More Than a Love Song

by Cathy Cole

  1. The New Girl

  2. The Trouble With Love

  3. More Than a Love Song

  4. A Date With Fate

  5. Never a Perfect Moment

  6. Kiss at Midnight

  7. Back to You

  8. Summer of Secrets

  9. Playing the Game

  10. Flirting With Danger

  11. Lovers and Losers

  12. Winter Wonderland

  With love to Lucy Courtenay and Sara Grant

  Contents

  Cover

  Half Title Page

  The Heartside Bay Series

  Title Page

  Dedication

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Back Ads

  Copyright

  ONE

  Gazing out over the audience of the undead, Rhi felt like she was going to throw up. Her hands were shaking, and her heart was racing. What was she doing here?

  This is all a terrible mistake.

  Below her on the dance floor, people were chattering and laughing. They were an unusual crowd in bloodied suits, tattered dresses and gruesomely painted faces. Whose idea had it been to have a zombie-themed wedding? It wasn’t what Rhi would have called romantic.

  Her heart gave a tug. It was probably just as well, she thought miserably. Right now, romance was the last thing she needed reminding of.

  “Give us a song then!” a green-skinned corpse shouted out from the back of the room, interrupting Rhi’s chaotic train of thought.

  The chatter died down. The bride and groom – the most ghoulish pair in the room – took their positions for the first dance. And every eyeball in the room, bloodshot and otherwise, turned to face Rhi.

  If possible, Rhi’s throat got even drier. Swallowing didn’t help. Wringing her hands, she directed an agonized glare in the direction of her two best friends, Lila and Polly, who were grinning and giving her the thumbs-up from the safety of the catering area. How had this happened? How had she allowed them to talk her up here, on to the stage? She was supposed to be waitressing.

  Mr Gupta’s catering company specialized in themed weddings, ranging from Hello Kitty to Star Trek. “You need to start showing a bit more responsibility,” Rhi’s mum had said. “Heartside Bay has a lot of weddings. And you need to start saving for university if you’re going to do anything with your life, Rhi! Waitressing for Mr Gupta will only take up a few days a month, and it won’t interfere with your schoolwork.” Schoolwork was a big thing for Rhi’s mum. In the end, Rhi had talked Lila and Polly into joining her, and here they were at their first event. Half an hour earlier, Rhi had been setting out ghoulish wedding canapés – quails’ eggs painted to look like eyeballs, skinny witch’s-finger sausages with carrot-flake fingernails, red apple sliced and neatly arranged above and below fang-like marshmallow teeth – when Lila had grabbed her arm. Rhi had almost dropped the tray.

  Lila’s blue eyes were blazing with excitement through the red eyeliner that all the waitresses were wearing to make them fit with the theme. Rhi didn’t like the look on her friend’s face.

  “What?” she said cautiously.

  Lila had given a pointed nod in the direction of the wedding manager.

  Mr Gupta was pacing up and down the grey, tattered-looking marquee with his phone clamped to his ear. “What do you mean the wedding singer can’t make it?” he was hissing into the receiver. He mopped his sweating forehead with a large, damp-looking handkerchief. “They’re supposed to be on in twenty minutes! You’re killing me here!”

  Rhi had a strange, creeping feeling. She opened her mouth and licked her lips, which had grown unaccountably dry. “What has a missing wedding singer got to do with me?” she said feebly.

  Lila rolled her eyes as if Rhi had said something incredibly stupid. “Do I have to spell it out for you? You’ve wanted to be a singer for practically your whole life.”

  “No,” said Rhi in panic.

  Lila looked at her disbelievingly. “You don’t want to be a singer? That’s the first I’ve heard of it. I’ve known you for a long time, remember?”

  “No, I do… I don’t…”

  Lila cut through Rhi’s frantic stuttering. “This is your moment. Get up there and sing. Help Mr Gupta and show the world what you can do!”

  Rhi was so shocked, she could barely speak. “Lila, I sing in my bedroom in front of my mirror,” she managed. “But that is not the same thing as singing for a room full of hundreds of zombies. I’m not ready to sing in front of all these people. I’m here to waitress and that’s… Lila? Lila!”

  Lila was already walking towards Mr Gupta.

  “Mr Gupta!” she called. “Rhi can sing for you.”

  Mr Gupta shoved his phone into his pocket. “What? Rhi who?” He clocked Rhi standing frozen over her tray of canapés. “Is she any good?”

  “She sings like an angel,” Lila assured him. “She plays the guitar too.”

  “To be honest, I don’t care if she croaks like a frog,” Mr Gupta said, wiping his forehead again. “We need a singer. Will you do it, Rhi?”

  Polly appeared through the catering area curtain. She was wearing a tattered gothic dress and blood-stained apron with a slash of bright red lipstick and bloodied eye make-up, and somehow looked ten times cooler than every guest in the room.

  “Is Rhi going to sing?” she said in excitement, setting down her tray and wiping her hands on her apron. “Mr Gupta, she’s amazing. The guests are going to love her.”

  “I can’t!” Rhi squeaked in horror.

  “Of course you can,” said Lila, Polly and Mr Gupta all at the same time.

  “I will pay you extra,” said Mr Gupta desperately. He checked his watch and muttered under his breath, then pulled a list of songs from his pocket and thrust them at Rhi. “The playlist. The band will know what to do.”

  Rhi stared at the band, who were already tuning up.

  “What’s the worst that can happen?” Lila said in a coaxing voice, pulling off Rhi’s apron. “You already look amazing in that outfit.”

  “One of my better efforts, I have to say,” Polly added, smoothing down the old silver-grey satin dress that she’d adapted for Rhi with a ripped hemline.

  “Plus,” Lila added helpfully, “the audience is already dead.”

  Polly had laughed, fluffed up Rhi’s cloudy dark hair one more time and pushed her towards the stage. And now here she was. Facing her doom.

  She felt someone tap her on the arm.

  “What are we starting with then?” asked the keyboard player, sounding bored.

  Rhi held the playlist towards him with nerveless fingers. “The first one, I guess.”

  The opening chords of “Endless Love” rippled from the keyboard. The audience fell still.

  This is it, Rhi thought hopelessly. There is no escape. And of all the songs, it had to be “Endless Love”.

  There had been nothing endless about her and Max. He had killed their relationship by going off with Rhi’s
friend Eve behind Rhi’s back. With her heart hurting, she closed her eyes and started to sing.

  As she sang, she lost herself in the music, and in the images that the words conjured. Her first kiss with Max on the clifftops, the wind buffeting them as they held tightly to each other and laughed and kissed and laughed again… The way he had looked at her as if she were the only girl in the room…

  How had it gone so wrong? She and Max had been so perfect, until Eve had stolen him away. Eve would get bored of him soon, surely? Then Rhi would win him back. She and Max were meant to be together. What was left of them, at least. They were as tattered as the wedding dress the zombie bride was wearing.

  With tears blurring her eyes, Rhi put her heart and soul into the music.

  She did everything she could do to keep it together until the last note.

  As the music died away and she bowed her head, Rhi was dimly aware of the silence.

  Great, she thought, not daring to open her eyes. My first public performance and I blow it.

  TWO

  The room erupted.

  Rhi opened her eyes and stared at the crowd in bewilderment. People were calling, whistling and cheering. Stamping their feet and punching their hands in the air. Cries of “More!” and “Give us another one!” echoed around the marquee. She had to resist the urge to turn around and check for someone else, a real singer, who had got the crowd as pumped as this. It was unbelievable that all this was for her.

  There was a whistle behind her. Rhi spun round.

  “Nice,” said the keyboard player, giving her a wink.

  “Whoo!” Polly screamed. “Go Rhi!”

  “Told you you could do it!” Lila shouted.

  Still the crowd was cheering and calling for more songs. Rhi put her hands to her burning cheeks and drank in this glorious moment. Lila was right. All her life, she had dreamed of writing and singing songs. It had seemed impossible. But now… this…

  The keyboard player kicked off with the next track and she was singing again. The whole zombie-filled room swayed and sang with her.

  I don’t need Max, she thought. I just need this.

  “You were incredible,” Lila enthused when, at last, Rhi left the stage to wild applause.

  “You have to do it professionally, Rhi,” Polly added earnestly. “Do you have any idea how good you were up there?”

  All Rhi knew was that she had loved every second. Her head was whirling.

  “I have put an extra fifty pounds in your wage packet, Rhi,” said Mr Gupta warmly. “Let me know if you ever want to sing at my weddings again. I am sure I can arrange it.”

  Rhi needed peace and quiet to take all this in. “Thank you, Mr Gupta,” she managed. She turned to her friends. “Was it really OK?”

  “It was more than OK,” said Polly. “It was spine-tingling.”

  “I told you it was a good idea,” crowed Lila.

  Breathe, Rhi instructed herself. It was surprisingly hard to do. The room was too loud, and the crowd was still craning their necks, looking at her and talking about her.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” she blurted, and hurried away before the others could stop her.

  In the quiet of the toilets, she rested her head against the mirror and relived that amazing moment when the room had cheered for her singing. She brushed her thick black hair away from her face and studied her reflection in wonder.

  She hardly recognized the person staring back at her. The pearly grey satin seemed to give her dark skin an extra glow, and her warm almond-brown eyes looked bright and radiant. It was like she had been plugged into something that had lit her up like a Christmas tree.

  She had just sung in front of a crowd of people and they had loved it. She wanted to do it again, and again, and again. If only she could make this her life.

  But you can’t, she reminded herself. This was fun, but that’s all it is. Like Mum says, life is serious.

  She was surprised at the grief she felt.

  Lila put her head round the toilet door. “Everything OK? People are asking for the singing waitress out there. Mr Gupta sent me to get you.”

  Rhi smoothed her hair one more time. It sprang back into its usual cloud around her face. “Sorry. I’ll be out in a minute.”

  The disco had kicked in now. Rhi moved around the marquee with Lila and Rhi, offering blood-coloured champagne to the guests and smiling shyly every time someone complimented her on her singing.

  It was a long evening. After the champagne, there was food to hand round, plates to clear and glasses to fill. Still floating, Rhi kept her head down and worked harder than she’d ever worked in her life.

  Close to midnight, the last guests started heading out through the artfully tattered marquee door, covering yawns with the backs of their hands. On Mr Gupta’s instructions, Polly started sweeping the dance floor and Lila and Rhi cleared the remaining tables. As she stacked plates and listened to Lila’s chatter, Rhi let herself drift back in time to the start of the evening when she was still up on the stage. The memory was intoxicating.

  “What’s with the waitressing?”

  One of the remaining guests was leaning over a table towards Rhi. He was wearing a battered top hat, a pair of bloody gloves hung in shredded tatters from his hands, and his face was painted to look like a skull.

  “You were the wedding singer, right?” he said.

  “It was a last-minute thing,” Rhi said shyly. “I usually just waitress.”

  “She was incredible, wasn’t she?” Lila chimed in, putting her arm round Rhi’s shoulders. “She plays the guitar as well!”

  “Lila,” Rhi protested, reddening. If she was nervous about her singing, it was nothing compared to how she felt about playing guitar. She’d inherited the instrument from her sister, so playing it was especially personal.

  The top-hatted guy didn’t seem interested in her guitar-playing. “What’s your name?” he asked.

  Rhi giggled. She couldn’t help it. How were you supposed to talk seriously to a guy who looked like a zombie? “Rhi.”

  He patted his grubby, bloodstained waistcoat and pulled a card from a pocket. “Well, Rhi, I’m Dave Dubois. I’m a talent scout. You should give me a call.”

  Rhi stared at the card he was holding out.

  “Rhi would love that,” Lila said, taking the card from his hand. “Wouldn’t you, Rhi?”

  Rhi shook her head, trying to clear her mind. “Er, yes. Thanks. Really?”

  She took the card from Lila and studied it. The black card was a bit bent, like it had been sitting in the guy’s pocket for a while.

  Dave Dubois made a sort of gun shape with his fingers. “Call me. We could do business.”

  Rhi didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t been expecting this. “Don’t joke,” she said awkwardly.

  “It’s no joke. Don’t lose that card now. I’m your ticket to fame and glory, babe.”

  He flicked the grubby brim of his top hat in farewell and headed out through the tent flap into the night.

  “Oh my GOD!” Lila squealed when he’d gone. She snatched the card back from Rhi and looked at it properly. “You’ve just been spotted, Rhi!”

  Rhi felt dizzy. This kind of thing didn’t happen, especially not to someone like her. People from Heartside Bay didn’t end up being talent spotted for music careers. It was all what her mother would call a silly dream.

  Wasn’t it?

  THREE

  Rhi tried not to yawn. Last night had been exciting, but exhausting too, and the last thing she felt like doing was being here at the Heartbeat Café with everyone.

  It wasn’t because the Heartbeat was a bad place to hang out. It was the best spot in Heartside, with a big stage and live music slots and walls carved with love messages and initials from couples down the years. The music was great and everyone ca
me here after school and at weekends. But all she wanted right now was to be in her cosiest PJs, curled up in bed with her guitar and remembering the magic of the previous night.

  The whole Heartside gang was out tonight, and Lila had demanded Rhi come along. Rhi hadn’t been happy when she walked in and saw not only Polly, Lila and her boyfriend Ollie, but also Eve and Max. Lila had given Rhi a guilty look but it was too late to leave now. It had only been a week since everyone had made up over the whole two-timing business, and Rhi still found it hard to be in the same room with her former best friend and boyfriend. She wondered if it would ever get easier.

  She reminded herself that this was better than when everyone was fighting. During that time the tension, especially between Eve and Lila, had been unbearable. She would have to cope with the situation as best she could. She wouldn’t let Max know how much she still missed him, even after everything he had done to her. She had her pride.

  Eve kissed Max and whispered something in his ear that made him laugh. Rhi turned her head away and tried to catch Polly’s eye. She could really use a conversation to take her mind off what was happening opposite.

  Polly was staring at her lap, smoothing out her skirt in the strange concentrated way she had when she was stressed. On Rhi’s other side, Lila and Ollie were teasing each other, but the teasing had a barbed undertone to it.

  “Thanks to that extra football practice you never told me about, I felt like a total loser waiting on the beach for you this morning…”

  “I knew you’d be mad and I didn’t want to upset you…”

  “Standing me up on the beach wasn’t upsetting?”

  “The gulls kept you company, right? I sent them along especially.”

  “You’re impossible…”

  Rhi felt uneasy. She had always thought Lila and Ollie were the perfect couple. They were both so good-looking and constantly cheerful. Maybe she was wrong. She wondered why good things always had to change.

  She turned her eyes to the scarred wooden wall beside their booth. It was plastered in love messages carved by visitors to the Heartbeat Café. Lifting her fingers, she traced a little heart with the date “1961” carefully inscribed in the centre. It was wonderful, thinking about all the happiness that this little café had seen over the years.