Page 32 of Never Too Late
A few minutes later Steph not only got the chance to hold the iconic electric guitar, but she even remembered a few chords and was able to play them. Although it was plugged in, it was on a minimal volume setting so the sound was far from its bellowing best, but it sent a shiver down her spine all the same. Keith and Johnny, forewarned, stayed away while Ben played his new numbers. Steph joined in from time to time while Ethan – now looking wide awake again – recorded all of it. It was almost four o’clock by the time Ben set his beloved Clarabelle reverently on the floor and stood up. He looked tired, but happy.
‘Thanks, guys, I really enjoyed that. And, Steph, you’re a natural, you know. You just get my music, and your accompaniment suits my stuff so well.’
Steph could feel her cheeks glowing. ‘Thanks, Ben. I was just following your lead, but I enjoyed myself a lot as well.’
‘Um, Ben…’ They both looked across at Ethan who was sounding unusually hesitant. ‘You know that song of yours we recorded the other day, well, I hope you don’t mind, but I played it to Keith and Johnny. Was that all right?’
There was silence for almost twenty seconds – Steph counted them off on the clock on the wall – before Ben replied.
‘I wondered if you would.’ Another pause, this time a bit shorter. ‘That’s all right. I didn’t ask you not to, after all.’ Yet another pause. ‘Well, go on, what did they say?’
‘They loved it.’
Steph added her support. ‘They really, really loved it. We all did.’
‘That’s cool.’ Ben wasn’t smiling but he didn’t look unhappy, so Steph exchanged glances with Ethan who took the next step. ‘They said they’d like to try playing along with it so we recorded their tracks and I mixed them all together. Would you like to hear the result?’
The silence was deafening for all of thirty seconds before Ben gave a cautious nod of the head and Ethan was quick to act. Steph felt sure he had had the track all keyed up ready to go in the hope of getting Ben’s agreement.
As the slow bass intro filled the room, followed by Ben’s voice as he sang the first lingering words, Steph did her best to watch his face without being too obvious. On the other side of the console, she could see Ethan doing the exact same thing. What they both saw was a fifty-year-old man with tears running down his cheeks mouthing the words as he listened to the other instruments join in and the voices of his two former band mates add their backing to his. By the end, you could have cut the emotional tension in the room with a knife and Steph could feel her own eyes filled with tears. As the last notes faded out, Ethan looked across at Ben and spoke in a low voice.
‘Of course, this is just done on acoustic guitars with minimal percussion so it’ll sound a lot different in a final version with full electric and some backing singers but, even so, we were all blown away by it. What doyouthink?’
To Steph’s surprise Ben answered immediately. ‘Absolutely great! Jesus, man, that sounds amazing.’ A smile had formed on his face and his enthusiastic response almost raised a cheer. In an instant the tension in the room melted away and a surge of excitement ran through Steph. They really had something here and Ben liked it. Ben ran his hands across his face to dry the tears and wiped them on his shorts before catching hold of Lottie and hugging her as if his life depended upon it. She was in floods of tears herself and although Steph couldn’t see his face, from the way Ben’s shoulders were heaving, he must have been in a similar state.
They walked up to the terrace together and found Johnny and Keith sitting with Tara and Faye under the sunshades, chatting. When they got there, Ethan told them what had just happened, and Steph saw all four faces beam. Keith was the first to react.
‘Ben, I’m so, so pleased. Johnny and I really loved it. Are you sure you didn’t mind us adding our parts to see how it might sound?’
‘Of course not. You did a great job and it sounded amazing.’ Ben shot a glance across at Steph. ‘All of you. You too, Steph. It was just like Vince never went away.’ There was silence for almost a full minute before he carried on. ‘I’m so glad you all like it. I wrote it from the heart.’ His tone became a bit more subdued. ‘I wrote it for Vince.’
‘Does it have a title?’ Keith sounded equally subdued.
‘I’ve been calling it “For Vince”, but just recently I had an idea. He’s gone now and nothing can change that, but maybe the time’s come for us to make a fresh start. I rather like the idea of calling it “Never Too Late”. What do you think?’
‘Sounds great, Ben, just great.’ Keith came over and stretched his arm around his friend’s shoulder. ‘How about we sit down together tomorrow and do a bit of jamming? I’ve got some new stuff you might like to hear.’
‘I’d like that.’ Ben was smiling now.
Steph reminded them that she wouldn’t be here, and they told her that wasn’t a problem and wished her well. Lottie in particular jumped up and gave her a warm hug.
‘Try not to worry, sweetheart, it’ll all work out for you. You’ll see.’
Steph gave her a grateful smile and went off to the guest apartment to get ready. Ethan walked with her as far as the studio and stopped at the door.
‘Good luck for tomorrow, Steph.’
‘Thanks a lot.’
‘Sounds good about Ben, doesn’t it?’
‘It certainly does. So do you think this means Royalty are back up and running?’
‘I hope so. Fingers crossed, but it’s looking good. I think Ben’s back.’
‘And what about you, Ethan? Are you coming back?’
‘Back from where?’
