Starr Destined (Starr Series) (41 page)

“No, I haven't.  I just don't believe in seeing things through rose coloured spectacles, that’s all.  That’s what I like about Jess, why we get along so well together.  Australian chicks are much more down to earth and don't worry about all that stupid romantic crap.”

“Is that right? You tell yourself that if it makes you feel any better,” Sera laughed.  “Well, I came to get Evie because it’s her lunch time, so we’ll say bye for now.  Come on, young lady, say goodbye to Uncle Jamie, and come with me, please.”

“No.”  Evie shook her head firmly, making her dark curls bounce.  “Daddy do lunch.”

“Good luck with that one,” Jamie chuckled from the other side of the world.  “I take it ‘No’ is still her favourite word?”

“Yep,” I confirmed.  Evie already had a wide vocabulary, but ‘no’ was definitely the word she uti
lised most frequently.

“Evie, Daddy’s busy talking to Uncle Jamie, so please do as I’ve asked and come with me,” Sera rei
terated in her best no-nonsense Mummy voice, as she glared at our stubborn daughter.

“Why?”  Evie’s folded her arms and snuggled herself back against me, clearly determined she wasn’t going anywhere.

“And that’s her second favourite word,” I murmured, as Jamie grinned back.

“Evangeline Rose, you shouldn’t even be in here with Daddy…”  Sera prepared to do battle as she put her hands on her hips, until I quickly intervened.

“Look, to save any arguments, it was only a quick call with Jamie about this contract he sent for me to check over, so I think we’re done, and then I was about to have my lunch anyway.  So why don't we all eat together?”

“Yes, Daddy do it, Daddy do lunch.”  Evie’s cherubic little face lit up as she sensed victory.

“Yeah, well I was just about to head out anyway, so I’ll ring off now, and leave you to it,” Jamie interposed.  “Nice to chat with you all.  Be a good girl for Mummy and Daddy, Evie.”  And he was gone.

“Liam…”  Sera started to protest.

“I know what you’re going to say, but this really isn’t worth arguing about, because it’ll only end in tears, then Evie won’t eat anything and be really crabby.  Which would be a real shame, because after lunch, I thought we could take her for a nice long walk to the park to tire her out.  Then she’ll go to bed early, which will allow us to get on with some more baby-making,” I winked at Sera.

“Honestly Liam, whatever happened to the hardnosed, cynical man you were when we first met?  He would never have allowed himself to be manipulated by a tiny female who is not even two years old,” Sera shook her head, but I knew by the little smile she couldn’t quite hide that she was going to capitulate.

“Like mother like daughter, Seraphina.  Because, my darling wife, surely you realise by now that Evie is only carrying on what you started?  She melts my heart in just the same way that you always have.” 

I laughed as I picked up our daughter to swing her into my arms, then took my wife’s hand as we all headed to the kitchen to have our lunch together. 

Life was too short to spend arguing, wasn’t it?

“Of course you’re
right, Evie.  Dad never expected Mum to go first, not when he was ten years older, and, typical Dad, he’d made all sorts of provisions to ensure she’d be well provided for in the event that she was left on her own.”

I was sat in our father’s study at Grangewood, talking things through with my younger sister Geo
rgina, known to all as George or Georgie, because I was attempting to write the eulogy for our father’s memorial service.  As the eldest of the four Starr children, the task had fallen to me to organise, but I’d called on my sister for her help.  I was really struggling to decide what angle I should take, which of his many achievements I should concentrate on, and I was finding the task extremely difficult. 

I kept imagining my father watching over my shoulder, giving his input and directing things in his usual micro-managing way.  But of course, my darling daddy wasn’t there.  We’d always been e
xtremely close, and now I literally ached because I missed him so much.  It felt as if part of my soul was missing without him in my world.

But life had to go on.  That’s what he would have wanted, that’s what he would have told me.

My siblings and I had each inherited a very different batch of our parent’s genes.  Although I looked very much like our mother, I was like our father in that I had no artistic ability whatsoever. 

But my three siblings all did. 

Georgina was three years younger than me, blonde and tall like Dad, and a talented artist. 

Eighteen months younger than her were the boys, Alexander and Charles, who were non-identical twins, which had apparently come as one hell of a shock to our parents, even though twins ran on the Irish side of our family - Mum’s cousin Aoife also had twin boys, Patrick and Cormac.

We saw quite a lot of our Irish relatives while we were growing up.  They would stay with us whenever they came over to London, and we would usually spend part of our summer holidays with them either in Ireland, or out in the villa in Spain that Mum had inherited from her grandparents.  Having helped Aoife and Sean to turn their jewellery business into a thriving and profitable concern, Dad had then become involved in a venture to try and revitalise other Kinsale businesses, giving the locals the benefit of his wisdom.  He’d tried his hardest to help, even though a lot of his advice had fallen on deaf ears, no doubt amidst mutterings about him being some arrogant English know-it-all. 

And that’s the polite version.

My brothers Alex and Charlie may have been twins, but they were as different as chalk and cheese.  Alex was a tall, dark haired architect, while Charlie was a musician, of average height, and had the Starr trademark thick blonde hair.  Neither Dad nor his brother Jamie, who lived out in Australia, had ever lost their hair, it’d just turned from blonde to silver.  Both had remained good-looking men, even as they became silver foxes.

Mum had always worried about my brother Charlie in particular.  He played in a rock band - not at all a suitable profession for a Starr, in our father’s eyes.  Mum’s relative Finbarr had been a member of the very successful Rivershades rock band, and his career had taken off initially due to the huge success of a song he dedicated to our mother, called ‘
Meant To Be’
.  We all assumed he must have been an old flame of Mum’s, but she didn't ever talk about it, especially as Dad always looked like thunder whenever Finbarr’s name came up.  Thanks to living the rock star lifestyle to the full, Finbarr had ended up in rehab after a near fatal drug overdose, and Mum fretted about Charlie going the same way.  But my laid-back brother, who never seemed to worry about Dad disapproving of his chosen profession, somehow managed to steer clear of those kind of vices. 

Instead, it turned out to be hard working Alex who developed a secret cocaine addiction, to cope with the stresses of his demanding architectural career.  I put it down to the fact that he’d been d
etermined to prove that he was as successful in his own way as the father everyone compared him with.  It also hadn't helped that he’d married Stefanie, a money-grabbing bitch from hell that we’d all hated, but that Alex had gone ahead and married, resolutely ignoring all our well-meaning reservations.  Dad always maintained that Alex had more than his fair share of Irish stubborn pigheadedness.

But thankfully, Alex h
ad come to his senses before it was too late.  He’d got shot of Stefanie and started divorce proceedings, and then checked himself into a clinic to get his addiction under control.  He was now in a relationship with a much nicer lady called Sarah, and seemed far happier. 

I was the only one who had inherited Dad’s business acumen, the only one brave enough to work alongside him at Starr Capital Ventures, and so inevitably, I was the one who eventually took over from him.  

“You’re right, Evie.  I don't think it ever occurred to him he would be the one left behind.  And no one could have fought harder than he did against the prognosis, when Mum’s cancer was diagnosed, could they?”  Georgie hastily wiped away the tear that trickled down her cheek.  The last year had been such a hard one, and we were all still feeling very raw from losing both our parents, even though we were all grown up and supposed to be able to cope with all this adult kind of crap.

Dad had wanted to take Mum to every specialist, every clinic that might have a cure for her, until she’d told him that he had to accept the inevitable, and that he shouldn’t be wasting what precious time they had left dragging her all over the world, chasing after the impossible.

“I’d always thought it was rubbish when I read about someone supposedly dying of a broken heart, but I believe that’s exactly what happened with Dad wasn't it?  I know the official cause of death was put down to complications after he contracted Asian flu, but Dad was always fighting fit and never had a day’s illness in his life before, did he, George?”

“No, he didn't, so I agree that he just gave up after she’d gone.  You know, although I’m thankful Mum didn't suffer a slow, lingering death, and that it was quick and painless in the end, it meant Dad never really had time to adjust to things.  Even though he always seemed such a big, strong man, in the end it was all too much for him,” Georgie sighed.

“I don't think he would ever have adjusted to losing Mum.  He just seemed to lose the will to live once she’d gone.  Have you read their marriage vows, George?  Where he said that without his Seraphina, there was no point to his existence?”

I picked up the picture of our parents on their wedding day, which Dad always kept on his desk.  Mum, looking so young, and so beautiful in the gorgeous dress that Aunt Abbey had made for her.  Dad looking so tall and handsome in his smart grey wedding suit.  The way they were gazing at each other in the picture, the love between them just shone out.

“I know, that was so beautiful, wasn’t it?  And I guess he really did mean it - he just couldn’t live without her,” Georgie agreed sadly.  “I think maybe he also felt it was okay to let go as we’re all finally settled and happy now, after all the upsets over the years that we’ve put them through.”

“Yeah, it’s taken a while for us all to sort ourselves out, hasn’t it?  I think my problem was that I couldn’t help comparing boyfriends to Dad, and I always seemed to find them wanting.  Until E
dward, anyway,” I smiled. 

“You always were such a daddy’s girl, Evie, and his were such big shoes to fill, both figuratively and literally.”

“I know, but I found the right man eventually, and he and Dad got on really well, which I’m so glad about, even though I know I didn’t need his approval.  At least Edward makes up for all the losers I wasted my time on previously.  And you shouldn’t blame yourself for being taken in by Gary - we all were.”

“Dad wasn’t though, was he?  He never liked Gary, which I resented at the time, but only because I couldn’t see what a lying cheating bastard he was.  These days, I’ve found I don't need a man to make me happy and I’m much better off on my own, just concentrating on my art, which Mum said she totally understood.” 

We’d all been taken in by Georgie’s ex, thinking he was one of the decent guys - until he’d been caught cheating with his PA.  Such a cliché, but the affair had been going on for years apparently. 

“Dad seemed to have a sixth sense about people when they were lying, didn't he?  It made it virtually impossible to pull the wool over his eyes,” I agreed.

“Well, at least you have the reassurance of knowing that Edward met with his full approval.”

“Yep, Edward has turned out to be my rock, just as Dad was for Mum,” I smiled. 

I’d first met Edward, at university, where he’d been just one of the crowd, just a mate, nothing more.  He’d always been there, hanging around in the background, and I'd never taken much notice of him, although we did keep in touch after uni.  And then our paths had crossed again, as he’d set up his own very successful company, and we ended up doing business together. 

I remembered him as a skinny, scruffy, student oik, so I'd been blown away when this gorgeous, tall, blonde hunk dressed in a well-cut, expensive suit had wa
lked into my office.  He’d become so confident and commanding, yet still keeping that wonderful softness in his sexy, dark blue eyes.  I’d literally felt myself go weak at the knees when he’d smiled at me, and that had been that.  I’d fallen head over heels in love with him.

Edward told me afterwards that this had all been part of his master plan.  He’d always been in love with me, but he’d had to stand back and watch helplessly as I dated one loser after another, while he never really registered on my radar.  But clever Edward had worked out that I was searching for a man to match up to my father, so he’d bided his time, building his career, wanting to have som
ething to offer me when he finally made his move to orchestrate us meeting up, by suggesting a joint business venture.

We’d been happily married for several years now, and had two beautiful children, Joseph Liam and Rose Seraphina.  Mum and Dad had adored their grandchildren, and one of the saddest parts about losing them, was that they wouldn’t be around to see them growing up.

“Well, at least they’re together now, if you believe in any kind of afterlife.  I’d rather think of them together like that, than have Dad here, sad and lonely, spending the rest of his days grieving for his beloved Seraphina,” I managed to smile at my sister.