Chapter Fifteen
Gabi
Gabi was feeling good the day after Story Stars.
She’d had a surprisingly sexy dream about a masseur with wandering hands and woken up with a huge grin on her face.
Walker certainly had a magic touch. She’d been sliding down that chair under his fingers, and God knows what would have happened if Rosie hadn’t come back, but she had a pretty good idea.
For the rest of the week, Gabi found herself chatting to people who had been in the audience at the Lit Lounge.
When she took Jayden to the park after school, children ran to her at the park bench to ask questions about stunts.
People called her name in the street and waved across the road when they spotted her.
She made an effort to remember names and faces, committing them to memory as soon as she heard them.
She’d even had an invitation from the local secondary school to go in and give a talk on being a stuntwoman and a call from the local radio station to do an interview on air about her career.
It was amazing how quickly her name had got around.
She wasn’t used to being known. Not as a local. It was strange.
Gabi’s job usually took her away so much, she didn’t really feel like she belonged where she lived.
The only person she knew in her entire building was the doorman, and he wasn’t exactly chatty.
He only glanced up from his newspaper long enough to check you were a resident in the building and in the three years she’d lived there, he hadn’t once called her by name.
It was the same when she was away on a shoot.
People knew who she was, but she had a part to be played.
It was a job. She came in when necessary and performed whatever death-defying stunt she was employed to do, and then she left again.
She was on nodding acquaintance with some of the directors as they moved between different jobs.
She recognised some of the make-up artists or set builders, but it was a transient community.
Nobody stayed still. Everyone was always looking for the next gig.
It didn’t lend itself to lasting relationships. Not even deep friendships.
The local coffee shop didn’t know Gabi’s order.
In fact, some of the baristas were new every time she went in there.
She didn’t have a ‘table’ at the local pub.
She didn’t even have a local pub, come to think of it.
The last few weeks were beginning to feel like a familiar, pleasant holiday destination she could come back to sometime, although as soon as this boot was off, so was she. Back to reality. Back to her life.
The front door slammed so hard it literally shook the house. She started. Jayden rounded the corner and shot his bag at the hook without looking. His face was thunderous.
‘What is it?’ Gabi asked, throwing her hands up in question. He shook his head, looking so much like Amber when she was fierce.
He threw himself down in the chair, almost knocking over her coffee. He grabbed a pen and leaned over the page. A few seconds later, he held it up. A sentence in spiky writing, almost joined up but not quite.
We have to do a family tree.
He folded his arms, bottom lip protruding. Gabi breathed out, feeling the frustration coming off him in waves.
‘For a project?’ she asked.
He banged the table with his hand and signed something furiously at her. She frowned and pointed at the pen again. He sighed, wrote just two words and held the pad up for her.
It had the word Mum at the top. Then an arrow to the word Me at the bottom.
He threw his hands up.
She reached over for his chair, surprising herself – and Jayden.
She pulled his chair closer until she could put an arm around his shoulder.
His ten-year-old body trembled with emotion, and she was struck by the intensity of it.
Because she recognised it. She had felt the same. She still did sometimes.
Taking the paper from him, she drew her own family tree. She put the word Mamma in the top left-hand corner. The word Papà in the top right-hand corner. Then the word Me at the bottom in the middle. She purposefully didn’t draw arrows linking any of them together.
Jayden raised his eyes to her and then flicked his finger between them, as though demonstrating he and she were the same, but Gabi shook her head.
‘Not the same,’ she said, ‘because you have a mum who loves you very much.’
Gabi leaned forwards, determined to make Jayden feel better.
‘We can ask your mum tonight about her family in Jamaica,’ Gabi said, pulling his page towards her. She chose a bright red pen and wrote aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandma, Grandpa on his sheet around the word Me. His face brightened.
‘And we could put on all the people that love you as family here in Honeybridge. They’re just as good as family.’ She wrote Rosie, Wren, Riley and added exclamation marks. Round the edges of the paper, she added Fox and his boys, Walker, Etienne, Isabella.
Suddenly the page looked full to bursting. She glanced back at her sheet beside it on the table. The word Me sat in splendid isolation at the bottom in the middle of the page. Who could she add apart from Isabella, Zio and Zia? Nobody.
Jayden picked up both pages and compared them in his hands.
His full one. Her empty one. Picking up the pen again, he bent his head and circled one word on her page.
Dad. The moment sat heavy between them. Gabi was so far out of her depth she needed a life belt.
She knew Jayden’s dad had left when Jayden’s hearing loss was confirmed and had never shown his face again.
She knew that since then, the only man Jayden had had a relationship with was Alex and it hadn’t ended well. Her heart hammered.
Jayden took the pen.
I wish I had a dad.
There it was. A simple truth. She sighed and nodded, realising the only thing she could do was acknowledge his feelings. She’d had the latest text from her papà yesterday, on the first of May. And even though she knew her papà, the same words rang true for her. She wished she had a dad.
‘But your mum is a ten out of ten,’ she said, nudging him. The mood needed changing, and Gabi knew just how to do it. Something physical which would shake him up and out of his gloom. Something that would make them both laugh.
‘Let’s do something different tonight,’ she said. ‘Go and get changed. I’m going to teach you how to fall – safely. You’re going to be a stuntman.’
His eyes lit up and he surprised her with a hot, small-boy hug before racing from the room. Great, his worries were already forgotten. She wished she could forget her family worries as easily. She started looking around for something they could use as a crash pad when the doorbell rang.
She limped her way down the hall and opened the front door to a very unexpected pleasure. Walker.
‘Hi,’ he said, in his soft Scottish voice. He was in jeans and a Scottish rugby shirt, obviously not on shift. He looked so fine, holding a plain parcel wrapped in brown paper. ‘I was hoping you’d be home.’
‘Then it’s your lucky day,’ Gabi said, thinking the same and glad that she was in. She held the door open and sneaked a look at his denim-clad bum as he preceded her down the hall.
‘How’s your week been?’ she asked, which immediately made her think of the last time she’d seen him. Or felt him, more like.
‘Busy,’ he said. ‘A house fire, two school visits and one woman trapped in a toilet.’ Gabi snorted. ‘How about yours?’
‘Busy too,’ she said. ‘Three physio sessions, four gym sessions and two trips to the shops to replace things I’ve dropped.’
‘I might be able to help with that,’ Walker said. ‘I was thinking about what you said, about how you can’t carry anything. So, I made you this.’ He held the parcel out between them and Gabi bit her lip in surprise.
She couldn’t remember the last time anyone apart from Isabella had bought her a present.
She was quite often away working for her birthday, and usually celebrated quietly with a cake and a card signed by the crew, if she was lucky.
If she was at home, she might meet Isabella for dinner or drinks.
Her parents didn’t send anything. Her dad always remembered the day at least and sent her his usual message.
Her mum occasionally remembered – depending on how much fun she was having.
So, presents were few and far between. At Christmas, if she joined Isabella and her parents, then there were always gifts.
But her zia and zio had been travelling for the past couple of years and instead FaceTimed her on Christmas Day with a beach or a jungle in the background. Still, that was a present in itself.
Walker pressed the gift closer to her now, and she took it in her hands, lost for words.
The paper wasn’t fancy. It was brown, thick, and sellotaped neatly along the edges. Gabi peeled the tape carefully and folded the paper back to reveal a wooden, rectangular tray which had been customised with the addition of a pair of elastic braces to the handles on the sides.
Gabi lifted it towards her, realising what it was designed to be, and made a small sound of amazement.
‘You made this?’ she asked and saw a slight colour in his cheeks as he nodded.
‘Here, let me,’ he said, taking the tray out of her hands.
She held her breath as he moved behind her and she felt his fingers against her lower back, clipping the braces onto her jeans.
Then he was in front of her, close enough for her to see the rise of his chest as he settled the straps over her shoulders and smoothed them down.
‘Comfy?’ he asked and waited for her nod before moving back. The tray was now balanced against her waist, perfectly level and steady.
She picked up her crutches and gave him the nod.
‘Let’s try this out,’ she said and Walker grabbed her forgotten coffee cup from the table and placed it on the tray. She made her way one full circuit of the table. The coffee didn’t spill.
‘Walker, that’s so thoughtful!’ she said, turning back to where he was watching her progress anxiously. Unloading the tray again, she snapped off the braces and detangled herself. ‘It’s going to make life so much easier!’
He looked genuinely pleased.
‘Thank you, really.’ She took the couple of steps towards him in her boot, wanting to show him just how touched she was.
She put both hands to his chest, which felt as though it had been carved from stone, and turned her face up to his.
Close up, he smelled of peppery spice and his jaw was freshly shaven and firm against hers as she pressed her lips to his cheek.
His hands found her elbows, holding her gently, and she had the sudden urge to twist her arms around his neck and taste his mouth.
Get a grip, she thought. It was just a kiss on the cheek.
But all of a sudden, she wanted to ravish the man in the middle of the afternoon.
Jayden’s descent on the stairs sounded like a herd of elephants, but served to bring her back to reality.
She stepped back slightly, her hand falling from Walker’s chest. He was watching her carefully, and suddenly she thought that maybe he’d wanted the kiss too.
She could see the amber in his hazel eyes, like small sparks of fire. Her breath caught.
‘I didn’t realise Jayden was here,’ Walker said. Was that disappointment in his voice? Or was she imagining it?
‘Yes, he gets home at three thirty every day,’ Gabi said, wondering why the hell she was being so specific. Unless she wanted him to come by another time?
‘Shame,’ said Walker quietly, and his eyes burned into hers. ‘I thought you might need a massage.’
Gabi felt a jolt of pure excitement. So, she wasn’t mistaken. He did feel it too.
‘That would have been nice,’ she said just before Jayden raced into the kitchen, wearing jogging bottoms and ready for instruction. ‘But we are doing fall guy training here today,’ Gabi said, raising her voice.
‘Another time then,’ Walker said, turning to leave. He paused, then turned to face her. ‘Are you coming to the hoedown at The Bolthole at the weekend? Fox texted the girls about it. Apparently he has a special announcement to make.’
Gabi grinned. He wanted her to go. Who knew what might happen?
‘I’ll be there,’ she said, and he nodded. Pushing his hair off his face, he gave her one last scorching look before walking towards the front door.
Ten minutes later, as Jayden practised his forward rolls on the crash mat in the garden, Gabi sat in a nearby wicker chair and inspected her new tray.
Not just a present, a handmade present. It had taken time and thought and patience.
She ran her fingers down the elastic. They turned in her hands and she saw the name tag, Walker McBride.
He’d used his own braces. And suddenly all her thoughts of Honeybridge as a holiday destination came flooding back – after all, a holiday wasn’t a holiday without a holiday romance.