Plus, if that was who she was talking about, how old must his mother be? A hundred and forty?
Aloud he said, ‘Well, you can’t miss that.’ OK, seeing as she’d raised the subject, he’d keep it going. ‘Where’s the party?’
‘In her garden. It’s a barbecue.’ Ellie was busy playing with Elmo’s lopsided ears. ‘Which means it’ll probably tip down with rain, but never mind.’
‘And is it a special birthday?’
‘Oh yes. She’s sixty.’
Not Tony Weston’s mother, then. Zack’s heart was hammering against his ribs. ‘So what’s this boyfriend’s name?’
She turned pink. ‘Todd.’
‘You’ve never mentioned him before.’ It was hard work, keeping his tone casual.
‘No. Well, it’s all pretty new. We’ve only been seeing each other for a couple of weeks.’
‘Going OK?’
Ellie nodded and said brightly, ‘Going great!’
Damn. Damn you, Todd, whoever you are.
‘And was there someone else before that?’ Was he asking too many personal questions now? Possibly, but he needed to know.
She hesitated. ‘What, you mean ever?’
‘I meant since you’ve been here in Primrose Hill.’
Ellie shook her head. ‘No, this is the first for a while.’ She looked puzzled. ‘Why?’
Always keep your lies as close as possible to the truth. Zack said, ‘It’s just that someone happened to mention they thought they’d seen you with Tony Weston.’
Ellie’s flush deepened significantly. ‘Oh.’
‘And then I realized, that time I called you at home a while back, he was the person who answered the phone.’
‘Right. Yes, it was.’ She clicked her fingers at Elmo, inviting him to jump back on to her lap. Classic distraction technique.
He’d started, so he may as well finish. ‘And you did say you were living rent-free in your friend’s flat.’
‘Oh God.’ Half laughing, half mortified, Ellie buried her face in Elmo’s furry ears. ‘He’s a friend. He’s not my boyfriend! I can’t believe you thought that!’
‘Sorry. I’m sorry.’ He’d jumped to conclusions and got it oh-so-wrong. Zack said, ‘I can’t believe I thought it either. Blame it on Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.’ Right, so the good news was that Ellie had never been romantically involved with Tony Weston. The bad news was that he appeared to have missed his window of opportunity and she was now ecstatically happy with someone else.
Seriously, did someone up there not like him?
‘He’s just a friend.’ Ellie was still cringing and shaking her head.
‘And what a great friend to have.’ To change the subject, Zack said, ‘How did you come to meet him?’
Ellie swallowed, then gazed out of the window, visibly psyching herself up. On the desk, the phone started to ring. ‘Well, er…’
‘Leave it,’ Zack stopped her as she moved to lift the receiver. ‘If it’s important they’ll call back.’ Too intrigued to give up now, he said, ‘Carry on with the story.’
Because there was a story, he knew that much for sure.
The phone stopped ringing. Ellie was still holding on to Elmo for dear life. Elmo, reveling in the attention, was now reclining like a hairy mini-Cleopatra in her arms.
‘Tony’s my father-in-law. Well,’ Ellie amended, ‘he was my father-in-law.’
‘So you were married.’ The moment the words were out of his mouth, Zack made the connection. He knew. Hadn’t he Googled Tony Weston that very first day, after seeing the two of them together at the Ivy? Hadn’t he read on Wikipedia that Tony Weston’s real name was Tony Something-else? But back then, the fact that his surname was Kendall hadn’t been significant enough to remember, which was why it hadn’t rung any bells when Ellie had eventually come into his life.
And hadn’t he also read in the same entry about the tragic loss of Tony’s only son in a car accident?
Oh God.
‘I was married.’ Ellie dipped her head in agreement, acknowledging the fact that he’d figured it out. ‘His name was Jamie. He was… lovely.’ She carried on gently stroking Elmo’s head. ‘But he died.’
‘I’m so sorry.’ Zack couldn’t begin to imagine what she’d been through. ‘I didn’t know.’ He watched the play of her fingers against Elmo’s ears.
She shrugged. ‘I’m sorry too. I should have told you. I kind of wanted to start off with a clean slate.’
‘Understandable.’ Did this explain her lack of reaction towards him, or was he just not her type anyway?
‘Can I just say something? I don’t want you to start being nice to me now.’
‘You don’t want me to start? Does that mean I’ve never been nice to you?’
Ellie glanced at her empty plate and smiled briefly. ‘You know what I mean. I’d just like everything to carry on