The Rock'n'Roll Romance Box Set (Pam Howes Rock'n'Roll Romance Series) Read Online Free PDF

your cash away, lad, it’s my treat tonight.’
    Eddie led the way to a vacant
table at the back of the crowded pub. He looked around to see if there was anyone
he knew, but the pub was full of old men playing dominoes and shove-ha'penny.
He shook his head. This bloody pub was like an old folks’ home. It was time the
landlord got with it and installed a jukebox and put some decent birds behind
the bar. The flaking walls, brown from years of fag smoke, needed a lick of
paint, and the stone flag floor was chipped and worn.
    The only noise was the low murmur
of masculine voices and the odd outburst of laughter. The only woman brave
enough to venture in here was good old Mary, who, rumour had it, had worked in
the pub since the war, serving the troops with more than a pint and a smile.
Eddie and Jack sat in companionable silence, supping their beer. They looked up
as a bunch of morose looking men strolled in and stood by the bar.
    ‘See that lot.’ Jack pointed with
his glass. ‘They’re from Jackson’s
brickworks down the road. Married fellows for the most, and I bet you a penny
to a pound that none of 'em wants to go home before downing a pint of Dutch
courage. I don’t know what the hell happens to women after you marry ’em, but
they all turn into their mothers eventually.’
    ‘Angie couldn’t be more like her
mother if she tried.’ Eddie knocked back his drink. ‘The interfering old bat
does my bloody head in.’ He belched loudly and banged his empty pot down on the
table. ‘Fancy another?’
    ‘No ta, mate, this is enough for
me.’ Jack swallowed the remainder of his pint.
    ‘I’ll get off home then.’ Eddie
stood up, stretched his arms above his head and yawned. ‘I’ll call at my mum’s
first, see if there's any messages from my friends. Want a lift?’
    ‘It’s out of your way, Ed. I’ll
get the bus. Good luck telling Angie your news.’
    ‘Thanks, I’ll need it. See you
tomorrow when I collect my cards.’
    ‘Not if I see you first,
sunshine!’
    ***
    Eddie strolled back across the
square to the factory car park. He nodded to two men who were erecting stalls
for Tuesday’s market and looked up at the clear, starlit sky, his breath making
clouds in the freezing night air. Too cold for snow, as his mum would say. He
could smell the hops from Robinson’s Brewery and wondered how something that
stank so foul could taste so wonderful when finished. He climbed aboard his old
Triumph motorbike and shot off in the direction of his parents’ home, loving
the way the wind whipped his hair around his face. He pulled up outside the
neat semi-detached house that had been his childhood home and switched off the
engine.
    ‘Hi, Mum,’ he called out as
Lillian Mellor opened the front door, a welcoming smile lighting up her lined face
    ‘I thought I heard the bike. Come
on in and get warm, love. You look perished. I was hoping you’d call in
tonight. Roy rang earlier and said
if I saw you I was to tell you he’s some news for you. He’s helping his dad in
the fruit shop, so you can phone him there.’
    Eddie kissed his mother’s cheek
and followed her down the hallway into the warm parlour. The house smelled
clean and fresh, of Dettol, bleach and lavender furniture polish. It felt
homely and familiar and he swallowed the lump that rose in his throat, wishing
he still lived here. His mum was wearing her old checked cleaning skirt, her
feet encased in blue fluffy slippers and her grey curls tucked inside a neatly
tied turban.
    ‘Did Roy
say it was good news or bad?’ Eddie smoothed down his windswept hair and
removed his jacket. He dropped it on the floor and held out his cold hands in
front of the blazing fire.
    ‘He didn’t say one-way or the
other. Go and call him while I pour you a mug of tea. You should wear your
gloves on that bike, it’s bitter out there.’
    Eddie grabbed the phone from the
hallstand, sat down on the bottom stair, and dialled Cantello’s Fruit Shop.
    Roy’s
Italian