Twelve
‘Are you serious?’
Madi couldn’t believe it when I told her about my talk with Marcus, or that I’d offered Adele a job, but what really blew her mind was when I told her about Alec Richman and the bedroom incident.
‘Deadly serious. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. It was as if a magnet was pulling us together. And the lust and longing I felt were out of this world. Talk about animal instincts. Honestly, if we’d been in that bedroom for even a second longer, I think we’d have been having sex. And we’d still be having it now. Several hours later. There’s something about him. Don’t ask me what because he was rude and sarcastic and he’s got a girlfriend, fiancée, or wife, so he would’ve been an absolute bastard if he had had sex with me. But even so.’ I let out a long and wistful sigh. ‘I’ve never wanted a man as much in my entire life.’
‘Crikey. That’s worrying. You said he’s coming back to finish the job. Did you mean the heating, or something more personal?’ She laughed.
‘Hilarious. I had to stay out of his way while he was here and I’ll have to do the same when he comes back, because believe me, if he looks at me again, the way he looked at me in my bedroom, I think I’d throw myself at him.’
‘Perhaps you should ask Adele to stay with you while he’s there. You said she’s starting tomorrow, didn’t you?’
‘She is. And maybe I should.’
‘So is Paul ancient history now then?’
‘Paul who? That was a joke. I don’t know. And that’s another problem. If Paul asks me out, I think I should say yes. Because whatever this is with Alec, it can’t go anywhere, can it? And it’d only be a fling for him, and I think I’m ready for something more. Something serious. Something lasting. I want what you’ve got with Tristan. Minus the apples and the cider. No wait. I’ll have the cider too.’
‘I think you should go out with Paul. I don’t know why he hasn’t asked you yet though. Maybe he feels he needs to leave it a few days and not rush into another relationship right away.’
‘Maybe. And that makes sense. I’ll see Berry on Thursday so I might try to find out what’s going on, and perhaps I’ll drop a hint and see what she says.’
‘That’s a great idea. Are you going to stay at your parents’ house again tonight?’
‘Yep. The heating won’t work properly until Alec gets the new timer and does something else that I can’t remember, because all I could think about when he was telling me what was wrong with it, and also with the tap, was that he had come to bed eyes, and how gorgeous and sexy his mouth was and how much I wanted him to kiss me. All over. Every single inch of me.’
‘You’ve got it bad.’
‘I know. There should be a vaccine for this.’
‘Well, speaking of kissing someone all over, Tristan has just walked in with our fish and chips, so I’ll love you and leave you. Call me tomorrow with all the details.’
‘Love you both. Bye for now.’
I rang off and glanced out of my sitting room window, just in time to spot Marcus. I was going to rush outside and ask him why he’d called my plumber and how he’d got the man to come to me today, but I realised he was walking past my cottage and was therefore either popping to the post box, which for some reason seemed unlikely, especially as it appeared that he had a wine bottle in one hand, or he was on his way to Adele’s.
I got rather excited until it struck me that his walk was unsteady. Was the man drunk? Was it wise to go and have a chat with Adele after all this time, if so? Or had he needed to be tipsy to pluck up the courage to go and apologise after nearly two years of not speaking to her?
I watched surreptitiously until he made it to the front door and then I waited for a few minutes longer to be certain she had let him in. I smiled to myself as it was obvious that she had and I kept my fingers crossed that my work here was done. At least as far as getting Adele and Marcus to talk to one another and to be friends with me. There might still be a way to go until Adele and Marcus would be best friends again. And maybe something more.
I knew Adele still had feelings for Marcus, however much she might try to convince herself those feelings were of hatred. And Marcus had told me himself that he had once thought of asking her out but that his so-called best friend at the time, Jeff, had persuaded him not to. He’d said that I had made him see something in a new light; something that had only been dark until now. Was that something the realisation that what he felt for Adele was love, or something close to that, and not bitterness and hate.
Only time would tell. And on the subject of time, I had less than three hours until curfew at Mum and Dad’s.
I had intended to spend the entire day making Christmas decorations for my business. Instead I’d spent more than an hour with Adele, a few hours here, and then almost an hour with Marcus, counting both times we talked. The first time over the fence and the second inside his cottage.
After that it was back to Adele’s for twenty or so minutes and then here, getting soaked by a tap, and then thinking about why I shouldn’t be wanting to have sex with a gorgeous, hunky and, I suspected, exceedingly passionate plumber.
So, although I had avoided him as much as possible and shut myself away in the sitting room on the pretext of making my Christmas decorations, all I had really done was stare out of the window, and swoon over Alec.
At least he had fixed my tap. Which meant I could turn that on without risk of a drenching, so I strolled into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, but decided to have a mug of hot chocolate instead.
After heating the milk and mixing it with the mint-flavoured hot chocolate powder, I topped it with whipped cream, added a chocolate flake, some chocolate sprinkles, and a few marshmallows shaped as stars, and dusted those with cocoa powder. It was almost a dessert as well as a hot drink.
I opened one of the bags of Adele’s cinnamon biscuits that I’d bought from her that afternoon, having already opened one earlier, to give Alec biscuits with his tea, all of which had been eaten. I’d just have two with my hot chocolate, but I’d take the bag with me, just in case.
By the time I had to leave to get to my parents’ house, the second bag was also empty. This cinnamon biscuit addiction was getting serious, and it was only the first day of eating them.
I had intended to drive, having only had one glass of wine with Marcus, but I needed to walk off those biscuits.
It was a bitterly cold evening and I wrapped my scarf around my neck and chin and pulled my bobble hat down further over my ears. My coat was thick and my boots were fleece-lined, as were my leather gloves, so it was only my eyes and nose that were exposed to the elements but when a car honked and pulled up beside me, Berry exploded with laughter.
‘Evening, Rudolph,’ she teased. ‘Will you light our way to the pub, with your bright red nose?’
‘Guess who’s going on Santa’s naughty list,’ I parried.
‘Hey, Noelle,’ said Paul.
I bent slightly to look in at him and remembered why I’d got a crush on him in the first place.
‘Hey yourself, Paul.’
‘Coming with us?’ Berry asked.
‘Where to?’ I queried.
‘The pub, Dumbo.’
‘Ah. I believe you’re getting your cartoon characters mixed up, but as for the pub, that’d be a firm, no thanks.’
‘Why not?’
I frowned at her. ‘Because I was drunk on Saturday, not drunk but did drink on Sunday, and I’ve had a large glass of white wine today. Expensive white wine I might add. That’s taken care of my alcohol consumption for the week, I believe. Fourteen units, remember?’
‘Who are you and what have you done with my friend, Noelle?’
‘Please come,’ said Paul, leaning across his sister. ‘I’d like to ask you something.’
That made it very tempting, and yet I said no.
‘I’m sorry but I really can’t tonight. I need to be at Mum and Dad’s before ten or they’ll lock me out. It’s nine forty-five-ish now. I checked just before you pulled up. Perhaps you could ask me tomorrow?’
‘Hop in,’ Paul said. ‘If you won’t come to the pub, at least let me give you a lift to your house.’
He didn’t have to tell me twice, and I opened the rear passenger door and climbed in.
‘Thank you so much for this. It’s really cold out there. They forecast snow but I think it’s too cold for that.’
‘Whatever,’ said Berry, swivelling round on her seat to look at me. ‘Paul wants to ask you out on a date.’
‘Oh!’ I shot a look at him and then back at Berry. Both were smiling. ‘Erm. Do you?’
‘I do,’ he said, nodding.
‘Well. That would be lovely. Thank you.’
‘See,’ said Berry nudging him in the ribs even though he was driving. ‘I told you she had the hots for you.’ And then she grinned at me. ‘I could tell. Although I’m disappointed you didn’t share your feelings with me. We’ll be sisters if this works out. And I’m sure it will. Imagine that. I’ll be auntie to your kids. All six of them. Paul’s always wanted lots of kids. This is going to be our best Christmas ever. I can feel it.’
Paul met my eyes in the rearview mirror and the look he shot me made me feel my entire future had been mapped out by Berry and her brother.
I laughed nervously. ‘Erm. Hold on there, tiger. Let’s not run before we can walk. And six kids? Really? I’m thirty-six now so that’s some going. I’ve always preferred smaller families.’
‘Nah,’ said the terrible twosome in unison. That name for them had popped into my head. ‘Big families are best.’
As he pulled up outside my parents’, Paul jumped out of the car and held the door open for me, sliding his arm around my waist and pulling me close the second I got out. His face was inches from mine and his hot breath warmed my nose.
‘Think of the fun we’ll have making those six kids,’ he said, his mouth closing in on me as he tugged at my scarf with his fingers. ‘I’ve fancied you since we met. That’s why my ex was so mad. I think she knew. I was going to tell her anyway, so don’t worry about that. I was going to dump her for you, I just hadn’t got around to it yet. Wanna come and stay at my place tonight instead?’
‘Erm. Tempting, but no. Thank you. It’s been a hectic day. I need my sleep.’
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Berry leaning across the seat and watching us and I was frozen on the spot, but not from the cold, from irrational fear.
Fear of Berry being our constant companion, fear of six kids, fear of Paul’s impending kiss. A kiss I’d been wanting since the first day we’d met.
A kiss that, when it came, wasn’t as nice as I’d imagined it would be. In fact, it wasn’t that nice at all. It was a sloppy kiss. A cold kiss, if that made sense. A kiss that lacked emotion, and yet his voice, his looks, his body all suggested he wanted me. His kiss told me I might as well have kissed a frog.
Was this how Paul usually kissed? Or were we simply incompatible in the lip-locking department?
I think I might’ve breathed a sigh of relief when it was over. I definitely felt relieved, and as he came in for another, saying, ‘That was nice,’ I ducked out of the way and somehow managed to wriggle free of his arm and the body of the car.
‘Uh-huh,’ I lied. ‘I must go in. Good night.’
‘Oh. Good night, babe,’ Paul said. ‘Pleasant dreams. I know what I’ll be dreaming about.’
‘Night-night,’ said Berry, giving me a strange look.
‘Good night,’ I said forcing a smile.
‘I’ll give you a bell,’ Paul called out.
I assumed he meant he’d phone me, not that he’d give me an actual bell. Unless he thought I was some sort of prize cow and he was going to hang a bell around my neck.
I had never wanted to get inside my parents’ house so fast. And for the first time in my adult life, I genuinely hoped that a man who had told me he would call me – wouldn’t.
I called out to Mum and Dad and said I needed the loo, then I rushed upstairs and sent Madi a text.
‘Are you free? If so, please call me. If not, don’t worry. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow.’
A second or two later, Madi called and I told her all about Paul, the odd behaviour, and that kiss.
‘Crikey’ she said. ‘It’s weird, isn’t it? We build up this image and impression of what a person will be like and all the signs tell us we’re right. Then suddenly we discover they’re a chameleon and they’re not at all the person we thought they were. If anyone other than you had told me all that about Paul, I’d have called them a liar.’
‘I know! I don’t believe it myself and I was there. Oh god, Madi. What am I going to do?’
‘Move to Somerset, I would suggest.’
‘That might not be such a bad idea. How could I have been so wrong about a person who seemed so right?’
‘Ask Marcus that question. And every other divorced person on the planet. And all the people conned by those romance scammers. Folks just ain’t who they make out they are, honey-child.’ Madi laughed.
‘That’s very true. At least I discovered Paul’s … quirks, before our first date. Imagine if I hadn’t found out, and we did end up getting married. Although I couldn’t take many more of those dreadful kisses, so it wouldn’t have got that far.’
‘I expect the wedding’s booked for next week. He’d want to make a start on those six kids.’
‘He wanted to make a start tonight. Thank god my parents not only lock but also bolt the front door.’ I laughed.
‘At least you can’t say your life is boring. I think this is going to be an exciting and eventful Christmas in Fairlight Bay. Why did I have to fall head over hills in love with a man who wanted to live in Somerset, and not one who wanted to live in your neck of the woods?’
‘That’s a question I often ask. I miss you so much, Madi. I wish you were here. Especially as I’ve got to face Paul and Berry. I can avoid them until Thursday but I must go to the market stall that day.’
‘We’ll think of something. Now get some sleep. You’ll need it if you’re going to live with six kids and a kissing frog.’
‘You’re so funny. Good night.’