Chapter 46
46
JACQUES’S HOME, OUTSKIRTS OF SAINT-CHAMBéRY
‘Hunter, sit. Hunter, beg. No, beg . Good boy.’
Orla was only half-looking at the dog-training Erin was attempting to do in Jacques’s lounge. She was also only half-looking at the laptop screen in front of her where some of the photos she had taken since she had been here were displayed amid the inadequate words.
‘He’s getting better at taking the treats without trying to maul my whole hand,’ Erin remarked as Hunter licked her palm.
‘That’s good,’ Orla said. It had been her stock answer since Jacques and Tommy had left the cabin. That and ‘wow’ and a few ‘well done’s. She wasn’t excelling with the vocab right now, neither on paper nor from her mouth.
‘So have you and Jacques had sex?’ Erin asked.
‘What?’ Orla exclaimed.
‘That got your attention. And a “what” instead of a “that’s good”, “wow” or “well done”.’
‘Shock tactics, Erin? That’s usually Mum’s thing. But more often it’s something random like?—’
‘Have you heard that they’re making smoothies out of car tyres now?’
‘Exactly.’
‘But I wasn’t saying anything random,’ Erin stated, stroking Hunter on the head. ‘I meant it.’
And now her sister’s eyes were fixed on her in that way she had somehow perfected.
Orla needed to clear her throat as tension built up there. What was she going to say? She took a breath. Only the truth set you free.
‘How did you know?’
Erin gasped. ‘I didn’t really know. But now I do. So that’s why they’ve run away down to the village. Because he’s now avoiding you? Well, I guess you were snapping at him.’
‘Was I?’
‘Well, he was snapping at you too. It was like watching Mum and Dad squabbling over Pointless .’
Great. So she’d given herself away and was now emulating her parents. She wasn’t currently being such a great role model for her sister.
‘So did it not go so well?’ Erin asked. ‘Are you a bit out of practice?’
‘No! Well, yes, but…’
‘Everything I’ve read says it’s easy, like riding a bike, but I don’t get that because they all have a million gears and some of them have actual batteries and a motor so not easy at all.’
Orla didn’t know what to say to that. And it hadn’t been difficult, it had been easy, effortless in all the best ways and full of heat.
‘OK, I can tell from your expression it was absolutely nothing like mountain biking.’
Hunter barked and Erin rewarded the noise with a treat for some unknown reason.
‘It shouldn’t have happened,’ Orla said. ‘It was poor decision-making on both our parts. We are going back to the UK in a few days. It made no sense.’
‘Unless you believe in love,’ Erin said, waving her hand in front of Hunter and getting him to spin in circles.
‘The type in fairy tales? I think we both know that’s a stretch in this day and age.’
‘But it doesn’t have to be. You just have to give it a chance. Like I am with Burim.’
It was such an old-fashioned view she could almost see her sister playing with her Sleeping Beauty toy castle now. Dressing the dolls ready for a ball, believing in a first dance ending in a happy-ever-after.
‘If you always think people are going to let you down then you’ll never let anyone in,’ Erin continued. ‘Or, you’ll end up thinking that they’ve let you down when really you might have let them down instead.’
She had fled from Jacques’s bed. Barely unravelled herself from his body before she was looking for an excuse to run .
‘You don’t have to marry him, Orla,’ Erin said. ‘But anyone can see there’s a vibe between you.’
‘Really?’ she asked.
‘Sure. Tommy thinks so too. Apparently, Jacques had this girlfriend called Katie and she just didn’t get him at all. And I know he can be a bit gruff, but Tommy says, if Jacques lets you get to know even a small part of the real him then that’s a big deal.’
She did feel she was getting to know him, that he didn’t open the door to everyone and that what was inside his mind was locked away as securely as this smart home.
‘By the way,’ Erin began, stroking Hunter behind the ears. ‘I think Delphine has cancer. She has a horrible cough when she thinks no one is listening, she’s definitely sick when she visits the bathroom and she has tablets in her handbag. I googled what they were.’
‘What?’ Orla exclaimed.
‘I didn’t know whether to say anything but, well, if Saint-Chambéry is as close-knit as it claims to be then everyone should already know, right? And she must be OK otherwise she wouldn’t be running around organising events and bossing everyone around and telling me I have to be the Queen of the Brouette this year. I mean, I don’t even know if we will still be here for the festival, but wearing a crown sounded kind of cool.’
Surely Erin had got it wrong. But, if she hadn’t, suddenly now Orla’s issues with romance didn’t seem so high up on the agenda.