The Rock'n'Roll Romance Box Set (Pam Howes Rock'n'Roll Romance Series) (61 page)

  
Jane smiled. ‘You could
be right, Molly. It might help, but I don’t know how Jess will cope without
Nick beside her. They did all the vocals and harmonies and it would be like
Eddie without
Roy
, they’d be lost. We’ll have to see, but it’s worth thinking
about.’

  
‘Hello, hello, hello,
shirking instead of working, Mrs Mellor.’ Sammy popped her head around the
door, closely followed by
Roy
.

  
‘Hello, you two,’ Jane
said. ‘What are you doing here? I thought you were taking this week off, Sam?’

  
Sammy gave a wan smile.
‘I’m fed up at home. I can’t settle to anything.
Roy
’s going over to see Ed, so he
brought me here. He’s going to wait at your place for me and I’ll go home with
you, Jane, if that’s alright.’

  
‘That’s fine, so long as
you feel up to being here. You can eat with us tonight. We’ll send out for
something.’

  
‘That would be lovely.
Jason’s going to Jules’s for tea, so we don’t need to worry about him.’ Sammy
turned to Roy who was standing silently behind her looking uncomfortable. ‘You
go now,
Roy
, I’ll see you later.’

  
Roy
made a move to kiss her on the
lips, but she turned her head away and he brushed her cheek. Sammy’s frown and
Roy
’s injured expression didn’t go
unnoticed by Jane and Molly, but neither commented.

  
As
Roy
left, Molly slipped back into her
own office, closing the door behind her.

  
‘So, how are you?’ Jane
asked, taking in Sammy’s pale face and the dark circles beneath her eyes.

  
‘So, so,’ she replied.
‘How’s Jess?’

  
Jane shrugged. ‘Up and
down, you know how it is. How are things with you and Roy?’

  
Sammy blinked back tears.
‘I hate him. I can’t even stand to be in the same room. He’s fussing round,
trying to make amends and all I can think about is him shagging the bimbo! It’s
eating away at me.’

  
‘Oh, Sammy.’ Jane stood
up and put her arms around her. ‘What the hell are you going to do?’

  
‘I’m not sure yet. I’ve
decided to go and see her. Try and lay a ghost. I haven’t a clue what I’ll say
or even when I’ll go, but it’ll be very soon. Keep it to yourself, Jane. I
don’t want
Roy
to find out. I can’t move on or even
begin
to build bridges with him until I’ve confronted her.’

  
Jane nodded. ‘I won’t
tell a soul, but are you sure you’re doing the right thing? Wouldn’t it be
better to let sleeping dogs lie?’

  
‘No,’ Sammy said with
feeling. ‘It’s something I have to do.’

***

Eddie and Sean walked companionably down the street towards
Flanagan and Grey’s, each with their own thoughts on the Livvy situation.
They’d chatted comfortably over lunch and a couple of pints, and as they were
parting company near the shop, Sean pointed at two young lads further down on
the opposite side of the road.

  
‘Isn’t that young Jason
and his mate, whatsisname?’

  
‘Jules?’

  
‘Yeah, that’s it, Jules,’
Sean nodded. ‘I’m sure it was those two.’

  
‘Jason’s supposed to be
back at college today,’ Eddie frowned. ‘Maybe it wasn’t them.’

  
‘I hope it wasn’t.’ Sean
raised an eyebrow. ‘That pub they’ve disappeared into is a well known haunt for
gays.’

  
‘Is it? It won’t have
been Jason then, not going into a gay pub. Lads all look the same these days
with their poncy hairstyles. Our Jon takes longer than Jess does in the
bathroom and
her
hair’s almost down to her backside.’

  
Sean laughed. ‘Anyway,
Ed, you and Jane must come over and have a meal with me and Tina one night, if
you can find the time.’

  
‘Thanks, Sean, we’ll make
time. We’ll do it before
The Raiders
re-form and while we can still call time our own. Get the girls to fix it up.
See you soon, mate.’

***

Eddie carried on his way down the street, glancing into the pub
doorway as he passed. The door was propped open and standing by the bar,
sideways on, drink in hand, was the unmistakable figure of Jason. Standing by
his side, his hand resting on Jason’s shoulder was Jules. The pair were talking
animatedly, completely oblivious that they were being observed.

  
Eddie hurried on his way
before either boy spotted him. Sean was obviously wrong about the pub he
thought; it wasn’t just a hang out for gays. Oh well whatever, Jason and Jules
must have decided to skip college and have a pint instead. The only crime the
lads were committing was under-age drinking and they’d all been guilty of that
in their time.
   

***

Jess and
Roy
were sitting at the table drinking coffee when Eddie arrived
home.

  
‘Where have you been,
Dad?’ Jess smiled. ‘You look kind of mellow.’

  
‘I had lunch with Sean.
The mellowness is probably due to a couple of pints of lager.’
    

  
‘Lucky you,’
Roy
sighed. ‘You should have given me
a call. I’d have gone with you. I need to get out of the house. Being cooped up
with Sammy all day’s driving me crazy. She’s blaming
me
for the accident
now.’

  
Jess’s eyes opened wide.
‘
Roy
, it wasn’t your fault, for God’s
sake. Why on earth is Sammy blaming
you
?’

  
‘She thinks Nick wasn’t
concentrating on his driving. She said his mind was probably on
our
problems.’

  
‘No, that’s just not
true. Nick
was
concentrating. It was the stupid driver who swerved in
front of us that caused the accident. Nick braked hard to avoid crashing into
the back of him and for some reason the car spun out of control. I remember
everything quite clearly. Nick cried out “Hold on tight, Jess.” Those were the
last words he ever said to me, just like in the dreams I used to have.’ She
placed her hand over
Roy
’s, blinking back tears. ‘
Roy
, don’t torture yourself. If
anything, Nick’s mind was on the gig we were due to play at the college. We
were discussing the play-list before we crashed, honestly, and he was
definitely
concentrating.

  
‘If we hadn’t been on a
blind bend, if that twat behind had waited a few seconds, if that lorry hadn’t
been coming towards us. See,
Roy
, it’s all ifs; we were in the
wrong place at the wrong time. No matter what went on between you, Livvy and
Sammy, the accident would still have happened because of where we were.’ Jess
took a deep breath and continued. ‘If only the party we should have been going
to hadn’t been cancelled or we had arranged to pick up Mum and Sammy earlier or
later. See what I mean,
Roy
?’

  
Roy
nodded, his face crumpling. Tears
coursed down his cheeks and he put his arms around Jess.
  

  
Eddie spooned coffee into
three mugs and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. He thought about
Livvy, sitting on the chair this morning, looking so small and lost. He also
thought about the baby she was carrying. Poor kid, she must be thinking he was
heartless. He’d made up his mind that when he called her on Wednesday morning,
if she really wanted to go ahead and have the baby, then he would tell
Roy
immediately.

  
He handed
Roy
and Jess fresh mugs of coffee and
joined them at the table. ‘What do you want to do this afternoon?’ he asked
Roy
.

  
‘The body shop called
this morning. My car’s ready to collect. Would you run me over to pick it up
and I’ll take it home and garage it. Then we could come back here. Sammy’s
coming home with Jane.’

  
‘No problem,’ Eddie
replied. ‘By the way,
Let’s Love a While Longer
goes on release next
week.’

  
‘Oh, that’s good. Well
let’s hope it takes off,’
Roy
said.

  
‘Ja
mes
Perry from
Perry’s Dream
is really good looking. With him fronting the band it
should
 
go straight to number one, and of
course they’re singing a song written by two of this country’s best
song-writers, who’s na
mes
slip my mind for the moment,’ Jess teased.

  
‘Cheeky Madam.’ Eddie was
pleased to see her smiling again. It would be short lived. There would be tears
again before the night was through.

***

Leaving the now immaculate Lamborghini safely garaged at Jasmine
House, Roy and Eddie set off for
Hanover
’s Lodge. As Eddie pulled out onto
the main road
Roy
spotted Jason and Jules getting off a bus. He asked Eddie to pull
over and opened the car window.
  

  
‘Why aren’t you at
college, Jason?’
Roy
called as the boys walked across the road.

  
‘Err, we’ve got a free
afternoon Dad,’ Jason said, looking sheepish, as did Jules.

  
‘You’ve only just
returned. Surely you’ve a lot of catching up to do?’

  
‘Well yes, I have, but
that’s in my own time.’

  
‘Have you been drinking?
Don’t deny it, son, you’re slurring your words.’

  
‘I had half a pint at
lunchtime, that’s all,’ Jason said, swaying slightly.

  
‘And the rest,’
Roy
said. ‘You’ll be getting into
bother for under-age drinking if you’re not careful.’

  
‘Oh, and like
you
never drank under-age?’ Jason sneered.

  
‘That’s got nothing to do
with anything. That was then, this is now. Your mother will go mad if she finds
out. If you’ve deliberately skipped college she won’t be happy about that
either. You’ll fail your exams and you won’t get into university.’

  
‘I don’t care about
anything at the moment. Nothing’s worth bothering about anymore.’ Jason was
getting upset now. ‘I really miss Nick, but no one’s taken my feelings into
account. It’s all about how you and Mum feel.
She’s
always blaming you
and
you’re
always shouting at her. I don’t know why you don’t just go
away and leave us alone. She doesn’t want you there, not after what you’ve
done. Nothing’s changed. Nick’s death hasn’t made your affair go away.’

  
Roy
leapt out of the car. ‘That’s
enough! You’re upset; you don’t know what you’re saying. I’m sorry if you think
we’ve ignored your feelings. It wasn’t intentional.’

  
‘I don’t want to talk to
you, Dad. You make me sick and you make Mum sick too. I’m going home. Come on,
Jules.’ He turned his back on
Roy
and walked away.

  
Jules looked at
Roy
and shrugged. ‘He’s upset,
Roy
. He’s finding it very difficult to
cope.’ He followed Jason around the corner.

  
Roy
got back into the car and turned
to Eddie. ‘You heard all that?’

Eddie nodded as
Roy
continued. ‘Sammy hates me; I just
know she does. What Jason said confirms it. I can’t go on like this, Ed. I'm
going to check into a hotel for a while, give us both some space. I’ll tell her
tonight.’

  
‘Good idea,
Roy
,’ Eddie agreed and kept it to
himself that he’d seen Jason drinking in town earlier.

***

 
Lying in her bath, Livvy
clasped her hands over her rounded stomach, trying to imagine what the baby
would look like, blonde, like her, or dark like
Roy
. Was it a boy or a girl? She was
still reeling from Eddie’s earlier suggestion she should have an abortion. This
was
her
child and she wanted it. She clambered out of the bath and stood
towelling herself dry in front of the mirror, checking herself from every
angle. She was showing already and her breasts had filled out.