Chapter Two #2
Yes, Dominic Hadley made her giddy—and had done so from the very first day they had met.
It had been September, and both had been starting their last year of senior school. His father, a professor, had accepted a role at the university in Sheffield, and the family had moved up there and enrolled Dominic in a top school.
Rachel had been there on a hard-won scholarship, and had never really fitted in, while Dominic had been sent there as a matter of course.
Not that he’d wanted to be there.
He had missed London and his old school friends.
Despite being from very different backgrounds, they had struck up a friendship. They had both been complete geeks.
She’d had braces, and Dominic had just had his ceramic ones taken off, so on the very first day of their final school year their first conversation had been about the importance of retainers.
‘Get two sets made,’ Dominic had advised her, ‘and wear them every night.’ He’d told her about a friend in London who hadn’t worn his and now was having to start all over again.
‘Oh, I’ll wear them.’ Rachel had nodded and smiled her silver-and-elastic-band NHS smile. ‘I won’t be able to afford them once I turn eighteen.’
They had both been very serious about their schoolwork and the conversation had turned to chemistry, which she had found impossible but he’d handled with ease.
‘Do you want me to help you?’ he’d offered when, halfway through the first term, she’d found herself falling behind. ‘We could go through some things after school?’
He had written his address down on her exercise book and that same afternoon she had made her way to his house.
His mother’s smile had been tight when she’d greeted Rachel. Professor Hadley hadn’t even attempted one, and had made it clear he was less than impressed by his son’s choice of friend.
‘You have homework of your own to do, Dominic.’
It had been obvious to Rachel that she wasn’t particularly welcome in the Hadley household, so he had started to come to her little terraced home after school.
‘What time does your mum get home?’ Dominic had asked that first time, as they’d made tea and found biscuits in the kitchen.
‘There’s just my dad and my brothers, and they usually get in around seven.’
‘Where’s your mum?’ Dominic asked.
‘She’s dead.’
‘Rachel!’
He sounded stunned, and waited for her to elaborate, but she knew that if she explained further she would break down, and her tears had long since been removed from this house.
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s fine,’ she said, picking up her mug and heading up the stairs to her room, hoping he would leave things there.
Except he did not.
‘How?’ Dominic asked as he followed her up. ‘When?’
But Rachel reminded him that he had come over so they could study together. There should be no more to it than that.
Except those walks to her home through the park started to stretch for longer. The same park where she’d been spun and swung as a child. Sometimes they’d take a seat on the park bench, or lie on the grass and talk as they gazed up at the sky.
About the clouds.
About other kids in their class.
About their studies and how he liked coming to her home. He told her that his parents fought a lot.
‘Badly?’ Rachel asked, and turned to look at his tense expression as he nodded.
‘We moved up here so they could have a fresh start,’ Dominic told her. ‘He had an affair.’
‘Oh.’ Rachel was unused to such candour.
‘But it sounds as if it’s still going on,’ Dominic said. ‘I don’t know why she stays with him when he makes her so miserable.’ He looked over to her then. ‘Do you think your dad will ever get a girlfriend?’
‘No!’ Rachel gave a soft laugh at the very thought. ‘He says he’s got enough going on with the five of us.’
Dominic turned and looked at her. ‘How did your mother die?’
There was gentleness in his enquiry. He rolled from his back onto his side, and then, leaning on his elbow, he looked down at her, and she looked up into dark eyes that wanted to know her better.
And, given what he’d just shared about his parents, she told him the little she could without crying. ‘Something ruptured in her brain.’
‘Was it sudden?’
‘Very.’
‘Do you miss her?’
Every day, she wanted to say, but she was so scared at the depth of her feelings that she didn’t know how to share them.
‘I don’t really remember her,’ Rachel said instead, because that was sort of true as well.
She remembered some things—like her smile and her kiss, and lying in bed listening to a story; the soft lilt of her Irish voice and the sparkle of her ring as she turned the page, her pretty red nails as she pointed to words, how safe she had felt when wrapped in her perfumed arms.
But she knew she’d cry if she told him that.
And so she didn’t.
Sometimes Rachel would turn her head just for a quiet gaze at Dominic. The more time she spent with him, the more aware of him she became, all the while telling herself it could never be.
So she hid how she felt, because that was the only way she knew how to live.
‘I never know what you’re thinking,’ Dominic said late one afternoon as he met her cool green gaze.
She was about to respond that she was thinking about the equation he’d just put in front of her, but that wouldn’t be true. She could feel the warmth from his thigh next to hers, and when their heads bent forward over a book she ached with the effort of not turning her face to his.
So now she did.
His gaze was intense, with an expression she had never seen before. For once it felt as if he could see her hidden desire, and yet she did not look away.
‘Perhaps I don’t want you to know,’ she said.
‘Can I at least try and guess?’
‘You can try.’
‘And if I’m wrong?’ Dominic checked. ‘Will we still be friends?’
‘We’ll still be—’
Her voice had been halted by the softness of his lips against hers. Dominic’s guess had been absolutely right. Because of course she’d been dreaming of his kiss since the first day they’d met.
In her bedroom, sitting at her desk, he kissed her soft and slow, and she forgot about her braces, and she forgot about her inexperience, because he was new to this too.
And they were no longer shy.
No longer awkward.
At least not when it was just the two of them.
Together they revised for their looming exams, and together they learned about themselves and each other. And Rachel’s braces came off, but thanks to Dominic, she felt beautiful way before then.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, though.
His parents didn’t approve of their friendship, so they worked hard to hide their blossoming romance.
And her father, who usually got on with everyone, took an instant dislike to the awkward, polite, private school boy who, to top it all off, was from down south.
Even her brothers chimed in with less-than-sage advice.
‘Don’t be letting him know you like him, Rachel.’
‘You have to play hard to get, Rachel.’
‘He’s using you, Rachel. Just stay well back.’
But nothing—not warnings, nor dire predictions, no force on this earth—could stop them.
There was secret hand-holding under desks, and stolen kisses despite the open bedroom door her dad insisted on.
And there were forbidden touches in the times when they found themselves alone...
They always made sure, though, that when Rachel’s dad or brothers dropped home unannounced to check on them they would find two nerdy teenagers really studying that science.
One day Dominic decreed that Rachel had to get ninety per cent on a practice test if she wanted a reward. Since she only managed eighty-eight per cent, even with his generous marking, he refused to allow her any prize.
‘Sorry, Rachel...’ He gave her a sad smile. ‘You failed. Back to work!’
And back to the textbook she went—until the rattle of the removals lorry rumbling up the hilly narrow street where Rachel lived announced the arrival of her family.
‘We’re about to be checked on...’ Dominic sighed.
‘Good.’ Rachel smiled in utter relief—because the sooner they were checked on, the sooner they’d be left alone again.
The front door crashed open and Phil ran up the stairs.
‘Dad forgot his...’ Phil stopped at the top of the stairs and saw the two of them deep in their books. ‘Oh, hi, there, Dominic. Didn’t know you were coming over...’
‘I told Dad he would be,’ Rachel said indignantly.
‘Hello.’ Dominic gave his usual awkward smile. ‘How are you, Phil?’
‘Grand. So, what are the two of you doing?’
‘Revising.’ Rachel rolled her eyes.
‘Oh.’
They actually were. There were books, pencils, tea and biscuits, and not a single untoward thing had taken place.
‘I’ll leave you to it, then.’
The removals lorry rattled its noisy way down the steep road as Dominic totted up Rachel’s latest score.
Ninety-two per cent!
He’d slammed the book closed and she’d lain on her bed with her skirt up and closed her eyes in the bliss he gave.
‘There...’ she would moan needlessly. ‘There!’
And there he would flick with his tongue, over and over.
And there he would ignore a moment later, as he buried his face deep into her.
And she would press her mouth to the inside of her elbow and try not to scream his name.
‘Dominic, Dominic, Dominic!’
And then, deliciously, he had to have the same. And each kiss, each intimate touch, each climax they gave to each other, led them to want more, more, more.
They had both been virgins. The first time they’d tried her dad and brothers had been on a removal the other side of town—a big job that would see them there every day for a week. So, on that cold but sunny November morning, they had finally, properly, been alone.
It had been an unmitigated disaster.
Rachel had bled and felt sick because it had hurt so much, and Dominic had finished before they’d barely started.
Yes, a serious disaster.
Embarrassing and awkward didn’t even begin to describe it.
Never again, they’d both fervently agreed.
Never, ever again.
Absolutely not.