doesn’t have to babysit me tonight. Davey promises to come back for me as soon as I call him and reminds me of my
midnight curfew. I’ve only just got over my jet lag so I think I can just about cope with that.

Agnes hooks her arm through mine and, as Davey’s headlights turn away from us, our eyes adjust to the darkness.

Agnes said Lottie’s Halloween parties were not to be missed. She wasn’t lying.

The log cabin is lit only by the light of hundreds of candles and a multitude of red lanterns hanging from the branches of the surrounding trees. There are dozens of pumpkin lanterns lining our
path and resting on every visible surface, all carved with gruesome faces. I can’t even imagine how much time it took to do them – the house staff have probably been working on them all
week. I bet there was a professional party planner involved. Fake cobwebs drift down from the trees and I can see the shadowy shapes of spiders set within them. The whole effect is spooky and very,
very cool.

There must be about thirty or forty people here already, but I don’t recognise anyone, not helped by the fact that they’re all in fancy dress. Suddenly a girl comes over, her face
hidden in the darkness behind a red hood glittering with sequins.

‘Hey!’ Agnes addresses Little Red Riding Hood with delight. A moment later I realise that underneath the hood is teen star and host, Charlotte Tremway.

They hug and gush a few compliments before Agnes indicates me.

‘Jessie!’ Lottie exclaims. ‘Agnes told me you were back.’

‘Yeah,’ I say with a small shrug, although I’m pleased with her happy reaction to seeing me.

‘Come get a drink!’

A bar has been set up on the deck outside the cabin and there’s a hot, goth-like barman mixing cocktails and pouring drinks. Cut-glass bowls full of red punch sparkle on the surface, lit
from within with glowing, plastic ice cubes in the shape of eyeballs.

Lottie pokes her head between ours. ‘The punch is amazing,’ she drawls.

‘
How
amazing?’ Agnes asks meaningfully.

‘Pretty amazing, but it will get more amazing as the night wears on,’ she says with a sly smile. ‘Although I’ve got to be careful. Colleen will have me arrested, given
half a chance.’

Colleen is her stepmother.

There are DJ decks set up on the other side of the cabin and loud music is blaring out of the speakers. I take a sip of my drink –
yum
– and look around. Some of the costumes
defy belief. One girl is dressed up like a comic-book character with bright orange hair and black spots dotted all over her face to make it look as though she’s been pixelated. There are the
usual mummies, ghouls and superheroes, but everyone has gone to such an effort.
Then again, I suppose they have the money to pay for it
, I think to myself.