Tania wondered just how hard he’d been grilled. It was no surprise that the details were scant. Scant details were all he had.
Niamh studied her as she pulled the glove back on, then shook her head. ‘Never mind me. Will you be taking Gull off our hands for the rest of the day?’
‘If he likes.’
‘Oh, I know he would like that very much.’ Niamh laced her words with emphasis. ‘Keep him for as long as you like.’ Smiling, she dropped her skis to the ground and slotted her boots into them. ‘Good to meet you, Tania. See you again, perhaps.’
The group slid away from them, Niamh turning and taking another long look at her before they disappeared over the lip at the top of the slope.
Gull watched them go, then took hold of her hand through its glove. He squeezed, then let her hand drop. She wished he’d held on for longer.
‘Let’s get a drink,’ he said.
This time she didn’t argue, didn’t make things difficult. She didn’t want to.
By the time they set their skis into a mound of snow beside the entrance to Roche Pure, and clunked their way onto the restaurant decking, the girls had already got their drinks and had colonised a table right beside the Perspex barrier. Much to Madeleine’s horror, if her expression was anything to go by.
‘No,’ Madeleine said, shuffling out from the bench facing the breathtaking view. ‘Rose, that’s even worse, because I’m facing you and it looks like there’s nothing at all behind you and if you lean backwards, you’re just going to disappear off into the abyss.’ Sidestepping to the end of the table, she perched on the edge of the chair heading the table, her eyes darting across to the chasm behind the decking. ‘Fuckity-fuck,’ she said, under her breath, twisting her head until the view was obscured behind the curtain of her rich chestnut hair.
‘Are you OK?’ Tania asked, even though it was clear Madeleine was anything but.
‘Maddy’s having an “adverse reaction” to the view,’ Rose said, miming inverted commas around the words.
‘Too right I am,’ Madeleine said with a dramatic huff. ‘There’s a sheer bloody drop. Just there …’ She waved frantically with the hand nearest the Perspex, keeping her eyes fixed on the table.
‘Let’s choose a different table, then,’ Tania said. ‘Grab that one, Gull.’ She pointed to a free table behind him. He made a 180-degree swivel and set his gloves and helmet on the table. ‘We can still admire the view from here.’ She settled herself at one end of a bench.
Madeleine slid her hot chocolate onto the table and sighed as she sat down, her back to the view. ‘Thank you.’ She stuffed her gloves into her helmet and propped it beside her.
‘No problem.’ Tania glanced up at Gull. ‘Will you get me a coffee?’
She said it without thinking, and his confused expression made her smile, then feel guilty. But he recovered more quickly than she did, checking the specifics before he headed into the restaurant. As if buying her a coffee was something he did every day of the week. As if letting him buy her a coffee was something she did with similar frequency. Tania sat in the sunshine at the top of the mountain allowing herself to enjoy the moment. To enjoy how easy that had been.
‘He’s really lovely,’ Madeleine said, when Gull was well out of earshot.
‘I think you might be right,’ she replied, closing her eyes and tipping her face to the sun. Perhaps it could be this easy. Perhaps this was how it was supposed to be. Perhaps it was she who made everything in her life more of a battle than it needed to be.
Chapter 25
‘You don’tlookterrified,’ Rose said, peering at the tiny image of her, Clara and Madeleine on Tania’s phone.
‘Don’t get me wrong,’ Madeleine said as Gull emerged from the Roche Pure, a tray in one hand. Tania could see the concentrated furrow to his eyebrows as he negotiated the decking, weaving between tables rapidly filling up with thirsty customers. Madeleine continued, ‘The view up here is quite something. But I don’t need to be so verycloseto it to appreciate it.’
‘I didn’t realise you would be quite so worried,’ Rose said, handing Tania back her phone. ‘It’s perfectly safe, otherwise they wouldn’t be allowed to have tables there.’
‘I’m sure you’re right. But since when did logical thought get in the way of pure unadulterated terror?’ Madeleine said.
Tania tapped her phone again as Gull set the tray down. He peered over her shoulder to look at the photos she’d taken of the other three. Leaning forward to swipe through them, he slid onto the bench beside her. She breathed in a waft of pine needles and cinnamon.
‘They’re great,’ he said, pushing his thigh against hers as he passed her a coffee, then ripped the top from a sachet of sugar and poured it into hisvin chaud.
Tania shifted on the bench to zip away her phone, then slid back against him.
‘First time up here?’ he said to Madeleine.
‘How did you guess?’ she said, pushing hair behind an ear. ‘Was it my expression of utter terror that did it, or my uncharacteristic use of four-letter words which gave the game away?’ Her grin was back.
‘It’s not as sheer as it looks,’ he said.
