CHAPTER TWENTY
TOMMY
There’s a split image on a screen behind the anchor reading the news.
On one side is me, taken at the end of a gig, I guess.
I’m bathed in red light, shirtless and sweaty.
The image on the other side of the screen is of Fraser.
“Fuck,” I breath out as Angie and I exchange glances and listen to the rest of the item.
“…Fraser Moore alleges that Tommy Graham threatened him and aggressively held him up against the wall of a Braebeach restaurant. ‘He told me to keep away from his girlfriend,’ Moore quotes. So, who is the new woman that has Tommy Graham in a spin?”
“Oh, shit,” I say out loud, taking Angie’s hand.
“Just weeks after announcing his divorce from his wife of six years, Graham is reported to be in a relationship with Angela Knox. Ms Knox is said to be a close friend of Calla Chambers. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because she’s the wife of Tommy Graham’s Koolum Law bandmate, Ash Chambers.”
“This has got to be a joke,” I say out of sheer disbelief.
Angie says nothing for a beat, then picks up the remote and turns off the TV. “What happened?” she asks. “Did you threaten him?”
I sit Angie down on the sofa, take her hand in mine, and focus on my thumb running a soothing line across her knuckle. “It wasn’t intentional and happened so fast. He was having lunch with this blonde, so naturally, I thought he was cheating on you. I saw red.”
She shakes her head and looks past me. “I can’t believe this, Tommy. This is so out of character for you.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Squeezing her hand, I bring her attention back to me. “It was a knee-jerk reaction, but Max made me see sense—”
“Max was there too?” Her hand leaves mine and her head falls back against the cushion. When was this?” she asks, looking up to the ceiling.
“Last week.”
“When exactly?”
“Friday, I think.”
I can see her piecing the sequence of events together in her mind.
“So, before you came down to the beach to see me.”
“Yeah.” I wait a beat, hoping I haven’t fucked this up. “Maybe I should have explained exactly what happened that day, but by the time I got to you, all I wanted was to find out why you held back on me.”
Angie’s complexion pales. “This is all my fault, Tommy. This is my doing.”
“No, babe—”
She turns to me now, with sheer panic in her eyes. “If I’d told the truth in the first place, this would never have happened. I’m the reason this story is splashed all over the news.”
I shift closer, place my arm around her and her head falls to my shoulder.
“It’s not your fault, babe. It’s me. I can be hot-headed when it comes to the people I care about. Don’t blame yourself. I’m an idiot.”
Angie looks up towards me and I look down to meet her eyes.
“You’re not the idiot. I am. Can you ever forgive me for this?”
I run my fingers over her soft cheek. “Stop. There’s nothing to forgive. Right now, we’ve got to stick together. It’s gonna get rocky out there, especially now they have your name, but as long as we have each other, we can get through it. Okay?”
She snuggles into me. “Okay, Tom.”
Tom. I love it when she calls me that.
She looks up again. “But I want you to know, I will never lie to you again. It was a huge mistake on my part. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“I know babe.” I hold her as close as I can and rub her arm. This is gonna get rough, but I’m prepared to do what I have to and protect her from the shitstorm now brewing.
Yesterday was a nightmare. Today is not looking good either.
Last night we received phone call after phone call from concerned friends and family, but before any of that started, we took the decision to call Ash and Calla straight away.
We put them on speakerphone, making sure they were both listening, as we wanted to tell them together.
Both of us were nervous and unsure of how they’d react.
“What’s up, guys?” Ash said.
“Is something wrong?” Calla asked.
Thankfully, the news hadn’t broken in Greece at that point.
“We’re okay,” I told them. “But we do have some news.”
Angie glanced over at me before she spoke. “Tommy and I… we’re together.” A slight smile flickered across her lips.
There was nothing but a deafening silence down the line and I’m certain I held my breath until Calla finally spoke. “We could not be happier for you two,” she said with a soft but happy tone.
“Yeah, guys. That’s amazing news,” Ash followed, sounding equally as happy.
“We thought you’d be upset or mad,” I said with some relief.
“Why would you think that?” Calla asked.
“Because you’re Scott’s sister, and Ash was his best friend,” I answered bluntly and sensed Angie’s worry as her hand squeezed mine.
“I loved my brother, Tommy. You know we didn’t have the best start, but he turned his life around and had a great marriage.
Angie and Scott made each other so happy and what happened to him was sad and cruel.
” She sighed. “But your life can’t stop because he’s gone, Angie.
You’re still so young. He would want you to be happy. Both of you,” Calla answered.
Although I could tell she was genuinely okay with us being together, there was also an understandable edge of sadness in her tone.
“It’s not as if we didn’t see this coming, even if you couldn’t,” Ash said.
“What do you mean by that?” Angie asked.
“You two have always had this undercurrent between you.”
I scratched my head. “An undercurrent?”
“Yeah. You know what I mean. Like a mad chemistry. Naturally, it died out when you married Scott, Angie, but then the spark reignited when the time was right. Does that make sense?”
“Okay,” Angie said with a blush to her cheeks. “So, you’re really happy for us?”
“Absolutely. We should celebrate when we get home,” Calla said, surprising us both.
“Before any celebrations, there’s something else you need to know,” I told them, knowing we had to explain the headlines that were coming their way. If Ash wasn’t mad about Angie and me being together, I could have put money on him being mad about my threatening a guy in public.
“What the hell, man. You’re out of order.” he barked. “How could you put the reputation of the band in jeopardy. We’re still getting over the wrath of Brett fans who came at us after he left. You’re not helping us here.”
I felt like shit.
Obviously, we spoke to Max next. He wasn’t stupid and he’d seen the way I was acting around Angie, but like Ash, he was pretty mad, although not so much with me.
“What a fucker. I can’t believe that guy,” he said, referring to Fraser. “Yet he was nice as fucking pie when we left the restaurant. What some people do for money shouldn’t surprise me, but here I am.”
I felt the same. I could only think that Fraser had made a mint with his story. Greed is an ugly trait to have.
I’ve been up for hours. I couldn’t sleep, so I left Angie in bed. It was better for her and Josh to stay the night.
I’m about to go into the kitchen when I get a phone call and a full-on dressing down from Dani.
I didn’t get to call her back last night.
We took so many calls and messages that I had to put my foot down and turn our phones off for a while.
I wanted to concentrate on Angie and make her feel safe.
I should have thought about the consequences of not pacifying Dani.
Now she’s pissed-off and I’ve given her time to stew.
“What the hell were you playing at, you idiot?” Dani shouts down the line. “Who the fuck is this Fraser guy and why did you assault him? Tell me everything, right now.”
“Whoa, slow down, Dani. Let me explain. It was a misunderstanding.”
“He doesn’t seem to think so. You should know better than to go around roughing up members of the public. You were out of order, Tommy.”
I pace around the kitchen but stop when I spot various papers and magazines on the table. I asked Connie not to hide anything from us. We need to know exactly what we’re dealing with. “Maybe I did fly off the handle, but I apologised to the guy. No one’s reporting that.”
“Who is this idiot, Tommy?”
“Just a guy Angie went on a few dates with,” I say, flipping through a glossy magazine.
“Well, he obviously saw an opportunity and ran with it. You’re lucky he isn’t pressing charges.”
I stop on a double-page spread and it nearly knocks me sideways. “Yeah. I know. Look, can I call you another time? Something came up.”
“You’re not fobbing me off again, Tommy. You have to take this seriously—”
“Yeah, yeah. I am. Speak soon.”
I finish the call. I’ll pay for that later, but right now, I want to concentrate on scanning the pages in front of me.
A grainy picture of me pinning Fraser up against the wall with his shirt grasped in my hand is right in the centre.
Where did that come from? Then there’s some old photo of me and Chelsea hand in hand with a lightning bolt through the middle, which is standard.
But two images piss me off the most. Both are of Angie.
The first is taken on the day she was a bridesmaid for Calla.
The second was taken backstage at one of our concerts.
I’m talking to her and touching her arm. How fucking dare, they?
I don’t care about the images of me. I’m used to this shit, but Angie trusted Fraser and now he’s making her out to be some kind of merry fucking widow.
How much did that arse-wipe get paid to humiliate her? Surely, no amount of money is worth another person’s sadness. What kind of man does that? Especially when he’s aware of Angie’s history. I fucking hate that guy.