Could It Be I'm Falling in Love? by Eleanor Prescott Read Free Book Online

nightmare where you think you’re on a date with Adonis, but you’re actually at some weird family gathering, and the family name is Addams.
    She shot another look at the paunchy middle-aged man. He reminded her of someone. She briefly tried to place him. He was probably one of her old, pervy uncles. They all looked the same and she always blanked them out. And hadn’t her mum said one of them was local?
    Next to Pervy Uncle was a dumpy, mumsy woman, on the verge of a panic attack. Her eyes were locked on the macaroons.
    Next to Dumpy Mum was Spinster Aunt: sensible shoes; old-fashioned make-up; probably born with a rod up her arse. Definitely not someone to get stuck next to.
    Sitting demurely next to Spinster Aunt was a bland blonde in a pastel round-neck.
Smug Cousin
, Roxy decided. She’d probably been indoors studying for her next piano grade while Roxy had been out climbing trees and showing the boys her knickers. Another one to be avoided.
    She wasn’t sure who the macaroon-wielding weirdo on her left was. The black sheep of the family, probably. Maybe he was Pervy Uncle’s son. Actually, the more she looked at him, the more she was sure she’d seen him before. Probably loitering in the park, or on
Crimewatch
.
    Who the hell are these people?
she wondered. And then a thought struck her. Surely they couldn’t be …?
No!
Woodywas a pop star! OK, so he was a pop-star-turned-window-cleaner and seemed to have stuck all the trappings of wealth and fame into storage, but he
was
a pop star, nevertheless. Didn’t pop stars hang out with supermodels and Formula One drivers? They certainly didn’t hang out with this lot. Surely they couldn’t be Woody’s …
friends?
Roxy began to panic. Where were Woody’s
celebrity
friends?
OK!
magazine would never shell out for wedding shots if the congregation was made up of this lot.
    She accepted a large glass of wine from Woody and watched unhappily as he sat between Smug Cousin and Spinster Aunt. She tried not to frown – not good for the wrinkles. Besides, she liked to think she was a lager-half-full kind of girl. OK, so the night wasn’t going as planned, but winning Woody would be like scoring the double rollover – career and love life sorted in one scoop. And Roxy wasn’t the type to wimp out at a hurdle. Hurdles were there to be jumped over. Why else did she wear such high heels? She took a big slug of wine and sat back.
    ‘All I’m saying,’ Spinster Aunt declared frostily, in a voice that sounded uncomfortably familiar, ‘is that a good man’s career was ruined – and his family nearly destroyed.’
    Dumpy Mum was looking red-faced.
    ‘Well, that was hardly Sue’s fault,’ Pervy Uncle jumped to her defence.
    ‘Let’s not pretend she didn’t play her part,’ said Spinster Aunt.
    ‘I never meant …’ Dumpy Mum began forlornly.
    ‘She was
nineteen
, Cressida!’ reasoned Pervy Uncle. ‘Just a child – innocent in the ways of the world.’
    ‘Innocent? I don’t think Deirdre Hunt would put it like that, Terence – do you?’ Spinster Aunt Cressida replied tartly.
    ‘Sue was just as much a victim as Deirdre Hunt. If you want to blame anyone, blame him – blame Hunt, blame the papers, God knows, they deserve it!’
    There were grunts of agreement from the room.
    ‘You can’t help who you fall in love with,’ Macaroon Man offered helpfully. ‘Sue was obviously deeply in love.’
    ‘And she’s had to live with the fallout for years!’ said Pervy Uncle Terence. ‘The Hunts had each other. She had no one.’
    ‘Not even a career,’ added Smug Cousin. Roxy looked at her in surprise. It wasn’t the kind of support she’d have expected from goody-two-shoes.
    ‘I did get married, once …’ Dumpy Mum Sue said quietly, her eyes fixed in her lap. ‘To Jeff. It didn’t last. He wanted Suzi, but I just wanted to be Sue. I wanted to put all the Suzi stuff behind me.’
    ‘See?’ Terence insisted. ‘The Hunts weren’t the only ones to