Page 20 of All Summer Long

‘He’s a hero. That Bear Grylls has got nothing on him.’

Hazel leaned her back against the Airstream and shaded her eyes from the sun to gaze dreamily in the direction of Borne Manor.

‘He’d taken off his t-shirt to wrap it around my Rambo.

How many men do you know who’d give up their own shirt to rescue an injured animal, Alice?

Found him outside his back door, he said, and he brought him home even though it was almost midnight.

’ Hazel’s glasses all but steamed up as she spoke.

‘Between you, me and the gatepost, Alice, I was in my nightdress. I think …’ she paused to draw air quotes around the word think ‘that my love potion might have been a bit on the strong side.’

‘Your love potion?’ Alice said, already worried where this was heading.

Hazel nodded. ‘Slipped some into a casserole I made him a couple of weeks ago.’ Leaning forward, she lowered her voice to a hushed whisper.

‘If it hadn’t been for poor Rambo needing attention, I seriously think he might have ravaged me.

He had that look in his eye.’ Again, Hazel drew air quotes, this time around the word ‘that’ as she nodded gravely.

Alice knew ‘that’ look. She’d seen it herself last night too, and just thinking about it now had her nervously plaiting and un-plaiting her ponytail.

‘I didn’t realise you were looking for love, Hazel,’ she said, worrying what people would think if they knew what had happened between her and Robinson. Both Hazel and Niamh seemed to be harbouring crushes on their famous new neighbour.

‘Oh, no. I’m not, Alice! What sort of cougar do you think I am?

’ Hazel put her hands up in front of her with her fingers curled into claws and laughed.

‘I was just testing the potion out, and my god, I think it works like gangbusters!’ Her eyes were like saucers.

‘Not sure I’ve got the balance right in the batch, might be a bit strong.

Robinson looked …’ Hazel screwed up her face as she cast around for the right word.

‘Well, he looked animal , if you get where I’m coming from. ’

‘How’s Rambo doing?’ Alice changed the subject as she was sure her cheeks had to be flaming.

‘Swearing like a trooper, so I’m taking that as a good sign,’ Hazel said merrily. ‘I better get back to him, actually. He’s quite a demanding patient.’ She frowned suddenly. ‘Do you know what he shouted at me this morning when I went to clear out his feeding bowls?’

Alice braced herself and shook her head as Hazel leaned closer to take her into her confidence.

‘He said, and I quote, so excuse the obscenities, interrupt me like that again and I’ll wring your neck like a fucking chicken!

’ Hazel’s voice shot up an octave at the end of her sentence and she threw her hands out to the sides.

‘I mean, Alice, where on earth has he been to hear such foul language? I’m just thankful he ended up back safely at the manor and Robinson found him. ’

Shaking her head and biting her tongue, Alice pulled out a basket from beneath the Airstream.

‘I found these growing by the boathouse the other day, thought they might be of use to you. Chamomile, I think?’ She handed Hazel the flowers she’d gathered.

‘They are,’ Hazel said, touching the white flower heads. ‘Are there more?’

Alice nodded. ‘Take as many as you like.’

Hazel tucked the flowers into her bag and pulled out Robinson’s t-shirt. ‘Can you pass this on for me, Alice? I called by but he’s not home.’

Alice took the soft, laundered shirt from Hazel, remembering how she’d peeled it from Robinson’s body last night. ‘I’ll see he gets it.’

Hazel floated away across the grass with a wave of her jangly bangles, and then swung back around. ‘Alice, do you like horses?’

Alice had never actually ridden a horse, but she liked them well enough. She nodded. ‘Think so. Why?’

‘Oh, nothing. I just wondered,’ Hazel said airily, blatantly lying and not at all bothered. ‘See you soon.’

Alice didn’t try to press-gang Hazel for information. She’d had that look of enjoying her secret, the kind of expression that said you can ask all you like, I’m not going to tell you.

Borne really did have more than its fair share of oddness. Robinson must feel as if he’d fallen down a rabbit hole half the time.

‘Robinson?’

Alice tapped on the open kitchen door of the manor that evening, his t-shirt in her hands.

‘Hey you,’ he said, coming through from the hallway.

‘Hazel came by to drop this off for you earlier.’ She placed his shirt on the kitchen table. ‘You’re officially her hero after last night.’

‘And there was me thinking you were going to say I was officially your hero. How’s that damn bird doing?’ he asked, and a tiny smile tipped one side of his mouth. Alice felt about thirteen, all fingers, thumbs and butterflies.

‘Fine, by all accounts. Although he did say something odd to Hazel this morning, along the lines of “interrupt me again and I’ll wring your scrawny neck”,’ she said. ‘Can’t imagine where he’s had that from.’

‘He’s lucky he’s still alive,’ Robinson laughed. ‘Drink to celebrate the sunshine?’

He made it sound so easy and uncomplicated, but a few glasses of wine had made last night very complicated indeed. Or had it? Was there anything to feel so conflicted about?

He grabbed a couple of beers and led the way outside to the bench by the back door.

‘Your weather seems to have finally decided that it’s summer,’ he said, turning his face up to the low evening sunshine.

The skyline had that pretty pink and orange swirl that promises a glowing sunset, turning Robinson’s eyes into crystal-green rock pools.

Did they contain secrets waiting to be fished out?

She was pretty sure they did, and not at all sure she should dip her net.

‘We should talk about last night,’ he said, straight off the bat. Alice took a drink and swallowed hard.

‘That was just so American,’ she laughed lightly, taken aback. ‘Straight from talking about the weather to talking about sex. Slow down there, cowboy.’

He grinned and shook his head, looking away with a laugh.

‘Right. Noted. More weather chat required, English girl?’ He waved his hand in the direction of the tree line. ‘Those low hangin’ clouds are kind of … I dunno … pink?’

She nodded, enjoying his attempt to do as she’d asked. ‘They are, Robinson. They are.’

He licked his finger and held it up in the breeze.

‘The signs all suggest another warm one tomorrow,’ he said, then knocked back a good glug of beer. ‘How’m I doin’ over here?’

‘Pretty good,’ she smiled.

‘Good enough to move on and talk about what happened in the Airstream last night?’ he said, angling his body towards hers on the bench. ‘Sorry. I’m not a talk about the weather kind of guy, Alice. I like to shoot straight and speak the truth.’

‘Okay,’ she said, because he was right, and it was kind of refreshing that he wanted to talk about it rather than sweep it under the carpet. ‘You go first.’

‘I was planning on it,’ he said dryly, then finished his beer and put the empty bottle on the ground. ‘Here’s the thing. I came here because I needed somewhere to be. Somewhere unfamiliar, somewhere private, somewhere where I could be alone. I needed that. Still do.’

Alice nodded and held her tongue.

‘I’ve got a lot of shit going on back home, pressures and hassles from all angles and then some,’ he went on, and she waited because he seemed to need to kind of build himself up to talking about what had happened, to set the scene for his own benefit as well as hers.

‘So I come here, and it’s all so fuckin’ ridiculously English, and I find you, Alice McBride, all blonde hair and crazy red boots, and I swear to God you’re a breath of pure fresh mountain air.

I like you,’ he paused and took a breath, his arm across the back of the bench, his fingertips drawing circles on the bare skin of her shoulder where her sweater had slid down.

‘I like you so damn much, and being around you makes me feel lighter and easier because you’re so un-fuckin’-complicated compared to just about everything back home in Nashville. ’

‘I like you too,’ she said, because she really did like him very much, even though he scared her and she didn’t really know him at all.

He looked at her steadily and then blew out a deep breath. ‘Alice, I can give you nothing. My head is all over the place. I’m a washed-up country singer, and I can’t even do that any more.’

‘Don’t say that,’ she said, rubbing his knee through the softness of his jeans. ‘Give it time.’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t even want to. I’m done with it, Alice.

It’s a circus, all that pressure and the cameras and never saying the wrong thing.

Where did it get me? Sure, I have money, but that doesn’t keep me warm at night, does it?

I have fans, but they’re fickle and will move on to the next guy just as quickly as Lena did.

’ He rubbed his jaw. ‘I’m not saying all of this to make you feel bad for me.

I don’t need sympathy, I know I have it pretty good compared to most folks.

I just need you to see inside my head and know it’s screwed up so that I don’t screw you up right along with me, okay? ’

His fingertips had moved from spiralling to massaging, and when he met her eyes she saw the rawness and honesty there. She went to speak, but he laid his finger against her lips to still the words.

‘Let me finish? I need to get this out, okay?’ He rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip, and then the back of his fingers over her jawbone. ‘Last night was something, wasn’t it?’

She didn’t know if she was supposed to even answer him, it sounded like a rhetorical question.