Page 83 of All Summer Long

‘I’m okay,’ Alice said, because in all honesty it wasn’t her rib that was troubling her. It was something a little to the left. Her heart.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Someone was banging on the door. Alice jolted awake, disorientated, needing to think for a second while she got her bearings. Oh God! Had Marsh told Robinson already and he was here right now? She wasn’t prepared, and if it was him on the other side of that door then he didn’t sound in a particularly good mood. Niamh stirred on the other bed as the door knocked again, more insistent.

‘Come on, blondie, open up!’

‘Marsh,’ Niamh whispered, pulling a face as she looked at her watch, freshly reset to local time when the captain informed them they were thirty thousand feet over Tennessee. ‘At midnight.’

Alice opened the door, barefoot on the deep pile carpet and bleary eyed.

‘I knew it,’ Marsh said, dispensing with pleasantries as usual as he strutted in. ‘You’re on my payroll and on my turf now, ladies, which means being bright eyed, bushy tailed and ready for action. When I say jump, you say how high!‘ Marsh executed a tight, angry little jump to demonstrate his point. ‘Are we clear here? You’re not in Kansas any more.’

Alice and Niamh looked at each other, and then at Marsh.

‘You don’t expect us to go out right now, surely?’ Niamh said, her mind firmly on the deep marble bath and fluffy white robe she’d spied when she’d been to the loo. ‘We’ve been travelling for almost an entire day and Alice is injured.’

His eyes raked Alice up and down, completely unsympathetic. ‘You better not be, girly.’

‘I’m all right,’ Alice sighed, privately adding a sarcastic ‘thanks very much for asking’ in her head. ‘It does seem kind of late to get everyone up to surprise Robinson now though?’

He rolled his eyes. ‘Are you crazy? The car will collect you, and ONLY you, at nine sharp in the morning. Do not, I repeat do NOT, bring your bunch of Toy Town nutso crazies with you.’ He glared accusingly at Niamh for a second and then swung back to Alice. ‘It’s bad enough that they’re all here at all, let alone coming to shock the living fucking daylights out of Duff this close to show time. You at nine a.m., and then a car will collect everyone else at six for the concert.’ He glared over at Niamh. ‘Try and act sane.’

And with that, he spun on his heeled boot and left the room as abruptly as he’d entered it, leaving both Alice and Niamh staring at the open doorway in shock.

Alice closed it carefully, thinking about what he’d just said.

‘What did he mean, Niamh? I thought he’d invited everyone here by choice?’

Niamh avoided Alice’s gaze and blustered it out. ‘Jeez, you know what he’s like, Alice! He’s … he’s an oddball. He says one thing and then does another.’

Alice pulled her case over to the bed and flipped the lid wide to find her PJs, still turning the conversation over in her head as she dug around.

‘That’s just the thing,’ she said, perplexed. ‘Marsh doesn’t blow hot and cold, actually. Heisan oddball, and God knows he rants, but he’s possibly the most terrifyingly efficient man I’ve ever met.’ Alice sat down on the edge of the bed, her PJs in her hands as she looked at her friend.

‘Niamh, is there anything you need to tell me? Because if there is, right now is the time to do it.’

Robinson pushed away the plate of hot pancakes and grabbed the coffee that had been freshly delivered to his dressing room. He couldn’t face food this morning. He wasn’t one for eating much on concert days anyway, and he had the makings of a hangover from a couple of too-heavy-handed bourbons he’d knocked back late last night to help him sleep. Marsh frogmarching him over to the arena at what felt like the crack of dawn hadn’t helped much, either.

He knew his lines, he knew the running order; he was as ready as he was going to be for tonight. The one thing Marsh couldn’t control and Robinson couldn’t manufacture was charisma. He had it in his bones, but so far it was staying locked inside and privately Robinson was terrified. He’d never felt this way about being up on stage before, stage fright had never troubled him. He knew his rehearsals had been lacklustre, and he could feel the silent panic settling over the crew with every passing hour. It wasn’t a conscious choice he was making; Jesus Christ, if he could bring the good stuff up there on stage he would. He was a professional and thousands of people were paying their hard-earned money to come out tonight and see him. The last thing he ever wanted to do was disappoint them, the thought of it drenched him in sweat. He just kept on telling himself that he’d feel better tomorrow, and then the next day, but they were hours away from curtain up now and he’d run out of tomorrows. It was so nearly show time. Tipping his coffee into the nearest pot plant, he kicked the table leg and got to his feet. His name was being called over the PA system for him to hit the stage for yet another run through. He still felt wretched.

In the car racing towards the arena, Alice felt pretty much the same way. She’d spent so many days and nights with Robinson Duff, but the man she was going to see today felt like a stranger. She looked up at the huge poster boards as the car came to a stop outside the venue, at the huge digital posters of the man she’d shared her love-drenched summer with in the Airstream, his name emblazoned in sky-high, scrolling letters with a countdown clock to show time.

This was a world away from Borne. If she’d needed any reminder that their lives were just too different ever to be compatible, then this was it. The man she’d spent the summer with wasn’t the real Robinson Duff. This was. If she wasn’t entirely certain that Marsh would hunt her down and drag her back kicking and screaming, she’d have asked the cab driver to turn around and take her to the airport without even stopping by the hotel first. She was well and truly terrified.

Marsh met her in the foyer as soon as she walked through the huge glass doors, practically wrestling her off down a side corridor and out into the vast, empty auditorium. Jesus, it wasmassive.How could he do this? How could he stand up there in front of all these people?

‘So here’s what you’re gonna do,’ Marsh barked. ‘Sit down just here in the stands and watch.’ Marsh gave her no choice on where to sit, half pushing her into a central seat where she’d have a decent view of the whole stage.

‘Now listen up, blondie. He’s gonna break your goddamn heart.’

He left her alone there, feeling tiny and invisible among the sea of empty seats. Staff milled around, and Alice caught snippets of that same gorgeous soft country accent that had punctuated her summertime conversations and whispered in her ear in bed in the Airstream, and the tree house, and the yurt. She let all of those memories wash over her, drawing in a sharp breath as the huge screens around the stage flickered into life and various images of Robinson appeared. Scenes of him up on stage playing to other packed-out arenas, and shots of him backstage chatting to crewmembers. She watched him laugh with someone bringing him a beer, and then saw him hug a teenager whose eyes shone with tears because she’d met her idol and he was every bit as gorgeous as she’d hoped he’d be. Snapshots of Robinson’s life, making him real again because behind all of the artificial glamour and razzamatazz she could see glimpses of the man she knew. Down on the stage musicians from Robinson’s band warmed up and joked around easily with each other, and then she caught her breath because Robinson himself strolled out onto the stage, deep in conversation with another guy. Alice recognised the guitar around his neck as the one he’d played for her back in the tree house, another silken thread of connection weaving between their two lives.

The energy on the stage changed instantly with his arrival, in fact the energy in the whole arena sparked. The staff couldn’t keep their eyes off him, and the crew seemed to spring into action, moving with renewed purpose. In short, there was a buzz, and Alice couldn’t fail to feel it too. In that moment she saw Robinson through different eyes; she saw the star.

Her heart beat a little faster just from seeing him again, and her throat dried out with the anticipation of watching him perform. She wanted to stand up and wave her arms over her head until he noticed her there in the stands, but in another way she didn’t want him to see her at all because this was his world and who knew what would happen when he knew she was here in it. Would it piss him off, threaten his performance? Or was she overstating her own importance to him because she’d come to realise his true importance to her? She still couldn’t work out why Marsh had wanted her here so urgently, even since Niamh had explained what had happened back at the manor when she’d answered Marsh’s call. Would she have done the same if she’d have picked up the call herself?

The truth was that she probably would have, because if Robinson really needed her then she’d have come, although probably without the rest of Borne in tow behind her. It was reassuring to have Niamh along for the trip though, and she couldn’t really blame her friend for making a snap decision to twist Alice’s arm. She’d been certain Alice would say no and decided not to leave it to chance, she’d said, and Alice knew her well enough to know that she’d made her decisions with a good heart and only Alice’s best interests in mind.

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