‘I’ve done a lot of things I regret in my life, Luc,’ Krystal said. ‘But you really were the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m sorry I never told you who your father was, and I hope you can understand that I was just trying to protect you.’
Luc looked up then, his eyes flicking between his mother and Storm Tyler. ‘Protect me from what?’ he asked.
‘From me I think,’ Storm replied.
‘How long have you known?’ Luc asked. ‘When did you find out you were my father?’
Storm looked over at Krystal who nodded once as though giving him permission to say something. ‘I found out the summer that I recorded the demo that you and Willow found.’
‘You’ve known I was your son since I was eleven years old,’ Luc said. ‘And you were never curious about me, never wanted to find out how I was?’ He felt Willow’s hand give his a little squeeze as though trying to stop him from getting too upset, reminding him to breathe. ‘What were you doing with my daughter?’ he asked, trying to keep his voice calm.
‘My granddaughter,’ Storm replied.
Luc hadn’t even thought of that. How the hell was he going to explain any of this to Annelise, or to her mother? Finding out that your daughter’s grandfather is a notorious womaniser and alcoholic is hardly any mother’s dream.
‘I met her on the beach,’ Storm went on when Luc didn’t say anything. ‘She was on her own and I was trying to find out where her parents were or to take her back to Seaview. I had no idea who she was until she started talking about you.’ He paused. ‘She’s a clever independent little girl, isn’t she?’
Luc still didn’t say anything.
‘We were coming back to Seaview when Willow spotted us. There was no hidden agenda, just one of life’s coincidences. I didn’t tell her who I was if that’s what you’re worried about.’
‘What are you doing here?’ Luc asked. ‘Why now after all this time?’
‘Cathy asked me to come,’ Storm said. ‘She told me that Willow was looking for me, that the festival was in trouble. She told me she needed to tell Willow everything and at first I was angry. I felt that if we started talking about the past again it would be like opening up the door to my house and telling the world where I lived – all those crazy fans on the internet, all the people who’ve been waiting for me to come back and screw up all over again.’ He stopped, a wistful look on his face. He was nothing like Luc had expected him to be, he was gentler somehow and kinder than the media would have had you believe.
‘If you’re expecting sympathy,’ Luc said. ‘You’ve come to the wrong place.’ He tried not to think about how much he and Storm Tyler had in common.
‘I’m not expecting anything,’ Storm replied.
‘Then what are you here for?’
‘Willow wanted me to save the festival,’ Storm said quietly. ‘And she mentioned you were playing too. I wanted to see my son.’
Luc dropped his head into his free hand. He felt suddenly exhausted. Nobody spoke and he felt Willow shift in the seat beside him. He should tell her that she could go. He shouldn’t have dragged her into this mess.
‘Perhaps you can just tell us what happened after you got Mum’s email?’ Willow said, breaking the silence. ‘What made you come to the Island after all this time?’
‘Are you two together?’ Storm asked.
‘No,’ Willow said.
‘None of your business,’ Luc said at the same time. He looked at Willow. She was right to say “no”. They weren’t together, however much he might want them to be. There were too many reasons for them not to be together. They were doomed, star-crossed. That was just how life turned out sometimes.
‘Shall we just stick to the one subject?’ Willow said. Luc didn’t know how she could stay so neutral, so diplomatic.
‘A couple of days after your mum’s email I realised I wasn’t angry at all, that anger had been a knee-jerk reaction – it’s the way I react if anyone tries to interrupt my routine, my solitary life. And I owed it to Cathy to save her festival after all these years.’ He paused for a moment, looking at Willow. ‘And I wanted to see my son,’ he repeated.
Still Luc didn’t say anything, didn’t even look up.
‘When I first found out about you Luc,’ Storm continued, ‘you were still so young. Krystal had never told you who your father was and she begged me not to tell you either. I agreed, nobody wants someone like me as their father. I didn’t come here with the intention of telling you this time. I just wanted to see you.’
He stopped talking and a silence as heavy as lead sat over the room. Luc had so many questions but he couldn’t bring himself to ask any of them. He needed to get out of this room. He stood up, pulling his hand away from Willow’s and walked to the door. When he got there, his hand on the doorknob, he turned back into the room.
‘Why?’ he asked. ‘Why did nobody tell me about you?’
‘Because I’m an addict,’ Storm said quietly. ‘And my life has been a chaotic mess since I had my first pint of beer when I was fifteen. I’ve never known when to stop. Nothing has ever felt as though it’s enough – drink, drugs, women. I hurt everybody when I broke up King Silver and I went to live in France. Krystal didn’t want me anywhere near you, which is why she never told me about you.’
‘But you found out,’ Luc said. His voice was cold but the anger that had been streaming through his veins like poison a few minutes ago had gone. He felt resigned and exhausted. He glanced over at Willow, but she was looking at Storm not at him. He wanted to wrap himself around her, lose himself in her. He wanted to allow the feelings he had for her, the ones he’d been denying since the night they slept together, to consume him.
But she had made it very clear where she stood with that one word she’d spoken to Storm.
No, she’d said. No we’re not together.
‘You found out,’ Luc repeated. ‘Nineteen years ago you found out that I was your son. Why did you never get in touch?’
‘I wanted to,’ Storm replied. ‘But I wasn’t worthy of you. I hadn’t been living a chaste and sober life in France. All I’d done was disappear from the public eye. I’d fallen off the wagon more times than I could count and Krystal knew it.’
‘How did she know?’ Luc heard Willow ask. He briefly wondered why Willow was so interested before remembering that Storm had a history with her mother. That until earlier today Willow had been worried that Storm might be her father.
‘Because I’d kept in touch with Cathy,’ Storm admitted. ‘And because as you both must know seeing as you’ve listened to the tape, I came to the Island nineteen years ago to play at the festival and Krystal saw me fall off the wagon spectacularly.’
It seemed as though Don had skipped quite a lot of the story and in the aftermath of the initial shock neither of them had thought to ask questions.
‘Don sent me back to France,’ Storm said. ‘He told me to never darken his door again.’
What the hell had Storm done? How bad it had been? But still Luc didn’t ask any questions. He felt numb.
‘You did though, didn’t you?’ Willow asked. ‘You came back again.’
‘I came back twelve years ago.’
‘The summer we—’ Luc began, looking over at Willow.
‘The summer we left the Island,’ she interrupted.
‘I’d been clean for a couple of years at that point,’ Storm went on. ‘I’m just coming up for fourteen years clean for what it’s worth. Anyway, Cathy and I had stayed in touch after my disastrous trip to the Island nineteen years ago. Around 2006 she told me her marriage was over and that she wanted to see me – we’d written regularly but we hadn’t seen each other for nearly seven years. She wanted to meet in France but I came to the Island to surprise her. I hadn’t realised Don would still be here. I hadn’t realised he’d been serious about me never coming back.’ He stopped and shook his head slowly.
Willow’s face was pale but blank and Luc couldn’t work out what she was thinking. A
ll her life she’d wondered why her parents split up, why her dad went to America and now she was finding out. Luc didn’t understand how she could sit there so quietly, so calmly. If he was in her position he’d be raging at Storm right now for splitting up his family.
But then he remembered that Storm did split up his family. What had happened that summer had driven Krystal to America, which in turn had made him leave the Island and leave behind the only woman he’d ever loved.
Luc and Willow turned to each other at the same time, their eyes locked. He didn’t know what to do, he didn’t have the capacity to cope with anything else. He wanted to go home, to sit on the sofa and watch cartoons with Annelise and eat junk food and forget, forget, forget.
‘I have to go,’ he said. ‘My daughter needs me.’
‘I watched American Stars,’ Storm said as Luc turned to go. ‘I thought you were excellent.’
Luc didn’t reply.
As he was leaving he wondered what he was going to do now, what he was going to say to his mother, to Cathy, to Don. And he wondered how the hell he would ever be able to get on that stage for the festival or how he would ever record another album.
‘Luc,’ Willow said softly behind him as he opened the garden gate at the end of the path. He turned around. She seemed small and broken, even more so than she had when he first saw her, a few days after she’d walked out on her wedding.
‘How does it feel?’ she asked. ‘To know who your father is?’
‘I honestly don’t know,’ Luc replied. ‘I thought I wanted to know when I found out about Annelise but now I’m not sure I needed to. I kind of wish I’d never got curious. It was better before, when I didn’t care.’
‘I think it’s probably normal,’ she said. ‘When you find out you’ve got a child, I’d have thought it was natural to think about your own parents.’
‘Isn’t it weird how he didn’t know about me, just like I didn’t know about Annelise?’
Willow looked at him. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked.
He shook his head.
She didn’t come up to him and put her arms around him like he wanted her to and he suddenly felt completely alone.
‘I have to go,’ he said again. ‘Thank you for being there today.’
‘That’s what friends are for,’ Willow replied.
But Luc knew now that he couldn’t just be friends with her. He needed so much more, or nothing at all.
33
August 2006
‘Why?’ Don demanded. ‘Why the hell are you here again, Neil? Isn’t it enough that you’ve finally won, you’ve finally got Cathy? Do you have to come here and rub my face in it too?’
Cathy cringed at her husband’s words. She wasn’t a prize in a raffle that could be won, and Don knew as well as she did that their marriage was over and that Neil, as she’d known him for years now, was no more than a catalyst. But she hadn’t known Neil was coming – she was meant to be meeting him in Paris.
‘It wasn’t like that,’ Neil began.
‘Don’t speak to me,’ Don raged. ‘I can’t do any of this anymore. This man…’ He pointed at the man who used to go by the name Storm Tyler. ‘This man has hurt us all over the years. Why is he still here in our lives? He nearly destroyed our band along with his own and now he’s broken up my marriage.’ He turned to Krystal. ‘It’s no wonder you don’t want Luc to know. I’d never tell him if I were you.’
‘I have no intention of telling Luc,’ Krystal said. ‘He’s eighteen and right on the cusp of his life. He has got on perfectly well without a father all these years. He doesn’t need to know.’
‘Good,’ Don said.
‘And nobody else is going to tell him, are they?’ Krystal asked.
‘Not me,’ Don replied.
‘Nor me,’ said Neil. ‘You’re both right. I don’t deserve him.’
‘This isn’t a Storm Tyler pity party,’ Don said.
‘Luc is my whole world,’ Krystal went on. ‘I’ve always tried to do what’s best for him and I’m sure this is the right thing.’ She paused, looking across at Cathy. ‘You understand, don’t you?’ she asked.
Cathy nodded. She understood about loving your child and worrying about them and the choices they were making. She understood about protecting them as much as a mother could. She knew that Willow was struggling with all the changes that were going on just as much as Luc was. Cathy could smell the alcohol on Willow’s breath every evening when she came in, could see the fear in her eyes. Finding out who Luc’s father was would hurt Willow too and Cathy didn’t want that.
‘I understand,’ Cathy said. ‘But I have a condition. We all need to leave each other alone for a while. After Sunday night, after The Laurels close the festival, that’s it. We draw a line under this part of our lives, under The Laurels.’
‘What are you saying?’ Krystal asked.
‘I’m saying that we all get on with our lives. You and Don and Luc go to America and you,’ she said turning to Neil. ‘You go back to France.’
‘And what about you?’ Neil asked, a look of sad resignation washing over his face.
‘I’m staying here,’ Cathy said. ‘I’m not saying we’ll never see each other again, or that we shouldn’t stay in touch because I know we will. The Island is your home, Don, and I know you’ll be back.’ She turned to her soon-to-be ex-husband and smiled sadly. ‘But for now,’ she went on. ‘I’m staying here. I’ll run The Music Shop and make sure the festival continues and I’ll look after Willow. Because in a few weeks’ time I’m the only person she’s going to have.’
34
Willow
Days passed and Willow didn’t see Luc again. He didn’t come to The Music Shop in the mornings and she didn’t see him in The Three Doves in the evenings. She texted him a few times to see if he was all right, but when he did reply it was just two words.
I’m fine.
‘He’s still on the Island,’ Cathy said to Willow one afternoon in the shop when she came in to start work on a custom-made mandolin order. ‘He hasn’t gone home.’
Home.
Willow didn’t want to think about Luc having a home anywhere but on the Island. She had always known that this summer would have to end, that they would all have to go back to their lives, but she hadn’t expected it to end like this.
‘Is he still playing the festival?’ Willow asked.
‘As far as I know,’ her mother replied. ‘But I haven’t checked. I don’t want to push him right now.’
‘Have you heard from him?’
‘No, but I’ve spoken to Krystal a few times. Luc’s spending time with her, talking things through. I guess he’s just trying to get his head around everything.’
There wasn’t anything Willow could do to help. She just needed to keep herself busy and wait for the right time to talk to him again. She should be using this time to work out what she was going to do with her own life, but all she could think about was Luc and the fact that after the festival he’d be going back home.
Home to Nashville, to where his family was.
Where was Willow’s home? The more she thought about that the more often she found her thoughts settling on the Island, on Seaview.
‘I know you’re avoiding me,’ Cathy said, interrupting Willow’s thoughts. ‘Let’s not do this, Willow. Let’s talk.’
‘A bit hypocritical,’ Willow replied. ‘Considering it was you who refused to talk in the first place.’
It was true that Willow had been avoiding her mother – both her parents in fact. Since everything had come out, Willow hadn’t known what to say. She kept thinking about these huge secrets that her parents had kept from her and Luc all these years, secrets that could have changed the course of Luc’s life, of both their lives. She was angry that nobody had told Luc who his father was and believed that he had a right to know and to make the decision about meeting Storm for himself.
He hadn’t deserved to have Storm Tyler thrust upon him like that.
<
br /> Willow was angry because she’d never been told the truth about her parents’ seemingly sudden break-up and she was furious with her mother for keeping in touch with Storm for all those years when she was married to Don.
For the last few days, instead of going home after closing The Music Shop, Willow had taken to walking down the road to Skye’s. They’d eat dinner together, taking it in turns to cook, before going to The Three Doves or watching TV. Skye joked that they were like an old married couple. Bob was away and Willow knew that Skye was missing him. After their initial conversation when Willow had told Skye everything, neither of them mentioned Luc again and neither of them had seen him.
‘Your dad and I wondered if you’d spend an evening with us,’ Cathy said.
‘Both of you?’ Willow asked, surprised at their show of solidarity now all the secrets were out in the open.
‘What happened was a long time ago,’ Cathy said. ‘Don and I have moved past it.’
‘Unfortunately I haven’t had time to move past anything,’ Willow replied. ‘What with only finding everything out last week.’
‘Please, Willow.’
‘OK,’ Willow sighed. ‘I’ll spend the evening with you as long as the two of you aren’t fighting or anything.’
‘Is that why you’ve been avoiding us?’
‘One of the reasons,’ Willow replied. Willow hadn’t been able to stop herself thinking what a mess her parents and Krystal and Storm Tyler had got themselves into and she hadn’t really known what to say to them.
‘Your father thought we could go into Ryde tonight,’ Cathy went on. ‘Have dinner somewhere and talk.’
Nobody had mentioned Storm Tyler for days. Willow was going to have to be the one who did.
‘Where’s Neil?’ she asked.
Cathy looked out of the shop window towards the sea. ‘He’s staying with Rocco,’ she said. Willow had forgotten that Rocco was staying in the apartment building with Luc. ‘They don’t know each other but Rocco offered his spare room when Luc asked him. All the hotels in Seaview are full.’
The Summer Island Festival Page 24