Page 81 of Ghost Note

Danny took my hand in his and squeezed my fingers tightly. “Come on. I’ve got so much to show you.”

Leading the way, he walked quickly. Roadies and business type people nodded to him along the way, greeting him with a mild salute, smile, or even a wink—that particular one coming from an older lady who clearly thought she stood a chance until she saw me on his arm, causing her top lip to curl in disgust.

The noise grew the closer we got to the black curtain. It sounded like drum pedals were being pressed, and microphones were being tested.

With one last look of reassurance over his shoulder, Danny guided us through into a much darker part of the network of corridors here. More people greeted him, and he acknowledged every one of them without fail. Names were thrown around like he was among old friends.

Hey, Stevie. Hey, Joe. Duke, man, where ya been?Cue laughter.That’s right. Tell the missus I said hi.

When we hit the inside of the empty arena, my eyes widened. I was a tiny snowflake in a giant snow globe.

Danny slowed and fell in line beside me when he sensed my resistance, wrapping his arm around my shoulder as if we hadn’t spent five years apart and lived two separate lives. I was grateful for his comfort.

“I wanted you to see it before the show,” he eventually said. “These places look so different when they’re empty. You can’t imagine it ever being full, or there being enough people in the world who’d want to come and see you play, but once it’s packed out and you’re standing looking over it, you can’t imagine any of those people not being there. The fans are strangers, but they feel like family, too. I always find it weird how one building can bring two completely different feelings like this.”

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed out, unable to stop looking at the empty seats, the balcony up above, or the barren floor space in the middle of the arena, where I had no doubt people would be standing and jumping around later that night. “How many will fit in here?”

“Close to four thousand tonight. This is a relatively small gig, too.”

“And you don’t get nervous?”

“I get nervous every time. I’d be worried if I didn’t feel those butterflies in my stomach before a performance. That’s where alcohol comes in.”

“You drink before you play?”

Danny scowled playfully, his smile rising. “We’re living the dream. We drink before, during, and after everything.”

“Oh.”

I was so naive to everything about his new life—or life in general, perhaps.

This world was noisy, filled with things I could never have imagined. Sure, I’d been out of Hope Cove plenty of times. Salcombe was my second home, with Kingsbridge and Plymouth being my third and fourth. Gina and I had nights out. We’d partied in small nightclubs and arrived home when the sun had already come up. We’d spent days at the beach, being wild and carefree, but anything beyond that, and I was a little lost. My parents were strict churchgoers, and my mother had the most severe case of nervous flying, so holidays had always been along the southern coast of England, apart from that one time we visited East Anglia, only for her to declare it a waste of a trip when we had better beaches on our doorstep.

The things Danny must have experienced, seen, felt, and heard didn’t bear thinking about in comparison to my simple, so-called life. I couldn’t help but feel a little inferior to him as I stood there, taking in my very first music venue at a ridiculous age of twenty-five years old.

I was about to turn to Danny and ask him where I was going to spend the night when a commotion flowed through the arena. We spun around—my body guided by Danny’s hold—to see four other guys I recognised as his fellow band members from the YouTube videos I’d watched.

Their names scratched at the edge of my memory, with only one coming to the forefront, that being the dark-haired, grungy-looking lead singer, Halo.

“There he is!” Halo cried, his eyes lighting up as he threw his arms in the air and walked straight to Danny. “Our pretty boy has returned. For a while there, I thought we were going to have to advertise for an average lead guitarist to fill your boots.”

Danny laughed and shook his head, throwing a playful yet powerful punch at Halo’s arm when he got close enough. “No one can fill my boots, and you know it, Luce.”

Luce?

“Like fuck we couldn’t.” Halo smirked, smacking Danny’s arm in return.

I was released from Danny’s grip as the two of them play-fought, ruffling each other’s hair up and throwing some gentle punches to their opponent’s gut. A very handsome guy with a warm smile and short blonde hair stepped forward, catching my eye.

“Hey, ignore those two,” he said. “They’re always battling it out like lovers. Are you here with Danny?”

I glanced over to see Danny laughing and ducking under one of Halo’s limp punches. “Yeah. I am.”

“Then you must be Daisy.” The way he said my name had me turning back to him and raising a brow. “We’ve heard a lot about you.” He held out his hand. “I’m Theo.”

“Hi.” I shook his hand. “Not sure I want to know what you’ve heard.”

“Only good things.” Theo unleashed his dazzling white smile, and I’ll admit to feeling the effects of it as my cheeks heated.

---