“Is she gay?”
“Maybe. Don’t like her. Eyelashes! Spi…ders. Ugh.”
Newt smiled.
“I think… I’m…more use to her…than she is…to me.”
“That was a good sentence. Maybe you’re right, but because you’re not meeting friends or seeing anyone, she can say you’re doing fine. They’ll believe your girlfriend. She’s all over social media. She’s getting the message across that Max wants out there.”
“Glad…she’s gone.”
So was Newt.
“Want to go to Pa…Paris? Rome?”
Newt laughed. “Where did that come from?”
“A break. With you.”
It would be lovely but… “No passport.”
“Get one.”
Newt was almost positive he wouldn’t be allowed to go abroad while he was out on licence. Maybe he could make a case that it was his job. His heart beat faster. Was there any chance?
They left the Aston in a car park in Dymchurch andwalked up over the elevated sea defences to the concrete promenade. The place was deserted. The wind whipped across the beach sending the sand running in lines of swirling ribbons. The kite was in the car but Newt thought it would be too windy.
“Down to the sea?” Newt asked.
“Yes.”
River put his gloved hand in Newt’s and squeezed his fingers. Newt knew River had only done it because there was no one around but it still made his heart sing.
They made flat stones skip on the water beyond the crashing waves, and counted the skips. River won. They played who could wait the longest before jumping back from the incoming sea. Newt won. River ran along the sand, letting the wind help him. Newt had never seen him run before. He ran too but this time, he didn’t race. It made Newt wish that this could be his life. But it couldn’t. River would get better for this role in the autumn. The film was being shot in the States. A country that Newt definitely couldn’t go to with his criminal record. But his job would be done.
Fourteen
River’s relief in knowing they’d have the house to themselves again when they got back was only slightly dimmed by the awareness that its location was no longer a secret. He wasn’t sure he agreed with Newt about Max being the one to leak it. Dila was putting all those shots of them together online so why would Max think his actual address needed to be revealed? Not that the press would publish it. If they did, or made him findable, River would sue.
He was more concerned about the sender of the hate mail. But concerned enough to move? If the role inKaden’s Monsteractually happened, and he really thought it might, then he’d not be in the UK for around four months. Max believed the role would lead to more work in the States and he’d hinted that River might be better to buy a place over there.
So maybe Maxhadleaked it in an attempt to persuade him to sell up here. River didn’t know what to think. It hurt to think. Except about one thing. One person. Newt. He’d persuade Newt to come with him to the States. There. That was solved. River exhaled.
“This car is so great,” Newt said. “My brother…”
“What?”
Newt didn’t talk about his family. Well, nor did River, but he wanted to know more about Newt’s.
“Brother?” River asked.
“I have two brothers. Sean is nine years older than me. He’s the seagull chaser. Phelan is seven years older. My sisterRathnait is three years younger than me. What about you?”
River shook his head.
“Everyone in my family loved cars except me. When you’ve been made to spend your weekends washing and polishing them, hoovering inside until not a speck of dust remains, when all I wanted to do was lie on my bed with a book… I came to loathe them. But cars were my father’s business. Probably still are. Phelan bought me a book about the Aston Martin for my fourteenth birthday. I think he wanted it really.” Newt chuckled. “I’d have been happier with a book about clocks or the Romans.”
“You like clocks?”
