‘If you can find a space.’ She indicated the drinks lined up at the back of the kitchen bench which was chocka.
He found a space – just – and helped himself to a big slice of supreme pizza with extra chillies, Nina laughing at him when the stringy cheese seemed to refuse to break no matter how much his teeth pulled on it.
‘Elegant,’ she laughed.
Leo had told himself he wanted to have a heart-to-heart with Nina, but he’d also told himself that tonight was not the night to do it. And yet, with the cabin so busy, with her standing so close, it was all he wanted to do.
And so when she took a few empty bottles out to the recycling bins to make room inside the compact cabin, he sat down on the front steps to wait for her.
‘You had enough already?’ she asked as she headed back.
‘Definitely not.’ He wanted to ask her to sit with him, but he’d take his cue from her. If she didn’t, then she wasn’t ready to talk. And if she did …
She sat down.
‘It’s a beautiful night, I love the end of summer, the start of cooler days,’ she told him as they both gazed out at the darkness now that night had drawn its curtain across the sky.
‘Seasons have their perks.’ He turned to look inside the cabin where everyone congregated. ‘Walt looks made up to have everyone here together. Sad, but happy, if that’s not too contradictory.’
‘It is contradictory,’ she grinned. ‘But I know what you mean.’
‘When are you due back at work?’ he asked. Please let her saynot for a long while.
He got his wish. ‘I’ve taken a couple of months’ combined holiday and unpaid leave to get the cabin sortedand spend time with Grandad, so I’ve got weeks left yet.’
‘And are you still considering a transfer down this way?’ This time, please let her sayyes.
‘I am. People move around a lot in my profession, so I’m hoping it’s relatively straightforward.’
‘Fingers crossed, eh?’ He felt his pulse race and in the past few years it had only really done that with anger whenever he thought of Nina. Now it had nothing to do with that and everything to do with how he was drawn to her the way he had been ever since they met, first as friends, then as lovers.
‘I’ve already had an estate agent here to value the cabin.’
‘Already?’ Her words stopped his excitement much like throwing a bucket of cold water over his head.
‘I know, they were keen. They’re sending a photographer around tomorrow.’
‘That’s quick.’ Too quick, but then he shouldn’t be surprised. She’d never dragged her heels when she wanted to get something done. ‘I bet it’ll sell after the first viewing,’ he encouraged. Much as it pained him to say the words, he wanted to be supportive.
She was looking at him as though she believed, like he did, that the sale would signify the end; it would be the full stop to their story that had been written over the years and was finally finished.
And Leo hated she thought that way and that he did too. He hated that her family would no longer own the cabin, that their families would no longer be those two families who’d built so many memories.
He and Nina had talked about having a family more than once, including how many kids they wanted to have. He remembered stretching out on his veranda, both ofthem lying on their backs, their heads nearest the railing so they could look up at the stars above, just about peeping through the branches of the tree that reached almost to the roof of the cabin. She’d insisted she wanted two, he’d suggested four. She’d told him that was crazy, that they’d have to drive around in a minibus whenever they wanted to go anywhere, they’d never be able to fly off on holiday as it would be too expensive for six of them, and she’d joked that she wasn’t sure she could pop out four. He hadn’t really cared at the end of the day, as long as they were together.
‘I hope you don’t mind,’ said Nina, back to talking about the O’Brien cabin sale, ‘but I ordered some festoon lights like yours to put around my veranda.’
He liked that she’d taken note of what he’d done at his own place, at least with the outside. ‘It’ll be nice for you to enjoy them before someone else if you can. You can sit outside, blanket around you and make the most of it. Until the cabin is sold.’
Sold … he was beginning to hate that word. And was he really doing this? Was he really putting his happiness on the line again by asking her for the truth? His crazy broken heart seemed to be willing to risk it all for another chance.
‘I suppose I should make the most of it.’ She put a hand to the wood of the steps, her other hand clutching her glass, and her hair lifted in the breeze grazing the top of his arm where it wasn’t beneath his t-shirt. ‘Are you cold?’ she asked when he shivered.
‘No.’ He was feeling something else entirely. ‘I’m hardened to the sea air. It’s in my blood.’
She laughed softly before she told him, ‘I think deepdown it’s in mine too. Maybe not in quite the same way, but it’s there.’
Her admission gave him the opening he needed. ‘You just upped and left.’
