Free Kiss and Tell by Fiona Walker Page B

essential confab with Carly about her makeover, or Double-D Day as Carly had dubbed it.
    ‘Course.’
    ‘So why haven’t you been answering my calls?’
    ‘Dad’s confiscated my mobile because the last bill he got for it was over three hundred. He is so mean. I’m only allowed one call and two texts a day.’
    ‘I am privileged.’
    ‘Too right you are. I got a text from Grant today asking me to call him. He wants us to get back together.’
    ‘And you called me instead?’ Faith was wildly gratified.
    ‘Yeah. Well, I think I’ll make Grant stew until after your party. Who knows – I might get lucky. Not that Cotswolds guys are a patch on Essex lads.’
    ‘They’re much better!’ Faith said hotly, thinking of Rory. ‘Yours are all footballers, boy bands and reality TV stars.’
    ‘At least they’re under fifty. Yours are all wrinkly has-been actors and ancient rock grandfathers. Talking of which, isn’t the Rockfather moving in up the road from you? Are you sure you’re not getting Daddy muddled up with son and Pete’s the one coming to your party – I hear he likes young girls. You might be in there …’
    ‘Don’t be disgusting! He’s so old!’ Faith squealed with laughter.
    For months it had been common local knowledge that Dillon Rafferty’s even more famous rock-legend father, Pete ‘the Rockfather’ Rafferty, had bought magnificent Fox Oddfield Abbey,just a couple of miles from his son’s more modest working-farm country retreat, and after lengthy renovation work that had kept all the locals agog was poised to move in with his young model wife. The press were on tenterhooks for moving day – and out in force in the locality – in the hope of capturing any reconciliation between Pete and Dillon. The father–son relationship was famously fiery, and the two had now been estranged for several years. It was rumoured that the Rockfather’s move to the Lodes Valley was a big gesture towards rapprochement.
    ‘My mum is really excited,’ Faith told Carly now. ‘Can you believe she used to have all Mask’s albums when she was my age? She swears he was as big as Dillon then, and just as good looking, although I can’t see it. Pete Rafferty is such an old raisin.’
    ‘Maybe he’s your real dad!’ Carly suddenly shrieked. ‘He lived in Ireland for ages, didn’t he?’
    ‘Pete Rafferty is not my biological father,’ Faith said through gritted teeth, wishing Carly didn’t always see her unconventional parentage like the plot of Mamma Mia . ‘And he is not coming to my party, Dillon is. You don’t have to believe me until you see for yourself, but you do have to promise me that you won’t go all silly when he’s near or flirt with him, because he’s off limits. Like Rory’s off limits. Dillon’s bringing Nell Cottrell. It’s all over the papers – you must have seen it.’
    A fortnight earlier a tabloid had photographed trust-fund babe Nell coming out of Dillon’s London townhouse one Sunday afternoon, wearing the same clothes that she had been wearing when the couple had been snapped leaving Bungalow 8 in the early hours of Saturday morning. ‘Raff’s Lost Weekend with Single Mum’ the headline had shouted, much to Nell’s disgust. The media had been after the story for weeks: Dillon Rafferty, the heartthrob superstar whose comeback single had been at the top of the charts all summer, had a new love interest.
    ‘Ohmygod, it is her!’ Carly clearly believed that, at least. ‘I read about in Closer this week and thought I recognised the name. It’s that poisonous cow who tried to trap Magnus, isn’t it? What do men see in her?’
    ‘She’s very beautiful.’
    ‘If you like the boyish Carla Bruni look,’ Carly sniffed.
    ‘Some men do,’ Faith mused, fleetingly wondering whether shereally needed to endure the pain of a boob op. Rory had also once been in love with Nell, after all – a girl in possession of a chest as flat as her own. But that was years ago and