Page 44 of Together Again at the Cornish Country Hospital

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‘I still can’t get over Albie and Cami’s reaction when they saw one another.’ Amy’s face glowed in the low light of the streetlamp as she turned to look at Lijah. They were walking back from the dance hand in hand through the deserted streets, both of them on a high after the event.

‘It was amazing, like you could almost see the years falling away, and when he held her as they danced…’ Lijah demonstrated, by placing his hands in the same position as Albert’s had been and twirling Amy around. ‘Do you ever think our generation missed out?’

‘We had our moments.’ She reached up, pressing her lips against his and making it clear their moment was far from over.

When they finally pulled apart, she took hold of his hand again, leaning her head on his shoulder. ‘I love the idea that it’s never too late for second chances.’

‘I’m really glad they got their second chance, but I’m even more thankful that we got ours.’ He paused as she looked up at him, waiting for her to tease him again about being sentimental, or sounding some kind of warning about most second chances ending the same way as the first, but for once she didn’t.

‘Me too. My biggest regret was not giving us the chance we deserved, but now we’ve got it.’

‘We won’t need another one.’ He kissed her again, forgetting about Cami and Albert, or anyone else. All that mattered was that Amy was prepared to let her guard down enough to really give them a shot, and the rest of the world could have disappeared. That’s why he didn’t spot the photographer standing by a tree, less than twenty feet away, capturing a moment between him and Amy that should have been just for the two of them. But they were never going to get that kind of privacy, and when Amy discovered just what fame could cost them, her willingness to give them a second chance might well disappear forever.

25

Lijah hadn’t seen his father in over twenty years. His mother had told him, when he was about eighteen, that it had been their shared love of music that had drawn his parents together initially. They’d met when Maria had gone to a gig at a music festival where Stewart was performing with his band, Surf and Turf. Lijah had almost choked on his dinner, laughing at the name of the band, and he still smiled when he thought about how hard his mother had been laughing that day too. Apparently, Stewart had named the band after his favourite meal, although Maria had said it could have been worse, they’d nearly been called Stewart and the Surfers. Despite her reaction to the band’s name, Maria had accepted an invitation to go for a drink with Stewart, and the rest had been history.

From what Lijah could gather, the pregnancy had surprised both his parents, but Maria had never once used the word ‘accident’ or ‘mistake’ to describe it, despite how flaky his father had turned out to be. For Maria it had only ever been a blessing, and when it became clear that Stewart wasn’t going to change anything about his life to accommodate a baby, it was Claire who’d stepped into the breach. Stewart had joined another band by the time Lijah arrived, and they’d got a job performing on a cruise ship. He hadn’t even met Lijah until he was six months old, and after that the visits only seemed to come when he was down on his luck. Claire had told Lijah about his father knocking on the door of their flat and asking for a place to stay after he’d been sacked from the cruise ship for ‘inappropriate behaviour’. Every time Stewart came back, he’d put on an act for a while that he wanted to make a go of things with his family, but it would only ever last until the next job offer, or the next woman came into his life. Lijah had never understood why his mother had given Stewart so many chances, until his aunt had tried to explain it after Maria’s death.

‘Your mum was always a soft touch.’ Claire had given him a level look. ‘And I think you take after her more than you know. She let him stay, because she couldn’t bear the thought that if she didn’t he might just disappear altogether, and that one day you’d ask why she didn’t give him another chance. I think Maria felt sorry for him in a way too. She always wanted to help everyone, and I think she still hoped Stewart would surprise us all and step up to the plate. But a leopard doesn’t really change its spots, does it?’

Lijah had understood what his aunt was trying to say. He had no memory of his father coming to stay that first time, but it had happened again several times, up until Lijah had turned ten years old. Even at that age, he’d realised his father only came back to them out of desperation not love. He didn’t hear from his dad in between and there’d be months, sometimes years of nothing but silence. On Lijah’s tenth birthday, his father had done another one of his disappearing acts, this time involving the woman who ran the chip shop underneath their flat with her husband. Stewart hadn’t turned up or left a gift. Worse than that, the party Maria had organised for Lijah and a handful of his schoolfriends had descended into chaos after the woman’s husband had stormed up to the flat and demanded to know where Stewart and his wife had gone.

The relationship hadn’t lasted, of course, and the woman had returned to her husband within two weeks. When Lijah’s mother had asked him how his father’s reappearances in his life made him feel, he’d finally felt able to be honest.

‘I don’t like it when he’s here. I prefer it when it’s just us. If he wants to come and see me, that’s okay, I just don’t want him living here, because he always goes again.’ Lijah could still remember how difficult those words had been to say. His aunt was right when she said he was like his mother in many ways, and it hadn’t been easy to ask his mother not to let Stewart keep coming and going. Lijah hated the idea that it might hurt her when she realised that her attempts to keep his father in his life hadn’t been a positive experience for him. But he’d been forced to take the chance of hurting her, to try and make sure Stewart couldn’t keep disrupting the happy home they’d created.

Within a month his father had turned up again, expecting to pick up where he’d left off, the way he always had before, but this time Maria had turned him away. He’d begged and pleaded at first, but when that hadn’t worked he’d stood outside the building shouting abuse and calling Maria and Claire ‘stupid bitches’ and far, far worse things, which had made Lijah boil with rage. His fists had curled into a ball, and he’d wanted to go out into the street and punch his father square in the face, but he’d known how much that would upset his mother. Instead, he’d buried his head in his pillow, so that he couldn’t hear his father shouting, and had pledged never to allow Stewart to be a part of his life again.

His father had sold many stories to the press over the years, about Maria and Claire driving a wedge between him and Lijah, saying he didn’t want anything other than a chance to know the son that he allegedly ‘missed every single day of his life’. There’d no doubt been a pay day for Stewart, but his decision to go to the press had come back to bite him, when several women had come forward accusing Stewart of being abusive and using coercive control. No charges had ever been brought, and Stewart had kept quiet for the last few years, clearly not wanting to poke the hornets’ nest. Despite the fact none of the accusations had led to a prosecution, it was one second chance Lijah wasn’t prepared to give. Men who took advantage of someone else’s vulnerability for their own ends were the lowest of the low. All of that meant it shouldn’t have been a surprise when Nick rang Lijah up with some news.

‘I’ve had a heads up from Pete Mcintyre that your father has been touting a new story to the press. It looks like he’s had an idea to make some money from you and Amy getting back together.’ Pete was one of the few tabloid journalists who seemed to have some integrity, and Lijah and Nick had built up a bit of a friendship with him over the years.

‘How the hell can he do that? Stewart was out of my life long before I even met Amy.’ Lijah had the same desire to punch his father that he’d had the last time he’d seen him. Amy already had enough to contend with, without Stewart getting in on the act.

‘By making stuff up like he always does.’ Nick sighed down the phone. ‘Look, it’s probably nothing, but I thought you should know, so you can prepare Amy to ignore anything she might read.’

‘I’ve already been telling her to do that. But you’re right, knowing that Stewart is about to spout more of his crap will give her a chance to steer clear of that too. Thanks mate.’

‘No problem. That’s what I’m here for, and I will be as long as you need me.’ Nick sighed again. ‘Although we have got to talk about how long that might be, and what we’re doing about the last leg of the tour. The promoters won’t wait forever.’

‘I know, and we’ll sort it out soon, I promise.’ Lijah hated messing his friend around, and the fans who’d booked tickets, but still hadn’t seen him perform. He really would deal with it soon, but for now his priority was supporting Amy through the frenzy their relationship seemed to have stirred up. He just hoped Nick was right and that Stewart’s attempt to sell a story would come to nothing, because the last thing he needed right now was his excuse for a father turning up to make things even harder for Amy than they already were.

* * *

Amy had tried really hard not to look at the photographs of her and Lijah kissing when they’d been shared online, or at any of the comments that had been made about them. But she hadn’t been able to avoid the magazines and tabloid newspapers in the hospital shop that had the image of her and Lijah kissing on their front covers. This was supposed to be her safe space, where she didn’t have to wonder whether people were staring at her and analysing her every move, but the press had eroded that bit by bit. It had started when they’d come into the emergency department and pretended they were patients, and now they were splashing her picture all over magazines and newspapers anyone could pick up. And it wasn’t just her photograph, it was the habit they’d developed of positioning her picture side by side with photographs of Lijah and some of his rumoured previous girlfriends, all of them beautiful and famous in their own right. These women were used to moving in Lijah’s world and they looked like they belonged there. Amy didn’t. They might as well have printed ‘Lijah Byrne is obviously having some kind of breakdown’, because that’s what the pictures said without them actually having to write it.

‘It’ll calm down.’ He’d given her the same assurances as before, but it was like being told to ignore a bully who was everywhere. It was just as impossible as it had been when her mother had told her to ignore the jibes her brother had made while they were still living under the same roof. When it was just Amy and Lijah, life felt pretty damn perfect, and she didn’t want to keep ruining the time they spent together by asking him for reassurance. He had no way of knowing whether the press would eventually lose interest in their story, and he had bigger things to worry about. The promoters were still pushing for a date to reschedule the tour, he had his next album to deliver, and he’d been told to expect another made-up story from Stewart to appear in the press any day, but so far it had been unnervingly quiet.

Amy had been there when his father had dealt him another blow, and withheld the money that Lijah’s paternal grandparents had set aside to help him learn to drive, and to buy him his first car. Maria had kept in contact with them and had made sure Lijah saw them, even after his father walked out for the last time. Sadly they’d both died before Lijah reached his teens, but they’d often told him about the money they’d put aside, which would be his when he turned seventeen. Except when his birthday came around, there’d been no money. His father had long since spent it, denying any knowledge of his parents’ promise. Lijah had been distraught at another kick in the teeth from his father, further evidence that Stewart couldn’t give a damn about him.

Thank God he’d had so much support from his aunt and his mother, but with Maria gone, and Claire’s plans to move to Tenerife gathering pace, Stewart’s latest betrayal must have hit him all the harder. ‘I don’t want to go back on tour, not if it means leaving you,’ Lijah had said, as he trailed a hand down her arm the night before. ‘This is where I want to be.’

‘You’ll miss the thrill of it sooner or later, and I know you, you won’t want to let down the people you’ve made a commitment to.’ She’d smiled then at the look that had crossed his face, knowing she’d been spot on, but it was bittersweet. She didn’t want him to leave either, it felt so much easier to imagine them having a future together when he was right there next to her. Even though she knew he’d have to leave Port Kara eventually, she couldn’t stop herself from suggesting ways to put it off, at least for a little while. ‘Just don’t try to rush it, you’ve been through such a lot this last year.’

‘I won’t be rushing anything, especially not this.’ He’d kissed her then and the rest of the world, and all the pressures it brought with it, had receded again. It would have been so easy to hide away in a little bubble together, but she loved her job, her friends, and her parents, so it was impossible to avoid the real world for long. Instead, she hurried past the hospital shop at the end of her shift, deliberately not popping in for the takeaway latte she’d normally have bought for the journey up to her Mum and Dad’s house. Now that Lijah was staying at her place more or less full time, it had been more than a week since Amy had seen her mum and she’d promised to pop in on the way home, when Kerry would be back from her new part-time job as a school secretary.

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