Page 62 of Rebooting Conor Flynn

“It was all suspicious and vague. I asked him if he remembered swapping out our phones on that first tour to Australia. He admitted that they’d probably switched out phones, as they usually did.”

“Did he ask you why you wanted to know after all these years?”

“No.” Conor dropped to the edge of the bed and then bounced up again, running a hand through his already messy hair. “Isn’t that strange? Wouldn’t your first question, if you’re Gordo, be what the bloody hell are you on about?”

“Probably. Did he sound...nervous? Edgy?”

“Gordon Cooper?” Conor full-on snorted. “That fella? Never.”

“Did you ask a follow up? We know they gave you new phones. You even remembered that, and Charlie concurred.”

“Charlie?” Conor’s head shot up. “You discussed this with Charlie?”

“I, umm...” I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose “I wanted to see if he had the same recollection as you about the phones.”

Conor’s eyes glinted like blue steel. “You were checking up on me, weren’t you? You didn’t believe me.”

Capturing a lock of my hair, I twisted it around my finger. “It’s been...hard. I believed for so long that you ghosted me, Conor. That you ran toward your glittering career without a second glance back at me. I had to watch your dating life play out across social media, always wondering if you ever thought about me.”

He closed his eyes and pressed his hand over his mouth. “And I was over here writin’ songs about ya, thinking you chose your career over me.”

I stretched my arm out to him and when he opened his eyes, dropped it. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. I mean, I did. I believed you but after so much heartache, I needed validation.”

The space between us vibrated. I yearned to rush into his arms, but we fell so fast and hard the first go around I didn’t want to repeat any mistakes this time. If we had a this time.

“I’m sorry, Noelle. If I’d been stronger, wiser...”

“Older.” I sliced my hand through the air. “This isn’t on us, Con. I was just thinking about it before you got here. I was a newbie in the industry, not much more than a gofer. You’d just started on this incredible road to success. Baker Street knew you’d never rock the boat. None of you would, and management took advantage of that. The way they worked you guys. Criminal.”

“And because of that, I want to find out what happened and why. Don’t you?”

“I do.” I perched on the edge of the bed. “Did you ask Gordon any more questions after he admitted to giving you new phones?”

“I tried. I asked him who was responsible for transferring the data from the old phones to the new and how it was done. I asked him what happened to our old numbers. Were they assigned to other people at Baker Street, or did the numbers go out of order.” Conor crossed his arms and drummed his fingers on his bicep. “He said he couldn’t remember all that. Then he finally asked why I was grilling him about it.”

“And you said?”

“Just told him a...friend and I were comparing notes about how things were in the old days. I didn’t want to set off any alarm bells.” Conor sat at a right angle to me on the bed, toward the window as I faced the TV—not looking at each other.

“Would Gordon even care at this point what you thought?”

Conor shifted on the bed. The mattress dipped, and my shoulder bumped against his.

“I told you. He wants in on the Five2Go reunion tour, so he’s gonna play nice with us. He’s gotta know if he admits to sabotaging our relationship, all bets are off. I’d never agree to him managing the reunion tour.”

“You guys would never agree to it, anyway.”

“He doesn’t know that—yet.”

Still not facing him, I nudged his shoulder. “What about Ian? He was the closest to Gordon. Gordon always considered him the CEO of the group. Maybe Gordon would open up to him.”

“Maybe.”

He hadn’t moved his shoulder from mine. In fact, he moved so that it pressed against me.

I pressed back. “Does it really matter, Conor?

He swung his legs around to the end of the bed, sitting beside me fully, clasping his hands. “I have to know, Nollaig. I have to know if I could’ve done anything differently. When the band ended, I-I kinda fell apart. But it wasn’t just the end of the band, the end of an era. It started when I lost you. I know I could’ve managed all the success better with you by my side. Without you, the crowds got louder. My head got noisier. You were the only place that ever felt quiet."