Page 22 of Never Too Late
‘You know him well?’
‘Not Ben himself, but I’ve met a lot of people with similar problems.’
Seeing the uncertainty on Steph’s face, Sky added a few words of explanation. ‘Tom’s a psychotherapist. He spends his life listening to people’s problems.’
Steph realised she had been guilty of underestimating Tom. She had to some extent dismissed him as a beach bum with his hippy clothes, occasional laconic comments and his laid-back approach to life. Never judge a book by its cover had been another one of her dad’s favourite English sayings and this proved, yet again, how right he had been. She gave Tom a smile.
‘I would imagine there are more than enough people with problems in the world today to keep you busy.’
He nodded. ‘You’re not wrong. With so many bad things happening, it’s getting harder and harder for people to cope.’
A thought occurred to Steph, and she threw out the question to both of them. ‘The other day, after Denver’s big blow-up, Faye said he’d been under a lot of pressure. Do you know what that’s all about? Denver doesn’t look particularly stressed.’
Sky answered first. ‘It’s his career. I don’t think it’s working out as well as he’s been hoping. I get the feeling he resents not being as successful as Dad.’
‘We can’t all become living legends.’ Steph glanced along the terrace to where Denver was still in conversation with Ethan and Willow. ‘But Denver told me he’s got a season at Caesar’s Palace coming up. That sounds pretty good.’
‘For most people, yes, definitely, but Denver doesn’t think of himself as most people.’
Tom took over from Sky. ‘When you’re the son of a megastar it’s almost inevitable that you measure yourself against them and, like you say, Steph, we can’t all be living legends.’
Sky was quick to retort. ‘Well, he’s my father too, and I don’t feel pressured.’
‘Ah, sweetie, that’s because you had the good sense to marry a shrink. We have our uses.’
Any further discussion was interrupted by the arrival of Willow. The expression on her face wasn’t exactly contrite, but it was less aggressive than before. ‘I need to speak to you, Steph.’
Steph braced herself and nodded. ‘Okay…’
Willow wasted no time. ‘Listen, Den tells me I need to apologise for what I said earlier. I must have got the wrong idea about what was going on. Ethan and Den have explained what was happening and told me that you had nothing to do with it.’
Steph took a closer look at her. In spite of her words, Willow looked far from remorseful, and Steph couldn’t miss the fact that she hadn’t actually apologised; just said she should. Still, anything was better than assault with a deadly weapon, so Steph decided to be magnanimous.
‘I’m glad that’s been cleared up. I must admit I’ve been really taken aback by your attitude, not just this morning, but ever since I arrived. Just let me make myself totally clear: I have absolutely no interest in your boyfriend and if he were to try anything with me, I would slap him so hard they’d hear it over on the other side of the bay. Understood?’
Willow pursed her lips ‘If you say so.’ As apologies went, this was grudging, to say the least, and Steph had to struggle to avoid snapping at her.
‘I do say so, and you can tell your boyfriend that from me if you like.’ Seeing as she had Willow’s attention, she decided to do a bit of digging. ‘Tell me, just what did Denver give as a reason for deciding to visit my boyfriend in the middle of the night? Are they planning a robbery or something?’
Willow gave a helpless shrug of the shoulders. ‘He didn’t say much. He just said he had stuff to discuss with Ethan, about his music I think.’
That squared with what Ethan had said, but Steph still smelt a rat. After all, why should Denver choose the middle of the night and the middle of a storm to visit his record producer? As an alibi it was decidedly shaky, but for now she left her suspicions unvoiced.
‘Anyway, as long as we’re clear. Me and your boyfriend: not going to happen.’
For a moment it looked as though Willow might be about to retort but, instead, she just nodded again, turned and walked away.
‘Not exactly gracious in defeat.’ Sky sounded as sceptical as Steph felt. ‘I wouldn’t call that a heartfelt apology, would you?’
Steph shrugged. ‘Probably the best I could hope for. At least it would appear that the message is gradually getting through to Willow that I’m not trying to snaffle her man from her. I’d still like to know what was going on last night, though. I’m going to have to speak to Ethan.’
‘Whatisthe situation between you and Ethan, if you don’t mind me asking?’ Sky glanced along the terrace to the table where Ethan and Denver were still talking. ‘Are you two together?’
‘We were, but now we aren’t.’ Steph decided she owed them the truth, and as she spoke, she realised that she meant what she said. All of these suspicions about drugs and secret meetings coupled with his unpredictable mood swings had finally made her realise that her future, at least at a non-professional level, wasn’t going to include Ethan. ‘It’s been brewing for some time but it’s all over now, and I’m glad I’ve made the decision.’
At the end of the meal, Keith came over to ask if Steph could spare a bit of time to go through the new material he had written, so that she would be better able to join in with the next recording session. As a result, she spent an enjoyable hour and a half in the studio with him, playing around with different arrangements until she was reasonably familiar with three or four of the numbers for the new album. The fact that there was no written music to work from made things tricky, but she managed and found him far easier to work with than she had feared. From time to time she almost had to pinch herself that here she was not only in the presence of a rock god but actually jamming with him and about to appear on his new album with him – assuming it went ahead. Teenage Steph would have exploded with joy if she could have seen into the future.
Around mid-afternoon Ethan appeared, followed a few minutes later by Johnny, and it developed into a full-on recording session. By five o’clock they had another two new songs in the can, and the album was taking shape. There was just one thing – or person – missing and Johnny was the first to voice the problem.
