The Rock'n'Roll Romance Box Set (Pam Howes Rock'n'Roll Romance Series) (70 page)

  
‘Nothing,’ she called
over her shoulder. She wiped the mud and left the cloth in the car rather than
carry the evidence inside. Ed had told her time and again that Lennon wasn’t to
get into the Porsche or his Ferrari with muddy paws.

  
Back in the kitchen, a
glass of chilled Chardonnay was standing on the table.

  
‘Oh, Ed, what would I do
without you?’ She wound her arms around his neck. ‘I love you.’

  
‘I love you too, babe,’
he said, kissing the top of her head. ‘Give your mum a call and ask if Jess’s
coming home, then I know how much rice to cook.’

  
‘Okay, it certainly
smells good.’

  
‘Chicken curry,’ he
announced. ‘All my own work. No tins or packets
and
I ground my own
spices.’

  
‘You sound like Fanny
Craddock,’ she teased as she dialled her mother’s number.

  
‘Surely you mean Johnny?’

  
‘Do I?’ She giggled at
his raised eyebrows. ‘I could never really be sure which one of them was the
man.’ She spoke quickly to her mother and hung up. ‘Jess’s staying over until
Jon gets back. I’ll get out of this suit and into my jeans, then I’ll come and
talk to you and have
I
got some news for you.’

***

Livvy was working until eight. She was tired and had been hoping
to finish at six, but Jon had asked if she would mind covering for him while he
visited his late mother’s family. She felt she could hardly refuse such a
request and had reluctantly agreed.

  
Sean had given her a
couple of hours off in lieu that afternoon and she’d fallen asleep in the old
armchair in the staffroom. She’d woken with a stiff neck, which had now
developed into a headache. She put her hands on her aching back and took a deep
breath.

  
‘Liv, go on home, you
looked whacked.’ Sean patted her shoulder.

  
‘Would you mind?’

  
‘Not at all, go on, I can
manage. There’s only another hour to go and it’s not that busy. See you in the
morning. Come in a bit later seeing as you’ve done extra tonight.’

  
‘Thanks, Sean.’

***

Yawning, Livvy ran herself a bath. She sank gratefully into the
bubbles, fighting back the tears that insisted on flowing freely down her
cheeks.
Roy
must surely know about the baby by
now. Dear God, what would he say? He’d be assuming she’d done it deliberately.
But a baby had not been in her future plans, nor had an affair with a married
man. All she’d wanted was a foot on the bottom rung of a singing career.

  
She’d hoped her job at
Flanagan and Grey’s would help her meet musicians and like-minded people. Never
in her wildest dreams had she expected to meet Roy Cantello, let alone become
involved with him.

***

Sammy knocked on Jason’s bedroom door.

 
 
‘Go away,’ came the muffled response.

  
‘Jason, it’s me. Let me
in, darling, please.’

  
There was a shuffling
noise and the door opened a fraction. Sammy took one look at his tearstained
face and burst into tears. ‘I’m so sorry, Jason. Come here.’ She put her arms
around him and held him while he sobbed against her shoulder. ‘Come downstairs,
we’ll have a brandy and a chat.’ She gently stroked his cheek.

  
He nodded and followed
her. ‘The carpet’s all
mes
sy where Jules bled on it,’ he said.

  
‘Don’t worry, love, I’ll
clean it off later. I can’t be bothered right now.’ She handed him a small
brandy, helped herself to a larger one and sat down on the sofa next to him.

  
‘Dad will never
understand, will he?’

  
‘He will. It was such a
shock to him, that’s all. You have to give him time.’

  
‘What's happening with
you two then? Are you going to let him come back home already?’

  
‘No. He’s found a flat
and he’s moving in next week.’

  
‘Oh!’ He looked up with
surprise. ‘So what was all that about earlier? You’re supposed to be
separated.’

  
‘He’s my husband, I still
love him. I needed him and he needed me. You’ll understand one day.’

  
‘What about Livvy and the
baby, what’s he gonna do about that?’

  
‘I don’t know. I haven’t
an answer to that one. I don’t want to lose your dad to Livvy, but at the end
of the day there’s now a child to consider. What about Jules? Is his nose
broken?’

  
‘No, fortunately not.
They X-rayed him, cleaned him up and said he could go home. He’ll have two
lovely black eyes tomorrow.’

  
‘What on earth are his
parents going to think when they see the state of him?’

  
‘He’s only got a mum. She
wasn’t home when the taxi dropped him off. He said he’d tell her he got into a
fight. Jules’s mum knows he’s gay and that someti
mes
lads who can’t handle it pick on
him. She won’t think a bloody nose is anything too out of the ordinary.’

  
‘Will he be pressing
charges against your father?’
 

  
Jason shook his head.
‘Course not. I asked him if he wanted to and he gave me his word that he wouldn’t.
Jules and I don’t want our friendship to be common knowledge, Mum. We haven’t
done anything wrong. It’s against the law ‘til we’re twenty-one and we want to
wait. We just like being together, it’s comfortable.’

  
Sammy ruffled his hair
and smiled. ‘Thanks for telling me that. It makes me feel a bit better. Maybe
you’ll change as you get older.’

  
‘It’s not something I’m
going to grow out of.’ Jason rolled his eyes. ‘You might as well get used to
it.’

  
‘Oh, Jason, it doesn’t
matter. You’re my son and I love you so very much. So does your dad. It might
not be apparent by his recent actions, but he does, believe me.’

  
Jason finished his brandy
and stood up. ‘I’m going to have a bath and an early night. See you in the
morning, Mum.’

  
‘Goodnight, love.’ She
kissed him and watched as he left the room, his head held high.

***

 
Livvy had just settled on
the sofa with a cup of tea when the intercom buzzed impatiently. She froze, cup
halfway to her lips.
 

  
‘Oh no,’ she moaned
softly. She knew it would be
Roy
. Most people pressed it once. It
buzzed again and again. Sitting glued to the sofa, she hardly dared breathe in
case he heard her. He would know she was home; her car was on the car park. She
sat for what seemed like ages and then jumped out of her skin as something hit
the lounge window with a resounding thud.

  
‘I know you’re up there.
Let me in.’ Another clod of earth hit the window and he shouted again. He
sounded really angry, she thought, sick to her stomach. She jumped up and
peered through the window. He was standing on the path below, looking up with a
furious expression on his face.

  
‘What are you playing at?
Let me in, for God’s sake. The woman in this flat opposite has just threatened
to call the police if I don’t stop shouting. Oh, fuck off, Mrs!’
Roy
turned his attention to the
downstairs window and gestured rudely.

  
‘Go to the door,’ she
mouthed and released the catch.

  
He was upstairs in
seconds, burst into the flat, marched past her and sat down on the sofa. With
an angry gesture he flung his jacket on the floor and lit a cigarette. She
followed him into the room.

  
‘Sit down!’ he ordered,
pointing at the chair to his right.

  
Livvy meekly obeyed, not
daring to look at him. She felt him staring at her with his dark broody eyes
while she nervously pleated the hem of her oversize T-shirt. She wished she’d
put on more clothes now, she felt vulnerable and half naked as
Roy
’s eyes bore into her.

  
‘Well?’ he demanded.
‘What have you got to say for yourself?’

  
She bit her trembling lip
and tried not to cry, but the tears ran unbidden down her cheeks.

  
‘I really trusted you,
Livvy and you’ve let me down big time.’
 

  
‘Sorry,
Roy
,’ she mumbled, still avoiding his
gaze.

  
‘So what the fuck are we
going to do about this
mes
s? Are you too far gone to have an abortion?’

  
Livvy felt very sick and
took a deep breath to calm her churning stomach. This wasn’t what she wanted to
hear from him at all, but it was no more than she’d expected.

  
‘I’m not sure, probably,’
she faltered.

  
‘Right, well first thing
tomorrow you’d better find out and if it’s not too late we’ll make the
arrangements,’ he said, puffing frantically on his cigarette.

  
‘I don’t want to get rid
of it.’

  
‘What? You can’t possibly
want it. Think of all the problems you’ll have bringing it up alone. You
needn’t think I’ll be around to help you because I won’t be. You said you were
on the pill. I can’t believe you deceived me over something so important. I
told you I didn’t want complications like this the last time I was here, didn’t
I?’

  
She nodded. ‘I was
already pregnant then, but I didn’t really know,
Roy
, honestly.’ She planted herself
firmly in front of him, arms folded across her swollen belly, courage coming
from somewhere deep inside.

  
‘I’m not asking you for
anything. I didn’t even really want you to know. I only told Eddie ’cos I was
scared. If Sammy hadn’t paid me a visit I was going to pretend it was someone
else’s baby. You have absolutely no rights to come into my home and tell me
what to do with my body. You once told me that no baby is ever unwanted. Well
I
am having this baby, whether you like it or not. I can’t believe I ever
thought I loved you. You’re as selfish as the next man. You only wanted sex.
Just get out of my sight, I hate you!’ She turned and ran into her bedroom,
slammed the door behind her, flung herself down on the bed and sobbed into her
pillow.

***

Roy
lit another cigarette and remained
seated. Seeing Livvy standing there in front of him, with her arms folded
protectively over her bump, telling him what she thought of him, had taken him
by surprise. He’d never had her down for a feisty little piece before, but she
was certainly that tonight. He supposed it was the mother hen protecting her
chick thing. Hell fire, and now she thought he’d only wanted her for sex. That
wasn’t true, he loved her but he also loved and wanted Sammy.

  
What the hell was he
supposed to do? He’d come here with the intention of keeping a stiff upper lip,
persuade Livvy it was in everyone’s best interests to abort the baby, hand over
a cheque for the cost and then he could wash his hands of the whole bloody
mes
s. But who was he kidding, exactly
whose interests was it in the best of? Certainly not Livvy’s, probably not his
own either, and Sammy had already accepted the fact that Livvy wanted to keep
the child anyway.

  
He finished his cigarette
and tapped on Livvy’s bedroom door. ‘Liv, can I come in please?’

  
There was no reply so he
pushed the door open. She was lying face down on the bed, sobbing.
 
He sat by her side and gently touched her
shoulder. She looked at him, nose running, eyes swollen and her face blotchy.
Tendrils of hair were sticking to her wet cheeks, making her look like a child
who was crying because she’d broken her favourite dolly.

 
 
‘I told you to go-o a-way,’ she sobbed.

  
‘Do I
ever
do
anything anyone tells me?’ He pulled her into an upright position.

  
‘No, I don’t suppose you
ever do,’ she cried.

  
‘Well then, that’s why
I’m still here.’ He took her in his arms and cradled her.

  
‘I’m sorry
Roy
, really I am. I
did
take the pill; I can show you the
packets. But I missed a couple and that’s how this happened. I know I should
have told you, I’m so sorry.’