Free Celebrity Shopper by Carmen Reid Page A

down on to the plush black leather seats.
    ‘Let’s travel home in style and you can tell me all about your day,’ Annie instructed.
    So Lana did. She began with the school news, grumbling about all the work and the homework assignments.
    ‘Oh, you’re studying so hard!’ Annie sympathized. ‘I do wonder if it has anything to do with a certain charming, handsome boy who is now at Cambridge?’
    This caused a confused blush to spread up over Lana’s face. ‘I… erm… well,’ Lana began awkwardly, ‘he’s emailed a bit … but I haven’t seen him for a while.’
    ‘You should,’ Annie encouraged her.
    ‘You weren’t exactly very nice about him when we were going out,’ Lana reminded her mother.
    ‘Well, no, I know that. But you were much younger then,’ Annie defended herself, ‘and maybe I was wrong. No, I was wrong … but there was the Ed-and-the-under-the-bed incident.’
    Annie turned to look at Lana; Lana turned to look back. They caught sight of the expression on each other’s faces and suddenly burst out laughing. It was still the most embarrassing thing Lana had ever done: being caught by Ed under Annie and Ed’s bed with Andrei in a state of … well, semi-undress.
    ‘That was a long time ago,’ Lana reminded her.
    ‘Yeah,’ Annie had to agree, ‘but, Lana, you do know that you might not make it to Cambridge …’
    ‘Yeah, yeah, of course, don’t be silly,’ Lana said quickly as her fingers went up to fiddle with her hair.
    ‘And it’ll be fine, not getting into Cambridge, not even applying for Cambridge,’ Annie added. ‘Andrei’s great, but you’re not allowed to make any big decisions based on him. In fact, it’s probably time to play very hard to get. That always works, I promise you.’
    Lana gave her mother a non-committal smile. She didn’t look convinced. Still, it was nice to be in the back seat of the car, having her mum all to herself. She couldn’t think when they’d last spent even ten minutes alone together just talking.
    But then Annie’s mobile burst into life.
    A glance at the number told Annie that her sister Dinah was calling; she must have picked up Annie’s long apologetic message.
    ‘Annie—’ Dinah began.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Annie interrupted her, ‘I should have phoned you back much sooner, I’m so sorry about your job and I’m a cow who should not be dropping on her own family from a great height. I’ll come round and see you tonight, if you like.’
    ‘Oh, save it, I know you’re not really a heartless bitch who wouldn’t phone her about-to-be-unemployed sister back, not really,’ Dinah said, brushing the apology aside. ‘I’ve just had a call from this journalist wanting to know stuff about you and our family. It was weird.’
    ‘Who?’ Annie asked in surprise.
    ‘Some woman called Vickie … ermmm … Plummer or something? She was asking what I knew about Dad.’
    ‘Dad?’ Annie repeated, horrified. ‘Why on earth does anyone want to know anything about him?’
    ‘Well, it’s a family secret – family scandal, isn’t it? To a journalist anyway.’
    ‘What did you say?’
    ‘Well, I tried to say nothing,’ Dinah said with a touch of reluctance.
    ‘What do you mean you tried?’
    Lana glanced over at Annie, wondering what was wrong.
    ‘I kept trying to put the phone down, but she’s a very persistent woman.’
    ‘Dinah, did you give her his name?’
    ‘Annie, she already knew that, plus his date of birth, plus the address his most recent credit card was registered to.’
    ‘You have got to be joking.’

Chapter Eleven
     
    Ed frazzled:
     
    Torn rugby shirt (St Vincent’s lost property box)
Baggy joggers (not exactly sure)
Socks (Hackett via Annie)
Tartan slippers (Christmas)
Total est. cost: £0
     
    ‘No! I don’t think that would be a good idea …’
     
    ‘Things are a bit messy at home.’ Lana decided she’d better warn her mother as they both got out of the car. ‘It’s not the way it usually is when