Please Don't Stop The Music (35 page)
Read Please Don't Stop The Music Online
Authors: Jane Lovering
‘
Yeah, that’s me. But a self-centred bastard
who loves you. Do you see?
Now
, do you see?’
I
let the book fall. It landed on the flagstones, splayed open, a
loose page protruding to show scratched notes and words. Ben came
across the room and picked it up, pulling the page free. ‘Here.
It’s the first song I’ve written for the new band line-up, still
needs a bit of work but …’ He held the page out to me. ‘Called “You
Are All I Have”.’
I
sniffed. ‘Isn’t that a Snow Patrol song?’
He
ran both hands through his hair. ‘Bastards always beat me to it.’
Now his eyes were enormous, unblinking.
‘
Is
everything you wrote true?’
‘
True as I’m here. True as I’m breathing. True as I would
personally knock down and kill anyone who tried to hurt you.’ A
single tear left the corner of his eye and rolled down to his top
lip. He ignored it.
‘
Did
you really want to die?’
An
embarrassed shrug. ‘Sometimes.’
‘
And
you honestly think I have fantastic legs?’
Now he smiled. A slow, deep smile. ‘Jemima,
you have fantastic
everything
.’
‘
And
you need me?’
‘
Oh,
so
much
.’ Now he came close and the moonlight
made his tattoo look deep and dark against that white skin. ‘Don’t
do this to me, Jem. Don’t do it to
yourself
.’ Another step forward and
he hooked a finger under the strap of the rucksack, slid the strap
down over my shoulder, my elbow. The rucksack tilted under its own
weight and fell to the floor.
I looked again at the book in his hand. If
what he’d written was the truth then he’d loved me a long time.
Loved me even when I ran, even when I treated him so badly that he
had no
right
to
love me. Needed me, when I was scared to death that it was I who
needed him. My heart scudded against the walls of my chest and I
put a hand on his tattoo, tracing the lines.
He
looked down at my finger dancing along the pattern on his arm. ‘Do
you love me, Jem?’ The strain in his voice told me how scared he
was of the answer.
I
kept my eyes on those intricate swirls. ‘Everyone I’ve ever loved
has died.’
‘
Not cause and effect. Do you love
me
?’
Now
I looked up. Met those grave-deep eyes. Knew. ‘Yes,’ I said into
them. ‘Yes.’
‘
And
do you believe me when I tell you that you are a strong, lovely
woman, who can grab life by the bollocks when she chooses, and
doesn’t need to take shit from anyone?’
‘
I’m
trying to be.’
‘
Good.’ Ben smiled and wiped the last of my tears from under
my eye with one finger. ‘Then let me be the one that you were
running to, all this time. Let this be the end.’
I
reached out. Switched on the kitchen light and stood directly
underneath, fully illuminated, where he could see my lips move and
have no doubt. ‘Yes.’
There was a surprising number of ice cubes in Ben’s fridge.
We used them all.
*
Ends *
About the Author
Jane
was born in Devon and now lives in Yorkshire. She has five
children, four cats and two dogs! She works in a local school and
also teaches creative writing. Jane is a member of the Romantic
Novelists’ Association and has a first-class honours degree in
creative writing.
Jane writes romantic comedies which are
often described as ‘quirky’. She has two previous novels published
in the US:
Reversing Over Liberace
and
Slightly
Foxed
.
Please Don’t Stop the Music
will be her first novel to be published
in the UK.
For
more information on Jane visit
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