Her Song

28 - The Bacon Myth

**Kim**

"Kimberley! I have some stern words for you young lady!"

Lucy gave me an apologetic look as Tony's voice echoed shrilly down the hall that lead from the front of house to the great room overlooking the pool terrace at the back.

"What did you tell him?" I winced. I needed to know just how much groveling I was in for.

"Nothing. Only that you and the band are here for a couple of days before we all hit the road." Lucy gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. I should have felt better but the way she scrunched up her nose didn't give me much hope. "But you know what he's like, he's probably managed to weasel out the entire story somehow."

"Yay for me!" I gave a pathetic little cheer accompanied by a pair of listlessly waving fists. I was not ready for the in depth debrief that Tony would require from me regarding potentially everything. Van wasn't the only person I'd kept the full details about my family from, of the people I was close to I'd only ever discussed them with Lucy and her parents. Not to mention the fact that I may have neglected to mention to Tony that Van and I had become a thing. Oh, and I hadn't told him about the baby yet either. Maybe I could throw the news of my future child on his mercy as an apology for neglecting to mention certain other pertinent facts regarding my life.

Tony entered the room with a flourish. "Ladies, prepare to explain yourselves."

My words of apology turned to ashes in my mouth and my jaw dropped open. How the hell could I even begin to describe Tony's extraordinary attire?

"Oh god," Lucy groaned, "when Zac's not around to control his fashion choices he thinks he's Rico Suave." I loved the way she rolled her mouth around and extended the word swaaarveeey.

Tony lifted his mirrored glasses to better glare at Lucy and said, "Don't try and change the topic Lucifer. You, and you," he swung around and jabbed a finger in my direction, "have been with holding important information." He slapped a hand to his tropical print covered chest. "I am appalled. Devastated. Heartbroken. I thought we were BFF's. Your secrets have wounded me." He allowed his bottom lip to tremble just slightly. I managed to restrain my eye roll because whilst I knew that Tony loved drama and was currently doing his best to show that Bas wasn't the only one capable of offering up Oscar worthy performances I was also aware that I had kept secrets from him. Probably the worst one in his books was my Insta-famous sister. He had a not so secret hankering to be an influencer when he wasn't planning world domination as a nightclub Tsar. Or maybe he'd think keeping my relationship with Van a secret from him would be a worse crime. Either way I'd deprived him of crucial gossip.

Lucy snorted and took a sip of her mineral water. "Oh is that the reason for this morning's affirmations on Instagram?" she asked deadpan.

Tony gasped and snatched the glass from her hand. "I'll have you know my followers love my affirmations!" He took a sip and screwed up his nose as he gave the glass a quizzical look.

"I hope more than I like this new look of yours. You look a refugee from a seventies porn set." Lucy smirked as she lobbed another conversational bomb.

I sank back into the sofa and turned my attention to the glorious Los Angeles day outside. It was a far cry from the grim weather we'd left behind in London and New York. The sun was sparkling off the pool and it felt like another world. I vaguely listened in as Lucy and Tony bickered back and forth like siblings – they'd become even closer since Tony had started dating Zac, Bas's assistant. On the other side of the pool I could see Josh and Ace stretched out on sun lounges as Gray sat off to the side on a chair roughly pulled free of a table and moodily strummed his guitar. Van was nowhere in sight.