‘I don’t know what to say to you both, other than thank you. But that doesn’t seem nearly enough.’ Winter drunk the rest of her Champagne down quickly and sat down next to me.
‘It went brilliantly, Winter. You should be so proud of yourself,’ I offered into the quiet room. ‘I saw you handing out your business cards left, right and bloody centre today.’
‘Well, I couldn’t have done it without you both, thank you from the heart of my bottom.’ She smiled at us again and topped up all our glasses. I managed to get my fingers over the top of mine, before she overenthusiastically filled it to the point of it slopping over the rim.
‘The Fairy Garden had one of its best days ever today, Lauren… I’m so proud of you both and your achievements.’ Amy lifted up her equally overfilled glass to us and took another sip.
I looked at her, trying to read between the lines and then looked sideways at Winter who caught my eyes with her own. Wordlessly, we jumped up in unison and made our way around the large, low table in front of us and plonked ourselves down either side of her. We both pulled her into our arms and for a few minutes we sat together, offering each other our solidarity and strength.
‘We’re proud of you too, you know,’ Winter whispered to her.
Looking at the side of her face, I saw the ghost of a smile grace her lips. She held onto us both firmly, squeezed a little tighter and then we broke. Winter and I went back to our original places on the settee opposite. I knew why. We both wanted to hear about her evening last night with Daniel, the guy who had carried her up to my spare room after hoisting her over his shoulder. Each of us in our own way needed the diversion from our day. Personally, I needed something to clear Raff out of my head. He’d occupied the space for far too long in the last few days, I needed it back for my own sanity and I knew Cade had also gotten under Winter’s normally cast iron veneer.
‘So?’ I questioned Amy and interrogated her with a stare.
She shrugged at us in reply.
Okay, so she was going to play it like that. I smiled, she really should know Winter and I better than this by now. Ever since we were young we could coerce Amy into telling us almost anything and it was a game we loved to play. Without looking at Winter, knowing she would follow my lead, I made the first attempt.
‘Okay, let us recap. When we last saw you last night, the very lovely Daniel was climbing the wrought iron staircase to your bedroom, doing the stairs two at a time. Let us remind you, he was carrying you over his shoulder as if you were as light as a feather.’ I placed an open palm over my heart.
She shook her head slowly from side to side.
‘Oh, come on, Amy, spill it. We need to hear it all.’
‘My night was amazing. Having never had a one-night stand before, I don’t know what I was expecting. He was attentive and gave me exactly what I needed.’ Her words sounded wooden, almost as though she’d practised them over, and over again.
I looked at Winter and she raised her eyebrows at me.
‘Oh dear!’ I pushed into the silent room.
‘Indeed,’ added Winter. ‘So, it was either bloody awful or the best sex you’ve ever had. He was that good, huh?’
‘Yes, he was good. I had a really good night,’ she answered as nonchalantly as she could manage.
‘So, let’s get this right. He’s tall and good looking?’ Winter asked, turning her body away from Amy towards me. I in turn took her lead and copied her.
‘Yes,’ Amy answered.
‘He was so strong, we saw that by the way he picked her up,’ I added.
‘We did,’ Winter answered, as she feigned fainting like a southern belle. I suppressed a laugh, feeling lighter the more Champagne entered my body and the longer the conversation went on.
From my peripheral view, I saw Amy nod in response. Playing our game, neither Winter or I looked over at her.
‘With that sort of strength, he probably has the most fantastic body?’
‘Yes, he had a really good body.’ Amy almost sighed as she answered.
‘We witnessed he had a sense of humour.’ I was adding up Daniel’s list of plusses on my fingers as Winter and I carried on having the discussion between ourselves.
‘A man like that is sure to know exactly how to use all those qualities to best effect,’ added Winter, nodding her head.
‘I bet he knew just how to use all of those skills.’ I sighed, finding it hard to keep in the laughter that wanted to burst out of me. I leant back into the comfy cushions behind me and fanned at my face with my hand.
‘He did,’ Amy added.
‘He exuded confidence, I could sense a bit of a bad boy about him,’ Winter continued.
‘His body was covered in the most beautiful, brightly coloured tattoos and his fingers were covered in rings. Sex with him was amazing… the way he controlled my pleasure and then held me close afterwards was more than I could have ever imagined.’
I watched her as those words left her body. A wide grin attached itself to my face. I was so pleased for her, she was locked away too much in a life that belonged to our nan. I wanted her to feel, to experience, I wanted her to love and be loved in return. I knew the feeling, I understood how it worked, and when it lasted, it was the very best thing in the world. Even when there was a chance it would shatter you into a million pieces and leave you destitute in its wake.
‘So, when are you seeing him again?’ I questioned.
She looked at us in disbelief, as if she was trying to gauge our responses to her admission. Winter seemed a bit lost in her own thoughts even though our conversation carried on.
‘It was a one-night stand, we made no other plans. I told him to make sure the door closed behind him on his way out.’
I felt my face change into one of complete shock. I knew she pushed people away, but seriously after the words she had used to describe her evening with him, I couldn’t believe it.
‘So, you’re telling us that you effectively kicked him out of bed and slammed the door shut on his face?’ Winter asked in a tone of voice that told me was as shocked as me.
‘Stop it!’ Amy was shaking her head at us both. ‘It was a one-night stand. He’s here for Jack’s wedding, after that I’m sure he’ll be on his way back home. By the looks of his clothes and the car he was driving, he has money. So, what on earth would tempt him to stay here in our sleepy little village?’
‘Did he tell you all of that?’ questioned Winter.
She shook her head a little. ‘It’s just what I got from our few conversations.’
‘What sort of car did he have? Just as a matter of interest. Was it a sports car?’ I looked over at Winter and her new line of questioning, making note to question her later.
‘No, it was a Land Rover. A Defender I think.’ She smiled, seeming lost in thought.
‘Oh.’ Winter nodded. ‘Well, I for one think you’ll be seeing him again…’
Amy looked at her in question, furrowing her forehead.
‘I mean, we’re going to the wedding, aren’t we?’ Winter smiled.
That was it, Winter knew something and I needed to know what it was.
Just then a loud cheer went up next door. Instinctively, my gaze left Winter and travelled towards the closed double doors. A beat was being tapped out on what appeared to be one drum and then the guitars joined in. I realised it was a tune I recognised.
It was exactly what we needed. It was what I needed at least, with Raff only separated from me by the double doors, I wanted something to try to take my mind off the fact he was next door. Every strum of his guitar reverberated around my heart. So, I tipped my Champagne flute up and I swallowed deeply until it was once again empty and it had dulled my feelings down.
‘Oh, I love this one.’ I jumped up and began to dance around the room, holding my empty glass tightly. Winter jumped up to join me.
‘Come on, Amy!’ I shouted at her hesitant figure still on the settee.
She finally jumped up to her feet and d
anced towards us, picking up the Champagne bottle on the way.
The more Default Distraction played, the more we danced, the more we drank and luckily for me, the more I could pretend I wasn’t thinking about him.
I managed to pretend for nearly two hours. We had long since tucked Amy up on the settee, as tiredness and too much alcohol had overtaken her and then we had carried on dancing, until Raff came to the mic and announced he was singing the next one. I’d spent years feigning the fact that I knew nothing much about Default Distraction, but what I did know was that although Raff had a good voice, Brody always sang, as his voice was the instantly recognisable sound of the band. My body froze and I looked at Winter in question. As she shook her head at me, I made my way to the double doors and listened closely as he spoke to the crowd in the room.
Intrigued and unable to stop myself, I opened one of the doors and slipped through the small gap followed closely by Winter. Once I was inside the ballroom, I pressed my back against the cool wall and confident in the cover the semi darkness offered, I stood and watched.
Under the one spotlight that had been set up to shine down on the lead singer, I saw Raff. He looked more comfortable this evening, now he was out of the suit he’d been wearing earlier. Or did his comfort stem from the fact he was where he had always been destined to be? I wasn’t sure, but then I no longer knew the man, so why should I know the answer?
He was dressed in solid black jeans and a white shirt that was completely unbuttoned, exposing his bare torso. His dark hair flopped down over his eyes in various places and as I watched him push it back to the top of his head, I managed to stifle a gasp and I knew I hadn’t moved on at all.
I watched him in the place he was meant to be, the place he was born to be and I was transported back seventeen years ago. The two of us could have been in one of the seedy bars he used to play in Vegas. Time had gone by, we’d both had other relationships and led lives separated by an ocean. But somehow nothing seemed to have changed at all. I watched him pull his jeans up his legs, so he could sit down on the stool. As his position changed, his white, button down collar shirt fell open, fully exposing his chest. I inhaled and then quietly, so Winter couldn’t hear my reaction, tried to blow the air slowly back out over my lips as my eyes fell to his tattoo free, bare skin.
With a silver plectrum held in his full lips, he once again pushed his always errant strands of hair away from his face and then altered the mic stand in front of him. Tapping it, he raised his eyebrows and smiled at the audience and my heart broke all over again.
Rein it in, Lauren, you’re stronger than this. Thinking myself immune was one thing, believing it was quite another.
‘Yeah, I know, this is a bit of a surprise to me, too. So, here’s hoping I don’t damage your eardrums too much. I know my dulcet tones aren’t what you’re used to, when you normally listen to the golden boy behind me.’ He looked back at Brody who was picking up a bottle of water, having been made redundant by Raff’s move to the mic.
‘Get the fuck on with it,’ yelled Brody, as he laughed in response. The crowd reacted to the two of them and an amused murmur went around the audience.
Raff swung around again, bringing his acoustic to his lap and grabbing the mic with his free hand. ‘Yeah, okay. It’s a long story, which not to worry, I’m going to make short. A long time ago I made the biggest mistake of my life and I need to say sorry, but she won’t listen.’ The crowd in unison produced an “Ahhhhh” and Raff acknowledged them by nodding slowly. ‘Yeah… Well I was told this morning, by someone who knows me well, that I need to start communicating differently.’ Winter who was standing to the side of me grabbed my hand as he carried on speaking, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from watching him to ask her why. ‘I agreed… so, here goes. This song is one that we’ve never covered before, but the crew behind me have always had my back, and they’re talented enough to keep up with me. It’s a song that takes me back to when my life was simple. When all that mattered was that she loved me and I loved her. This song is for my girl, the one that after all these years still makes my heart beat faster. One of these days I’m going to count all her freckles again.’ He stopped speaking momentarily and cast his eyes downwards, then he cleared his throat and spoke again. ‘She knows who she is.’ A murmur went around the crowd as they started to look around. I quickly removed my hand from touching the bridge of my nose, not wanting others to see that I had raised it up instinctively as he mentioned the freckles.
I knew before he strummed the first chord on his acoustic guitar that the words of Ronan Keating’s – If Tomorrow Never Comes, would leave his lips. Tears chased each other silently down my face as I watched him sing into the crowded room. The words washed over me, catapulting me back to a time when all we had was each other and it had been more than enough.
‘Where are you taking me?’ Instinctively, I touched the wool concealing my eyes. Raff had tied a scarf around my head, making sure I couldn’t see.
‘You’ll find out when we get there. I’m going to stand in front of you and guide you, okay?’
‘I think so.’
‘So, put your fingers into the top of my belt and follow me. Okay?’ he lightly demanded as he placed my hands exactly where he wanted them.
‘Yes, okay.’ I smiled in the direction his voice was coming from and we started to slowly move forward.
I knew we were inside his house as I’d been blindfolded in the kitchen, much to the amusement of the cook, Mrs. Clark, who Raff had clearly roped in to help him. I heard my feet fall on the flagstones of the back rooms of the ground floor and then we started climbing. The smooth, worn oak of the banister slid through my fingers as we climbed higher and the fact I was walking on bare wooden stairs told me we were taking the back stairs, the servants’ stairs. After going up twenty-two steps my feet finally hit carpet. We walked a few steps along a corridor and stopped. I listened to the whirring sound the lift made as it climbed its way slowly to us and while we waited he pressed a quick kiss to my lips.
‘You still okay?’ I’d felt his lips smile as he pulled away from me ever so slightly to ask the question.
‘I think so.’
‘Good, got any ideas yet?’ I could hear the amusement in his voice.
‘You’re smuggling me up to your room, so your parents can’t see you’ve been captivated by a poor village girl, whose dad is their gardener and who isn’t quite up to their standards?’ I spoke in a jokey voice, but it wasn’t far from the truth.
‘Nope.’ I heard a deep laugh leave his chest.
‘Then, no, I’ve got no idea.’ I shrugged my shoulders at him.
‘Good, because it’s a surprise.’
The lift arrived and I heard Raff pull open the cage doors, then he guided me in. The doors closed and the lift started to move. As the lift ascended, so did my excitement as I wondered what exactly he’d come up with for my birthday evening.
‘Right, once we get out, we’ve got another two flights to go, its narrow and you’re going to need to trust me.’
‘I do, with all my heart.’
‘I know, and that’s what makes you my girl.’
From behind, he guided me up the tight, confined space until we came to an abrupt halt. His arm left my waist and I heard a door open in front of me as he pushed it. A light breeze touched my skin and I realised we were once again outside.
‘A few more steps and then you can take off the blindfold.’ We moved forward slowly, I reached out with my hands instinctively looking for something to hold on to, but found nothing. ‘Okay, Lauren… You can stop right here.’
His hands left my waist and I felt him move around and in front of me. Then he was back. I felt his arms as they snaked around my waist, pulling me into him and kissing the end of my nose. My breath hitched and I froze so I could concentrate on the feel of his skin on mine. His fresh body wash was all I could smell on the soft summer night’s breeze and it was all I needed to remind me that we were here together.
‘You can take it off now.’ His voice was quiet and low. I could feel him watching me as he spoke.
‘Just give me a minute, I’m taking all of this in.’
A laugh came from deep inside him. ‘All of what? You can’t see anything yet.’
I gripped tightly to the sides of his jean jacket and pulled him further into me. ‘All of this, you and me together. I want it to be like this always.’
‘Always and forever,’ he whispered back at me. ‘Now take off the blindfold and let me see you.’
I let go of one side of his jacket and pulled at the knot to the back of my head. My makeshift blindfold fell away and to the floor. I ran my hand through my hair and shook my head relishing the sudden freedom. It was a relief to feel the air on all my face. I breathed in the fresh air and slowly opened my eyes to look up at him.
A small smile spread across his mouth as he watched me. That simple gesture took my breath away. His hands came up to cup my face and his thumbs ran over each of my cheek bones. Then his lips came down to mine, the touch of his flesh on my skin sent waves of want and need coursing throughout my body. My body sprang immediately to life as we kissed. His tongue tentatively swept over my glossed lips and I reacted instantaneously by opening my mouth to feel more of him. I needed to feel as close as we could get, I wanted all of him. His more experienced mouth brought our kiss to a close and I felt a tear fall from my eye as he slowly pulled away from me. I could see the concern on his face as he watched it descend.
‘Hey… what’s that for?’ His silver eyes clouded with worry, but his hands never left the sides of my face as he gently held me.
I blinked the collected moisture away. ‘It’s nothing.’ I tried to shake my head to convince him of the what I had said.
‘You haven’t even looked around yet, but I want you to know, this is a birthday evening picnic. It’s you and me spending time together by ourselves, it’s not me trying to get in your knickers. If you’re not ready or have changed your mind, I can wait.’
Rafferty (Default Distraction Book 2) Page 11