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The next thing I needed to do was find somewhere to live, because I couldn’t stay with him. Especially as the tour had been delayed for an extra week or so. It wasn’t fair on Ronnie to have to hide me from Jimmy. Plus, I was sure he didn’t want the press finding out and trying to make something out of nothing. Because there was absolutely nothing going on. We were just friends.
Talking of Ronnie, the house felt extremely quiet without him. I wondered whether he sang around the house when he was alone, or if it was just for my benefit. He also played his music quite loud, but when Dolly Parton started to blast out, I couldn’t help but smile. The smile turned into a laugh as AC/DC followed. He knew every word to both, too.
Sighing heavily, I clicked on my iPad to see whether any more properties had come up since my last look an hour earlier. Whether I liked Ronnie’s singing or not, I needed to give him his space back.
After a half an hour of searching, I groaned. There was absolutely nothing within my price range. I couldn’t believe how much rent had gone up and realised how lucky Jimmy and I had been to rent from his uncle, even though I absolutely hated the place. It was so dark and cold the whole year round, which was okay during a heatwave, but in the middle of winter it was miserable. No matter how many brightly coloured cushions or gem-coloured pieces of glass I bought, it never looked good. The thought of my coloured glass collection back at the flat made me sad. It wasn’t expensive or anything, but each piece had been bought because it reminded me of something good. The yellow dish was the sunrise in Greece when Mum and I went on holiday when I was fifteen. A purple fluted vase was a dress I’d worn for Jimmy’s cousin’s wedding when we first started going out together and were crazy about each other, and a gorgeous orange bowl was the space hopper my mum bought me for my eighth birthday. The blue sweet dish the colour of…I should never have bought that one. If I knew Jimmy, and I did, I suspected that they would be the first things he’d smash when he realised I really wasn’t going back. That was one thing I was sure about. I wasn’t going back. He'd hit me once and would do it again, something else I was certain of.
Lost in my thoughts, a tingle of realisation hit me. Every hair on my body stood on end while a warm calm spread over me. Whipping my head around, I took a sharp intake of breath. Already, this man had me in the palm of his hand and I didn’t know how I felt about that. Jimmy had controlled me for so long and now I was getting free. How could I even want to have my soul tethered to someone else’s already?
Ronnie wasn’t Jimmy, though. Ronnie was a good man and hadn’t once tried anything. The only thing he’d ever done to show me he felt more than a friendship, had been in Lisbon, when he said he was jealous of Jimmy.
“You’re back,” I said, swallowing back a sigh of appreciation. He was wearing jeans, boots, and white t-shirt which stretched across his biceps. Sunglasses were hanging from the neck and even though he was feet away from me, I knew he smelled good. “I didn’t expect you so soon.”
“Yeah, I think Beau was desperate to have some alone time with Sim while Ethan was at school.”
“Your meeting with Ali didn’t last long then?”
“Not really, no. He was all business.” Ronnie laughed and walked over to me. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for somewhere to live. There’s still nothing decent within my price range.”
He came up behind me and when he leaned over my shoulder, he proved me right about smelling great.
“You’re not going there,” he said, pointing at the picture of the terraced house on my screen. “You do know the local currency around there is Mcat or whatever the latest drug trend is.”
“I wasn’t seriously thinking about it.” I clicked on the screen, taking it back to a list of properties. “The pictures didn’t really do it any justice and yet they’re supposed to make the properties look good. Can you image what it’s like in real life?”
“Yes, I can,” Ronnie said, pushing down the laptop lid. “I have a friend who runs an estate agents. I’ll get them to look for you.”
Frowning I looked up at him. “You seem to have a lot of friends who happen to be in businesses that I need right now.”
He shrugged. “I’m a popular bloke. I have an awful lot of friends from back in the day.”
“So, this estate agent is in Leicester?” Warrior Creek were on the rise when they moved to Manchester, so I doubted he’d visited his local estate agent to find him a brand new flat or house.
He at least had the decency to look guilty. “No, here in Manchester. I know a really good bloke.”
“Of course, you do.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You can’t keep helping me, Ronnie. I know you did something with the car so that I didn’t have to pay much for it.” He shook his head. “I know you did, so don’t deny it.”
He denied it. “I didn’t. You were their two thousandth customer, Maisie told you that.”
“It was still a huge saving, Ronnie. I can’t believe you didn’t have something to do with that. It’s your friend’s garage!”
“I know, but I didn’t ask him to say you were the two thousandth customer.”
“No, but I bet you asked him to give me a huge discount and you’d pay the rest.”
He shook his head and crossed himself. “Swear on my life I didn’t pay the rest. You were just very lucky.”
He wasn’t going to admit anything, that much was clear. I’d have to find out some other way who paid for the car. I also wasn’t going to let him do the same with somewhere for me to live.
“I think maybe I should call Amelie.”
“Why?” He folded his arms across his chest as he looked down at me.
That tingling sensation was back as Ronnie narrowed his eyes on me. He wasn’t the one who commanded the most attention in the band. He’d always been the band’s funny one, the cute member with the baby blue eyes who charmed the older ladies and the kids. To me, though, he was so much more. He was my friend, the one who’d made life less lonely and much more bearable. I felt safe with him, cared for, yet he wasn’t mine and I couldn’t change that without causing a load of collateral damage.
“You don’t need me hanging around. Besides, you’ll be going back on tour in a couple of weeks, and I can’t stay here without you.”
