Always With Love Read Online Free Page B

not wanting us to think she’s bored of being over there. ‘It’s brilliant out here. Waking up every day with the sun shining and blue skies above – hard not to get excited about that.’
    ‘Don’t miss the rain at all,’ mutters Lauren, subconsciously pulling on her halter-neck bikini strap.
    ‘I’m telling you, Sophie. Within a day or two you’ll be planning on moving out here yourself,’ says Julie, reaching over the seat and touching my shoulder.
    I laugh and give a little shift in my seat.
    ‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that one, Mum,’ smiles Billy, winking at me when I look up at him. ‘You’ve never experienced the magic of Rosefont Hill.’
    ‘Yes. Well …’ Julie replies shortly, removing her hand. ‘It’s great that you’ve decided to have your work hiatus in such a magical setting.’
    ‘Just like you then, Mum,’ retorts Lauren.
    A silence I can’t decipher falls over all of us. Doing my best not to overanalyse the moment, I continue to look out the front window. Turning right on to a road called Vermont Avenue we’re greeted with what looks more like a high street, with a post office, independent coffee shop (not just another Starbucks – of which I’ve spotted loads since landing) and even a little book shop which I can’t help but twist my head to get a better view of.
    ‘Trust you to sniff that out,’ Billy whispers in my ear, making me smile.
    Two minutes later the car starts travelling uphill along a winding road. We go higher and higher, past a row of houses with their cars parked outside, and continue to climb. When James slows the car down and waits for some electric gates to open, I’m surprised at the modest appearance of the white-painted home that I can see in the distance, up another steep incline. Not that I thought Billy would be living in some blinged-up mansion, but it’s a little smaller than I’d expected. In fact, now that I think of it, none of the houses on the way up here screamed out in the overly flashy manner that I’ve come to imagine when thinking of LA, but I guess that’s because we’re not over in Beverly Hills, the residential Mecca for Hollywood’s rich and famous.
    Billy grins at me excitedly. ‘What do you think?’ he asks, once we’ve pulled up outside and have started getting out of the car.
    ‘It looks lovely.’
    ‘Wait until you see inside,’ grins Lauren, walking past us and opening the huge wooden front door and heading inside.
    ‘I’ll just grab my suitcase,’ I start to say, turning to the boot of the car before noticing that James has already removed them and is currently taking them through the garage.
    ‘After you,’ Billy smiles, holding his arm out towards the house and waving me inside.
    Walking in, I realize I was completely wrong about the house being small and discreet. It’s actually a flaming TARDIS! Seriously, it’s huge. I suddenly feel like Kate Winslet in
The Holiday
when she arrives at Cameron Diaz’s mammoth home and can’t quite believe her luck, a comparison that makes me feel extremely giddy.
    Although Billy’s home might appear to be single storey from the front, you actually walk down a swooping staircase into the main section of the building and the space opens up dramatically into a huge living area which leads to further rooms. The size of this room alone is not far off that of the entire floorplan of the childhood home that I still live in with Mum and Billy, and that’s no exaggeration. But, just like Billy’s amazing flat in Hyde Park, it’s been decorated in a way that makes it homely and inviting – just with an extra bit of something to make your jaw drop as soon as you walk in.
    Exposed brick lines the room, adorned with photographs of the family throughout the years (almost the exact same collection that I’ve seen in Billy’s flat but with additions from newer adventures). Chunky and earthy wooden beams run beneath my feet, but it’s not any sort of wooden flooring (and