The Song

Part Seventy

With no more information from Aston I went upstairs to throw together a bag of things, making sure to get everything on his list precisely as he wrote it down. He must have left for a bit, because when I came back downstairs a half hour later the house was empty.

Since I had nothing else to do but wait, I went to my piano and continued to work on my piece, hoping to get the last few edits in before leaving so I could play it for him right when we got back.

“JESS!!!” a voice shouted through the house.

“Piano!”

“You ready?” Aston asked, poking his head into the room.

“Yeah sure,” I said, grabbing the book with the song I was working on in it so I could stuff it in my bag.

We got in the car and headed out of town, Aston humming along to the radio as I poured over my songbook.

“How can you work on that without your piano?” he asked.

“The music is all written down, I can imagine it in my head,” I replied, playing imaginary keys on my knee as I reviewed a few chords.

“You’re crazy.”

“You’re just jealous you don’t know how.”

“I want to know how!” Aston retorted, pulling onto the motorway, “But my wife won’t teach me!”

“Maybe so she can have some secrets…” I teased, going back to my music.

Two hours later we stopped off at a Tesco on the outskirts of a town. I had no idea where we were or where we were heading so I went along with it, helping Aston pick food to cook for a few meals.

“Where are we going?” I asked again.

“Not telling!” he said for probably the millionth time.

Another hour later and we stopped by the side of the road in a little drive hidden in a nook of trees. We were on a wooded lane and there was a path going into the woods that was maybe five feet wide.

“Ok wellies on!” Aston said, hopping out of the car and opening the boot.

“Wellies?” I asked, looking down the path.

“It’s a bit muddy,” Aston replied, pulling his black wellies out and swapping them for his trainers.

“I didn’t bring my wellies.”

“Jess! I told you to! On the list!”

“I thought it said willies!” I said, blushing like crazy as I realized my mistake.

Aston burst out laughing, so much so he had to sit on the bumper of his car so he could hold his stomach and catch his breath. “Oh my god!!” he laughed, “Head out of the gutter babe!”

“I…” I started, only to snap my mouth shut. I was so mortified by my mistake, I couldn’t believe it. “I swear it said willies!!”

“Wellies babe!!! I’ve got the rest covered!” Aston grinned.

“I couldn’t read your chicken scratch!” I defended, huffing and looking down the path.

“Oh god, this is too funny!”

“Stop!!!” I moaned.

“I’m never going to let you forget this, sorry babe,” Aston grinned.

“It’s not fair.”

“You could have asked!”

“I thought you were serious!” I said, “I mean we spent the whole day yesterday in bed! I didn’t know!” My cheeks were still burning as Aston laughed at me, my mistake clearly hilarious in his eyes.

“It’s fine,” he finally said, standing up and wrapping an arm around my shoulder, “You can wear mine if you want, my trainers have seen better days.”

“Thanks Ast…” I said dejectedly. I still couldn’t believe my mistake, it was so embarrassing!

After swapping shoes around, we gathered as much as we could in our arms and locked up the car, heading down the path. “Where the hell are you taking us?” I asked.

“Only a quarter mile or so,” Aston said, “It’s kind of remote.”

“Kind of?” I teased.

“You were the one who found this place.”

“Oh.”

We walked through the forest, finally stopping in front of a tiny cottage. It had clearly seen better days, and looked like it hadn’t been lived in for years.

“Ast, no offense but this looks kind of like a shit hole,” I said.

“I know,” he grinned, producing a big brass key and opening it up.

“Where did you…” I started, only to shut my mouth when I remembered that he’d left the house for a few hours that afternoon and had probably gone to get the key.

Once in the cottage I did a quick tour. There wasn’t much to see, just a main room, a tiny kitchen, and a rickety little staircase that led to a moderately sized bedroom. It was a bit worse for wear, but it had potential.

“You found this place,” Aston said, coming up behind me in the bedroom and dropping our bags on the floor, “Online. I had just come off of tour and you were looking for somewhere to come for a long quiet weekend alone. You claimed the pictures were positively magical, but when we got here we were quite underwhelmed. It’s uhhh not the nicest cottage in England.”

“So you brought me here again?” I asked, my eyebrows raised. Was he tricking me?

“There are a few surprises about this place,” Aston said coyly, “It’s better than it looks.”

“Right…”

“Come here, I’ll show you one,” he said, grabbing my hand and leading me back downstairs. I watched as he dragged a huge sheet off of something, revealing a gorgeous old stand up piano.

“Oh my god.”

“Right?” he asked, “It’s lovely.”

“How does it sound?”

“Try it.”

I sat down at the piano, pushing a key. It was a bit out of tune, but nothing too terrible. In fact, with a little bit of sprucing up, I could play Aston his song before we left the cottage!

“Hey Jess!” Aston said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Mind if I get a pair of willies from you?” he grinned.

“AST!!!” I groaned.

“Seriously babe…”

“Don’t make fun of meee!!!”

“You’re too cute,” he laughed, pulling me off the piano bench and kissing me on the tip of my nose.

“For real though, can I get my wellies? Need to go to the car and get the rest of our stuff including the willies?”

I smacked him hard in the stomach, kicking off the boots in a huff as he laughed at me again.

Never again would I make that mistake!!!

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Bit of a typo in the last part turned into a bit of a challenge in this part... haha not gonna change it now!!! JR xx