Free Kiss and Tell by Fiona Walker Page A

UP!!! . Again her subsequent call was redirected to voicemail.
    Faith howled with frustration.
    The following Saturday was her eighteenth birthday. Having anticipated it eagerly for weeks, she now doubted that her best friend was even planning to come to the party her family were foisting upon her. It was vital that Carly was there to help her get ready and to discuss the way forward.
    But Anke had just scuppered all her daughter’s well-laid plans to lay Rory and share his life. Ironically, she had done this by using links with her own horsy ex-husband, the other half of the legendary über-pairing, the most talked about equestrian duo for over a decade, who had simply been known as ‘Anke and Kurt’.
    At last her phone burst into life with the ringtone that she had assigned only to her most intimate loved ones. ‘Two Souls’ by Dillon Rafferty rang out to pull at her heartstrings and lift her spirits.

    But it wasn’t Carly, or Rory; it was her brother Magnus, calling to congratulate her on finishing her A levels and ask if he could bring a couple of extra guests to her party.
    ‘Depends who,’ she hedged.
    ‘Nell …’
    Faith groaned. Magnus’s ex Nell, with whom he had a one-year-old daughter Giselle, was always horribly conceited and pointedly ignored her whenever they met.
    ‘… and her new boyfriend, now that it’s official.’ The crowd noise in the background was almost drowning him out. ‘I’ve just spoken to them in New York. He sends his love, by the way.’
    ‘His what?’
    ‘His love!’ Magnus repeated loudly. ‘The guy adores you. He’s never got over the day you legged up his lead guitarist on to one of Rory’s horses so powerfully that he flew clean over it. I think he wants to offer you a job as his personal bodyguard.’
    ‘Might be better than a year in Essex.’ Faith sighed, wondering how much her brother knew about the Kurt offer.
    But someone was calling Magnus off the phone now. ‘So I can bring them, yeah?’
    ‘Okay.’ She agreed as casually as she could, heart skipping.
    Tellingly, when Faith texted Carly yet again, this time to let her know of the VIP additions to the guest list, she got a call straight back from her friend, ‘Two Souls’ trilling out from the little Samsung on her bedside table. She listened to the whole of the refrain before answering.
    ‘You are joking me, right?’ Carly demanded breathlessly. ‘Dillon Rafferty is so not coming to your party.’
    ‘He is. I told you. He’s a mate of Magnus’s, after all.’
    ‘Ohmygod, I can’t believe Magnus is your brother. He’s so cool.’
    ‘He’s okay.’ Faith found it impossible to see her brother as anything other than a trendy dork who played guitar with admirable talent – and who wrote very catchy songs with lyrics she didn’t quite understand.
    With his girlfriend Dilly, he had now recorded an album that was enjoying modest success on the back of the music festivals they’d been playing. The duo had developed a local fan base and increasing word-of-mouth popularity. It barely registered on the celeb scale compared to Dillon Rafferty’s stratospheric fame, but Faith was stillgrowing increasingly proud of her lofty, blond brother and his undoubted talent.
    ‘I can’t believe I let Magnus slip through my fingers.’ Carly sighed, having once snogged Faith’s brother at a barbecue when he was a spotty teenager. ‘He’s really made the big time if he mixes with Dillon Rafferty.’
    ‘ I know Dillon personally,’ Faith reminded her hotly. ‘He owns some event horses at Rory’s yard, remember. We go way back. That’s why he wants to come to my party.’
    ‘T’yeah!’ Carly scoffed disbelievingly. ‘And I have a hot date with R-Pattz next weekend, so I’m going to have to blow you out.’
    ‘You are coming, aren’t you?’ Faith checked in a panic. She hated parties and was only really going along with this one to keep her mother happy, and because it enabled her to have an