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Amber smiled and rolled her eyes. “I can make a few mugs of tea, babe.”
Ronnie was halfway out of his chair when Beau placed a hand on his shoulder. “Seriously, mate, leave it unless you want the wrath of a pregnant woman.”
“Thank you, Beau.” Amber moved over to the table and kissed Ronnie’s cheek. “Listen to your friend.”
“There can be problems with multiple births,” he protested.
“Twins not so much.” She kissed him again. “So, stop worrying.”
As Amber went back to making the drinks, I sat down at the table, taking the chair next to Elliot rather than Joey. Although, that did mean I was directly opposite and couldn’t avoid looking at him.
“We shouldn’t take too long,” Ali said. “I just wanted to confirm we’re ready. Plus, I wanted to give you a list of the personal appearances that we’ve got lined up.”
“Ugh,” Joey groaned. “My favourite part of any tour.”
“You know you love it,” Elliot quipped. “All those lovely journos that want to know about your love life.”
My gaze snapped to Joey, who quickly looked away. It was a wonder we’d never been found out, with the rest of the band and journalists snooping around all the time. We’d been careful over the last couple of years, secretive and sly. Lucky.
“As there’s a greatest hits album coming out, I’m guessing the questions will be more about your future as a band,” Ali replied. “You’ve split once before so they’ll assume that’s what the album is all about.”
“We’re telling them that we’re not touring any more, though, aren’t we?” Joey asked.
“Yes, I think that you should.” Ali looked at her phone as it began ringing. “We don’t have any reason not to. Sorry, I need to take this, it’s the label.”
At that moment another phone began to ring, and Ronnie turned in his seat to face Amber.
“It’s Hugo.” Amber sounded surprised.
Ronnie’s chair scraped on the tiles as he pushed it back to stand up. “Hugo?”
“Yeah. I haven’t heard from him in months.” Ronnie moved over to her as she tapped at the screen of her phone. “Hey Hugo.”
“Wonder what that’s about?” Beau whispered.
Elliot shrugged. “Not much good, I bet.”
“Yeah, it’s bound to be about Jimmy,” Joey offered.
“No!”
We all swung around in our seats to see Amber slap a hand to her mouth and gawp at Ronnie.
“Baby, what is it?” he asked, cupping her elbow.
“Th-thanks, Hugo,” she stammered, collapsing back against the sink. “I know. Okay.”
When the call was evidently over, she dropped her phone with a clatter to the draining board and stared at Ronnie. The colour had drained from her cheeks, and she had her arms wrapped around her waist.
“Amber?” Ronnie prompted, moving closer to her. “What the fuck’s wrong?”
She looked at each of us in turn and then dropped the bomb. “It’s Jimmy,” she croaked, her voice breaking. “He’s dead. He’s overdosed.”
“Fuck,” Beau said with a gasp.
Ronnie grabbed Amber and pulled her into his arms as she fell apart. “Oh baby, I’m so sorry.”
Ali then came back into the room looking just as shocked. “It’s Jimmy,” she said, blinking slowly.
