Chapter Fourteen Si
Rather than going out on jobs, Si was working in the shop today, which was good. Kept him busy dealing with customers. Stopped him thinking too much about Zig.
He cut a key for a customer and she left with a smile, a chill gust of wind sweeping into the shop in her wake.
There was a right nip in the air today. Was Zig hanging out in a café somewhere, keeping warm?
Or was he out and about on the tourist trail?
Si wouldn’t have reckoned he’d give a monkey’s about Glastonbury’s mystical sites—then again, he wouldn’t have reckoned Zig would want to watch Doctor Who, either. Perhaps he had changed.
Still seemed the same old Zig, though. A bit rougher around the edges, maybe.
A bit more . . . not cynical, cos he’d had that in spades as long as Si had known him, but knowing, if that was the right term?
When they’d been together, Si would’ve pissed himself laughing if anyone had called Zig na?ve, but looking back, yeah, it’d been there, in that blinkered world-view he’d had, and that unquestioning obedience to his dad.
He’d grown out of that, or life had knocked it out of him.
Was that why he’d had that—what had he called it?
—that bust-up with his dad? Si couldn’t be sorry about that.
Maybe he was too ready to find excuses for Zig, but he’d wished more than a few times, over the years, that Zig hadn’t been stuck in the sole care of a bloke who didn’t have two morals to rub together.
And he’d been so young, back then. Si had been so young too—barely twenty—which was still two years older than Zig had been.
Everyone made mistakes when they were young, didn’t they?
It made Si’s heart beat faster to think about Zig—which just proved how bloody daft his heart was, cos hadn’t it ended up in shreds the last time he’d got involved with Zig?
The only time. Not the last time, because there wasn’t gonna be a next time. Or a this time. Whatever. Si was older now. Wiser. There were some blokes who breezed through life, never let nothing or no one touch them where it hurt, and that was fine. Si wasn’t one of ’em, that was all.
And Zig was—Si could still remember his carefree smile as they’d split up, and Si’s numpty of a heart twinged at the thought. So, they were just gonna be mates this time around.
Now his conscience socked him in the gut.
Could he really forgive and forget the past?
Mind, he didn’t know Zig had done anything wrong.
Not absolutely one hundred percent. Granted, it’d been pretty clear Zig’s morals back then had been a bit, well, skewed .
. . More like totally bent out of shape, if he was honest, but people changed, didn’t they?
Got older and wiser and all that bollocks.
Buggrit. So much for not thinking about Zig.
Then again, maybe he ought to be thinking about Zig.
Wondering what had brought him here, after six years of silence.
A bad breakup, maybe? From some bastard who’d left him thinking fondly of his younger days with Si?
Or was it something worse than that? Something that’d end up coming back to bite them both—
The bell on the door jangled, and Si found himself looking straight into his mum’s face. She wasn’t smiling.
Si’s stomach sank. “Ullo, Mum.” He tried to muster a smile.
“Don’t you Hello me, young man. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you’ve been ignoring me.”
“Mu-um. I’m at work. Thought you would be too.”
She folded her arms. “Then you should answer your phone in the evening, shouldn’t you?”
Si cringed inside at the thought that she’d taken time off because of him. “I was busy.”
“Busy. With That Boy.” Si could hear the capitals. He hoped to gods none of the lads would come back from a job in time to see him getting his ear bashed.
“He’s a grown man now, Mum. So am I, in case you ain’t noticed.”
“Haven’t. And that changes nothing. Do you remember the year after you came back from London? Because I do. Thought you’d never smile again.”
“I was a kid, weren’t I? Things hit you hard at that age. It’s fine now. Water under the bridge and all that.”
“Why’s he here?”
Si shrugged, not sure himself. “Passing through, thought he’d look me up.” The bell jangled again, and a middle-aged bloke walked in.
Mum didn’t seem to notice. “Passing through? So, he’ll be moving on soon?”
“’Spect so. Mum, there’s a customer waiting behind you.”
Mum turned, probably with one of her patented death glares on her face, seeing as the customer took a step back. “You’re not in a hurry, are— Oh, Peter, I didn’t realise it was you. How are you?”
“Fine, fine.” Whoever Peter was, his face and his voice were calling him a liar. “And no, no hurry.”
Mum smiled in a way that had Si’s heart plummeting to his boots. “No, you go ahead. Simon, I’ll speak to you later.”
Her tone made it clear that turning off his phone again wouldn’t be an option. Not unless he fancied repercussions on a scale that’d make him long for the days when he only had to worry about Mum embarrassing him at work.
After his harrowing morning courtesy of his nearest and dearest, Si half considered begging off his lunch with Sasha and the others. He could nip back home instead. See if Zig was there. And then Si wouldn’t have to say anything about him to Adam and Sash and risk more disapproval.
Right. Cos avoiding them for however long Zig was staying, that’d make perfect sense and in no way cause them to wonder if he’d lost his flippin’ mind. Or go absolutely ballistic on him—and probably Zig—when they found out the truth.
Si dithered so long that he was the last one to get to Sasha’s tattoo studio: Furious Ink. Then again, seeing as how Adam worked there too, it was only Si and Corin who had to travel—
“Scratch? You in there, mate?” Adam waved a hand in front of Si’s face.
Si reared back like a startled sheep. “Oi, where else would I be?”
“Off with the fairies, by the looks of you,” Sasha said, arching both of her ink-dot eyebrows. “Everything all right?”
“Fine. Smashin’. Why wouldn’t it be? You all good?”
“Yeah, we’re good.” That was Adam. Corin, his bloke, who was sitting on the little sofa in the window with his mouth wrapped around a doorstep sandwich, waved.
Sasha gave Si a pointed look. Then she sighed. “What happened to that bacon butty you promised me? Cos if it’s in your pocket, it’s gonna be squished.”
“Bollocks.” He had promised, hadn’t he? “I’ll get it now. Sorry.” It wasn’t like he’d remembered his own lunch, neither. “You want anything, Adam? Corin?”
“Not for me, ta.” Adam was frowning.
Bollocks.
Corin swallowed audibly. “I may not be here when you get back— Got a meeting scheduled. I just dropped in to say hi. We’ll have to catch up another time.” He smiled like all them undercurrents were washing right over his head.
Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks. Now Si was gonna be left with a suspicious Sasha and Adam, and no one to distract them from him.
“Right, I’ll be back in a jiff,” he said, and fled.
On the way down the street to the Breezy Moon Café, Si thought furiously. Maybe he could make up his own urgent appointment? Drop the goods and run?
Nah, if he played it cool, he’d be fine. They’d have forgotten all about it by the time he got back.
If they didn’t spend the entire time he was gone talking about him, that was. Shit. Si quickened his pace.
Twenty minutes later, he breezed back into Furious Ink with his arms full of food.
“All right, my lovers? Sasha, my sweet, I got you a bacon butty and one of them chocolate whirl things you like, to say sorry for forgettin’.
Adam, I got you and Corin some spekulatius, cos they’re doing ’em special for Christmas. ”
Sash and Adam looked up. Was it just Si, or did their smiles look a bit forced? True to his word, Corin had disappeared.
“Cheers, mate,” Adam said easily enough. “I’ll take them round to Corin’s tonight.”
“Yeah, thanks, Scratch.” Sasha grabbed her butty hungrily.
Si perched on the desk and opened up his own bag to take a bite from his jumbo sausage roll.
Then he thought of all the Freudian whatsits of that particular choice, and put it down again. “Enough brown sauce for you, Sash?”
Mouth full, she gave him a thumbs-up.
Adam had finished eating, which unfortunately meant he had his mouth free for talking. “Listen, about earlier . . . Me and Sash couldn’t help noticing something’s up.”
Bollocks.
“Are your mum and dad okay?”
Guilt stabbed Si right where his jumbo sausage would have been if he hadn’t lost his appetite. “They’re fine. Sorry. It’s nothing to worry about. Honest. Just had a visit from someone we used to know, that’s all.” Shit. He’d meant to say I used to know.
Adam cocked his head. “Yeah? Who’s that, then? Not one of the lads from London, is it?” He smiled.
“Uh . . . kinda? ’S Zig,” Si muttered, giving up.
Adam’s face went stonier than the abbey ruins. “Zig,” he said flatly. “What’s he doing here?”
“Told you. Come for a visit.” Si stared at his sausage roll. It was nice of Adam to get concerned, course it was, but Si really wished he’d drop it.
Sasha put down her bacon butty, a smear of sauce on her chin. “He’s the one you told me about, isn’t he? The one who—” She darted a glance at Adam and fell silent.
Si’s heart was beating double-time. He’d told her everything, when he’d come back to Glastonbury, and they’d become friends. Way before she’d met Adam.
“The one who hurt him so bad he hasn’t been out with anyone since,” Adam told her angrily, turning to Si. “That’s what you told me: you left your heart in London.”
And that was all Adam knew, wasn’t it? Si hadn’t been able to bring himself to tell Adam the rest. All he’d said was that they’d split up, and he’d let Adam assume Zig had dumped him for someone better.
“Why didn’t you tell him to piss off?” Adam demanded.
Si shrugged. Tried to make his tone sound light. “It’s been years, ain’t it? Gotta forgive and forget.”
“Bugger that,” Sasha said harshly.
Adam sent her a startled glance. “You know him too?”
“Only what Scratch told me about him. Which was plenty.” She narrowed her eyes at Si. Then she hurried over to hug him. “Babe, we don’t want you to get hurt again.”
Si wondered what she’d seen in his expression. And if she realised she’d wiped sauce on his Abbey Locksmiths shirt. He forced a smile. “I’ll be fine. Big boy, ain’t I? Now, are we all on for Friday night at the Prince of Wales?”
Adam gave him a dark look. “Is Zig going?”
“Dunno.” Si shrugged, hoping it looked natural. “Dunno if he’s staying that long.”
Adam grunted, which as an answer wasn’t all that helpful.
“I’ll be there,” Sasha said. “If he’s still around, I wouldn’t mind having a word with your Zig.”
Si winced internally. “Yeah, reckon he’d love to meet you and all.” He coughed, forcing himself to sound more cheerful as he went on. “Hey, Sash, you heard anything about the band they got playing this week?”
She smiled sweetly. “Only what you told me last Friday.”
Bugger. He had, hadn’t he? “Right, right. Forgot it was gonna be them.” He took a big bite of his sausage and got out his phone, cos he had no interest in seeing whatever significant looks Sash and Adam were exchanging right now.
It wasn’t until Adam nipped out back to the loo that Si got to talk to Sasha alone.
He leaned in close and kept his voice low. “Sash, that stuff I told you about Zig. About what I reckon he done for his dad, back in the day. You can’t tell Adam. He’d hit the flippin’ roof.”
“People who can’t do the time shouldn’t do the crime.”
“I don’t know for certain if he did, all right? And he was a kid back then. Doing what his dad told him to. He’s a different bloke now.”
“Is he?”
Uncertainty stabbed Si in the chest. Because Zig was .
. . Well, he was Zig, wasn’t he? A little older, maybe, but .
. . “He says he don’t work for his dad no more.
Gone legit, like.” Okay, so Zig hadn’t exactly said that, but then he’d never actually admitted to anything criminal neither, so it balanced out, right?
“And you believe him?” Sasha sighed. “You want to believe him.” She said it flatly. “Babe, have you got any reason to think he’s not gonna hurt you again? What’s he here for, after all this time?”
Si screwed up his face. “I think . . . I think something’s happened. Something that shook him up. Dunno what, though.”
“He’s in trouble?”
“I didn’t say that. Could be that bust-up with his dad.” Except Zig had said it’d been years, hadn’t he? “Or, I dunno, he had a bad breakup?”
“So you’re gonna let him rebound onto you?”
“No! It’s not like that. Not this time. We’re just friends. Catching up. I’m not daft, Sash,” he added. “I broke up with him, remember?”
“Yeah, but not until he did something really shit. Gonna wait for that this time too?”
“I told you, I don’t reckon he had nothing to do with robbing Adam’s dad.” Shit. Why did he have to go and tell her his suspicions about Zig?
“Ripped off plenty of other people though, most like.” Sasha’s face softened, and she grabbed him by both arms. “I don’t want you getting hurt,” she said in that little-girl voice he almost never heard from her.
Yeah. That was why. “You don’t have to worry. I’m on me guard. I’m not gonna let things go too far.”
She frowned. “How far have they got already?”
“They haven’t!” Si blurted, then cast a worried glance towards the back of the studio. Adam hadn’t emerged yet, for reasons Si didn’t want to speculate about. “Told you, I’m being a mate. Letting him stay for a while. That’s all.”
“Right.” Her tone said she wasn’t sure she believed him. “You see that it stays that way.”