Page 27 of Wish You Once More
“No. No, Harry, I don’t think that at all.” He was definitely more of a devil.
“I’ll see you later.” He slapped my arse as he walked out.
I didn’t have the energy to get annoyed at him.
After I got what we needed, I wandered over to the bakery, which was indeed open. I got two croissants, and a bag of doughnuts. That, along with a vat of coffee ought to be enough to keep me awake. Callie was a bad influence.
“Where have you been?” she demanded, the moment I stepped back through the front door. “I’m starving here.”
Callie jumped up off the sofa and followed me to the counter where I laid out the purchases. She pounced on the bags from the bakery first.
“Perfect!” she crowed. “Just what I need to sort out my hangover.”
Before she stole all the doughnuts, I grabbed some for myself. “I bumped into Harry. He’s going to be there this afternoon.”
“Does that mean you two might finally get together?”
If I gave her that crumb to hold onto, she wouldn’t bug me about anything Mat related. I shrugged. “Who knows? Why don’t you come and meet us?” So I didn’t have to see her reaction, I turned away and filled the kettle for coffee.
“Do I look green and prickly?”
I laughed. “You wouldn’t get in the way. He’s got some friends with him. There’s also a get together for the committee when the final band have finished, so we’ll be at The Castle until closing time, I expect.”
She chewed thoughtfully on the corner of her croissant. “Friends, you say? Hmm, I didn’t have anything planned this afternoon.”
My phone pinged with a message. I pulled it out of the pocket of my hoodie.
Mat: hope you’re going to be able to catch the set this afternoon. Just rehearsed with the band and it’s going to be epic xx
I’d managed to stop thinking about Mat for at least five minutes. Then he messaged me and suddenly he was back in the forefront of my mind.
Seeing the curious expression on Callie’s face, I lied. “Darla. Wants to know where I am.” I pushed the other croissant towards her. “You can have this if you want. I need to get a shower and get over to the park.”
“What about your coffee?”
“I’ll get one when I get there.” Without saying anything else, I left the room to go and get ready before Callie asked any more awkward questions. Because I sure as hell didn’t have any of the answers.
13
Mat
Shit, shit,shit.
I stared at the screen; my fingers frozen over the send icon as the message winged its way to Bree.
It should have gone to Ellie. To placate her and apologise for completely blanking her yesterday. When we’d got to the rehearsal room, I’d realised my phone had been on silent since last night. There were a heap of missed messages, mostly from her wondering where I was. I’d been so wrapped up with actually getting the chance to talk to Bree again, I’d forgotten about everything - and everyone - else.
A few seconds later, it showed Bree had read it. The lack of jumping dots meant she wasn’t replying straight away.
Cursing my mistake, I hastily copied the text and fired it off in response to one of Ellie’s. Then I tucked my phone into the back pocket of my jeans.
I was a fucking idiot.
Even though it had been years since I’d played with The JRs, we gelled as if we’d rehearsed yesterday. Because the majority of the songs were covers, it was easy to slip back into playing them. These days, I didn’t get to rock out to a Foo Fighters track or enjoy bashing out the bass line to an Oasis classic often, unless it was warm-up before the real stuff started. Suddenly, music was fun again.
“Ah, it’s good to have you back, bro.” Jonny grinned as he swayed around, holding the mic stand in one hand. “I’ve missed this.”
“Same.” I mirrored his grin. “Although you’ve not improved much.”
