Nina admitted. ‘Maybe he did push for it, but I think he’s right—you’re nearly sixteen you should be able to look after your brother. I’ll be home before midnight. Go easy with the make-up,’ Nina said, pulling away.
‘I have,’ Janey said. ‘You’re done! But you need to see it with your dress and shoes on and everything.’
Nina was somewhat nervous going over to the mirror. While she was all for encouraging Janey, she didn’t want to go out tonight looking like a complete clown, but when she stood in the hall and stared into the long mirror she didn’t comment for a while.
‘You like it, don’t you?’
Nina did like it, perhaps because she barely recognised herself.
Her hair, which she usually pinned up loosely or pulled back now fell in loose ringlets and her make-up was amazing. It had felt as if Janey was putting far too much on, but actually it was all very subtle. Her skin looked creamy and her eye shadow was brown, which brought out her deep blue eyes, and her lips were a pinkish neutral. The only place Janey had been heavy with was the eyelashes. From long, fair and invisible, they were now soft and black and really long, and however she looked in the mirror she knew that there was no way she could have put this all together herself.
‘You’re really good at this.’
‘I know.’
‘I mean,’ Nina said slowly, ‘really good at this.’
‘Are you nervous?’ Janey asked.
‘A bit,’ Nina admitted.
‘Maybe Jack is,’ Janey said, but Nina shook her head.
‘These things are no big deal to Jack. He won’t be giving it a second thought.’
She could not have been more wrong.
As his driver brought him closer to Nina’s, Jack was having serious second thoughts.
He must have been mad to suggest that she come to his parents’ for drinks—a table at dinner would have been fine, but to bring her into his home? He’d been thinking of himself, wanting to show Nina first hand what was so hard to explain, except he hadn’t properly considered the effect it might have on Nina … until now.
He could just imagine his mother’s disapproving eye as she saw Nina in an off-the-peg number. He wouldn’t put it past her to even question out loud if her was dress was suitable for tonight.
As the car stopped outside Nina’s apartment Jack climbed out and even as he took the lift he wondered if he should suggest they stay at her apartment for a while and just meet his parents at the venue.
‘Hey, Jack …’ Blake let him in. ‘She’s been getting ready for ages.’
‘You’re not supposed to tell me that.’ Jack winked. ‘Trust me on that one. Here …’ He handed him a bag and smiled at Blake’s expression and shout of delight as he took out the top. He hadn’t had it signed by the entire team but there was Blake’s favourite player’s signature and a signed photo, and the little guy was so excited he dashed off to show his sisters, leaving Jack standing in the hallway. And after a moment he let himself in.
‘I hope you said thank you.’
Jack said nothing. He wasn’t trying to get Blake into trouble, but for a moment there he actually forgot he had a voice, because she looked nothing like he could have expected—she looked incredible. Still Nina, still different, but she would turn heads for different reasons tonight.
‘You look amazing.’
‘Thanks to Janey,’ Nina said.
‘Thank you, Janey.’ Jack smiled.
‘So am I going to get paid for being personal shopper, make-up artist and babysitter?’ Janey asked as Nina filled her bag.
‘No,’ Nina said. ‘That’s what….’ She gave in then. Janey had saved her a fortune tonight and in years to come she had her own personal stylist under her roof. What wasn’t to love? So she gave her some money and didn’t notice that Jack gave her some too, but with a warning that he expected her on her most responsible behaviour tonight.
‘I will be,’ Janey insisted. ‘I want Nina to have a good time.’
So did Jack.
For the hundredth time he wondered what the hell he was doing. He actually felt a bit sick as the car approached his family home, the same nausea he had always felt at the beginning of the school holidays, knowing he would have to spend the summer here, or Christmas …
Jack had far preferred his time at boarding school.
‘I’m nervous …’ Nina said.
‘I know.’ Jack helped her out of the car. ‘They’re pretty daunting.’
It wasn’t the answer Nina had been expecting. She’d hoped he’d reassure her that it was no big deal, that he brought friends home all the time, that they’d met so many of his girlfriends that they’d struggle to remember her name for the night, but he said nothing, just took her arm and led her to a front door she’d seen pictured on the covers of lifestyle magazines and Sunday papers and that soon would admit her.
‘They’re used to this, though.’ She was speaking more for her own benefit than his, trying to reassure herself when he didn’t. ‘You’d have brought a lot of women here.’
‘I’ve never brought anyone back here.’ She turned and frowned just as she heard someone approach from the other side of the door. ‘I’ve never brought a friend home, even when I was at school, and certainly I’ve never brought a date back here.’
‘Never?’
‘Never,’ Jack said. ‘And I’m really sorry to put you through this.’
She had no idea what he was talking about.
The door was opened by a servant, who took their coats, and Jack led her through a house that was huge. Then she stepped into the gorgeous lounge that she had seen in the pages of a magazine.
‘Jack …’ His mother turned as he walked in. She was sipping a glass of champagne and chatting on the phone, but she muted it for a moment and naturally Nina recognised her and gave her a smile.
‘Mother, this is Nina Wilson.’
She gave a brief nod in her conversation and it was Jack who introduced her. ‘Nina, this is Anna,’ he said as she resumed talking on the telephone, bitching about the guests that were going tonight. Nina sat there, cheeks scalding, stunned as everything she thought she knew about the Carters was wiped out of existence.
The father walked in and Jack Carter Senior sort of gave a brief nod in their direction and snapped for a maid to hurry up with his drink.
‘What time are we leaving?’ were his first words to Jack.
‘We’re to be there for seven-thirty, so soon,’ Jack said, as Nina realised exactly why Jack had been in no hurry to leave her place. They were the coldest, most distant people Nina had ever met. Everything she had read or seen had been an complete act. This was so not the all American family they portrayed.
They were dismissive way past the point of rudeness.
His mother came off the phone but made no attempt to speak with either Jack or Nina, just checked a few details with her husband. They might just as well have not been there, though Jack did make an effort.
He introduced Nina to his father.
Jack Senior just gave a vague nod in her direction.
‘Nina does a lot of work at the pro bono centre in Harlem.’
Anna wrinkled up her nose, but Jack pushed on. ‘Did you know Louis Cavel donates some time there?’
‘I’ve