“Easy. I could do no wrong. And, to be fair, I was a good kid. Scott was the rebel, Zack compensated for it. As long as I didn’t get into any major trouble, no one noticed.” His words felt slurred, as if what they had was draining every other power.
There was a kiss to his jaw.
“I love you for being Alex.”
He had no idea what those words actually meant until he heard them. He took them, every single phoneme. Every single sound.
“That’s all I am.”
Abby tangled her legs with his. “That’s all I need.”
Sixteen
It was a different day when Abby woke a few hours later. The air felt fresher, the clammy stickiness of yesterday had evaporated, but the usual quietness of a Saturday morning wasn’t there.
“What the fuck?” Alex’s words were slurred. He yanked himself out of bed, pulling the remaining sheets off with him, and went to the window.
The sheets remained round his waist, which was both a good thing as it stopped a charge of indecency being brought against him, and a bad thing as it meant that Abby couldn’t stare at his backside.
She was becoming obsessed with his backside.
“What is it?”
“Come to the window and look.”
“I don’t think you want whoever’s walking past to see my boobs, Al.”
His head swung round. “Good point. But you want to see this.”
She reached around the floor and found one of his T-shirts. Pulling it on, she stepped over to the window and saw a parade that consisted of the coven, each leading an alpaca, dressed as some form of pagan deity.
“What on earth are they doing?” She was possibly still dreaming. “Which planet is this and what did I take last night?”
“Look at the sign.”
Abby did. Jake, who had somehow been roped into this, was shirtless and wearing a very tight pair of long shorts. His back seemed to be hennaed but Abby couldn't see what the design was. He was pulling a cart with an effigy of a woman with long blonde hair and a flower wreath on her hair, with a sign on it saying ‘Gin Goddess’.
“They’re launching a new gin.” Abby shook her head. “This is their marketing stunt.”
“I’d agree, only I think this is probably the first in their line of marketing stunts.”
“You know Jake was modelling for their calendar the other day and I’m pretty sure he did it naked.”
“Tell me more. This is gold.”
They were both still fixated to the scene below, the three main members of the coven surrounded by their friends who were all carrying and playing tambourines and other percussion instruments.
“They were referring to him as ‘Seed’ rather than Jake,” Abby said after she’d explained the scene.
“And it just keeps on getting better. I have no idea what he’s trying to achieve but my brothers will love it. Shall we follow them down? See what’s going on?” His arm was around her, sliding up under the T-shirt. “I can help you get clean in the shower first.”
“I might let you scrub my back.”
One of thebeauties of being more of an outdoors person and a climber, used to camping and managing in few facilities, was that Abby could be ready in minutes. She didn’t use make-up unless it was for a night out or special occasion and hair could dry in the air, especially on a day like today. A bit of moisturiser and a quick brush, throw on some clothes and she was good to go. This meant that they were at the festival in less than twenty-five minutes, the church bells of Severton ringing out for nine o’clock.
There were already crowds of people setting out for the day. Three fields had tents set up, two more had been prepared for camper vans. Then there was the spot for the yurts. The guesthouses in the area were full and people were driving into the town or hoping in on the train.
Jake’s mad plan had become a large homage to summertime and music and strangeness, and while there had been sceptics in the town who were worried about the trouble it may bring, the overwhelming vibe was that of peace and love.
