Chapter 41
The wild irises are still in flower. Enzo was hoping they would be as they drove, the three of them, in his sister’s campervan. And now, as they make their way in single file along the rocky path, the swathe of butter-yellow blooms is there to greet them, fringing the beach.
‘Oh, Enz, this is beautiful!’ Valérie has always had to be first at everything.
Now she’s powered ahead with her cool box and a rucksack filled with provisions.
She flatly refused to let Enzo carry either of these.
‘I can manage, Enz. Anyway, you’ve got the tent.
’ And now she’s swung around and is calling back, ‘Does no one come here? I can’t believe it! ’
‘It is something of a secret,’ Enzo replies. He’s trying to be happy and positive about the trip, but Celia’s messages took the wind out of his sails and he still feels deflated as he steps over the rocks.
However, of course he understands. She’s had so much going on, and when he messaged back, asking why she’d had a change of heart, she explained that Amanda had decided not to come, and that she really wasn’t up to it either.
‘I think we’ll just have a quiet weekend,’ she’d said.
Well, that’s fine, of course. Better to be honest rather than hauling herself along if she wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Just as he’d been with Kim, a couple of days ago, when he’d messaged her.
Kim, it was great meeting you. Thanks for our run. I’ll bear all that in mind, about hill running.
How feeble that had sounded.
Thanks too for your offer of going out again, but I don’t think it’s for me right now.
He’d pressed ‘Send’ quickly before there was time to dither or waffle on.
Hey, no problem. But get that watch sorted! Track your progress!
‘Enz?’ his sister calls out. ‘If this were back home it’d be full of people. Oh, it’s going to be great staying here!’ Like Enzo, Valérie is a natural at languages – and she’s always keen to boost her skills. So whenever she visits him, and Mathilde is around, they always speak English.
Now Mathilde is running ahead, eager to reach the sea as always.
It’s a beautiful summer’s day: a clear, bright blue sky, the water sparkling.
Enzo wonders if he was pushing it now, asking Celia to come.
He’s probably blown it, he thinks – jumping in too soon.
But he can’t stop thinking about her and the times they’ve spent together.
It’s probably for the best, he decides as they find a perfect spot, in a slight hollow in the soft silver sand, and spread out Valérie’s blanket.
He knows his sister can be something of a powerhouse.
She has a high-ranking job in HR and is extremely competitive.
It was always that way between them, growing up.
Valérie was – is – the smartest academically, as well as being a fantastic aunt to Mathilde.
Divorced and child-free, she has always run on adrenaline.
Now she is assuming the role of Director of Operations, deciding precisely where the fire will be built.
Soon she has it glowing hotly, and has unpacked a tub of chicken in her own special marinade from the cool box.
Coffee is poured from her big industrial flask into enamel mugs and handed around.
The plan is that, after their overnight stay here, Valérie will drop Enzo and Mathilde at the train station, and then carry on solo on the NC500 route.
‘There’s something magical about driving right round the northern edge of a country,’ she announces.
‘Sure you don’t want to do it with me, Enz? You and Mathilde?’
‘I’m going away with Mum,’ Mathilde reminds her.
‘Yeah, of course.’ She grins. ‘Sardinia, isn’t it?’ Mathilde nods, beaming.
‘The NC500 can’t compete with that, can it, Mathilde?’ Enzo asks, chuckling.
He knows his daughter, and that she wouldn’t want to hurt her aunt’s feelings.
So instead of answering she says, ‘Can we swim?’ This, he knows, is one of the very few things his sister cannot do, and that it’s a source of embarrassment to her, having grown up so close to the sea.
So he pulls off his jeans and sweatshirt, having had the forethought to wear swimming shorts underneath.
The sun is high and bright, a silver-white ball in a searing blue sky, and yet the water is bracing cold as he and Mathilde wade in. ‘It’s freezing!’ she cries out, laughing, and splashes her dad.
He retaliates, and as his daughter shrieks with laughter, Enzo looks towards the beach.
Now he sees that someone is making their way down the path towards the sandy cove.
A lone figure, he thinks. Perhaps a dog walker?
Mathilde is swimming now – Enzo knows her feet can still touch the bottom – but he is standing still.
The person has reached the beach and is looking around, as if searching for someone. At first he thinks he must be mistaken because how can this be possible?
‘Dad?’
He sees the woman stepping across the sand towards Valérie, and them seeming to strike up a conversation.
‘Dad… is that Celia?’ Mathilde stops swimming.
‘I, uh… I think so, yes.’ He knows Mathilde was disappointed that she – and possibly Amanda too, but mainly Celia, he thinks – had decided not to come.
‘It is!’ Mathilde announces, pushing through the water towards the shore. Enzo follows her, wading through the shallows until he is out of the water and running across the warm sand.
‘Celia!’ He laughs. ‘What happened? You changed your mind?’
She laughs too, and then pushes back her short choppy hair. ‘I did.’
‘But… how did you get here?’
‘I hired a car,’ she says with a grimace. ‘I know it’s a bit mad…’
‘No, not at all,’ he says, and quickly introduces her to Valérie, even though they have already introduced themselves.
‘Lovely to meet you, Celia,’ his sister says with a smile.
‘You too.’ Celia presses her lips together and looks around the beach, as if still unsure that she should be here. ‘I hope I’m not gatecrashing,’ she adds.
‘Of course you’re not,’ Enzo exclaims.
Celia, smiles, seeming to relax now. ‘D’you think you’ll have room for me? If you don’t, I can sleep in the car?—’
‘Don’t be crazy,’ Valérie insists.
‘No, we have the tent,’ Enzo says quickly. ‘So there’s plenty of room for all of us.’ And then his sister and daughter go off in search of more wood for the fire, and Celia changes – with some difficulty, shrouded in one of their beach towels – into her swimsuit.
‘I’m so glad you came,’ Enzo tells her.
‘Amanda made me.’ Celia smiles awkwardly. ‘Actually, that’s not true. I wanted to come. But she figured out how I could get here.’
‘Driving’s the only way.’ Enzo nods, taking in the green of her eyes in the bright sunshine. He can still hardly believe she’s here.
‘Yes, she was on to car hire companies, bossing me around…’ Celia tails off and laughs. ‘I can take care of myself, you know.’
‘I’m sure you can.’ Enzo truly believes this. She’s incredible, he thinks. He has never known anyone like her.
Valérie and Mathilde are coming back now, armed with firewood. ‘Shall we swim, then?’ he suggests. ‘D’you like to swim?’
‘Yes, I love it!’ she announces. And so they make their way across the sand, towards the clear, glistening sea. Celia’s swimsuit is black, plain and sporty and there’s no hesitation as she wades into the cool water. ‘This is lovely!’ she announces.
Enzo looks at her with her new short cut, her cheeks pink from the sun, and a huge smile on her finely boned face. ‘It is, isn’t it?’ he says. ‘You’re glad you came, then?’
She nods and smiles and something peculiar seems to be happening, Enzo realises.
He and Mathilde have been here many times – it’s their place – but it feels different today.
As if he is seeing the beautiful cove for the very first time.
‘I’m so glad,’ Celia says, pushing back her hair.
Then they swim side by side, and he can tell she’s loving this as much as he is.
The cool, clear water, the sunshine beaming down on them.
Now Valérie is waving from the beach and calling out that lunch is ready.
As they swim back to shore Enzo looks at Celia.
He wants to tell her something but he doesn’t quite know how to say it.
That she seems different now; that in the short time he’s known her she seems to have, well, blossomed is the only way he can put it.
But that would sound ridiculous and anyway, it’s hardly his place to comment on how Celia seems these days, after everything she’s been through.
‘Enzo?’ Her voice cuts into his thoughts as they wade through the shallows. ‘It was really good of you to invite me here.’
‘Oh, you’re welcome,’ he says quickly. And then a look passes between them, and it lifts his heart as they make their way across the sand and sit down to lunch.