The Piano Man Project Page 0,117

a magazine. She caught his eye and crossed to hand him a file from a bag on the back of his chair. Once she’d faded away again, he pushed the file into Lucille’s hands.

‘What is it?’ she asked, looking down at the beige file and wishing she had her glasses with her.

‘It’s my savings. I want you two to have them.’

‘Ernie, no,’ Mimi said, agonised. ‘Please, we don’t want your money. Let’s just all have another cup of tea, and we’ll meet up again. We can do it every week, can’t we, Lucille?’

She turned to her sister for back-up, and Lucille nodded.

‘Of course we can.’

Ernie sighed. ‘I’ve known I had two sisters for many, many years. Dozens of birthdays and Christmases without being able to give you anything. This is for all of those years.’

‘You have nothing to make up for,’ Lucille rushed. ‘If only we’d known about you, Ernie, things would have been so different.’

‘It’s no one’s fault, don’t upset yourself,’ he said, squeezing her fingers gently. ‘We’re here now, and I won’t take no for an answer about the money.’

‘How about we say we’ll talk about it another time?’ Mimi tried, but he shook his head.

‘I’ve already been to the bank this morning.’

Lucille knew that the fact that Ernie was out of the house at all was a rare thing. He must really feel strongly to have visited the bank too.

‘What’s going on, Ernie?’

His eyes lit with mischief that made him look more like Mimi than ever.

‘I beat Mick Jagger.’

Both of his sisters frowned.

‘And Jamie Oliver.’

Lucille looked down at the folder, not getting it.

Ernie nodded towards it, his expression proud.

‘There’s enough in there to buy this place twice over.’

Mimi and Lucille gasped.

‘How on earth …?’ Mimi managed.

Ernie looked as gleeful as a dying man can look.

‘I play poker online,’ he whispered his secret with wide, laughing eyes. ‘Against young hotshots in Vegas, all from the comfort of my own living room.’

‘No,’ Lucille laughed, shocked. ‘I can’t believe it, how exciting!’

‘Lord, don’t tell Billy you can do things like that,’ Mimi muttered, shaking her head in amazement.

‘I want you to buy this place with my winnings,’ Ernie said. ‘I want to buy the roof over my sisters’ heads.’

Both Lucille and Mimi were rendered temporarily speechless by emotion.

‘You’re the best big brother I’ve ever had,’ Lucille said, wiping a tear from her cheek with the hankie Ernie produced.

‘We’ve ever had,’ Mimi corrected.

‘That’s settled then.’ Ernie nodded, pleased. ‘I never did like The Rolling Stones.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

It came as a shock to Honey to realise that life carried on regardless and she was still expected to take her part in it. Where was the ‘stop the world, I want to get off’ button when you needed it?

The shop still needed to be opened. Tash and Nell still needed to be her best friends and make a fuss, feeding her up even though food was just stuff she found hard to swallow. The sun still came up, the buses still ran, and amazingly enough, her legs still worked and words seemed to come out of her mouth in roughly the right order. How could that be, without Hal?

News of his expected return to the London restaurant scene scattered the papers, and there was talk of sightings of him in gossip columns. A vague shot that might have been any man in a beanie hat and dark glasses emerged, an immaculate Imogen clinging to his arm. Honey pored over it all, trying to piece together the stranger in the public eye with the man she’d had all to herself for a few precious weeks.

‘She looks a class-A bitch,’ Tash said, twisting the magazine around her way on the coffee shop table and squinting at it. ‘Is it even him?’

Honey flipped it shut and shook her head. ‘I’m not sure.’

‘His loss.’

Honey looked listlessly out of the window at the rain. It wasn’t Hal’s loss. It was hers. She’d lost her peace of mind, along with her stupid, feckless heart. Romance movies and novels hadn’t prepared her for the fact that the hero sometimes royally screws up the happy ending. Or maybe it was just that Hal was never her happy ending to have. Either way, she was never going to the cinema again, unless it was to watch a psycho thriller where they all died in the end and no one expected to waltz happily into the sunset.

‘Did you give Christian my number? He called me yesterday,’ Honey said.

Tash licked hot chocolate froth from her