The One and Only by Sophie McKenzie Read Free Book Online Page B

on me. But he’d told me Alejandro was coming round with his dad for this big meal on Boxing Day. So . . .’
    ‘So I arrived and there was Eva and she asked me to rescue her.’Alejandro looked at me in the rear-view mirror.
    ‘Why didn’t you call me?’ I gazed past Eve, out of the side window. We were speeding along a motorway now, distant houses rushing past.
    Eve sighed. ‘I was worried you’d do something stupid like try and fly out to Mallorca. And I didn’t want Dad to have any idea what I was planning.’
    ‘Which was . . .?’ I said. I was struggling slightly with the feeling that it should have been me, not Alejandro, helping Eve.
    Eve seemed to sense what I was thinking. She took my hand. ‘You don’t know how paranoid I felt. I couldn’t be sure Dad hadn’t bugged the phone. I really wouldn’t put it past him.’ Her voice shook. ‘And I knew that Alejandro had the money to get me out of the country. What could you have done from here?’
    ‘I know,’ I said, curling her fingers up in my hand.
    ‘So . . . I was supposed to play a gig on New Year’s Eve in Madrid,’ Alejandro said. ‘But I drove to La Bonita that morning . . . this morning.’
    ‘And, by then, I think Dad was really starting to believe I’d come round to staying at the convent school,’ Eve said. ‘So I waited till he was in a meeting, then got my passport out of his office.’
    ‘And I smuggled her out to the airport, bought her a ticket and here we are,’Alejandro added.
    ‘But you came too,’ I said. ‘You blew out your gig tonight?’
    Alejandro shrugged. ‘What else could I do? I could no leave Eva on her own. Where was she going to go once she was here?’
    ‘You could have come to me,’ I said.
    ‘Your house is the first place my dad’s going to look for me,’ Eve said.
    I frowned, the difficulty of the situation hitting me properly for the first time. ‘So, where are you . . . we . . . going?’ I said.
    ‘I have a friend. George. A musician. He lives in Cornwall,’Alejandro said.
    ‘Cornwall?’ I said. ‘But that’s miles away.’
    ‘It’s just for a while, Luke,’ Eve said, stroking my arm.
    ‘But then what?’ I said.
    Eve shook her head. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But I can’t go back to my mum. She’ll just do what my dad tells her. And I’m never going back to that school.’
    I stared at her. ‘But . . . how? I mean . . . what . . .?’
    ‘God, Luke. I don’t know. I just know both my parents have let me down so badly that I . . . that I’m not sure I care if I ever see either of them again.’ Tears welled up in her eyes.
    I hugged her, feeling deeply troubled.
    ‘Does your mum know where you are?’ I said.
    Eve shook her head. ‘I called her from the airport to tell her not to worry. That I’d get in touch when I could.’ She wiped her eyes. ‘Hey,’ she said, forcing a smile. ‘How’s your mum? Has she had the baby?’
    I told her about Sam, impressing her with my nappy-changing and bottle-making abilities. Then I had a bit of a vent about how useless Matt was and then I filled her in about Ryan and Chloe.
    By the time I’d finished answering all Eve’s questions it was nearly one am.
    ‘Hey, we missed Happy New Year,’Alejandro said.
    ‘I didn’t.’ Eve grinned. ‘I’m having it. Right now.’
    I called and left a message for Mum at home, saying I was spending the night at Ryan’s and probably wouldn’t be back until late tomorrow. Then I called Ry to get him to cover for me. I had no intention of going home tomorrow, of course, but I decided I’d deal with one day at a time. Like Eve.
    ‘You know we will have to stop for the night.’Alejandro yawned. ‘I can’t drive for much longer. I was up really early to drive to La Bonita this morning.’
    There were a number of hotels listed on the map Alejandro had bought from the car-hire company, but it took a while to find one with spare rooms. Everywhere was full of New Year’s Eve partygoers. By