I Knew You Were Trouble: A Jessie Jefferson Novel (32 page)

I shrug, then shake my head.

‘Come on,’ she says. ‘You should! Agnes is dying to see you, and now you’ll be going to school here you should get to know some of her other friends a bit better,
too.’

‘I don’t want to drag Davey out again,’ I reply, shaking my head. ‘It’s New Year’s Eve – he’s with his family.’

‘Johnny will take you,’ she says immediately.

I hesitate, and that’s all it takes for her to push herself out from the table and go out of the door. She shouts up the stairs.

‘Johnny! I’ll take over. Can you give Jessie a lift to the Tremways’?’

He takes me on his motorcycle, just for fun. And it
is
fun now.

‘Can I get a bike?’ I ask him, as I climb off.

‘When hell freezes over,’ he replies, deadpan. ‘What time do you want collecting?’

‘Can’t I just grab a cab?’

He shakes his head determinedly. ‘I’ll come back for you. Will one o’clock be OK?’ he asks.

‘One a.m.?’ I check with surprise. ‘That late? Are you sure?’

He grins. ‘That’s early.’ He flips his visor back down and shouts at me to have fun, before roaring off back down the driveway.

I turn and look around. This time the red lanterns and pumpkins from Lottie’s Halloween party have been replaced with thousands of fairy lights dripping from the trees and icicle lights
draped from the eaves of the log cabin. There are three fire pits set further away from the house, with people lounging in deckchairs around them. Music is blaring from the speakers and I nervously
round the corner to see dozens of people already dancing, and others holding glasses of something red with clouds of steam rising from it. Mulled wine?

I texted Agnes to let her know I was coming, but she didn’t reply so I’m not sure she got it.

My head, earlier fuzzy with champagne, has been cleared by the ride here, and suddenly I’m not sure I should’ve come.

No one has noticed me yet.

I scan the crowd, looking for someone I know. I can’t see Agnes anywhere and my mind is swirling with doubt.

I catch the eye of a boy with blond hair and his face lights up. Peter, the actor from Lottie’s show. He waves at me, so I go over to say hi. He gets up from his seat and kisses my
cheek.

‘Hey, happy New Year!’ he exclaims, seeming genuinely pleased to see me.

‘You too! Have you seen Agnes?’

‘She’s here somewhere,’ he replies, looking around. ‘Here with some guy. Australian, I think he said.’

‘Brett?’

‘That’s it.’

‘Is Jack here?’ I ask nervously, suddenly really desperately wanting him to be.

‘I think he’s DJ’ing,’ Peter replies. My heart flips and I touch his arm and back away, telling him I’ll chat to him later.

I walk round the corner, past the speakers, until the decks appear in view, and there he is: in full concentration mode with his headphones on, his hand spinning the records.

My heart flutters as I watch him mash up Cypress Hill’s ‘(Rock) Superstar’ and Oasis’s ‘Live Forever’.

He is so freaking talented, I think as my heart expands.

Unable to stop myself, I nod along to the music, but don’t make any move towards him. I don’t want to distract him.

I’m a bit out of sight here from the rest of the party, hidden by the huge speakers. My ears are going to ache tomorrow, though.

‘Oh my God,
Jessie
?’

I spin on my heel to see Agnes standing in front of me, her eyes wide with surprise. ‘Peter just told me you were here!’ she cries, throwing her arms round me.

‘I decided to come after all!’ I shout into her ear.

‘I’m so happy to see you!’ she exclaims, and the feeling is very mutual. ‘Does Jack know you’re here yet?’ she asks, looking past me.

‘No,’ I reply, glancing over my shoulder at her brother.

‘He does now,’ Agnes says mischievously, as Jack spots us talking. His eyes widen with shock.

I smile at him and he goes to take his headphones off, but I shake my head and point at the decks, not wanting him to get distracted. He nods and hesitantly adjusts his headphones, but he
doesn’t take his eyes from mine. Nor does he smile at me.

‘Come get a drink,’ Agnes urges, grabbing my hand and leading me towards the bar.

Lottie is there, flirting with Brandon, and, as usual, there’s no sign of Maisie, his girlfriend. Some things never change.

Brandon sees me and gives me a huge hug. ‘Jessie, Jessie!’ he chants, clearly having had a few. I hug him back happily.

‘It’s our lead singer!’ Miles shouts, spying us and coming over. I hug him, too, followed by Lottie.

‘I hear your gig was amazing!’ she exclaims. ‘I’ll have to come to your next one.’

‘I’m lining it up at the moment,’ Brandon says, as Agnes places a warm glass in my hand.

‘Cheers! I’m so glad you’re back!’ she says.

I chink her glass and take a sip, and then two hands are touching my hips from behind and I spin round and come face to face with Jack Mitchell himself, his bluey-grey eyes staring uncertainly
into mine.

‘Hey,’ he says, bending down to peck me on my cheek, not my lips, I notice. Nerves swirl round my stomach.

Then I remember that Brandon and Miles are here, and they don’t know what’s happened between us. Maybe he’s being careful. Or maybe it’s something else.

‘I didn’t know you were coming,’ he says in my ear, standing closer to me than he perhaps should in front of our bandmates.

‘Last-minute decision,’ I reply, stepping back slightly.

I jump as his hand finds mine, and then he’s pulling me with purpose across the crowded dance floor. He leads me round the back of the cabin where it’s quieter and out of sight of
everyone.

‘Is everything OK?’ he demands to know, and he’s still not smiling at me.

‘Everything’s fine,’ I reply, nodding. ‘Are you OK?’ I ask. ‘You haven’t got Susan or Eve or anyone here, have you?’ Is that why he’s acting
strangely? Is he here with a girl? The thought makes me feel queasy.

He frowns. ‘Of course not.’

A river of relief floods through me.

‘What happened with Tom?’ he asks.

‘We broke up.’

He exhales loudly and his shoulders relax.

‘You told him?’ he checks, tensing again.

‘Yes.’ I nod and bite my lip.

‘He called it off?’ His eyebrows knit together.

‘Actually, it was sort of mutual,’ I reply.

He lets out a long sigh and then he gives a small smile, bringing his hand up to touch the side of my face.

‘I missed you,’ he murmurs.

‘I was only gone a week,’ I reply with amusement.

But he’s done with small talk, taking my face in his rough hands and pressing his lips to mine.

My whole body tingles and my head feels like tiny little fireworks are exploding and fizzing inside it as his firm body traps me against the cabin wall.

A little voice inside my head tells me that it’s not going to be smooth sailing, that we’ll argue, we’ll fall out, we’ll piss off our bandmates and we probably
won’t last more than a few weeks.

But, then again, maybe we will.

Either way, at that precise moment, there’s no place I’d rather be.

And so I kiss him back.

Tomorrow is a new year – and a new beginning.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thank you first, foremost and always to my readers. Your online reviews and social media interactions mean the world to me, and I’m so grateful to all of the lovely
people who took the time to post about
The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson
. I hope you enjoyed this sequel just as much! P.S. I can’t wait to get started on writing Book
3…

If you’re a new reader, I’d also love to know what
you
thought about Jessie and her adventures, so please drop me a line to say hi on Twitter
@PaigeToonAuthor,
www.facebook.com/PaigeToonAuthor
or
Wattpad.com/PaigeToonAuthor
.

Thank you to my YA agent, Veronique Baxter from David Higham, my editors, Jane Griffiths and Rachel Mann, and also my adult editor Suzanne Baboneau – it is a pleasure working with all of
you and indeed the entire team at Simon & Schuster. Thanks also to Jane Tait for her excellent copy editing skills and to Kat Gordon for proof reading.

Heartfelt thanks to Chris England and the English students at Altwood School in Maidenhead, Berkshire. I spent many happy years at Altwood under the tutelage of Mr England – by far my
favourite teacher, English or otherwise – and it was a pleasure to recently visit the school and see so many students still benefitting from his teaching. The students I met blew me away with
their writing talent – I won’t be at all surprised to see their work appearing on bookshop shelves at some point in the future.

Thanks to Mark Frith, my former boss and editor of
Heat
magazine, who I know I can always count on to answer celebrity and paparazzi-related questions!

Thanks to Jessica Hanak, Eleanor Fraser & Nicole Gross from Apple iBooks, for not only inviting me to the iTunes Festival, but letting me see behind the scenes. You helped bring
Jessie’s world to life! And thanks to my pal Katharine Park for coming with me and whispering ideas in my ear as we were watching the concert – what a fun night that was…

Thank you to Abbey Robertson for her help with school timetables and to Jen Hayes for letting me run some Americanisms by her, and thank you always to my friend and fellow author Ali Harris for
encouraging me to write a book for young adults in the first place. Without you, Jessie might not exist!

Finally, thank you always to my parents, Vern and Jen Schuppan for always encouraging and supporting me, and my adorable little family of Toons: my husband Greg who helps me in more ways than it
would ever be possible to mention, and to my children Indy and Idha who make me smile every day. I love you all so very much.

Although
I Knew You Were Trouble
is only my second book for young adults, I’ve been writing for a few years now and it is a pretty well-known fact that I have some
of the loveliest, most passionate, loyal readers in the business.

I decided I wanted to give something back to say thank you for all of your support, so last year I launched
The Hidden Paige
, a unique new book club.

It works like this: people sign up for free at paigetoon.com, and every so often, I send out an email to all of my members. You might hear from me every couple of months or just when I have
something to say that I think you might like to hear, but usually these emails will include a short story of some kind.

Many of my books are linked to each other – in fact, Meg and Johnny have already featured in their own stories:
Johnny Be Good
,
Baby Be Mine
and ebook short
Johnny’s
Girl
. I kind of like to think of my characters as all living in some sort of weird Parallel Tooniverse and
The Hidden Paige
gives me an excuse to drop in on them from time to time!

So, recently I wrote a snippet of
Johnny’s Girl
told from Johnny Jefferson’s perspective, and my publisher has very kindly agreed to print it here for anyone who missed
out.

This scene takes place straight after Johnny’s solicitor has broken the news to Johnny about Jessie – the daughter he never knew he had. Now Johnny has to tell Meg. I hope you
enjoy!

#thehiddenpaige

www.paigetoon.com

‘I’ll call you as soon as I know more,’ Wendel says.

‘Fine,’ I reply, terminating our conversation and dropping the phone onto my desk with a clatter. I rest my elbows on the polished surface and stare in a daze at the dark computer
screen in front of me. My solicitor has just told me that I have a teenage daughter. Allegedly.

How am I going to break this to Meg?

I rake my hands halfway through my hair and apply pressure to my skull with my fingers. She’s going to go absolutely mental.

‘Johnny?’ I jolt at the sound of Annie’s voice and turn to see my PA standing in the office doorway. She looks worried. ‘Is everything okay? Davey’s on the drive if
you want him to take you to the party? Or will you go by bike?’

‘What’s the time?’ I ask dully.

‘Ten-thirty.’

Christ, I’m late. ‘Better take the Merc,’ I reply with a heavy sigh as I get to my feet.

My Ducati would be quicker, but I’ll be bringing Meg home with me and the bike can stress her out. I’m going to be doing enough of that as it is.

‘Is there anything I can do?’ Annie asks, taking a step backwards to let me pass.

‘Ring Wendel. He’ll fill you in. And let Davey know I’ll be outside in ten,’ I say over my shoulder.

‘You got it,’ she calls after me.

Annie doesn’t normally work this late, but she’s babysitting the boys tonight. Kitty persuaded Meg to go to a film premiere and I’ve been in the studio all day with Mikky, my
producer. I only got home a few minutes before Wendel called.

I go upstairs to our bedroom and turn on the shower in the en-suite before emptying the contents of my pockets onto the bed. I notice that a text message from Meg has come in, asking me what
time I’ll be there. I don’t reply because she’ll see me soon enough. And then she’ll wish I’d stayed away.