The car I was in pulled off the main drive and around to the back entrance.
Story of my life I thought with a smile, but I appreciated that my thought had given me my first lift of the day. I took one more look at the drive and then focussed ahead.
It was almost midnight when the final trays had left the kitchen. The food this evening had included fish and chips in newspaper with mushy peas, and jelly and ice cream. The trays that had just left were freshly baked warm rolls, spread with local butter and stuffed to the brim with crispy bacon. The band had insisted that this evening everything was to be less formal than they’d scheduled for the daytime. Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t received that memo. So, I had stayed put in the kitchen once I had worked out I’d be the only one in a little black dress, which showed far more cleavage than I had bargained for.
The adrenalin I had been running around on earlier was beginning to subside and fast. Every muscle in my body ached.
‘There you are.’ Lauren’s voice found me as I pressed the start button on another full load in the dishwasher. ‘Look at you… nice dress.’ She smiled over to me as she teased.
‘Oh, this old thing.’ I smiled back at her. ‘Sorry, I borrowed it. I thought I had nothing suitable with me to wear. Who knew I could have come in comfy jeans and a pair of Converse?’ I stared at her, raising one questioning eyebrow.
I watched her grimace as she silently mouthed her apology. ‘It looks better on you than it ever did on me,’ she offered, trying to appease me.
I looked down at myself. I had, until I’d realised my choice of attire was completely wrong for the evening, been really pleased with the reflection I had seen in the full-length mirror of Lauren’s spare room.
I lifted my eyes from the beautiful, black lace. ‘So, what brings you to my lowly domain?’ I opened my arms wide and gesticulated the kitchen.
‘Well, Cinderella, Winter and I want you out of here. All the guests have gone into the ballroom to watch the band and we thought we could share a couple of glasses of bubbly together and then hopefully go to find our beds.’
‘I’m a little overdressed.’ I looked down at my boobs. Held in a decent bra they were filling up the majority of the space in between the plunging V neckline of the dress.
‘You look beautiful, even stunning.’ She smiled at me and I raised my eyebrows at her. ‘I know. Not to worry, we’ll hide you away in the drawing room, because God forbid anyone should get an eyeful of your tits.’ Her laughter filled the kitchen. ‘Come on, we deserve the celebration and we’re dying to know how last night went?’ She winked at me and grinned a broad knowing smile.
‘I bet you do, but that will have to wait for another day. I’m too exhausted to talk tonight, just take me to the alcohol.’ It was a lie, I just wasn’t strong enough to go there this evening.
Lauren offered me a tight-lipped smile and took hold of my hand. As we left the back of the house and began to move forward down the empty passageway, the sounds of the band tuning up reached my ears.
The drawing room had two entrances. As we arrived through one door, Winter was closing the grander double doors behind her, on what had to be the ballroom. Next to her was a small silver drinks trolley. I could see two bottles of Champagne and three glasses. I smiled broadly at her as she began to push it towards the two overly large settees, placed either side of a roaring log fire.
I walked nearer to one and sat down quickly in an undignified heap.
‘I’m knackered, completely cream crackered,’ I declared as I kicked off my heels, bent my bare legs and placed them beside me on the comfortably stuffed settee. While Winter fought to release the cork from the first bottle, I absentmindedly rubbed at a sore spot on my right heel.
I was relaxed and comfortable. The excitement from the large room outside had to some extent invaded the smaller cosier one that contained just us three. My earlier feeling of absolute tiredness began to lift as we looked at each other with the recognition at just what we had managed to pull off in the last two days, and the enthusiasm from the happy people waiting outside began to filter through.
POP!
Finally, the cork wiggled free and shot off towards the ceiling. The three of us smiled at each other. Hurriedly, Lauren pushed the glasses under the stream of escaping Champagne. When the flutes were full, Winter thrust mine into my waiting hand.
‘To us!’ Winter shouted into the warm room.
‘To us!’ we called back, clinking the expensive glasses together.
I took a large gulp and relaxed a little more into the settee as I felt the bubbles come alive in my mouth. I swallowed quickly before they travelled up my nose.
‘I don’t know what to say to you both, other than thank you. But that doesn’t seem nearly enough.’ Winter drunk the rest of her Champagne down quickly and sat down opposite me.
‘It went brilliantly, Winter. You should be so proud of yourself,’ Lauren added. ‘I saw you handing out your business cards left, right and bloody centre today.’
‘Well, I couldn’t have done it without you both, thank you from the heart of my bottom.’ She smiled at us again and topped up all our glasses. I just managed to get my fingers over the top of mine, before she overenthusiastically filled it to the point of it slopping over the rim.
‘The Fairy Garden had one of its best days ever today, Lauren… I’m so proud of you both and your achievements.’ I lifted my glass to them both and took another sip.
I saw the moment they glanced at each other and without saying a word they both made their way over to my settee, to hug me from both sides.
‘We’re proud of you too, you know,’ Winter spoke into my ear.
I smiled at their words, holding them close to me. Finally, they released their hold and sat back down on the settee opposite.
‘So?’ questioned Lauren as they both interrogated me with a stare.
I shrugged at them both.
‘Okay, let us recap. When we last saw you last night, the very lovely Daniel was climbing the wrought iron staircase to your bedroom, doing the stairs two at a time. Let us remind you, he was carrying you over his shoulder as if you were as light as a feather.’ Lauren placed an open palm over her heart, it was a mannerism of Nan’s that she’d taken on as one of her own.
I shook my head slowly from side to side at them.
‘Oh, come on, Amy, spill it. We need to hear it all.’
I had gone over the words in my head, practising what I was going to say.
‘My night was amazing. Having never had a one-night stand before, I don’t know what I was expecting. He was attentive and gave me exactly what I needed.’ I forced the words out. Not wanting to think on them too much.
I watched them turn to look at each other again.
‘Oh dear!’ Lauren added to the now quiet room.
‘Indeed,’ replied Winter as her beautifully shaped eyebrows lifted so high they nearly touched her hairline. ‘So, it was either bloody awful or the best sex you’ve ever had. He was that good, huh?’
‘Yes, he was good. I had a really good night,’ I answered as nonchalantly as I could manage.
‘So, let’s get this right. He’s tall and good looking?’ Winter asked, turning her body away from facing towards me and angling herself towards Lauren. Lauren in turn copied her, effectively shutting me out.
‘Yes,’ I answered, although neither of them even turned their heads towards me.
‘He was so strong, we saw that by the way he picked her up,’ added Lauren.
‘We did,’ Winter answered, as she feigned fainting like a southern belle.
I nodded in response, although they never looked my way.
‘With that sort of strength, he probably has the most fantastic body?’
‘Yes, he had a really good body.’ I almost sighed as I answered, remembering the feel of his hard, muscular torso under my fingertips and my urge to constantly touch it. I’d once again added to the conversation, but still they effectively igno
red me.
‘We witnessed he had a sense of humour.’ Lauren was adding up Daniel’s list of plusses on her fingers as she and Winter carried on having the discussion between themselves.
‘A man like that is sure to know exactly how to use all of those qualities to best effect,’ added Winter, nodding her head.
‘I bet he knew just how to use all of those skills.’ Lauren sighed and leant back into the comfy cushions behind her, fanning her face with her hand.
‘He did,’ I added.
‘He exuded confidence, I could sense a bit of a bad boy about him,’ Winter continued.
‘His body was covered in the most beautiful, brightly coloured tattoos and his fingers were covered in rings. Sex with him was amazing… the way he controlled my pleasure and then held me close afterwards was more than I could have ever imagined.’
At that point, they turned to face me, with wide grins. I knew I had been tempted into giving them the information they’d been after from the beginning.
‘So, when are you seeing him again?’ asked Lauren.
I looked at them both in disbelief. Lauren was full of excitement for me at the thought. Winter seemed a little lost in her own thoughts at our conversation.
‘It was a one-night stand, we made no other plans. I told him to make sure the door closed behind him on his way out.’
Both of their faces contorted in front of me.
‘So, you’re telling us that you effectively kicked him out of bed and slammed the door shut on his face?’
‘Stop it!’ I was shaking my head at them both. ‘It was a one-night stand. He’s here for Jack’s wedding, after that I’m sure he’ll be on his way back home. By the looks of his clothes and the car he was driving, he has money. So, what on earth would tempt him to stay here in our sleepy little village?’
‘Did he tell you all of that?’ questioned Winter.
I shook my head a little. ‘It’s just what I got from our few conversations.’
‘What sort of car did he have? Just as a matter of interest. Was it a sports car?’
‘No, it was a Land Rover. A Defender I think.’ I smiled at the memory of sitting in it with him, feeling warm and comfortable after my accident.
‘Oh.’ She nodded. ‘Well, I for one think you’ll be seeing him again…’
I looked at her in question, furrowing my forehead.
‘I mean, we’re going to the wedding, aren’t we?’ She smiled.
Just then a loud cheer went up next door. Instinctively my gaze left Winter and travelled towards the closed double doors. A beat was being tapped out on what appeared to be one drum and then the guitars joined in. I realised it was a tune I recognised. A voice joined in, masculine, deep and melodic and on some notes, his voice rasped. I was enthralled. So, it appeared that I did know some of their music after all. I began to sing along to some of the words he was singing and to mime the ones I didn’t know.
‘Oh, I love this one.’ Lauren started dancing around the room, with her glass held high in her right hand. Winter jumped up to join her.
‘Come on, Amy!’ Lauren shouted.
I jumped to my feet, my earlier exhaustion had been left behind. I danced my way over to them, picking up the Champagne on the way.
The more Default Distraction played, the more we danced, the more we drank and luckily for me, with a glass held up high in one hand and bottle of Champagne in the other, the more I could forget.
Cupping both of my hands, and raising my bent elbows high into the air, I sang the last note into the microphone. Holding the chord for as long as I had air in my lungs forced my body to lean backwards. The stool I was resting my ass on teetered on two of its four legs. In a well-practiced pose my right leg was straight out in front of me, balancing my weight. Finally, with my head right back and with my eyes closed, I finished the song at the exact same time Cade once again hit the snare.
The song we had ended the short set with was a favourite of our fans, but the words I had written many years before and had just sang to the mainly strangers in the crowd, affected me every single fucking time. Behind my trademark aviators I knew there would be tears in my eyes, my body as per fucking usual was trembling with exertion and the fucking emotion of it. As with every other time I’d sung “Regret” I saw my mum and sister leaving. The pain of my heart being smashed into pieces, as I sang the words and relived the old movie clips in my head, was as excruciating now as it was when I had to live through it as a small boy.
My sorrow had been torturous enough to live with, but my dad’s had been more agonising to stand by and watch. Watching was so much worse, especially as a child when the only tools you have in your arsenal are your arms. My short, skinny arms weren’t nearly big enough to wrap all the way around him when he sobbed into his pillow every night.
Applause went up all around us. I opened my tightly squeezed eyes and with a loud sniff, I dragged myself out of my memories and back to the small stage I was sat on.
Slowly, I moved my body forward, feeling the beads of sweat run down my spine. I moved and my T-shirt fell into the dip, soaking up the moisture. I focussed and looked back out into the small crowd.
‘Thank you…Thanks so much… We’ve been Default Distraction, double D’s over and out.’ I two-finger saluted them in the exact same way I would end any concert or gig of ours. No matter how big or small they were, they all mattered to us.
I got up off the stool and bent down to pick up the bottle of water to the side of me. Then I squatted down and unscrewed the top. Tipping the bottle back I emptied the contents down my hot, dry throat and then crunched the plastic container in my tightly clenched fist. I looked around the small stage we’d had made. Cade was talking to a small group of girls that had gathered around him. I had no fucking idea where they had appeared from, knowing him he had probably bussed them in. They seemed young, hopefully legal, and willing, and that made them without any doubt, his type. But following his line of sight, I could see his eyes were on Raff’s sister. Winter had walked into the room with Lauren when we had begun to play our last song. I watched as the fuckwit placed his fingers to his lips and he blew her a kiss. Thank fuck the successful opening weekend was over, Raff had warned me that his sister was on the verge of walking out because of Cade.
But Cade was Cade, and looking at Winter, she looked jealous of him giving the group of girls his attention. So perhaps Raff had got the fucking situation between them wrong?
Luke stepped off the small stage and took Brielle from her new nanny’s arms. So far, I hadn’t had much to do with her, but she seemed friendly enough, even if she was young. If Brielle was happy, that was everything to all of us. Luke was her dad but after Cherise’s death we had all made ourselves surrogate parents.
Raff had stepped down off the stage and was walking towards where Lauren had been standing earlier, his head was turning frantically as he sought her out. His parents were in the room and he offered them a quick nod on the way past. His father was a retired colonel, formally with the British army. They had been estranged for quite a few years but they were now trying to move past it.
I jumped down off the stage, hearing my boots hit the floor and then sat back down on the edge, watching the crowd.
I had no one to go to, so I stayed put.
As I watched, my mind wandered back to three years previously.
‘How do you feel?’ the doctor questioned me.
That was a good fucking question. I wanted to laugh out loud.
I could tell his eyes were on me as he waited for my answer. But I kept my eyes cast down, I hated places like these. Places where I felt laid out bare. Stark white walls and heavy walnut furniture offered no comfort to anyone sat in its confines, especially to someone like me. I could hear the London traffic rushing past outside the Georgian building, the sound getting louder and louder the longer I concentrated on it. Quickly, I lifted my eyes to the glass of the window and stared out of one of the slightly imperfect rectangular frame
s, watching a red double decker bus go past. A blue coloured bird caught my eye, as it swooped down and pulled a sunflower seed from the bird feeder hanging on the one solitary tree outside. I closed my eyes and sighed, shutting my head down, hoping not to overwhelm myself.
‘Is there a way I’m supposed to feel?’ I asked as I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t look back over the desk at him, choosing instead to play with the sole and heel of the Chelsea boots I was wearing. My leg was bent at the knee with my ankle bone laid on top of my opposite knee. I tapped my fingers on the different materials and concentrated on the sounds they made. I could layer the notes they made on top of each other and began to play the new tune in my head.
I blanked him out again, just like I had blanked out most of my life.
‘Hopefully you can come to terms with the diagnosis. By understanding it better, and recognizing how it affects you, I would like to think that you can make changes to your lifestyle and lead a happier, healthier life?’
I listened to his words, still laying out the new tune in my head. The notes went over and over, as I filtered him and his bright white fucking office out.
I hated being put on the spot as me. Life was much easier as the lead singer and main songwriter of Default Distraction.
‘Thanks… But, don’t betcha life on it.’ I pushed myself up from the uncomfortable chair I was sitting in and made my way to his door.
‘I’m not in the habit of betting with my life, Mr. Daniels. Can I suggest you don’t gamble anymore with yours?’ I let his words wash over me and then made the last couple of steps towards the door.
Brody (Default Distraction Book 1) Page 11
