Page 30 of Regally Binding

Luke smiled back at her. He was young, but the lines in the corners of his eyes suggested her earlier guesstimate of a teenager wasn’t right. Maybe he was in his early twenties and only a couple of years younger than her. “Thanks. Music helps me concentrate.”

She flicked on the television and found a generic pop channel. “One of my university friends said something similar. With headphones on, he calmed his exhausting brain and dealt with one thing at a time.”

Luke’s smile lit up his whole face, and his body relaxed momentarily. “I get that. The music stops the intensity of my thoughts. Sometimes, I put headphones on and listen to white noise. But don’t tell the guys. They wouldn’t get it.”

“It will be our secret.”

Luke grinned wider now. “Does your friend have any other techniques?”

Liss shrugged half-heartedly. “We lost touch when I left university to care for my mum. I didn’t have time for anyone then. Isla, my best friend, stayed in touch though.”

“Is she okay now, your mum?”

Liss’s face dropped. Although she’d mentioned her, she hated telling people this part because their questions hit her hard. No one got to witness her sadness, not even Isla. Her pain was for her alone because that was what she was: alone, always and forever. “She died within the year.”

“I’m sorry.” His blinking was rapid again.

Liss shook her shoulders as if she was shaking off the memories. “Don’t be. It was a while ago, and we must dust ourselves off and get on with life, right?”

She didn’t believe a word she said.

“And now you’re a princess,” Luke added, as if her new life would make a difference. She was still alone.

“Yep, lucky me.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. Maybe she should find the positives about the princess thing. Suddenly, an old One Direction song, “Best Song Ever,” played. “Let’s turn this up and dance. We’ll turn it back down as soon as it finishes.”

Luke smiled and jumped up. “I love this one, but don’t—”

“Tell the guys?” Liss asked with a smile. Luke nodded exuberantly. “Your secret is safe.”

Liss pushed the sadness to one side, but it refused to depart even as she remembered her crush on Harry Styles and her posters of him in her room. Her mum laughed about her crush, telling her he reminded her of Morten Harket and showing her photos. They giggled a lot that day. A tear slipped down Liss’s cheek, but she swiped it. Luke bopped in the corner of the room, his hands in the air as he mouthed the words, oblivious to the torment Liss couldn’t escape.

Suddenly, a vibration at her leg where the phone sat in her yoga pants pocket refocused her attention. She turned to hideher movements as she grabbed the phone, but Luke’s back was to her. He shook his bottom to the chorus.

The text forced her eyes wide.

Unknown:It's Steve. You need to come to the pub immediately. There's been a crisis, and we need you.

Isla must have given him the burner phone’s number. But why, if she still hadn’t replied to Liss’s texts? Liss slid the phone back into her pocket as Luke shouted about how heartbroken he had been when Zayn left the band.

Liss nodded. She should get to the pub. There was nowhere more important to her, and she refused to let anything happen to that place and its people, even if some corporate chain was buying it. Steve, Isla, and the punters were the closest things she had to a family. Ewan the fuck bunny was like a horny cousin who brought his latest conquest to family parties before dumping them as the pudding was served. She planned her escape as her belly knotted at the guilt of ditching a happy Luke and getting him in trouble with the lads.

Chapter Fifteen

Ten minutes later, she was jumping in a taxi and directing it to the pub. Luke would be devastated that her request that he visit the front desk to get her “lady things” was a wild goose chase. But the pub came first.

Maybe the crisis was nothing and she’d return before the lads found out and Luke got into trouble. Either way, he’d never trust her again. The idea of his dejected face when he returned to the room, his mouth turned down and his eyes droopy, twisted her stomach and left her sweating.

It was only a twenty-minute journey, and she promised the driver an extra tenner if he got her there in fifteen. He gave her a wink as he sped through side streets and nearly broke the suspension over speed bumps. She redialled the number Steve texted her from for the entire journey, but he didn’t answer.

Suddenly, the taxi came to a flying halt outside the pub. Liss yanked cash from her purse and thrust it at the driver.

“Don’t worry,” he replied in an accent that reminded her of Bear. She couldn’t think about him, not with her pub family in crisis. Liss vowed to be chill as fuck with him next time after what Luke had said about Mazdy. “Driving like that is the most fun I’ve had in ages.”

“But—”

“Anything for a princess,” he added with sparkling eyes.

She must be in every newspaper if the local cabbie recognised her.

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