Page 85 of All Summer Long

‘Count on it,’ Robinson said, unable to take his eyes off her as she moved away.

Marsh cleared his throat pointedly, and Alice started to laugh. She paused when she reached him and leaned in and quickly pecked him on the cheek.

‘Thank you, Marsh.’

He made a show of huffing, taking her by the elbow and frogmarching her out into the foyer where huge stands were being stocked full of show merchandise.

‘Don’t thank me, blondie. I’ve got a swimming pool riding on the back of tonight’s merch sales.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

At seven that evening, a thoroughly overexcited Borne Seven sat in a row close to the front, right on the floor of the arena where they had a bird’s eye view.

‘I can’t wait to hear him sing,’ Hazel said, already dreamy eyed before Robinson had even come out on stage. She looked more Dolly Parton than even Dolly Parton could tonight, except for the obvious physical differences. She and Stewie had hit the stores downtown that afternoon, and Hazel was now the proud owner of a snowy white leather jean jacket encrusted in rhinestones and matching cowboy boots. Stewie sat beside her decked out in an identical outfit, except he’d opted for jet black to match the Elvis wig he still sported. Along the row from them, Jase and Dessy looked as if they’d cleaned out the merchandise stands in the foyer. They both wore Robinson Duff t-shirts, his face emblazoned across their broad chests, and had Robinson’s signature across the front of the baseball caps on their thankfully wig-free heads.

Even Ewan had accessorised his usual black goth attire with a Robinson Duff beanie as he slouched in his seat on the far end of the row and took videos of the arena on his mobile.

‘It’s going to be so weird seeing him how his fans see him,’ Niamh said, twisting round in her seat beside Alice to look at the rapidly filling arena behind them. A tangible buzz of excitement fizzed around the whole place, and the huge screens around the stage scrolled through the images and films of Robinson that Alice had watched earlier that day during rehearsals. Glancing around, she saw countless fans watching the screens with dreamy, faraway expressions, no doubt having wildly inappropriate thoughts about their favourite drop dead sexy country star. Alice couldn’t blame them, she was doing the exact same thing. But she was the luckiest girl in the arena, because when the lights went up at the end of the night and they all went wistfully home, she was going to get to go backstage and meet the superstar. She didn’t really know what would happen after that; it was enough for now just to know that she was going to see him again. To hold him, talk to him, to kiss him.

‘I wish I’d had my mobile with me that day he popped out of the Airstream door naked,’ Niamh whispered, grinning. ‘I could have been a millionaire five times over if I had that image on me right now.’

Alice touched the camera hanging around her neck, thinking of the hundreds of images she’d taken of Robinson over the summer, all of them memories captured to look at when they were no longer together. She’d never imagined this, being here as a visitor in his world as he’d been a visitor in hers. All through the long plane journey she’d agonised over whether things would be different between them in Nashville, and then the moment his eyes lit up when he spotted her in the arena she’d known that it didn’t matter where in the world they were, things would always be the same way between them.

The warm-up act did their job brilliantly; by the time they were done they had the packed-out arena rocking and the anticipation levels for the main man himself off the scale. The excitement was a palpable, beating heart, and the sound of thousands of stamping feet shook the foundations of the building as they chanted his name over and over. Duff. Duff. Duff. Alice was so glad she’d never seen this aspect of Robinson’s life before he came to Borne, because there was no way she’d have been able to treat him as just a regular guy if she’d had any concept of the level of his fame. Her ignorance had been a blissful gift to them both.

Niamh’s hand slid into hers and squeezed it tightly as out of nowhere Robinson suddenly strolled onto the stage, his guitar slung casually around his neck as always. All of the screens around the stage centred in on his face for the benefit of the crowds at the back, and the stadium rose to their feet as one and went into absolute meltdown as he lifted a hand in greeting and laughed with pure joy at the rapturous reception from his fans. Alice didn’t think the cheers could get any louder, and then he thanked them all for coming and told them how good it was to be back home in Music City, and she found herself proved wrong. These were his people, and this was his beloved town. She’d devoured every word of the double-page interview in the centre of the concert programme, and she’d studied the tour photographs where he’d played to sold-out audiences from Australia to Moscow to New York. He’d obviously experienced so many thrills in his career, but performing right here in Nashville had to be the best feeling in the world for him; every man, woman and child in the arena adored him and celebrated him as one of their own.

Glancing along the line at the Borne Seven, Alice found herself tearful once more. At the far end Ewan looked like a little boy, all pretence of goth coolness dropped as he cheered and whooped along with the crowds. Jase and Dessy had their arms in the air and the hugest, gooniest grins on their faces, and Stewie punched the air and yelled ‘Go Robster’ while Hazel dabbed her eyes with Stewie’s hankie, overcome with the emotion of it all. She wasn’t the only one; a quick glance around the arena told Alice that seeing Robinson in the flesh was overwhelming for quite a large proportion of his female fans.

The band kicked off with the track Alice had heard in rehearsal that morning, and as she’d predicted it absolutely blew the roof off the place. The beat, the volume, and most of all the awe inspiring, sexy as hell man up there centre stage. No one could take their eyes off him; in that moment he was easily the coolest man on the planet. He sang with a sexy, laidback confidence, those big screens filled with his wide, melt your ovaries smile and laughing green eyes. Alice saw what every other woman in the arena saw, and she couldn’t believe her own good fortune at having had him to herself for so long over the summer in Borne. Even if today turned out to be the last day she had with him, she’d never forget him or regret him.

Just like earlier, the band dialled the pace right down after the opening number, filling the place with a beautiful, haunting melody, and the accompanying cheers told Alice that it must be one of his big hits. She wasn’t surprised; it was stunning, stripped back and emotional to showcase his vocals, and the arena seemed to swoon as one as his raw voice blanketed them like warm velvet. She watched him, really watched him, and what she saw filled her heart with so much tender love for him that had it burst and flooded her veins, she’d have drowned happily in Robinson Duff. His performance was so entirely different to that morning’s rehearsal. He was still emotional, more so even, but his eyes weren’t lonely or fixed on the floor tonight, they were smouldering and sweeping the rows at the front of the stage. He was searching for her, and when he finally found her, his slow, sexy smile amplified on the huge screens was hers alone, even though she shared it with thousands.

Niamh squeezed Alice’s fingers so hard she almost broke the bones.

‘He’s spotted you,’ she shouted, loud and excited, her dark eyes shining with triumph.

Alice nodded, loving every second but wishing the concert away because all she wanted to do was get him to herself. The two-hour set seemed to go by in moments, an absolute celebration of the coolest country music Alice had ever heard in her life. Sometimes loud, fun and infectious, at other times heartbreakingly sweet and romantic, all punctuated with anecdotes and lines from Robinson that had the crowd hanging from his every word. He had them eating out of his hand, and when he finally took his guitar from around his neck and left the stage at the end, the thunder of the crowd chanting for more went from a rumble to a roar until he strolled back on again, laughing with an expression of pure, raw elation. For a couple of minutes he could do nothing but let the roar happen and soak it in, and then he picked up his guitar and slid the strap over his shoulder and held his hand up, waiting for the roar to quieten again before he spoke.

‘Wanna hear something brand new?’ he asked them, grinning as they erupted again, laughing as he waited for them to calm down.

‘Okay, so I wasn’t planning on doing this tonight, but it suddenly just feels kind of right.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I wrote this recently, it’s called “One Hot Summer”. See what y’all think.’ As he settled his guitar into position and picked out the opening notes, a hush fell around the crowd, and when he started to sing, everyone else in the place ceased to exist for Alice. There was just Robinson Duff, singing to her, just as he had in the tree house back at Borne Manor. He looked her way as he told the story of their romance through his lyrics, managing to capture perfectly the essence of their time together and distill it into three perfect minutes.

‘There’s an angel in my bed,’ he crooned, low and intimate. ‘She runs through my dreams, all red boots and sunshine, her blonde hair flyin’ in the wind.’ Robinson sang for the crowds, but he made love to Alice with his words. He opened his heart about wishing summer had never had to end, and he closed his eyes as if saying his prayers when he sang about the beautiful girl who seemed to carry magic in the back pocket of her jeans.

It was a song that made every woman in the whole place sigh, all wistful to be the girl Robinson Duff saw when he closed his eyes.

It was a song that made the Borne Seven lean forward in unison to look down the line at Alice knowingly, fat tears coursing unchecked down Dessy’s cheeks as he gestured between Alice and Robinson and mouthed ‘it’s about you’, in case she hadn’t realised.

She had. Of course she had. It was a song that made Alice decide that nothing else mattered in her life except for being with Robinson Duff.

‘Robster!’

Robinson knew straight away who was shouting his name, because no one else on the planet had ever called him Robster. Turning to scan the backstage crowd, he made his excuses to the girl whose arm he’d just signed and pushed his way over to Stewie, delighted. After a two and a half hour set his brain was fried, and sudden affection for this weird and wonderful bunch of people came out of nowhere and choked him up.

‘You guys! You’re all here.’

Stewie hugged him robustly, and then handed him down the line to Hazel, who shimmied her rhinestone shoulders at him with a dreamy, tearfully proud smile.

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