Chapter 10
Carrie and Poppy were having breakfast together on Sunday morning as they decided what to do with their day. Carrie wanted to be around for a delivery for the shop between ten and eleven, but after that the day was theirs.
It was raining and Carrie’s brain was trying to think of somewhere they could go that was inside and that Poppy wasn’t either too young or too old for. She was close to resorting to a movie marathon when she heard the doorbell ring.
Carrie found Michael waiting outside the shop.
“Hi,” she said, a smile immediately breaking out on her face at the sight of him.
“Hi,” he said. “Layla and I wanted to invite you to come out with us later. I was going to message you but I figured it would actually be faster to walk around and talk to you about it.”
“Come up,” said Carrie. “Would you like a coffee?”
“I’d love one.”
“Michael!” Poppy excitedly got down off the stool she was sitting on to greet him with a hug.
“Poppy! You’ve got jammy hands!” chided Carrie.
“I don’t mind,” Michael said.
“Sorry,” said Poppy, licking her fingers and Michael chuckled.
“Americano or latte?” Carrie asked, holding up two coffee pods.
“Americano, thanks,” said Michael.
He sat down at the kitchen island and Poppy climbed up next to him. He looked so comfortable in her kitchen. Not her kitchen, she reminded herself. Her kitchen was in London.
“Have you had breakfast?” Carrie asked. “I can make you some toast?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
She handed him his coffee.
“So, later, Layla and I are going climbing in a centre we sometimes go to. Well, it’s actually bouldering, which is low down climbing.
You don’t need harnesses or helmets or anything.
Anyway, we wondered if you’d like to come with us.
Layla started bouldering when she was five, so Poppy should be fine. ”
“What do you think, Pumpkin?” Carrie asked, though she already knew the answer. If an activity involved Poppy getting to spend time with her new heroine, Layla, she would definitely want to do it.
“I absolutely want to go,” Poppy decreed.
“She’s not too small?” said Carrie.
“She’ll be fine. There’s a practice room where we’ll get her started with really low walls and then when we move into the main bit of the centre you say how high you’re happy for her to go and you’ll stick to that, won’t you Poppy?”
Poppy nodded her head solemnly. “I’ll be very careful, Mummy.”
“OK,” said Carrie. “What should we wear? I’ve never been bouldering before.” She hoped she didn’t make too much of a fool of herself.
“Just something comfy. Tracksuit bottoms or leggings and a T-shirt will be fine. Shoe hire is included in the entry fee.”
“I’ll be really bad,” warned Carrie.
Michael laughed. “It doesn’t matter. We were planning on having an early lunch and heading off at one. We can all fit in my car.”
“Right, we’ll meet you by your car at one then.”
Michael downed the last of his coffee. “I’d better get going. Some of us have work to do this morning.” He winked. Her stomach fluttered.
“See you later.”
* * *
Carrie wouldn’t have thought it possible to spend as long as she did choosing between two pairs of almost identical black leggings.
That moment she and Michael had shared over the prosecco had thrown her.
This clearly wasn’t a date, yet she definitely wanted to look nice.
Though not like she was trying too hard .
. . If she hadn’t had to deal with the delivery that arrived, she’d probably still be torn between them.
Thankfully there was no time to debate the rest of her outfit as thoroughly and she quickly put on a grey vest top and tamed her curls into a high ponytail.
She envied Poppy the ease in which she chose and got changed into tracksuit bottoms and a Lego Star Wars T-shirt.
After a very quick sandwich for lunch, they made their way out of the back of the shop to meet Michael and Layla. The rain was taking a break and they were waiting by their car. Michael wore grey tracksuit bottoms and a white T-shirt and looked . . . distractingly handsome.
“Hey. Let me take your bag, I’ll pop it in the boot with ours,” he said with a welcoming smile.
“Thanks,” said Carrie, handing him their rucksack.
Poppy climbed into the back of the car. Michael had thoughtfully put in a booster seat which used to belong to Layla, and Layla went in the back too. That left the front passenger seat for Carrie.
Carrie got in the car and made a point of glancing away as Michael got in the other side. Why did he have to be so lovely and look so good in tracksuit bottoms?
The drive was beautiful. Michael took them along the coast and pointed out the bays to them, promising to take Poppy for a tour of them another day when the weather was better.
They arrived at the centre and parked up before walking around to the entrance.
There was a café next to the reception and an area selling climbing gear.
They could see the huge climbing hall through viewing windows.
Cubby holes were available by the reception to put your stuff in and climbing shoes were organised by size.
A very polite looking springer spaniel wandered around, presumably belonging to a member of staff.
Naturally, it caught Poppy’s attention and she fussed over it while the grown-ups paid and answered questions about climbing experience.
They changed into climbing shoes; Michael and Layla had their own, Carrie and Poppy used the centre’s, before they went upstairs to what was described as a warm up room.
Michael handed out chalk bags and explained the basics and how routes in the main climbing hall were shown with different coloured holds which told you how hard they were.
He told Poppy to stick to grey routes if she wanted to climb up but that if she just wanted to clamber near the ground, she could use any colour holds she wanted to.
Poppy was soon swinging her way between holds along the practice walls with Carrie going much more slowly behind her. Warmed up and with at least some idea of what they were doing though, Michael suggested they move on to some proper routes.
Downstairs, the walls were three and a half metres tall, with a large sign explaining the difficulty level of each of the routes. Some had what Michael described as overhangs. Carrie didn’t imagine she’d be trying those anytime soon.
She was surprised to see what a mixture of people there were at the centre. The ages ranged from kids who looked younger than Poppy to one guy who must have been in his sixties.
Layla and Michael took it in turns to help Poppy who seemed happy to put her faith in them and Carrie realised that, despite being in a situation where she’d usually be worried about Poppy hurting herself, she was actually quite relaxed.
She trusted them both completely with her daughter.
It was a really good feeling, as was seeing Poppy grow more confident with her climbing as she got used to finding the holds.
Her own efforts weren’t nearly as impressive.
Michael offered to spot Carrie if she was nervous about going up to the top of a route but the thought of him staring at her bottom as she made a mess of tackling one of the easiest routes in the place didn’t make this idea very attractive.
They’d been climbing for almost two hours when they all agreed they were exhausted and ready to stop. Poppy had had a brilliant time and, despite the challenges, even Carrie had to admit it was more fun than she’d expected.
Back in their regular shoes, they went into the café area where Michael treated them all to a smoothie and some crisps. Poppy looked in absolute heaven.
On the drive back to Michael’s house, they dropped off Layla for a sleepover with a friend.
It was quarter to six by the time they were back and getting out of the car.
“Thank you,” Carrie said. “We had a great time, didn’t we, Poppy?”
“Yes! Thank you for taking us, Michael. Can we go again soon?”
“If it’s OK with your mum, I think we can manage that. Maybe just let your arms recover first though. I think they’ll be aching tomorrow!” He handed Carrie the rucksack from the boot.
“Mummy would definitely like to go again! She was watching you a lot so she’d know what to do.”
“Very sensible of her,” Michael replied, evidently choking back a laugh.
“I wasn’t watching you,” said Carrie, indignantly.
“Sure you weren’t.” Michael winked and Poppy began to giggle.
Carrie threw her hands up in the air. “You two are impossible!”
She caught Michael’s gaze and they smiled at each other shyly.
“Why don’t you join us for dinner?” Carrie found herself saying.
“I’d love to,” he said with a smile that made Carrie momentarily forget what they were talking about. “I’ll need to go and check on the kittens and Monty though and take Monty out for a little walk.”
“Can I come with you?” Poppy asked.
“Oh no, Pumpkin,” Carrie said quickly. “Michael needs to get on for a little while.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “I’d like the company, and Poppy is really good with the animals.”
“If you’re positive . . .”
“Absolutely. We’ll be about half an hour or so.”
Michael and Poppy headed off hand in hand. The image made Carrie’s heart ache: why couldn’t Tony be like that with his daughter? So natural and kind. The kind of father she wanted for her daughter and she wished she’d had herself. The sort of dad Poppy so deserved.