Songbird (Songbird, #1) (49 page)

He looked down at me. “Nothing about you is gross. Even like this, you’re still beautiful.”

I wiped my nose reluctantly on his shirt. “I’ll take it home and wash it,” I said, sniffling. “I’m sorry I’m blubbering again. Seems I’m always blubbering about something.”

He shook his head, and wrapped his huge arms around me again. His bare skin was warm against my cheek, as his heart beat steadily.

“No you’re not. You only cry when someone lets you down.” He kissed the top of my head. “I thought I would be happy if you two broke up, but I don’t like seeing you like this—it’s not right. Riley’s got rocks in his head for cheating on you.”

I closed my eyes and exhaled. His words, even just his presence, always seemed to make me feel better. I felt calmer just being held in his strong arms.

I heard the door open behind us as Jay entered to see what was going on. With the door open, the uproar of the unhappy crowd filtered in. They were chanting, and getting louder as the seconds ticked by.

“Dude, what are you doing? We don’t have time for this; we’re in the middle of a set.”

I looked around, ready to apologise.

“Oh, Tara, it’s you. I thought he’d snuck off for a quick shag.” He entered further into the room. “What’s wrong?”

I didn’t think I could explain it all again, but I didn’t have to, as Cole replied, “Dumbass boyfriend’s been sticking his dick in another girl.”

Well, okay, I may not have quite put it that way, but it was the truth
.

I told Cole to go finish his set, and he told me to wait for him to drive me home. We could talk some more later, or he could just sit with me if I didn’t want to be alone.

He went to his bag to grab a clean T-shirt while Jay fidgeted around impatiently. The crowd sounded like they were ready to riot.

“Cole,” I said, and he looked up. “Don’t put a shirt on.”

He frowned at me, questioningly.

“The girls at least will forgive you if you go out there looking like that.” I knew I would.

He smiled his sexy smile, then nodded before heading out the door.

I sat in the back room, and listened to the crowd. I could tell the exact moment when Cole got back up on stage—the screams and wolf whistles were deafening from the girls in the audience.

“Sorry about that, folks,” Cole’s voice boomed seductively over the microphone. “I was getting a little hot up here. Hope you don’t mind.”

S
ITTING IN
front of the piano at
Songbirds
, I smiled for the first time in what felt like forever. This place and this piano were my saviours. Sitting here playing was one of the only times I had felt happy since the break-up, and I cherished every moment of it.

Cole had been particularly great over the last two weeks, since he had found out about Riley. He had checked in on me nearly every night to make sure I was okay, quite often bringing dinner with him. He said he knew I wouldn’t be looking after myself, and somehow he always knew just what I would feel like eating.

He had even taken me shopping, and trudged around the mall with me, trying to cheer me up with a little retail therapy. He had carried my bags, and waited patiently as I tried clothes and shoes on, even giving his opinion when I couldn’t make a decision.

It was what I had always thought shopping with a boyfriend would be like. I had never had it with Stephen, and with Riley we were never together long enough to do the everyday things, like shop.

Cole ticked every box in what I would ever want from a guy, except for one thing: he was caring, thoughtful, and attentive. He was funny and intelligent; he just couldn’t keep it in his pants. I had to stop myself from being jealous when shop assistants flirted with him, and he flirted back. He wasn’t mine, although they didn’t know that.

My friendship with Marcus was also back on track. It seemed he realised that I needed friends around me, and he rose to the challenge, encouraging me to go into
Songbirds
to practice again whenever I wanted. I was glad we had survived our little hitch from the previous month, and could now laugh about it. There was no miscommunication now; he was a dear friend, and I intended to keep him close for as long as possible.

But sitting here in front of the piano was where I felt at peace. I could pretend to be happy to ease my friends’ minds, but when I sat down in front of this piano, I could really feel the troubles of the world fade away.

I was finishing off my set with yet another song that reminded me of Riley. It seemed every love song reminded me of him, but I needed to get out of that rut. It was my misery, and other people did not need to endure it, so I had made a decision to only sing positive love songs tonight. Of course, singing about love in a positive way didn’t change the constant ache in my chest; it just reminded me of what I almost had but had lost.

As I sang I closed my eyes, and watched as images of Riley’s beautiful face filtered into my mind as they always did. When the song was over, and I reluctantly opened my eyes again to face reality, I looked up, and standing in front of me was Riley. He looked like a dream come true, but he also looked concerned. His piercing blue eyes were searching my face, trying to read my reaction to him being there.

My heart leapt into my throat, and my first instinct was to race to him and throw my arms around him, and never let him go, but I couldn’t. I hadn’t heard from him in weeks, and we were no longer together.

Standing up as casually as I could manage, I walked straight past him and headed to the bar.

I felt his presence behind me before I felt his hand on my arm. I spun around, suddenly angry that he had turned up after no communication. I didn’t want to talk to him now. I shook my arm free and glared at him, and then stormed off to the back room to get away. Of course he followed me in, and shut the door behind us.

“Tara, what’s going on?” he asked, as if he didn’t know
exactly
what was going on. “Coop said you were upset with me, but I don’t know why. I jumped on the first plane I could as soon as we got back from training.” He tried to bridge the gap between us, but I moved away. “Please, babe, tell me what’s happened.” He ran his hand through his hair. “What …” His voice wavered. “… what did I do wrong?”

Glaring, I strode over to him. “Why don’t YOU tell ME what’s going on, Riley?” I fumed, poking my finger into his chest.

He looked confused, as if he had no idea what I was talking about, which made me even angrier. Seriously, did he think I was a total idiot?

“Don’t play dumb with me, Riley. Rebecca told me she’d moved in with you. You were with her when you were supposed to be here with ME.”

His face dropped, and I sneered at him, “Yes, that’s right, I know all about the two of you getting back together.” I was on a roll now, as my despair over the last few weeks finally turned to anger. “And what makes it worse is you didn’t have the guts to tell me yourself. You didn’t even have the courtesy to return any of my calls or text messages. So don’t you DARE come in here, acting all innocent.” I was on the verge of hysteria I was so furious, but Riley just looked at me, dejected.

He took a deep breath, then foolishly tried to calm me down by placing his hands on my shoulders.

I was so wound up by this point that I shoved him away, hard. “Don’t touch me; don’t you ever touch me again!” I yelled, but the touch of his hands on me was enough and I came undone, the tears now rolling down my cheeks.

“This is ridiculous,” he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. “Tara, why would you think we were back together? Nothing happened with Rebecca, I swear.”

I started towards the door, not wanting to shed any more tears in front of him, but he blocked my path and locked it. “You’re not walking out on me; we’re going to sort this out,” he demanded, and leant up against the door. “This is insane. Do you honestly think I would cheat on you, and with her, of all people?”

The frustration in his voice was evident, but I held my ground. I stood there with my arms crossed over my chest, just trying to breathe as the tears continued falling.

“So why did she answer your phone, and tell me she had moved in?”

He just looked at me blankly. Obviously, the fact that I had even called was news to him.

“And why didn’t you answer any of the text messages I sent you that weekend?” He frowned at me. “Or Skype me when I asked you to? I spent a whole night on Skype waiting for you to call in.”

He was shaking his head now; the blank look had turned to a fury that rivalled my own.

He paced up and down the room for a few moments as the gravity of the situation dawned on him, then clearly frustrated, he punched the door—hard.

“That bitch!” he yelled, shaking his head, before taking a deep calming breath and turning to me. “Tara, I had no idea you had tried to get in touch, I swear. I told you I couldn’t be reached because after I settled them in at my place, I spent the weekend on duty, so I didn’t have to be around her. I left my phone at home, because we’re not allowed to get distracted with phone calls.”

“So she
did
move in,” I raged. “She’s living with you.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head vigorously. “She stayed for a couple of days, and then went back to Patrick.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “How do I convince you that nothing happened?” He pulled out his phone. “Call her, and ask her what happened, she’ll tell you.”

I pulled out my own phone, so she wouldn’t recognise the caller ID, and punched in her number, although why he even had her number was an issue for me. Then I put it on speaker phone and waited to hear that voice that I now hated so much.

She answered, and I told her who it was, and after explaining that I had spoken to Riley, asked her for her side of the story.

Riley stood there silently with arms crossed, listening in disbelief as she happily recanted a very different version of events to me.

“So, what do you want to know, Tara?” she asked smugly.

“I want to know why you were at Riley’s, and what happened between the two of you.”

“Well,” she started, “he called me and asked me to come to Sydney, and stay with him, so I did.” She giggled. “He said he missed me, that the girl he had been seeing—I guess that was you—was hard work, and things weren’t working out.”

I raised my eyebrows at Riley. I could see his jaw clenching in anger, but he stayed silent.

“So then what happened?” I asked, not wanting to give away the fact that Riley was actually with me, and could hear everything.

“What do you think happened?” She paused for dramatic effect. “We couldn’t keep our hands off each other, or our mouths, and you know how good he is with his tongue.”

Wow! Did I really need to listen to this?

Riley was running both hands through his hair now. I could see he was just about ready to burst, but I wanted him to wait just a few minutes longer.

“So are you back together or not, ‘cause he said you’re not, and nothing happened.”

She giggled again. It was like nails down a blackboard.

“Well, if you call fucking each other’s brains out
nothing
, then sure, I guess nothing happened.” Then, just to drive her point home, she said, “He asked me to move in permanently, so I don’t think you’ll be seeing him anymore.”