Page 48 of All Summer Long

Alice nodded. ‘It’s a bit strange though, don’t you think? He couldn’t get Robinson away from Borne fast enough, and now he’s suddenly inviting half of the village to be VIP guests at the concert and flying us all around the world?’

It just seemed such a turnaround. Alice hadn’t heard a word from Robinson himself, and neither had she expected to.

She hadn’t tried to make any contact either; they’d agreed and she wasn’t going to go back on her word.

It didn’t mean she hadn’t thought of him and their magical summer every damn morning as she woke alone in the manor, at noon as she ate lunch and each night as she closed her eyes to sleep; it just meant that she understood the rules of the game.

She’d railed vociferously against Niamh when she’d turned up yesterday and declared that they were flying out to Nashville en masse in twenty-four hours’ time.

It was thoroughly outlandish, and so ridiculously out of the blue and short notice that it caught her unawares.

Why? Why on earth would Marsh, who had so very clearly disliked them all, decide that a visit from the Borne Seven would in any way be a welcome surprise for Robinson?

Niamh had of course told everyone else before letting Alice in on the secret, taking away any chance she might have had of vetoing the trip.

They were all in a state of near hysteria, and it was clear that the Borne Six would be hitting Nashville even if their seventh member decided to stay at home.

It made no sense, and Alice had a feeling in her gut that it couldn’t possibly end well, but none the less they were all meeting the minibus on the car park of The Siren in ten minutes to head out to the airport.

It was just what she needed, Niamh had insisted, a total change of scene.

Her injuries had thankfully turned out to be minor, easily controlled with the pain killers, and the last thing she needed was to show gawkers around the manor until she’d at least had chance to get her head around the fact that it was even for sale.

Let’s be spontaneous, she’d said. Let’s throw caution to the wind and have a mini adventure seeing as it’s landed in our laps.

In the face of extreme pressure and beseeching smiles, she’d finally agreed to set aside her own misgivings and go with the flow.

How bad could it be? And somewhere in Alice’s heart of hearts, buried too deep to be acknowledged, was a tiny flare of hope.

‘Darlings! There you are,’ Stewie boomed as they rolled their cases onto the smooth tarmac of The Siren’s car park a few minutes later. ‘You’re the last, we’re all here and raring to go!’

Alice sighed inwardly at the sight of Stewie.

What else would he be wearing besides his Elvis tribute costume?

His jet-black wig stood a good six inches on top of his head and his belt buckle was so huge that had it been a solar panel it would have powered the entire village.

Rummaging in his bag, he produced a wavy ginger wig followed by his favourite Rod Stewart mullet.

Turning to Dessy and Jase, he held them out.

‘Do me the greatest favour, chaps? I need to get these to the US of A and I don’t think they’ll be allowed on the plane in my bag. Bloody rules and regulations gone mad, if you ask me.’

He handed the ginger one to Dessy.

‘Goes with your eyes,’ he said, winking devilishly. Dessy held it at arm’s length between his thumb and finger as if he’d been handed a live hamster.

‘You are joking?’

He stared at Stewie, who ignored him and placed the ash blond shag wig on top of Jase’s buzz cut.

‘God, you look beautiful! If only you were a woman and I was twenty years younger. Reminds me of a film I made in nineteen seventy seven …’

Dessy shouldered Stewie aside, the ginger curls now firmly in place. ‘Out of the way, old man, this cutie pie is mine, all mine.’

Jase didn’t miss a beat. ‘Hello, handsome. Haven’t seen you around these parts before.’ He manhandled Dessy’s leather-trouser-clad ass. ‘Fancy a holiday romance?’

Alice turned away from the scene, jolted by Jase’s choice of phrase.

It couldn’t have been less similar in circumstance to her own holiday romance, but nonetheless the words stung.

She’d come so close to getting in touch with Robinson over the last day or two, because she was not at all sure that they, or more specifically she, would be a welcome intrusion into his real life.

If it hadn’t been for Marsh’s insistence that it had to be a surprise, she would have.

Or maybe it was closer to the truth that she hadn’t got in touch in case he stopped her from coming. God, she was confused.

She looked up when the others started jostling and clapping with excitement as the mini bus pulled onto the car park. Pushing all of her worries and misgivings to the back of her mind, she smiled at Niamh and rolled her case across to join the others.

‘Right then,’ Dessy said, as they neared the front of the queue to go through customs. ‘As soon as we get through this bit I need to buy a litre of gin from duty free.’

Jase slung his arm around Dessy’s shoulders. ‘Chill out, babe.’

He looked over Dessy’s shoulder at Niamh and Alice and mouthed ‘nervous flyer’, tipping his head towards his husband.

‘Our turn,’ Hazel said brightly, ushering Ewan forward.

‘Earphones and iPod in the tray,’ the security guy said, and Ewan looked mortally wounded, as if he’d been asked to amputate his own head and pass it through the scanner.

Stewie stepped up next. ‘Belt buckle, please, sir,’ the guard said, and then glanced over the conveyor belt at Stewie’s feet.

‘And the boots,’ he sighed. Stewie’s two-inch stacked cowboy boots came off, and as he stood there in his socks holding up his trousers, the security guard tapped his head to indicate that Stewie’s wig needed to come off too.

Beside him, Hazel smiled and patted his arm.

‘Let me do that for you, dear.’

Stewie bowed his head for Hazel to do the honours, and as she removed the huge black wig Alice noticed the way she ran her hands quickly over Stewie’s freshly revealed head and shuddered, closing her eyes for a second.

‘Christ, Stewie, hurry up and get it back on will you. I think Hazel’s about to orgasm,’ Dessy muttered, earning himself a slap on the arm from a pink-cheeked Hazel.

As Stewie passed through customs in his socks, the guard looked pointedly at Jase and Dessy’s wigs, and they sighed in unison and removed them slowly, laying them side by side in the plastic tray like guinea pigs cuddled in a hutch.

Dessy gave them a quick stroke as they started moving away from him and looked at the guard as if he were the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang .

‘I just feel so naked,’ Jase sighed, running his hand over his own perfectly usual hair.

‘And cold,’ Dessy said, shivering for effect as they all gathered successfully on the other side of customs and retrieved their trays.

‘Hang on …’ Jase said, reaching for the Rod Stewart wig and placing it on Dessy’s head instead of his own.

‘Sexy,’ he growled, as Dessy lifted the ginger wig and pressed it into place on Jase.

‘You look so hot as a ginge,’ he said, running his hand down his husband’s cheek. ‘Stewie, can we come and play with your wig collection when we get home, please?’

‘You can have them all,’ Hazel said. ‘Stewie’s thinking of giving them up, aren’t you, my love?’

Stewie looked conflicted. He’d fallen hard for Hazel, but that wig collection had taken years to build up and he was extremely fond of it.

Jase grinned. ‘We don’t want the doll’s heads though. That’s just creepy, man.’

Alice and Niamh walked a little way behind the others arm in arm.

‘How are you feeling about seeing him again?’ Niamh asked, feeling safe enough to talk about Robinson now that they were almost on the plane. She’d avoided the conversation up to now in case Alice lost her cool and called the whole trip off.

Alice sighed, sickly with nerves. ‘Terrified. What if he hates us turning up like this?’

Niamh had had the benefit of listening to Marsh’s messages she’d erased from Alice’s mobile and felt pretty sure that Robinson would be glad to see Alice at least, but she couldn’t say that without revealing what she’d done.

‘It’ll be fine,’ she soothed. ‘We can just hang out, see the concert and say hi. No biggie. You guys should totally have dinner while we’re there though, and you know … catch up.’

Niamh made it all sound so doable and light hearted. No biggie, she’d said. Except it felt like a biggie. It felt massive. Huge, like either the biggest mistake of her life or the best thing she’d ever done.

‘Bloody hell! I know how the three wise men must have felt after they trekked across the desert on camels to get to the baby Jesus now,’ Dessy grouched as their plane touched down.

They’d been travelling for over fifteen hours, changing planes in New York to finally reach Nashville around four in the afternoon local time, which would make it just turned midnight and coming on for bedtime back in Borne.

They all filed out of the plane and through customs again, this time taking their wigs off without even being asked to, desperate to get outside and find the driver Marsh had sent to ferry them to the hotel he’d arranged for them to stay in.

He’d taken care of everything, or else his people had, and looking at the hotel they arrived at half an hour or so later, they hadn’t cut any corners.

Nashville had sped past the windows of the luxurious cab, a bright blur of sky- scrapers, neon lights and party people, infectious and awe inspiring, whipping them all out of their sleepy states with its glittering buildings that had them craning their necks to see the tops and the wide roads and intersections.

‘It’s like being in a real-life movie,’ Ewan breathed, awed out of his gothness by the overwhelming otherness of Nashville compared to Borne.

‘Only hotter,’ Hazel said faintly, wilting as she leaned against Stewie, who fanned her with the Stetson he’d bought at the airport.

The hotel had a similar, dazzling effect.

Everything was bigger and brighter, from the luxurious fittings to the perfect white smiles of the staff behind reception.

By the time Alice and Niamh finally made it into their accomodation a little after six in the evening they were fit to drop, but even that didn’t stop them from gawping in amazement at the glamorous suite Marsh had reserved for them.

Two huge, sumptuous beds sat in the generous air-conditioned space, and floor-to-ceiling windows offered them an uninterrupted view across the sparkling city skyline.

There were fresh flowers and plump cushions everywhere, and the dark polished wood cabinets gleamed under the subdued lamplights.

It was a complete oasis, just what both women needed after travelling around the world and the clock to be here.

‘God, I don’t even want to imagine how the others are reacting to their rooms,’ Niamh said, falling like a starfish onto the nearest bed. They were all on the same corridor, and Ewan had been ecstatic at the prospect of a suite all to himself.

‘I predict that whatever Jase and Dessy are doing, it will involve keeping those wigs on,’ Alice mirrored Niamh on the other bed and sighed with relief.

‘Your rib?’ Niamh asked, concerned. She’d checked up on Alice’s health at least once an hour over the journey, making sure that she took her painkillers when they were cramped up for hours in the aeroplane.

‘I’m okay,’ Alice said, because in all honesty it wasn’t her rib that was troubling her. It was something a little to the left. Her heart.