right time for an impromptu gig from The Connection,’ he answered repressively.
‘Oh?’ Julian Stringer scowled like a petulant child. Last summer they had topped the Billboard charts in the States, and he was not used to having his offer to play for free turned down! ‘Like to tell me when is the right time, then, man?’
Jane laid her hand on Ross’s and Ursula saw him tense up. ‘Ross,’ she said softly. ‘It’s a great honour to have Julian and the boys play for us. Think what a treat it would be for Katy! It would be a birthday she’d never forget!’
‘You mean, it would be a birthday you’d never forget,’ argued Ross, then gave a weary sigh as his wife opened her mouth to object. ‘Okay, go ahead. Ask Katy.’
Katy and her friends were ecstatic, and didn’t make any attempt to be cool.
‘Julian!’ they squealed in excitement when they saw him. ‘Can you play “Space in my Heart”?’
Adulation was obviously what Julian liked most. He removed his lips from the vacuum of the empty bottle and grinned for the first time, and Ursula found herself thinking that if she had all his money and teeth that looked like that, then she would invest in a decent orthodontist at the first opportunity!
‘Sure can. I can play you anything you want. Wanna get the gear in?’ he mumbled to the rest of the band.
But the rest of the band were in the process of opening bottles of champagne. They were tired from touring and lack of sleep, and had no intention of doing anything other than getting drunk on this sweltering evening.
‘Give us a break, Julian! It’s too hot, man! Why don’t you just sing something with the acoustic guitar?’ suggested the dark one with the heavily tattooed shoulders and a small diamond studded into the centre of his tongue.
It was, Ursula reflected as Julian tuned up, just unfortunate that he had drunk so much. His voice was flat and out of tune and his phrasing was incoherent. And halfway through his chart-storming hit he actually forgot the words!
Clustered at his feet sat a circle of small girls, looking confused. ‘It doesn’t sound anything like the record!’ whispered one.
Ursula couldn’t decide whom she felt most sorry for. Katy. Or Ross. Or Julian Stringer.
‘Maybe we should ring out for pizza now?’ suggested Ross impatiently, as the number came uneasily to an end.
Jane glared at him. ‘Don’t be so rude, Ross. I don’t think that Julian’s finished playing yet!’
Ross’s face remained calm. He looked at his daughter and her friends. ‘So what’s it to be, girls? Pizza? Or more music?’
They looked at each other like conspirators. ‘Pizza!’ they shrieked in unison.
Jane bent her head to speak. She spoke very quietly, but Ursula heard it all the same as Jane hissed into her husband’s ear, ‘You bastard! I’ll never forgive you for this, Ross!’
And Katy heard it, too. Her mouth trembled.
‘Why don’t you show us all the rest of your birthday presents while we’re waiting for the pizza, Katy?’ Ursula suggested brightly.
Suddenly, she just wanted to go home.
IT TOOK a few days before Ursula felt back to her normal, cheerful self after Katy’s birthday party. Seeds of discontentment had been sown onto exceptionally fertile ground. She found herself asking why Jane Sheridan didn’t count her blessings and rejoice in having a gorgeous daughter and an equally gorgeous husband instead of behaving like a spoilt child.
Left to Jane, the party would have fizzled out like a damp firework.
Julian’s disastrous solo had produced instant sulking, not just from Jane, but from Julian, too. Ursula had overheard him complaining about Ross—whom he’d blamed for the ‘bad vibes’ which apparently were responsible for him forgetting the words to a song he had written. This had led to all kinds of silent, angry looks being projected across the room by the main protagonists.
‘This is your doing!’ Jane snapped at Ross. ‘You’ve just ruined Julian’s creative flow! You can’t bear to think that somebody else might be the centre of attention, can you?’
‘You mean other than Katy?’ he queried evenly. ‘Whose birthday it happens to be?’
Ursula stole a glance at Ross. She had never seen him quite so angry—even though he was doing a pretty good job of hiding it. But Ursula was an expert on Ross’s face—she’d studied it in so many different guises! And she could see that it was taking every bit of self-restraint he possessed to appear pleasant.
Ursula began to grow impatient with the atmosphere. It was supposed to be a child’s party, for goodness’ sake—not a wake! The Connection had now started drinking red wine, and she dreaded to think how drunk they would get if they didn’t have something to eat pretty soon. She could have wept with joy when she heard the approaching sound of a motorbike as it screeched to a halt outside.
‘That’ll be the pizza!’ she said brightly, and saw Katy perk up. ‘Lead me to it—I’m absolutely starving!’
‘Ye-es.’ Jane raised her eyebrows at Julian. ‘I expect you must be—’
Julian snorted with laughter. ‘Yeah! Right! It takes a lot of fuel to stoke a big engine—am I right, baby?’
Ross narrowed his eyes. ‘I think you’d better—’
‘Ross!’ Ursula’s voice rang across the room, and they all turned to look at her. ‘Don’t,’ she beseeched him. ‘It doesn’t matter what anyone says about me. Honestly.’
But Ross shook his head, his voice full of quiet determination. ‘Oh, yes, it does,’ he contradicted stubbornly. ‘I won’t stand here and have you insulted, Ursula.’
‘But I’m sure that Julian didn’t mean to be unkind to me,’ said Ursula, sending the rock star an innocent look of understanding which soon had him blushing with discomfort. ‘Did you?’
‘Er...no,’ mumbled Julian, fumbling around in his jacket until he found a cigarette and jammed it into the corner of his mouth. “Course I didn’t.’
‘I mean, I do have a very healthy appetite,’ agreed Ursula. She sent a rueful gaze down at her curvy figure in the creamy trousers and matching top. ‘As you can see for yourselves!’
‘Healthy?’ queried Jane archly. ‘Having more than ten per cent body fat is hardly what I’d call healthy!’
‘But I suppose that substituting meals with black coffee and cigarettes is?’ Ross challenged.
Jane’s whole demeanour altered. Perhaps she sensed that out-and-out aggression wasn’t getting her anywhere. Whatever it was, her whole persona seemed to transform itself before their eyes, as she became sex-kitten and super-wife rolled into one. ‘But I’ve stopped smoking, Ross,’ she told her husband in a husky voice. ‘You know I have.’
‘Really? Well, in that case you won’t mind that I chucked away the carton I found hidden in the understairs cupboard?’ he queried innocently.
Jane’s mouth became a thin line that for a brief moment looked almost ugly. ‘Oh, for God’s sake—do you have to be such a control freak?’ she snapped. ‘Going around checking up on me!’
He didn’t react. ‘Tempers seem to be getting a little frayed,’ he observed calmly. ‘So why don’t we all eat something?’
‘Didn’t you say we could eat outside if it was sunny?’ questioned Katy, jumping to her feet.
Ross smiled at his daughter. ‘Of course we can! Why don’t you