Looking at all this now, Niall recognised that for a sixteen-year-old boy it was quite something. He was pretty sure that none of his brothers would have done this for a teenage girlfriend. He’d been besotted with her.
Been?
Okay, I think of her from time to time. And right now I can’t gether off my mind.
The feelings for Carli were swirling like dust motes in the March sunshine after the darkest of winters.
What would Rabbie Burns do in this situation?Niall wondered, before answering his own question.
He’d have moved on long ago. Trouble is, I’m not sure I ever have.
Chapter 4
Carli
EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO
The Caselli family – what was left of it – had one year left in Scotland and Carli and Luci should make the most of it. That’s what Carli’s dad said. As soon as Luci finished sixth year and Carli fourth year, he was flying them back to Australia where supposedly life could begin again. Her father’s words were a betrayal to her mother who wasn’t yet a year dead and whose ashes were scattered on nearby Loch Lachnashin. As if her mother’s death hadn’t disincentivised Carli enough, this decision to pull up the few roots she had left, destroy the friendships she’d worked so hard to make when she’d started at this school three years ago and everyone was friends from primary school, made things even worse. What was the point in trying? Her dad only cared about himself. Any test she scored well in, or any certificate she was awarded, went unheeded anyway.
And what better place to stop caring than maths?
‘Butler, Caselli, row four.’ Mr McInally, the mathsteacher, pointed towards the double desk where he wanted Carli and Niall to sit next to one another. Most teachers let their students sit next to whomever they liked, but Mr McInally arranged his classes alphabetically. And rude comments were complimentary, it seemed.
‘You can keep Niall on the straight and narrow,’ Mr McInally muttered as he walked past and threw clean jotters on everyone’s desk.
She looked at Niall. He shrugged.
‘I’m Naughty Niall,’ he said. ‘Hope you can tame me.’
‘Oh,’ Carli whispered, intrigued by this boy, who on the first day back after the summer break was stretched back in his chair, dark blond hair mussed up, his shirt untucked from his trousers, school tie loose at the neck. She didn’t know him all that well, beyond seeing him around school and Kinshore. He played football, surfed a lot, laughed freely and got copious detentions. But their unfamiliarity didn’t stop her sensing a huge dollop of sarcasm.
‘Did you have him last year?’ she asked. Mr McInally wasn’t known for being the most charitable teacher in the school and it didn’t pay to get on the wrong side of him, which Niall may well have done.
‘Aye. And the year before and the one before that too. We’re old pals.’
Carli wondered which had come first, Niall’s attitude or Mr McInally’s? Niall looked like he didn’t care about anyone’s opinion of him.
One thing she would say for Niall: he smelled nice. It was some kind of body spray that smelled fresh and masculine. She tried to concentrate by writing her name on the front of her jotter and opening it ready to start the lesson. His eyes were definitely on her as she did so. Then pulling his own jottertowards him, he wrote his name on the front: Niall Butler. Not Naughty Niall. Carli clocked his handwriting. It wasn’t the neatest, somewhat mirroring his outward appearance.
Mr McInally droned on about class rules for half the lesson, making everyone write them in their jotters, talked through some equations, then set the class a task. It was simple stuff that Carli worked through quickly. At question six, she turned to Niall who was still on question one and staring at the textbook. Naughty Niall seemed like such an ill-fitting name.
‘Are you stuck?’ she asked.
He shrugged. ‘Kind of.’
‘Want me to explain them?’
Niall glanced up to check if they were being watched by the teacher. Carli followed his eyeline to find Mr McInally reading the paper. Week one and this was his disdain. Incredible.
‘Go on then,’ said Niall. ‘Show me how it’s done.’
For a moment, their gazes locked. God, he was cute. Really cute. Why had she never taken it in when she’d seen him in passing? Those blue eyes with generous flecks of green were something else. And sitting so close to him, warmth was radiating through his cotton shirt, his breath smelling faintly of spearmint gum. And once she’d helped him to not only shoot through his equations but understand them too, her recompense was the broadest of smiles, and Carli wondered if her heart might melt. It was official. She now had a crush on Niall Butler. Maths might be kind of awkward from now on, but she sure was looking forward to it.
‘Ms Caselli, I didn’t sit you there so you could gaze lovingly at Mr Butler.’
A heady mix of embarrassment and indignation flooded Carli. Wow! This teacher was a piece of work.
‘I wasn’t, sir. We were doing the equations together.’
