Page 19 of The Perfect Gift

Ed shook his head. ‘Nope. Absolutely not. You are not going to apologise to me for anything. I’m the one who was in the wrong, not you.’

‘But you didn’t know that,’ she protested.

‘If I’d behaved like a grown-up and replaced my phone as soon as I lost it then none of this would’ve happened.’ He shrugged. ‘I guess I enjoyed being off the grid for a bit, but I didn’t think beyond my own immediate needs. I left my family without any means to contact me and that was thoughtless.’ He took the towel off her and dried his hands with a sigh. ‘So much for my grand plans to grow up a bit.’

Her expression softened. ‘I can see the appeal of disconnecting from everything for a while.’

He immediately felt sorry for her again. What must it be like to live in a world where your every movement was fodder for other people’s entertainment? He’d heard all the old arguments about it being the price that had to be paid for fame, but he didn’t think there was enough money in the world to be put through the wringer like that. ‘Maybe you can explain it to my mum, then, because she’s not going to forgive me any time soon.’

‘At least she cares enough to worry about you.’ Frankie turned away as if she’d said something she regretted. Ed watched her as she crossed the room towards the fridge and found himself wondering what her story was. She pulled a bottle of wine out of the door and held it up. ‘Will you have a drink with me as a peace offering?’

Ed glanced at the clock on the wall. He needed to get over to his parents’ place and start on that round of apologies, but he also didn’t want to reject Frankie. He could stay for half an hour without it being a problem. ‘I’d love a drink, thanks.’

12

She wasn’t sure why she’d invited him to stay. No, that wasn’t true, she thought as the bottle rattled against the edge of the glass as she tried to pour them a drink. A gentle hand steadied hers for a second.

‘Shall I do it?’

A little embarrassed but not so much that she wasn’t grateful for the offer, Frankie yielded the bottle to Ed and stepped back. ‘Sorry, I’m still a little shaky.’

‘It’s not surprising, given you’ve had two unpleasant shocks from me in less than twenty-four hours,’ Ed said as he finished pouring them both a drink and handed her one of the glasses. ‘I’m not sure how many times I can say that I’m sorry, but I really am.’

Frankie managed a wan smile before she raised the glass and took a sip. ‘It’s not just that. We filmed one of the most important scenes in the show today, so I was already riding an emotional roller coaster before you knocked.’

Ed settled his back against the kitchen counter. ‘I can’t say I know what that’s like as my only acting experience was as the angel Gabriel in the school nativity when I was four or five.’

Handsome as he was now, Frankie would bet he was equally gorgeous as a chubby-cheeked little boy. ‘I can picture you now, wonky halo and all.’

‘Oh, my halo has always been wonky,’ he replied with a grin that promised all sorts of things Frankie had no business wondering about. ‘So, what’s it like, pretending to be someone else for a living?’

Better than the alternative. Frankie kept that to herself. ‘I find it really freeing.’ She hesitated, trying to find the right words. ‘I get to live a multitude of different lives and experiences. I can also explore different aspects of my own character through these other people I inhabit.’

Ed’s expression grew thoughtful as he seemed to ponder that for a minute. ‘I can see how that would work. It’s not quite the same, but I’ve being doing something similar while I’ve been travelling.’

‘Is that what you meant earlier about your grand plan for growing up?’

He laughed and nodded. ‘Yeah. Look, I love Halfmoon Quay, and being the baby of the family and getting spoiled rotten seems fun when you’re a kid, but it’s not so funny when people still see you as that when you’re in your mid-twenties. I found myself too constrained by expectations and kept falling into unhealthy patterns of behaviour because of it. No one pushes the wrong kind of buttons more than family, you know what I mean?’

Frankie shook her head. ‘Not really.’ When Ed frowned at her, she realised she’d painted herself into a corner. ‘I spent a fair amount of my childhood in care, so I don’t have much in the way of what you would consider family.’

‘That can’t have been easy for you.’ Ed took another sip of his wine. ‘And makes me feel even more of a spoilt brat for grumbling about my own circumstances.’

Frankie shrugged and smiled. ‘You weren’t to know and I was the one who asked the question. Go on with what you were saying, please.’

Ed studied her over the rim of his glass for a second before continuing. ‘As if growing up with three bossy older brothers and two cousins equally ready to tell me what to do wasn’t bad enough, I also had quite a bad accident when I was younger, so that gave everyone even more of an excuse to fuss around me.’

‘Is that where you got the scar from?’ She’d noticed it earlier when he’d been staring at her through the letterbox.

‘This, you mean?’ Ed grinned as he tapped his eyebrow. ‘That’s nothing compared to the ones on my leg. I properly smashed myself up on some rocks below the castle and it took months of rehab to be able to walk again.’

‘Oh, you poor thing! Your leg’s okay now, though?’

‘It gives me a bit of bother when it’s cold, which was another reason I’ve been enjoying myself abroad.’ He smiled. ‘But it also meant I couldn’t go anywhere without one or other of my family insisting on tagging along. Growing up with an enormous safety net meant I never had to suffer the consequences because there was always someone ready to rescue me – mostly from myself and my own stupidity.’ When he laughed this time, it was darker, more self-deprecating.

‘I must admit I wouldn’t have minded a better safety net when I was growing up, but I suppose at least I learned quickly that I only had myself to rely on.’

Ed nodded. ‘I guess we always feel a touch of envy for something we’ve never had and always craved. I’m not sure I’d recommend running off to the other side of the world, but it worked for me.’