by Julie Archer
“Pretty nice, huh?” asked Clem, as she opened the boot and hefted his stuff out. “Welcome to Waterfront Lodge!”
Nate shaded his eyes from the sun and let out a low whistle. “I hope you’ve nabbed us the best room.”
“Of course!”
He followed Clem and Leona inside into the impressive entrance hall that went right up to the roof, a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
“We’re going to go upstairs for a while,” Clem told Leona. “Tell the others we’ll be down later.”
Their room was on the second floor, overlooking the river. A huge wrought iron king size bedstead dominated the room. There were two large, comfy-looking armchairs angled by the window to take full advantage of the impressive vista, a large dresser and ensuite with a claw foot bath and separate waterfall shower. Nate’s body ached at the thought of standing underneath the cascades.
As he looked out of the window, Clem came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, moulding her body to his. She placed a trail of featherlight kisses along his shoulder blades, coming to rest at the back of his neck.
“I know you’re probably knackered, but you should really come and meet my friends,” she said.
“Really? You don’t want to hang out here for a bit first? Maybe carry on with those kisses?”
“It would feel rude if we did that.”
For a moment, Nate wanted to argue. But things were probably different in Clem’s circles and he needed to respect that. “Then let’s go and say hello.”
With a longing glance at the squishy looking bed, Nate retraced his steps downstairs. They went down into what was once the basement, and now was a games room, with sofas, a bar, a pool table and a collection of games consoles. If only there had been a guitar, it would have been perfect, and Nate could have pretended he was still at The Blacker Lodge. After such an intense period of creative activity, he found it hard to switch straight off.
Lounging around on the sofas were Leona with two guys and another girl. All of them had a glass of something and a joint was passed round. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, he thought.
Clem was by his side and took his hand as she made introductions. “So Leona you already met. This is Alfie, Liam and Anastasia.”
The guy called Liam took a deep toke on the joint as he appraised Nate, his eyes narrowing. Nate couldn’t be sure whether that was against the smoke or dislike.
“Hi, Nate,” said Anastasia.
His eyes scanned over her. She looked like the type of woman that came along to a Blood Stone Riot gig with the express intention of hooking up with one of the band. She held his gaze just that little bit longer than necessary, running the tip of her tongue over her lips. Just like Rach had. Nate shuddered.
“Any chance of a drink?” he asked.
“I’ll get you one,” offered Anastasia.
Clem had already beaten her to it, holding out a tumbler of what smelled like tequila. Jesus, if he drank that on top of lack of sleep and some weed, he’d be out within minutes. The two of them nestled down in one corner of the massive L-shaped sofa.
“What is it that you do, Nat?” asked Liam.
Nate inhaled sharply. The misuse of his name appeared deliberate and surely if the group was as close-knit as Clem alluded to, they would know exactly who he was.
“Nate’s a guitarist,” said Leona. “We were talking about that before he came downstairs…”
Leona’s voice trailed off and Nate knew immediately that Liam’s acts were deliberate. He swallowed a mouthful of tequila and decided to play him.
“Just got back from recording our new material. Got a few gigs lined up, though I don’t plan on leaving Clem for so long next time.” He stretched, running a proprietary hand along her thigh. “It’s going to be great to spend some quality time with this one. You jealous?” Nate felt Clem tense beside him. His assumption that they had once been together was correct. He didn’t want to upset her; however, his first impressions of Liam weren’t great.
“Not at all, Nate, not at all,” said Liam. He took another sip of his drink, his eyes never leaving Nate and Clem.
“And what is it you do? Or rather, what do you do when you’re not spending your trust fund?” Liam looked around the same age as Clem and could barely be out of university.
“What do you care? It’s not like we’ll be bumping into each other in the Square Mile or anything.”
“Ah, banking. Thought as much.” Nate laughed. The temperature in the room dipped a few notches.
“I’ve just started a graduate role in marketing,” volunteered Alfie, trying to steer the subject away from Liam.
“Then I should introduce you to Olivia Cole. She’s got her own PR company and she’s always looking for bright young things with new ideas.” Nate winced as he said the words. Since when had he become such an old man?
“Olivia’s great,” said Clem. “She really helped me out when I started on Pretty Rich Things. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”
“How was Byron’s latest supper club?” asked Leona.
“No idea. I didn’t go because I was with Nate.”
As the group started talking about the show, Nate’s eyes started to droop. The tension that had appeared between him and Liam seemed to dissipate as quickly as it arrived. He rested his head on the back of the sofa and let sleep claim him.
Chapter Twenty-One
As Nate walked around the various venues for the WD Fest the next day, he was fairly sure that the attendees wouldn’t notice a member of Blood Stone Riot if he punched them in the face. Not that he’d actually do that, unless someone provoked him of course.
It was refreshing to wander about without people coming up to him and asking for selfies like they had at the Wilde Park Festival. In fact, the opposite seemed true here; people were stopping Clem and asking about her business or how her family were doing. Not to mention the teenage girls who squealed when they realised who she was. Clem took it all in her stride, smiling and posing for the people who wanted a snap to put all over their social media. Nate was grateful to take a backseat on that, even offering to take some of the pictures. As a result, it seemed to take them an absolute age to get anywhere.
They stopped in the Market Square to listen to one of the acoustic acts, a solo singer with a guitar. He was pretty good, although not Nate’s preferred style.
“Clementine Cameron!” A high-pitched female voice cut through the music.
The couple turned, and saw a woman in her mid-thirties, with wild, frizzy hair, clutching a collecting bucket heading in their direction. She threw her arms around Clem, capturing her in a hug.
“Gail!”
Clem’s tone was equally as shrill and Nate winced. He guessed that was how they did it down here.
“What are you doing here? No-one told me you were back this weekend.”
“It was kind of a last-minute decision and Nate didn’t know if he could come.”
Gail’s gaze raked up and down Nate and the obvious interest in him made him slightly uncomfortable. “Your new boyfriend?”
Clem nodded. “Yep. Gail, this is Nate.”
“And what does Nate do for a living?”
Clem shot a sideways glance at him before answering. “He’s in a band.”
The woman’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? You should have asked them to play here. We like to promote bands who want to make it big.”
“Gail’s on the festival committee,” said Clem. “She’s one of the music bookers, as well as sorting out the volunteers.”
“That’s right.” Gail nodded enthusiastically. “Why don’t you send us an application and maybe we can get you on the bill for next year?”
Nate decided to play along. “Really? Could you? That would be fantastic. I know the other guys in the band would be so excited to come here. Would we get paid?”
“Of course! We pay anywhere between one hundred and five thousand pounds, depending on the standing of the gr
oup.”
“Right.” Nate bit his lip. He felt Clem dig her nails into his palm. She had obviously worked out what he was doing. “I’m really sorry, Gail, I’m not sure our management company would be happy with that. I mean, even though we have a connection with the town in Clem here, we probably couldn’t go that low.”
Gail patted his arm. “Why don’t you let me speak to your management? I’m sure I’d be able to talk them round.”
It took all of Nate’s willpower not to burst out laughing. He decided to put the woman out of her misery. “Gail, I’m Nate McKenna, lead guitarist for Blood Stone Riot. Even if you could afford us, I imagine we’d scare off your festival faithful.”
As realisation dawned on Gail’s face, her jaw dropped open. “My son is a fan of yours. He’s thirteen and I hate the stuff he listens to.”
Nate shrugged. “Like I said, we’re probably not quite what you’re looking for.” He smiled. “Sorry for leading you on.”
The woman tutted and embraced Clem again. “Lovely to see you, Clem. I need to go and shake my bucket at some more people.”
“Wait.” Nate slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a twenty pound note. He popped it into Gail’s bucket. “Events like this are how we cut our teeth, so I’m happy to support it. Even though we don’t get to play them anymore.”
Gail nodded at him and disappeared into the crowd.
Clem punched him on the arm. “That was so mean! She’s a good friend of the family.”
“I know, I just couldn’t resist. She was so…” Nate paused, searching for the right word to explain it. “Sincere?” He pulled Clem towards him and gave her a deep kiss. “Now who else can we go and see?”
They headed off to one of the cafes, that looked out onto a large expanse of field and had great views of the river. A small crowd was gathered around their makeshift stage, where another acoustic act was playing. Clem spotted Liam, Alfie and Leona and dragged Nate over to them.
“Nate’s been teasing Gail about his fame and notoriety,” she said.
“Good work, mate, she can be a bit intense at times, very sincere,” said Alfie. “Drives us mental.”
“See? I knew I was right!” Nate was triumphant. “Now who wants drinks?”
As he waited by the bar, Nate’s attention was drawn to the act on stage. It wasn’t necessarily the sort of thing he would listen to voluntarily, but it wasn’t bad. The guitarist definitely had some talent. He took the drinks back to the others, grabbed Clem’s hand and pulled her closer to the front.
“Hey, these guys are pretty good,” he said.
Clem smiled at him. “Do you really think Gail would book someone that she hasn’t personally listened to and approved? She’s very picky you know.”
Nate laughed. “Which is why there is no way in hell that Blood Stone Riot would ever play here.”
He put an arm around Clem’s waist and pulled her close to him as he sank into the music being played. He noticed that a few people were looking over in their direction and waving to the act on stage, dismissing it as them simply recognising Clem.
When the band finished up their song, the lead singer grabbed the microphone and went to the side of the stage that Nate and Clem were on.
“It seems we have a rather proficient guitarist in our crowd this evening!” he announced. “We were wondering whether you’d do us the honour of joining us for a couple of songs, Mr Nate McKenna of Blood Stone Riot?” He pointed in Nate’s direction.
Almost as one, the crowd turned to stare at him. He tried to smile and winced inwardly. This wasn’t what he’d expected at all. “Ah, it’s okay, guys, thanks for the offer, but I’ll leave you to carry on.”
“Go on, please!” Clem gave him a gentle push of encouragement. She took his beer from him and kissed his cheek.
“Okay, okay. I’ll do it. One song.”
The crowd cheered as he made his way to the low-rise stage. The guitarist handed over an acoustic guitar and Nate accepted it. He checked the tuning and chatted to the singer as they decided what to do.
“Okay, so I don’t sing, I just play,” he said, accepting the mic from the singer. “I think you might recognise this as a Blood Stone Riot song, which…” He looked at the guy who confirmed his name. “Bobby reckons he knows the words to. Although he sounds nothing like Alik Thorne.”
Nate flexed his fingers and began the intro to ‘Bleed Like Cyanide’. It was one of the few of their songs that could easily be converted to acoustic and he loved to mix it up. He sought out Clem in the audience, who winked at him. As he played, he thought that this was the last thing he expected to be doing that weekend. Performing was clearly in his blood as the same buzz of adrenaline he got from a fully plugged in Blood Stone Riot show fizzed through his frame. A rush of happiness hit him as he observed Clem watching him, a broad smile across her beautiful face. When he agreed to come to Westbourne Deane, he hadn’t expected any of this.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Clem’s heart swelled with pride as she looked at the concentration on Nate’s face as he plucked the strings of the guitar. If she was honest, Blood Stone Riot was pretty far out of her comfort zone as far as music was concerned. But, seeing him totally in the zone, doing what he did for a living, in front of her and her friends was pretty amazing.
“Wow, he’s good, Clem.” Leona materialised beside her. “Liam is so jealous.”
“What’s he got to be jealous of?”
“You, your new famous boyfriend, how happy you are.”
Leona was right, Clem was happy. After all the drama with Liam and his serial infidelity, she wouldn’t have thought that a chance encounter at a friend’s wedding would have led to this. She hoped Nate felt the same way. He wouldn’t have come all the way down to Westbourne Deane if he didn’t, surely?
She felt her mouth curve into a smile. “I am happy. This is so…” She searched for the right word. “Easy. After we both found out who we were, I didn’t think it would be like this. You know, the fame thing. I can honestly say, these last few weeks with Nate have been the best ever.”
“Don’t let Liam hear you say that. He thinks the trip to Venice is the best thing you’ve ever done.”
The weekend that Liam had surprised her with a weekend in Venice, shortly before she found out he’d been sleeping with two other girls, had been wonderful. Everything had been perfect, right down to the rose petals that were strewn across their bed. Then she discovered the messages on his phone, in particular the ones from Anastasia Green. Not wanting to spoil the weekend, Clem had kept her discovery to herself and confronted Liam about it as soon as they touched down at Heathrow. With a delay before they were able to get off the plane, she had made him explain everything and by the time they disembarked, they were no longer a couple. That had been a couple of months before the wedding. Clem had spent that time single, drowning her sorrows in wine, gin and fast food, up until the final bridesmaid’s dress fitting, when she couldn’t do up the zip of her gown. A crash diet, an intensive exercise regime and no alcohol had brought her back to her optimum weight in no time. She vowed there and then not to get involved with a cheat ever again.
She turned her attention back to the stage, watching Nate’s movements and seeing him whip up the audience. As she looked around, she saw people had their phones out and were snapping pictures and videos that would no doubt be uploaded to the internet later. Clem knew that the WD Fest committee were a bit precious when it came to making the festival too big and too attractive, so she hoped that Nate’s appearance wouldn’t go viral.
“This guy is fantastic!” said a teenage boy to Clem’s right. “He should have had a slot to himself. Do you know who he is?”
“He’s my boyfriend,” Clem couldn’t help but beam as she said the words.
“He’s hot too,” added the girl around the same age, who stood next to the boy. “I’m so jealous… just kidding.”
“Looks like you’ve got competition,” said Leona.
&n
bsp; As Clem surveyed the crowd, she noted that a lot of the women were seemingly entranced by Nate’s performance. She couldn’t blame them, he was having that exact effect on her as well.
“What are you up to after this?” asked Leona. “Me and Alfie were going to go and see a band in the Guildhall. God knows what happened to Liam. I think I saw him with Anastasia and her crew.”
“Depends what Nate wants to do. I know he’d picked out a couple of acts he wanted to see, but I don’t think he was expecting to do this.” Clem checked her watch. “I’ll ask him afterwards. If you guys want to head off, I’ll message you when I know what we’re doing.”
“Sure, we’ll catch you later.” Leona kissed her on both cheeks, waved and disappeared into the throng.
Clem kept her eyes on the stage, nodding along to the tunes and sipping her wine. She was lost in her own world and didn’t notice Liam sliding in beside her.
“Guess no-one can compete with your new rock star boyfriend, can they?” he whispered in her ear, making her jump.
“What do you care anyway, Liam?”
“I think it was a mistake that we split up.”
“The mistake was you sleeping with other people while you were with me! Why would I give you another chance now?” Clem moved away, trying to put some distance between them. She was vaguely aware of the set on the stage finishing and hoped that Nate would come to find her.
“You can do better than some dirty rocker, Clem. You’re better than that.”
“She can definitely do better than some dirty cheat, mate.”
A hand landed on Clem’s shoulder and she sighed in relief as Nate’s voice cut into the conversation.
The two men squared up to each other and Clem gripped her reusable plastic cup that bit tighter. The last thing she wanted, though, was any trouble between them. After all, they were all staying at Waterfront Lodge together.
“Let’s agree to disagree on this one,” said Liam. “I don’t think you’re right for Clem.”
