The Rock'n'Roll Romance Box Set (Pam Howes Rock'n'Roll Romance Series) (67 page)

  
Livvy nodded. 'Maybe
you’re right. I might think about trying to trace them after I’ve had my baby.
I just feel I’ve enough on my plate to cope with at the moment.’

  
Eddie signalled to the
waiter for the bill and escorted Livvy back to work. ‘I’ll call you tomorrow,
see how things are,’ he told her.

  
‘Thank you so much for
your support, and thanks for lunch.’ She stood on tiptoe, kissed him lightly on
the cheek and walked into the shop.

  
Eddie smiled as he made
his way back to the car. She was a lovely girl and he could fully understand
why
Roy
had been smitten.
               

***

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Roy
told the receptionist he was
expecting a visitor who could be sent straight up to his room. He flirted
briefly with her and her colleague and then went on his way, mulling over the
berating he’d received from his mother over lunch. His father had shown a bit
more sympathy, but only after his mother left the room.
Roy
hadn’t dared argue back, if it
made her feel better then so be it. She ranted and raved about what a good wife
and mother Sammy is and what a lot she’d had to put up with during the early
years of their marriage, when
Roy
was never around. How she didn’t
deserve any of this, especially after losing Nick. She also said that if he
didn’t go back to Sammy, and he took up with that young woman again, she would
wash her hands of him once and for all!

  
He’d tried to explain
that Sammy didn’t want to live with him at the moment and that it was over
between him and Livvy, but found it hard to get a word in edgeways and had
wisely chosen to stay quiet. He was glad to escape back to the sanctuary of the
hotel.
    

  
The chambermaid had just
finished cleaning his suite as he approached and he winked as she pushed her
trolley up the corridor. Pity she wasn’t wearing a French Maid’s outfit like
they wore in the
Carry On
films, Roy thought wistfully, checking out the
drab grey uniform
his
particular chambermaid was wearing. Definitely a
turn off in anybody’s books.

***

‘Can I help you, Sir?’

  
‘Roy Cantello’s room,
please.’ Eddie smiled at the girl on reception whose eyes opened wide when she
recognised him.
 

  
‘Err yes, room 125, up
the stairs and to the left.’

  
‘Avril, Avril, come here
quick,’ she whispered. She pointed after Eddie’s departing back. ‘It’s another
one of the group that our mums like. He’s going up to Mr Cantello’s room.’

  
Avril stared after
Eddie’s departing back. ‘Was
he
good looking as well?’
  

  
‘I’ll say he was. You
should have seen his big blue eyes. Bloody hell, they’ve aged much better than
The Rolling Stones
and Rod Stewart.’

  
‘I’ll stay out on the
desk for a while, see if they come down,’ Avril decided, shuffling bits of
paper around in an effort to look busy.

  
She didn’t have long to
wait, within five minutes Roy and Eddie strolled through the reception area and
smiled at the girls as they left the building. Avril and Sharon gazed after
them with longing.

***

  
Sharon
grinned knowingly. ‘Perhaps Roy
Cantello is on the look out for a new wife, we’ll have to wait and see. Play
your cards right, girl, and you never know.’ She patted her hair into place as
the phone rang and switched on her receptionist’s voice. ‘The Grand Hotel
Westlow; you’re speaking to
Sharon
. How may I help you?’

***

‘Where’s the first flat?’ Eddie asked
Roy
as they pulled away from the
hotel.

  
‘Just a couple of roads
down from here; we could have walked.’

  
‘Oh, I can’t be bothered
walking, I’ve just had lunch with L-err Jon and I’m full.’ Eddie stopped
himself just in time. Shit, he knew he shouldn’t have had the wine; it had
addled his brains. Still, pasta without a couple of glasses of red was
unthinkable.

  
‘Why didn’t you tell me
you were going out for lunch? That’s twice this week you’ve been into town and
not told me,’
Roy
grumbled.

  
‘Sorry, mate. Jon wanted
to discuss his mum and things. We can’t really talk at home because of Jane. I
don’t like to bring the Angie subject up too often in front of her,’ Eddie
lied.

  
‘Oh, right, fair enough.
I had lunch with my folks,’
Roy
said.

  
‘That was nice for you.’

  
‘Was it? I got a right
ear bashing from my ma. She talks to me like I’m sixteen and still a kid.’

  
‘Well you
are
a
kid, in
her
eyes anyway. My mother
was always like that, bless her. She never thought I was capable of doing
anything for myself, even though I was married and supporting a family at
eighteen.’

  
‘Whoa, slow down,’
Roy
said. ‘The first apartment block
is to your left. Oh, I don’t like the look of these,’ he added, staring up at
the soulless, three story brick and pebbledash building. ‘Looks like a prison
without the bars.

  
‘It might be alright
inside.’ Eddie got out of the car and looked around the car park. ‘There’s a
couple of decent cars parked. The people who live here are probably okay.
Anyway, you never bother with neighbours, so it wouldn't matter if the Adams
Family lived next door. Let’s go take a look.’

  
Roy
nodded reluctantly. ‘The agent’s
meeting us inside.’

***

Roy
pressed the intercom for flat
number ten. ‘Mr Cantello to view,’ he informed the answering female voice.
        

  
‘
Ah yes, please come up, Mr Cantello.’

  
An open lift beckoned in
the corner of the reception hall, but Eddie pushed
Roy
towards the staircase. ‘The exercise
will do you good.’

  
‘This isn’t the sort of
exercise I like,’
Roy
protested. ‘The flat’s on the top floor.’

  
‘Well you’re not getting
any other exercise at the moment, so move it.’

  
A grey-haired woman
answered the door. Her severe navy suit gaped wide across her ample bosom.

  
‘Mr Cantello, do come
in.’ She smiled; displaying a row of teeth that
Roy
thought wouldn’t look amiss in Red
Rum’s mouth. She shook him firmly by the hand.

  
‘This is my friend, Mr
Mellor.’
Roy
flinched and flexed his precious
guitar playing fingers. God, the woman had a grip like a vice.
  

  
‘I’m Miss Osborne.’ She
stood back in the narrow hallway as they struggled past her bulk. Once in the
lounge she picked up a folder from the coffee table and handed it to
Roy
.
 

  
‘Here you go, Mr
Cantello. You’ll find all details, regarding room dimensions, utilities, rental
and maintenance charges and so on in there.’

  
Roy
took a quick look at the details.
He’d already decided the flat wasn’t for him. ‘It’s too small,’ he muttered to
Eddie. However, out of courtesy, he followed the woman round as she waxed
lyrical about the wall-mounted electric fire with its glowing log effect and
the neat, but boring, fitted kitchen with the built in appliances. The tiny
white bathroom was cold and clinical. Not a patch on his luxury bathroom back
home, where he and Sammy would lie each end of the Jacuzzi, legs entwined,
glasses of chilled wine to hand.

  
The woman gave an
apologetic cough. ‘And this is the bedroom. I’m afraid it’s quite small. Not
really enough room for two.’ She looked pointedly at Eddie who was slower on
the uptake than
Roy
. He’d realised, from her tone of voice, that she assumed they
were partners.
 

  
Sitting on the bed and
bouncing up and down,
Roy
caught Eddie’s eye and grinned. ‘I’m sure we’ll manage,’ he said.
He grabbed Eddie by the hand and pulled him down. ‘What do you think, sweetie?’
he simpered, draping one arm loosely around his shoulders.

  
Keeping a straight face,
Eddie looked into
Roy
’s eyes. ‘It’s divine, Roy, but I think the two of us may have a
bit of a squeeze in the bathtub, you’ve such long legs. We’d be better off with
a corner bath.’

  
‘You’re probably right,
honey bun.’
Roy
looked at the woman and fluttered his long dark lashes.
 
‘I want him to be really happy with where we
choose to live,’ he said with mock sincerity. ‘On reflection, I don’t really
think this is the place for us, isn’t that right, sugar plum?’

  
Eddie smiled and ran his
hand suggestively up and down
Roy
’s thigh.

  
‘Well, thank you for
taking the time to view anyway, Mr Cantello.’ The woman appeared anxious to be
rid of them. She moved out of the bedroom as quickly as she could and stood by
the open front door as they squeezed past, holding hands. She shut the door
behind them with a horrified gasp as they collapsed with laughter on the
landing outside.

  
‘That was wonderful,’
Roy
chuckled. ‘What a performance.
Anymore of that thigh stroking and you’d have had me as horny as hell!’

  
‘Did you see her face as
we passed her in the hall and you squeezed my arse?’ Eddie wiped the tears of
laughter from his eyes with the back of his hand. ‘Oh dear, we needed a laugh.
That was brilliant. Where to next, sweetie-pie?’

  
Roy
looked at his list, still grinning
from ear to ear. ‘It’s only ten minutes from here. The first floor of an old
house. I quite like the sound of this one.’

  
‘Is someone meeting us
there?’

  
‘Yeah. Not the same
woman, thank God. It’s a different agency. Take the first road on your right
here and the house is called The Cedars.’
  

  
Eddie pulled onto the
semi-circular gravel driveway of a large detached house and
Roy
nodded with approval. ‘This looks
more like it.’ He clambered out of the car and looked around at the mature
gardens. The large, double fronted house sported elegant bay windows both
upstairs and down and was fronted by a huge lawn with neat flowerbeds. The
driveway had separate entrance and exit gates.
Roy
ran up the front steps to the
burgundy-red front door and rang the bell for flat two.

  
Footsteps echoed in the
hallway and the door was thrown open by an attractive, smartly dressed woman
who
Roy
took to be in her mid thirties.

  
‘Hello, I’m Sarah
Caldwell, from Jones and Jones.’

  
‘Roy Cantello.’
Roy
shook Sarah’s outstretched hand
and introduced Eddie. This was more like it, he thought, catching Eddie’s look
of approval.

  
‘Follow me, the flat’s
upstairs,’ Sarah announced, leading the way and giving
Roy
the opportunity to admire her
slender legs.

  
The house was Edwardian
with many original features. ‘Nice floor,’
Roy
said, admiring the cream, blue and
terracotta tiles in the hall. ‘And a perfect banister for sliding down,’ he
laughed, running his hand over the gleaming mahogany wood. Sarah opened a door
to the left of the landing and led them into a spacious room that looked down
onto the front garden.

  
‘Hey, nice big lounge,’
Roy
said. ‘What do you think, Ed?’

  
‘It’s great. Love the
fireplace. The furniture looks good quality.’
 

  
‘The fireplace is
original,’ Sarah said. ‘Have a look at the kitchen.’

  
Roy
nodded his approval, not that he
would be using the kitchen very often. He would dine out, live off takeaways or
eat at Ed’s place before he would cook and wash up. They followed Sarah back
through the lounge where another door led across a partitioned corridor to a
large well-fitted bedroom, containing an antique brass bed.
Roy
looked at Eddie and grinned,
remembering the poor woman they’d just left at the other flat.

  
‘Very nice,’ Eddie
said.
   

  
Sarah opened a door in
the bedroom to reveal a spacious en-suite bathroom complete with period style
fittings and a large bath on claw feet. She stepped back to let
Roy
take a look.
            

  
‘Oh, this is great,
plenty of room for two in that bath.’ He winked as she blushed.