Never Land (7 page)

            “Never.”

            “Yes, of course.” She looked down her nose at me as she glided off.

            When she was gone I breathed a sigh of relief. “What was
that
?” I asked Danny.

            Danny put his arm around me. “
That
was someone you shouldn't let bother you. The Honorable Joanne Waldegrave. Minor aristocracy. And Peyton's best friend – of a sort. Didn't stop her trying to seduce me repeatedly while Peyton was alive. She and Peyton were at the same college back in Oxford. Didn't pay a whit of attention to Peyton when she was just a middle-class girl from the North, but the second her band made it big it was Peyton darling this and Peyton honey that...” He scowled. “She turned up at my place only a few days after Peyton died, seeking to “comfort me.” It didn't work. Couldn't even respect her so-called friend's memory that long...” He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me close.

            “She made me feel so small.”

             “Please don't listen to her,” he said. “Don't let a horrid jealous woman like that annoy you. Some people are just insensitive, and Joanne has the sensitivity of a rock.” He sighed. “After this, my father should be a breeze.”

            The second my eyes fell upon Clarence Blue, I knew exactly what he was. Looking just like an older version of his son, Clarence looked closer to Danny's age than to his sixty-something years. I could still see the muscles rippling beneath his exquisitely tailored blue shirt. Handsome, cocky, charming, and magnetic, Clarence had whatever mysterious
it
it was that made Danny so utterly irresistible. But while Danny's blue eyes had a certain softness, a certain still sad haunting beauty, Clarence's eyes were hard and cold. Painfully aware of their own power. Next to him sat a waif-like blonde barely out of her teens – Roni Taylor. Even without makeup, Roni was one of the most beautiful women I'd seen, easily four inches taller than me and probably still weighing at least ten pounds less. She picked sadly at a pile of lettuce arranged florally in the middle of her plate, her eyes only lighting up when she saw Danny approach. She was wearing an off-the-shoulder peach dress that highlighted her bony shoulders. I was intimidated by her and felt sorry for her at the same time. She was beautiful, terrifyingly so, but almost bird-like – like a bird, I thought, trapped in a cage. Eating forkfuls of plain lettuce.

            “So, this is the girl you haven't shut up about!” Clarence's broad Yorkshire accent was a far cry from Danny's clipped tones, but the deep bass timbre in the voice was the same. “Let's have a look at her, shall we? Are you the girl that's been vexing our Danny?” He looked me over, his bright blue eyes watering slightly as he took in every inch of my flesh with an interest that seemed decidedly more than paternal. I shivered slightly as he took hold of my hand and kissed it with mock obeisance. “Danny's been spending a fair bit of time out in California – is that your doing, my girl?”

            “Father...” Danny said in warning tones, looking thoroughly uncomfortable at the proceedings. “Neve's new here – let's make her feel welcome.”

            “Charmed,” said Roni Taylor in a hollow voice, automatically stretching her hand out to me. She looked like a doll, I thought, every action, every gesture meticulously rehearsed. She was evidently as nervous as I was, trying to make a good impression. My pity for her increased. A girl of twenty-one married to a man three times her age, trying to fit in among the snobs and dandies of the Blue Water nightclub, among women like Joanne who would likely treat her with the same withering disdain. What was she doing with herself? Did she find any friends in a place like this – or only enemies?

            “Roni, so good to see you.” Danny's voice was curt, almost wary. I looked up in surprise at his tone of voice. Danny was normally so friendly; why did he sound so awkward around her?

            Roni's blue eyes narrowed on Danny's face, and her expression said it all. The look of boredom and misery faded; in that moment her eyes lit up and sparkled. I saw a glimpse of the beautiful, happy young girl that I'd seen on the cover of so many magazines. “Danny!” she said. “I've missed you so!” She pulled him to her in a hug, a hug that he nervously tried to get out of reciprocating.

            My stomach plummeted as I realized the truth. The real reason Danny was so nervous about me meeting his family. Roni's look wasn't the look of lust or desire I'd learned to get used to on the faces of so many groupies. Roni Taylor was quite obviously head over heels in love with her stepson.

Chapter 8

            Clarence Blue looked me up and down, his limpid blue eyes fixating on me. I shivered slightly as I felt him take it all in – the size of my hips, the curve of my waist, the precise shape of my breasts. Clarence Blue was, I knew, more than just a womanizer – he was the ultimate playboy, every girl's dream. Or at least – he had been, and his bank account balance more than made up for the difference between his looks now and the looks he sported back in the day. I was thoroughly unnerved by the way that Clarence patted my shoulder, hugging me tightly enough to feel my bra strap under the dress; the way he looked me in the eye, searchingly, as if to imply that he knew exactly what Danny and I were doing every night. It was Danny's turn to be embarrassed. At his father's actions, he flushed a vague shade of crimson, looking down and trying to avoid my gaze. Poor Danny, I thought as Clarence Blue's eyes seemed to close in around me, it's one thing having a dad who used to be a famous womanizer in the past. But Clarence apparently wasn't above hitting on his son's girlfriends in the present. Perhaps it made him feel young again; certainly, the cheeky flirtatious grin he shot me wouldn't have looked out of place on a boy of sixteen.

            “Well, you certainly can't say she doesn't have Jessica Botano's looks,” Clarence said with a smirk. “She's stunning, Danny. Well done.” The way he turned to Danny, completely ignoring me or any say I might have in the matter, hit me to the core. I flushed red with embarrassment against myself.

            “Thank you,” I said stiffly. I couldn't risk being impolite now – as nervous as I felt, I knew the last thing I wanted to do was isolate Danny's parents. However unconventional this was, this was definitely a “meet the parents” moment. A chance to impress Danny, to show him that I was long-term girlfriend material. Just like Peyton was.
Peyton...
I caught a glimpse of Joanne on the barge, laughing and flirting. Was what she said about Danny true? Had he already had it – that one great love that makes all others seem meaningless by comparison? I swallowed hard and tried to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Could I only be second best for Danny?

            “She may be Jessica Botano's daughter,” Danny shot out, taking my hand, “but her beauty is all her own. Neve's one of a kind, Dad.” His voice took on a strange, child-like urgency. He wasn't just complimenting me, I noted – he was trying to
convince
his dad, to gain some measure of approval from the father who barely seemed to notice that Danny existed. “And don't forget her talent. I mean, really, Dad, Neve's one of the best song-writers I've ever worked with. You must have heard it on the radio – our first single. It's selling rather well, actually.”

            “Yes, yes, I must have done,” Clarence said airily, in a voice that made it clear he'd probably never bothered to do it. “Roni tells me what to listen to – don't you, Roni? She's in charge of my social media.” He guffawed.

            Roni leaned across the table, reaching out to lightly touch Danny's hand. Her eyes were blue and enormous, full of emotion. “It's really a very good song,” she said. “I always like to keep track of whatever Danny's involved in. If he decides what he really wants to do is form a band, then I support him every step of the way.” She smiled at him, but her maternal words felt strange – even unsettling – coming from her lips. The way that Roni – clearly a couple of years younger than Danny – was affecting this parental role even as her eyes nakedly told the story of her longing for him bordered on the surreal. I felt thoroughly uncomfortable, although from the looks of it not nearly as uncomfortable as Danny. No sooner had she reached out to touch his hand than he visibly stiffened, shooting me an almost apologetic look. Against myself, I felt an instinctive stirring of jealousy. Was Danny genuinely uncomfortable with the way Roni Taylor – a woman so beautiful it made you want to stop whatever you were doing to paint a sculpture of her – looked at him, or was he just embarrassed about revealing her feelings for him in front of me or his father? I couldn't imagine any guy turning down a girl that looked like Roni, and my heart sank slowly. This whole family was decidedly more eccentric than my own.

            “Yes, yes, well, well – we've all got our wild oats to sow, eh?” Clarence winked and nudged Danny in the ribs, looking at me with a decidedly emphatic stare. “But eventually we learn to grow up and do the right thing, isn't that right, Danny? I'm hoping once Danny finally gets this degree business out of the way we'll see some proper use out of him at Blue Enterprises.”

            “Dad...” Danny's voice was filled with warning. His father's words had evidently cut him to the core. Never before had I seen Danny look so small, so vulnerable. He looked almost like a schoolboy being chastised by a schoolmaster. So very young. So hurt. His father evidently had more than his fair share of power over him. No wonder Danny had been so reticent to let us meet – to let me see him in this vulnerable state.

            “Oh, for goodness' sake, Danny – do be an adult. Fiddling around with footnotes. Strumming a few chords on a guitar? When I was your age I'd already earned the money to buy a derelict old building in Islington that later became the first Blue Grand by whatever means necessary. I shone shoes. I sold newspapers...”

            “Of course,” Danny muttered, “the whole rags-to-riches narrative only comes out when it suits you.”

            “You've got a role to play as the President of Blues Enterprises. I gave you that title a year ago and you've done nothing with it but have a shiny nameplate on an unused office...”

           
Blues Enterprises?
I looked up in confusion. Danny had told me that he was minimally involved in his father's business. Being named as President of Blues Enterprises was more than just an honorary title. It meant that Danny had control of millions of dollars of company funds – whole bales of cash at his fingertips. Why had he never told me that? Danny was looking down shamefacedly.

            “Had I realized this evening was going to be an ambush...” he was saying quietly.

            “I realize that your thoughts were elsewhere because of the Peyton incident, and believe me, I gave you time to recover, but it's been a year.”

            “Dad!” Danny looked absolutely shocked and appalled. “The
incident?
Really? Is that what you call it – the
incident?
She's dead, Dad. Dead. A woman is dead – and if you can't bear to refer to her by name...”

            Clarence seemed airily oblivious to his son's distress. “And this band you're in,” he snorted. “At least when you were in with Peyton you seemed to take your music somewhat seriously. But this new band seems like a game of musical chairs. You're out, you're in, you're in, you're out. Not exactly the actions of a man dedicated to his craft – or to doing anything much more than appeasing his girlfriend, lovely though she may be.”

            I felt anger surging through me. In a few well-chosen words, Clarence had been able not merely to insult Danny, to embarrass us both about Danny's lingering feelings for Peyton, and to dismiss his son's ambitions and loves in a single breath, but he'd also insulted the band. His words were an insult to me, to Luc and Kyle and Steve and even Geoff, to everyone who had worked hard to make the band great, something to be proud of, something more than a vanity project for a couple of over-privileged Beverly Hills teenagers. At that moment I didn't care whether or not Clarence Blue liked me, or whether he
approved
of me as Danny's girlfriend, whatever that even meant. At that moment all I knew was that nobody, absolutely nobody, could get away with insulting the Never Knights in front of me.

            “Mr. Blue,” I began, my voice firm, but clear, “I do appreciate your kindness in inviting me here tonight, but if you for a second believe that the Never Knights is anything but a group of incredibly talented, incredibly hardworking people – Danny among them, I might and – I will have to forcibly refute you on that point. The chief scout of RRR, Richard Slayton, personally chose to sign us – he put his reputation on the line because he believed we had what it takes. And so do I.” I stood. “It was nice meeting you both...”

            For a moment, Clarence Blue looked at me agape, taken aback. Then, after one horrible silent moment, he broke out into shocked laughter. “Sit down, miss,” he said. “You've got yourself a firecracker, haven't you, Danny? She's certainly a lively one.” He had realized that his words had gone too far in front of me, and now he was turning on the charm to make up for it. I wasn't sure if I was relieved or appalled at his next word. “Perhaps you're right, Miss Knight, I did sound a tad dismissive. But you must realize the commitment Danny's taken on. About a year ago Danny agreed to do as I asked and take on a leadership role in Blue Enterprises. I'm anxious to retire, to take a break from the business end of things, and like all proud fathers I do want my son as my successor. After the...tragedy, I granted him an indefinite leave of absence. But it was never my intent that this leave of absence become permanent. If he wanted to do his work in North America for a while, finish this degree of his, so be it. But eventually I will need Danny here. To control things alongside me.”

            “It's a big honor,” Roni Taylor chimed in nervously. “Clarence would never trust his company with just anyone.”