Page 41 of Never Too Late to Date

Thank goodness he wasn’t about to show up. She’d tried so hard to put him squarely in the past. A tiny voice asked her why she was all hot and bothered if that truly was the case, but she stamped it down.

Suzie turned to the five men who made up the band, now ranged in front of her. They’d often played the same venues, and their dressing room had virtually been a revolving door for women within a five-mile radius. They were still a credible threat, albeit to the middle-aged female population now rather than to the twentysomethings, but still.

‘What about you lot? What have you been up to?’

It definitely was Jake at the head of the pack; she could see his sparkling green eyes now he’d taken his cowboy hat off at last. He answered her question on behalf of them all, much as he had done back then.

‘Making music, hitting the road, gigging wherever we can. This new fad for Eighties music’s been a big boost for us.’

Suzie smiled. She was genuinely pleased for them. They’d been the nice guys back then, and she hoped they hadn’t changed too much.

‘That’s great to hear. And have you bumped into any of the others we used to hang out with on your travels? Pete and Jess, Jonno or … maybe even Christian?’

She had to do it, didn’t she? She’d promised herself she wouldn’t, but she couldn’t help mentioning his name. ‘Mentionitis’ was a real thing, not just something talked about in books.

Jake looked like he was giving it some serious thought.

‘Jonno’s back in rehab, and Pete and Jess eventually got it together and went off to start a sheep farm in Australia.’

Suzie turned her mouth down.

‘Poor Jonno, he could never keep off the booze, could he? But good on Pete and Jess for getting away from it all.’

She left a pause but couldn’t let it go on for more than a few seconds. She kept her voice light.

‘And Christian?’

‘Oh yeah, good old Christian. We caught up with him and his band at a pub gig in Cornwall last year.’ Jake’s shrewd eyes were trained on her. ‘You were a bit keen on him back in the day, weren’t you?’

She’d better disabuse him of that notion once and for all. Any focus on Christian was a bad idea, and she silently cursed herself for being the one to bring him up first.

‘God, no, not me. He had more women on the go than Casanova. And he was rather too fond of the marching powder, on top of the booze and fags. I’m surprised he’s not in rehab too, the way he used to push his body to the limits.’

She’d shouted the first few words. Was she sounding like the lady who doth protest too much? She knew all too agonisingly well the limits that Christian’s body could be pushed to and what he’d made her feel. Why couldn’t she shut up?

Jake gave her a thorough once-over before replying. She willed herself not to go red.

‘Oh no, not anymore. Christian’s a reformed character. He’s mister clean living now. Organic farming and all that stuff. Well, except for the smoking, but you’ve got to allow people at least one vice.’

Jake’s dazzling white smile almost blinded her for a moment. He’d obviously had his teeth done and wanted to get maximum value out of them by smiling a lot. Looking at him closely, there’d definitely been a tonne of Botox too; his forehead was suspiciously smooth, and his skin was unnaturally orange.

She’d never gone in for costly cosmetic procedures – there wasn’t much call for it on her little island – and after years in Greece her tan was real, not out of a bottle, although she tried to keep out of the sun most of the time. But to be fair to the lads in Juice, she’d not had the pressure of keeping up a singing career all these years, where youthful looks were the golden ticket as much as talent. Good on them for sticking it out.

Jake moved a step closer, a little too close for her liking.

‘So, what about you, then, Suze. Where have you been?’

They all used to call her Suze back then.

‘Living happily on a Greek island. Running a bar and bringing up my two sons, now fully formed men.’

‘Ah, that solves the mystery. We all wondered where you’d disappeared off to back then. And are you still with their dad?’

Jake made his question sound like it would be impossible to retain interest in someone for that long. Suzie truly believed it was possible, but she’d have to tell him the truth.

‘Nope. Amicably divorced, as they say.’

She noted Jake’s eyes widen with interest at her answer. Surely he wasn’t going to try and tick off the one who’d got away just to prove a point. Jake’s tastes had always been for the much younger groupies who hung around the band. That probably took in forty- and fifty-somethings now, as the guys in the band had been a few years older than her.