Chapter 6
When Kate woke the next morning, it took her a while to remember where she was.
Since she had come back from Africa, where she had moved to a new place almost every day, it had been taking her a while to get her bearings.
She was pretty sure she wasn’t still on the trip, but she had a feeling she wasn’t at her flat either.
She opened her eyes and looked for clues.
The first thing she saw was a huge inflatable shark, leering at her.
The sun was streaming in through the window, illuminating burnished orange walls and polished wooden floorboards.
It was her bedroom in West Cork. She sank back into the pillow.
She remembered now. She and Brian had come down for the weekend.
They’d had a nightmare journey on the bus, and then Will had picked them up. Grace had given them the guest bedroom—
Kate’s blood froze and her eyes flew open in horror as the events of the previous day slammed to the front of her brain. Grace had given her and Brian the guest room, and had put Will in Kate’s.
Which would make the arm thrown across her and the warm breath on the back of her neck… Will’s.
Shit, shit, shit! The rest of it came back now – Josie’s Nigerian, the lock-in at the pub, staggering home alone and crashing into bed.
It had always amazed her how effectively you could operate on autopilot when you were completely smashed: your internal GPS somehow got you home unscathed – except when it didn’t.
This time her automatic pilot had failed her and had landed her firmly in the poo.
She looked dolefully at the shark.
Gotcha, it seemed to say, grinning evilly.
Even the orange walls mocked her as she recalled a friend of Brian’s, a feng shui aficionado, telling her that orange was not an auspicious colour for a bedroom.
She had always dismissed feng shui as a lot of hocus-pocus, but now she wondered if perhaps there wasn’t something in it, after all.
At least Will was still asleep. If she was very careful, she might just manage to wriggle out of bed without waking him.
Flattening herself into the mattress, she attempted to slide out smoothly from under his arm without disturbing him.
She had almost made it to the edge of the bed when she felt him stir and knew that he had woken up.
‘Kate?’ he asked groggily, his voice husky with sleep.
She felt the mattress give as he propped himself up on an elbow, and turned to face him.
‘Hi.’
‘Hi,’ he echoed, a little dazed. ‘This is a nice surprise.’
‘For me too,’ she said hastily, terrified that he would think she had somehow engineered this.
‘I mean it’s a surprise for me too,’ she added, ‘not that it’s nice.
’ She didn’t want him to think she was some kind of mad stalker who had sneaked into bed with him when he wasn’t looking.
‘Not that it’s not nice,’ she added, realising she’d sounded rude.
Oh, shut up, Kate, shut up!
Will was smiling at her indulgently. ‘How did you get here?’
‘I was led astray last night,’ Kate said, edging away from him so that he wouldn’t smell her morning-after breath.
‘You’re not accusing me, I hope?’
‘Oh, no – Josie. I was pretty smashed when I came in last night, and I guess I just crashed in here automatically. It is my room.’
‘I know – perfectly understandable.’ Will seemed hugely amused. He was grinning at her like a Cheshire cat.
‘Sorry.’
‘Good Lord, don’t apologise!’ Will laughed. ‘I have no objection to finding a beautiful girl in my bed in the morning.’
He had called her beautiful! And the way he was looking at her made her feel he meant it. Kate’s heart was pounding so hard she was surprised that the duvet wasn’t lifting a foot in the air with every beat. She edged further away, terrified Will might hear it.
‘You’re going to fall off the edge if you’re not careful,’ Will told her.
God! How could he be so relaxed about it?
She really ought to jump out of bed as quickly as possible, she thought.
She didn’t want to give the wrong impression by lingering.
But, at the same time, she didn’t want to risk flashing him – that would definitely give the wrong impression.
She did a mental check of what she was wearing: last night’s T-shirt and – phew!
– knickers. It could have been worse. Relieved, she wondered if Will was wearing anything.
His broad, tanned shoulders and chest were all she could see over the duvet.
God, he was gorgeous, and it was so amazing to be in bed with him – if only she could enjoy it.
He was so close that she could feel the heat of his body.
It was all she could do not to reach out and touch that taut chest or to run her fingers over the rough stubble of his chin.
‘Are you afraid your boyfriend will think this is Freudian?’ he asked teasingly.
Oh Christ, Brian! Kate panicked. She hadn’t even been thinking of him. ‘What time is it?’ she asked. ‘Maybe he won’t have noticed I’m missing.’
Will consulted the bedside clock. ‘Ten past nine,’ he told her.
‘Shit! He usually rises with the sun and does yoga.’
‘You’re fucked then,’ he said casually, eyes dancing. ‘Want to canoodle?’
‘No, thanks!’ Kate backed away until she was clinging to the bed by one bum cheek. She knew he didn’t mean it, but there was nothing she would have liked more, and she was terrified he’d see the longing in her eyes.
‘If you’re going to do the time, you might as well do the crime,’ he said, seductively. His blue eyes sent her an X-rated message that hit her right in the groin. Then he leaned almost imperceptibly closer. Kate thought he was about to kiss her.
‘Brian isn’t a Freudian,’ she babbled. ‘I’m sure he’ll understand it was just a silly mistake.’
‘Fair enough.’ Will threw back the duvet. To Kate’s relief he was wearing boxer shorts. He went to stand by the window and she admired the bunched muscles in his broad, tanned back.
God, Michelangelo would be so pissed he missed this, she thought dreamily, momentarily forgetting her troubles as she imagined Will gracing an Italian piazza. She watched as he grabbed a pair of jeans and pulled them on.
He whispered something to himself that sounded like ‘Down, boy,’ as he pulled up the zip. ‘What?’ she asked.
‘Nothing.’
He turned back to the window, resting an arm above the casement, looking down into the garden.
‘Wow! Brian’s bendy, isn’t he?’
‘Is he out there? What’s he doing?’
‘Playing Twister with the kids – and I think he’s winning.’
No doubt he was using Twister as an excuse to show off his yoga moves, Kate thought.
Suddenly Will was laughing.
‘What happened?’
‘Helen just nobbled him – knocked him over as she went past.’
‘I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose.’
‘It looked very accidentally-on-purpose to me.’
Kate screwed up her courage and got out of bed, tugging her T-shirt down as she joined Will at the window. Brian was now sprawled on the Twister mat. She ducked as he looked up.
‘D’you think he saw me?’ she whispered to Will.
‘No. But he must have noticed you weren’t in bed this morning.’
‘Maybe I could say I got up early and went for a walk.’
‘Before sunrise?’
‘Good point.’ Kate chewed her lip anxiously. ‘I know! I’ll say I didn’t want to disturb him and spent the night in Josie’s room.’
‘It’s exciting having an affair, isn’t it?’ Will grinned at her.
‘We’re not having an affair,’ Kate said primly.
‘No, but it feels like it, doesn’t it? Sneaking around, thinking up lies, getting caught in the wrong bedroom.’
‘Ah, but I don’t intend to get caught.’
‘Too late.’ Will nodded to the garden. Kate had accidentally broken cover while they were talking and Jake had spotted her. He was now waving at her, and Brian had followed his gaze: he was squinting up at her and Will in their various states of undress and didn’t look happy.
* * *
When she had showered, dressed, plucked her eyebrows and done everything else she could think of to put off the evil moment, Kate went downstairs for breakfast. In the kitchen she found Helen, normally the soul of calm unflappability, in a serious hump, banging pots and slamming cupboard doors.
‘Good morning.’ Kate flopped down at the table. She was still feeling rather delicate.
‘Morning,’ Helen said shortly, through pursed lips, and dumped a bowl in front of her.
‘Thanks,’ Kate croaked and shook corn flakes into it.
Helen returned to pouring flour, sugar, melted butter and milk into a mixing bowl without measuring anything – making muffins, Kate decided.
Jake came in from the garden and leaned his arms on the table.
‘Brian thinks Mum’s trying to poison us!’
‘What?’
‘Me and Sam. He says the stuff she gives us to eat is poison.’
Kate put her head into her hands. They’d only been here one night and already Brian had managed to piss everyone off – including her.
‘That’s one of the things he says is poison,’ Jake told her, as she poured milk onto her cereal. ‘It’s not, though, is it?’ he asked.
‘No, of course not, Jake. Sorry, Helen.’ Her sister-in-law was now furiously beating her mixture. It was on the tip of Kate’s tongue to say that under-mixing was the key when making muffins, but she thought better of it. ‘Where is Brian anyway?’
‘He’s gone to the village shop to hassle poor Mrs Delaney about soya milk,’ Helen said.
‘I think you’re in trouble with Brian too,’ Jake told her.
‘Oh? Why?’
Jake put his head on one side, considering. ‘Well, I think it’s because he wanted you to have a sleepover with him and you had one with Will instead.’
‘Oh,’ Kate said faintly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Helen’s eyes widen.
‘I told him you should always share. I said if you let Will have a sleepover tonight you’d definitely let him have the next one.’
‘Cheers, Jake. What did he say to that?’
‘Brian’s greedy,’ Jake said disapprovingly. ‘I don’t think he’s good at sharing.’
‘He wasn’t happy?’
‘No. You’re in big trouble.’