“I’m not. My name is Robert Dixon.”
“Doesn’t he look like Robert Deniro, though?” Shirley asks.
Now they mention it, he does. It’s that slightly sardonic eyebrow lift and big intense eyes and a wicked smile. Over his head, behind the window, something catches my eye. A movement, a shape.
It’s Welsh Hagrid in the garden behind a hedge and he’s looking at us. Eventually he turns away. How odd.
“Come and sit here.” My grandfather points to the chair on his other side. “You can’t trust Gethin. He might have one foot in the grave, but he’s still got some growing up to do.”
True, Gethin has been ogling my chest all afternoon, but he’s harmless. He doesn’t bother me half as much as Hagrid watching us from outside.
I move to sit beside my grandfather, and as soon as trolley lady is gone, I open my bag and bring out the biscuits hoping at least one of them is to Bill’s taste.
As it turns out, the biscuits are to everyone’s taste. They fall on them and leave the chocolate bourbons on their sad paper napkins.
Everyone wants to know about Kendric House, so I tell them what little I know about the people who live there. “Haneen and Evan are wonderful, I’m not sure the others like me much.”
A mistake. Because Bill instantly becomes worried. “Who doesn’t like you?”
“Oh, it’s nothing, really. They just don’t know me.” When he still looks worried, I tell him about my awkward chat with Alex.
Llewellyn, too, at the Business Hub, turned down my offer of help.
He just pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and became quite awkward.
Shirley, on my grandfather’s other side reaches for another HobNob which she dips into her tea.
“That’s your third,” Gethin wags a finger at her. “Don’t take advantage of the girl’s generosity.”
“What do you know about generosity?” She flaps a hand
“I’m the most generous man here.” He starts and is interrupted by everyone laughing.
“You?” Deniro asks. “You’d peel an orange in your pocket so you don’t have to share it.
When they’ve finished bickering, Bill turns back to me. “Why are you worried about this chap up a ladder? You offered help, he didn’t need it. That’s fair enough.”
“Alex had been quite friendly. But suddenly he wouldn’t look at me. He just spoke to the wall and gave me the brushoff.”
“No, my dear,” Bill shakes his head smiling.” It was you that gave him the brush off. He was trying to flirt with you and you told him you’re ging to offer the same to everyone.”
Deniro agrees. “He fancies you.”
“I didn’t want to be rude to him.”
“He’s a big boy.” Grandad pats my hand gently. “Oh my dear, dear sweet girl. this can’t be the first time you’ve had men hit on you.”
“He didn’t hit on me. Not in any obvious way. I wanted to be polite but you know at arms-length. And he helped me a lot. Now that I am staying longer at Kendric House I don’t want to be rude. Maybe I should try to talk to him.”
“Just leave it.”
“I wanted to apologise or say something to make my feeling clear.”
“They’re clear, he got the message. You forcing a conversation will only embarrass him. Just leave it. You do worry a lot. What is it? Do you think people will turn their backs on you if you upset them?”
“Men can be very strange when they like a girl.” Vanessa crosses her elegant legs; she’s wearing nude shimmer tights andnude heels. “Some are all over you, others avoid you. The ones that have deepest feelings are the ones who can barely talk to you. Isn’t that right Bill?”
“You should have seen my son.” Deniro puts his teacup down. “Confident as you like until he liked a girl then he turned into a lump of wood. I thank the lord a woman finally set her mind on him and chased him, or he’d still be a bachelor.”
