Chapter Sixteen #4
Maddie thought they would scoff down their dinner and run back upstairs, but they took their time.
They indulged in dessert — sticky toffee pudding for Maddie and a crème br?lée for James — then he ordered an Irish coffee and she opted for a cappuccino made with oat milk.
When they were done, the waiter asked if they’d like another bottle of wine, and they decided on a whim, since the restaurant was empty, to curl up by the fire with it and chat.
Concerned by how much he had spent on the trip, Maddie insisted on paying for dinner.
When they’d settled the tab, James settled himself on the comfiest-looking sofa, opening his arms so that she could nestle in the nook between the top of his chest and his shoulder.
“So,” he said, sighing happily. “When — and how — are we telling everyone?”
Maddie groaned. As happy as she was that things were finally sorted out between them — that they were doing this, without a doubt — she was not looking forward to her brothers and her parents finding out about her secret relationship.
Her parents would be ecstatic, her brothers, too, actually, but there was almost certainly a significant amount of teasing to come.
For a while, they would make her and James the centre of attention, the butt of all jokes, and, albeit for a nice reason, Maddie was dreading it.
“Tomorrow?” she suggested. James looked surprised, but he nodded, happily.
Maddie grinned. She hoped her urgency might banish any fears he had that she was embarrassed by him.
Although she was very much enjoying where they were at, there was a part of her that longed for the future, for a time when she didn’t yearn for the weight of James upon her every moment of every day.
A time when they were just James and Maddie.
Maddie and James. A time when there were no surprises associated with their togetherness, because it was old, certain, and accepted.
She hoped one day someone might consider her experienced, might ask her for advice the way she sought support from Autumn.
She was so close she could feel it, she just needed to take the plunge.
* * *
They were up half the night, so they slept in late, leaving the hotel exactly on check-out time. They put the bags in the car and then strolled, hand in hand, around Ware. They stopped for a coffee and some breakfast, munching on vegan pastries as they browsed Ware’s tiny gift shops and bookstores.
“In the next bookshop we go to, I’ll give you five minutes to choose five books and I’ll buy them for you,” James said. Maddie laughed.
“Why only five minutes?” she asked. “And, while we’re at it, why only five books?”
“Because it’s fun,” he said. “It’ll force you to make quick decisions. Perhaps you’ll end up reading something you never expected.”
“You’re just sick of browsing, aren’t you?” she teased.
“No,” he said, in a tone that made clear he was lying.
“Are there no books you fancy?” she asked.
“I don’t really read,” he said. She eyed him, pointedly. “All right, I never read. I don’t think I’ve read a book since school.”
“You really don’t know what you’re missing,” she told him. “To be fair, Marley never used to read, either, until Autumn got him into it. Now he constantly has his nose in a book.”
“Maybe you’ll do the same for me. Slowly morph me away from ‘guitar man’ and turn me into ‘book man’.”
Maddie tittered at that, though she was thoughtful. “You can be both. I’m still not sure I like the reduction of any of us down to our hobbies,” she said.
“Me neither.” James shrugged. “When I first came up with that concept, I was just trying to find a way to let you know I play guitar.”
Maddie laughed. “And that you weren’t a podcaster?” she added.
“Exactly that.” He grinned. “With this curly barnet and the Chelsea boots and the travel, I do give off podcaster vibes. I didn’t want you to get the wrong impression.”
“It worked,” she said, stopping outside a small, dimly lit second-hand bookshop. “Five minutes and five books, you said?”
James held up his hand to corroborate the numbers, eyeing his fingers playfully. “Not a second longer and not a single extra book,” he said, warningly. “Your time starts when you enter the store.
“Right,” Maddie agreed to the terms. “Are you ready, then?”
James nodded, checking his watch.
“Ready?” he said, watching the second arm approach twelve. “Go!”
* * *
They moseyed on home in the early afternoon.
Maddie desperately wanted an extra night in Ware with James, but she knew their joint absence over two nights would raise suspicion beyond all reasonable doubt, and, for some reason, she felt like she should tell her parents herself what was happening between them.
As they pulled up into the driveway, she saw Autumn’s car parked outside and found herself hoping Marley wasn’t there, not because she didn’t want him to know, but because she’d rather stagger this revelation out.
Her parents were sitting in the kitchen with Autumn and Bluebell, each nursing a coffee. They stopped talking when James and Maddie entered, and Maddie got the distinct impression they had just been talking about the two of them.
“Hey, guys, how was the garden centre?” Autumn asked. Maddie recognised immediately that this was the excuse she had given as to why Maddie wasn’t with her and Bluebell, and why she and James were returning to the house together. She didn’t have the heart to lie. Luckily, James did.
“It was crap,” he said. “We didn’t get anything at all.”
Maddie’s parents stared pointedly at her, and she couldn’t help it.
She smiled. Her reaction made her mother’s mouth twitch, and Maddie lost her composure completely.
She rolled her lips in on themselves to try and stop herself from laughing, but it was no use.
Autumn and Bluebell, diligently committed to the facade, did a great job of pretending they were confused, but her parents were ignoring them, folding their arms and shaking their heads in what Maddie knew was jest. She felt James’ eyes upon her and, though she couldn’t see him, knew, somehow, he was grinning, too.
“Which centre did you go to, James?” Emma asked.
“One in Ware,” he said.
“Gulliver’s?” Emma asked. Maddie knew this was a trap.
James nodded. “That’s the one.”
Emma sat forward, pouring herself another coffee from the cafetière. “There is no garden centre called Gulliver’s in Ware.” She picked up her mug.
Maddie could no longer hold in her laugh.
She guffawed dramatically, covering her mouth with her hand, embarrassed.
James winced at being caught out, but was clearly amused.
Maddie turned to look at him, and they stared at each other for a moment, breaking their gaze only when Maddie shrugged.
She turned back to her parents. It was now or never.
“James and I are seeing each other,” she said.
Emma clapped her hands and did a little squeak. “I knew it.” She nudged Ben with her elbow. “Didn’t I say something was going on between them?”
Ben nodded. He was staring at Maddie. His mouth was set in a smile, but there was something else behind his eyes. Concern.
“I’m so happy,” Emma said. “Oh, you should have told us before! You know how much we love you, James.”
Maddie rescued him. “We just wanted to keep it between us for a while.”
“I bet these two knew.” Emma gestured with her eyes to Autumn and Bluebell. Both women grinned.
“Fair play to you two,” James said. “Keeping it secret all this time.”
“Goes without saying,” Bluebell said. “What happens in your relationship stays between you two and the two of us.”
Everyone laughed heartily, and then, since she wasn’t sure what she should do, Maddie took a seat at the table and poured herself a cup of coffee.
James followed suit, and the table settled into comfortable silence.
Maddie knew the questions would come, but that her parents didn’t want to overwhelm her.
They knew she hated being the centre of attention and wouldn’t react well to a barrage of questions.
Still, they would be coming. She could see it in her mother’s eyes and, most worryingly, in her father’s stance.
Ben was still staring at her, his eyes still bursting with worry.
Whatever it was he had to say, it was serious.
* * *
Later that afternoon, after James had gone home, Maddie made sure she was alone somewhere her father could find her.
She did a little bit of work arranging furniture and planning content for her social media platforms, and by five o’clock she was sitting in the orangery with a book and a cup of tea, waiting for her father to come in and check the strawberry plants.
Maddie rarely ventured into the orangery.
It was a new room and therefore one of the only rooms that had already been done — if she disregarded a couple of stone flower beds Pigglesworth had damaged that she still needed to fix — so there was hardly any need for her to frequent it. Ben was surprised to find her there.
“Hello, my darling,” he said, feigning nonchalance.