Page 66 of All Right No
“And Spook?” Ash turned his head towards the closed door again.
“Has lady trouble.”
“Spook does?” Ginny blurted. Then clamped her hands over her mouth. “Sorry, just wasn’t what I expected you to say. Are you saying he’s dating someone?”
Xane raised both brows. “I’m not sure I’d go so far as claiming that, but there’s definite interest in both directions, which is why he’s struggling to say no to her. She’s also the reason, incidentally, why we’re now planning on going back to England to record instead of doing it here. He doesn’t want her here. Too much temptation.”
“Sorry,” Ash shook his head. “I’m not following. Who are we talking about? Is this someone I know?”
Xane ushered him towards the stairs, away from Ginny, and presumably out of hearing range of Spook’s room. Rather than stop in the lounge, they headed outside onto the grass. “It’s someone you’ve met. Allegra Hutton, she remasteredWithin Youfor us. Spook and I bumped into her again at the music awards in July. I guess you were out of action then, so you missed the details. She’s also the sound engineer Graham’s hired to come out here to work on the new album.”
Ash shook his head, unable to recall her in any significant way. They’d all been pretty out of it back when they’d remasteredWithin You. It’d had been right after Steve’s death, and right after he’d met Ginny.
“His type?” he asked, not that he had an actual clue what constituted Spook’s type. He watched over the rest of them, took photographs that he mounted in his scrapbooks. He never expressed an opinion on women or the sort of relationship he might enjoy if he didn’t take being celibate to such an extreme.
“Oh yeah,” Xane confirmed. “She’s most definitely that. Reckon she’d even be good for him, if he’d give her a decent chance to let him.”
“Which I’m guessing he’s not, as he’s upstairs brooding.”
You couldn’t see Spook’s room from this side of the house, but Ash could picture his friend wearing out his shoe leather pacing.
“She’s pushy, is the thing. He doesn’t know when to give in, and she’s not so good at staging a tactical retreat. They’ll get there in the end, I’m sure.”
“Do you mean as far as going on a date, or shagging?” This was more than a turn up for the books. Ash stuck his fingers in his ears and gave them a wiggle to make sure his hearing was actually working.
“I think that depends on what you constitute as sex,” Xane mused.
Ash tended to think of it in terms of orgasms and cocks dipping inside pussies, but accepted it might also include butt sex and titty-wanking, and oral kind of counted too. Of course, he gathered other people had somewhat broader definitions that included stuff he considered foreplay, like a good foot-rub, or tying one another up and torturing them with feathers, or licking food off one another.
“Probably best not to torment him over it.”
“I wasn’t going to.” He’d turned over a new leaf. Picking fights was so yesterday. “Xane…” Ash waited until his friend turned around. “Hey, I’ve been working on something while you’ve been gone, I wondered if you might be interested in hearing it.”
Xane took off his sunglasses to look him over. “I see a few days alone with sweet Ginny has worked wonders on you. Yeah, I’d love to hear it. Are you going to play it to me, or do I have to play it and let you yell at me?”
Ash sucked his teeth. Yeah, he’d been acting like a dick. He deserved that dig. “I’ll play it. I just want you to listen and give me an honest opinion.”
“Okay,” Xane agreed, squinting at him. “What’s Ginny done to you? Weren’t you Captain Unbearable a few days ago?”
Ash thumped him on the back and gave him a shove toward the studio. “She put me on the G-plan. Thank her later.”
“G-plan? Don’t they make sofas?”
“Oh, shut up. It’s working, so don’t knock it.”
Xane perched his sunglasses back on his nose. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
***
Rather than following Ash and Xane downstairs, Ginny crossed the mezzanine level and knocked on Spook’s door. He’d been there for her when she’d needed a shoulder to lean on. It seemed only right to attempt to return the favour now, when he was upset.
“Yeah, come in,” he answered after a moment.
She’d not seen the inside of Spook’s inner sanctum before. Like the rest of the building, the walls were whitewashed, and exposed honey-gold beams dissected the space. The roof was steeply angled at the centre, but branched to both sides so that the space formed the shape of a cross. He’d drawn the shutters across all the windows, so that it was dim and cool within, with stripes of light stretching across the hardwood floor. Spook sat up on the bed and swung his feet to the ground when he saw it was her, and not, perhaps as he’d expected, one of the guys.
“I’m going to make a cuppa after I’ve dealt with that cream. I wondered if you’d like anything?”
“No. I’m good, thanks.” He rubbed his hands across his face, then made to lie back down.
