‘So, what are you going to do with all these photos?’
‘For now, I’m going to put them away in a memory box. One of Amelia’s greatest fears is that she’ll lose every memory she has of Sam.’
‘I thought that’s what youwantedto happen?’
He’d got straight to the heart of the dilemma that kept me awake each night. ‘I want her to realise that none of it ever happened; that it was all some crazy glitch in her head. If she does that, then I’ll happily destroy every last photograph. But what Idon’twant is to see her struggling to remember Sam’s face, or the places they visited, or how much she loved him.’
‘Which is why we’re creating a collection of photographs of events that never really happened, with someone you’re still hoping she’ll forget?’
I stared at him for a long moment, like a school kid lost for words in front of their teacher.
‘I never said it was a perfect plan.’
He laughed then, and I couldn’t help but join in. I didn’t expect him to understand my logic, especially when most of the time I scarcely understood it myself. But amazingly he did. ‘You must love your sister an awful lot.’
‘I do,’ I said softly.
Nick’s eyes were warm. ‘You make me wish I wasn’t an only child.’
It was one of the nicest things anyone had said to me in a very long time.
*
The Cobra was the park’s most popular attraction, and it was the first time we’d had to queue for a ride all day. As we neared the front of the line, Nick slipped off his glasses, as per the instructions on the warning posters. Instantly, he morphed from mild-mannered Clark Kent to Superman before my eyes. Only this time I had better control of my tongue and didn’t mention it. Instead, I turned my attention to the track, which rose skywards at an alarmingly steep angle.
‘Are you okay with heights?’ I belatedly thought to ask, suddenly not entirely sure whether I was.
‘It would make “leaping tall buildings in a single bound” kind of tricky if I wasn’t,’ Nick quipped back.
How on earth had he known that I’d been struck once again by his resemblance to the comic book hero? I only hopedallmy thoughts about him weren’t that transparent, or I could really be in trouble.
We took the front carriage because that’s where Amelia and Sam had sat. I tried to tell myself that the nervous thrill thrumming through me was anticipation for the ride and had nothing to do with the proximity of Nick’s thigh against mine as we sat shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip in the tiny cart.
‘We should probably hold hands on the ride,’ I said as the operator walked along the line of carriages doing a final safety check.
‘We should?’ Nick asked, turning as far towards me as the safety bar would allow.
‘For the photo. Sam and Amelia were holding hands,’ I added awkwardly.
‘Oh. Of course.’ Nick held out his hand obligingly and I placed mine within it. His skin felt warm to the touch and even though I wasn’t worried about the ride, I felt instantly calmer with his fingers curled around mine.
With a clank of gears, we pulled away from the platform.
*
‘Is it okay?’ Nick asked, peering over my shoulder at the souvenir photo as we walked away from the counter.
‘It’s perfect,’ I said, studying the mounted photograph in my hand.
It definitely wasn’t my best look. My mouth was open in a wide scream, and my hair was flying wildly in the wind, just as my sister’s had been. The photo had captured Nick and me with our arms raised, in classic roller coaster fashion, exactly as Amelia and Sam had done. But there was one subtle difference between the print in my hands and the one Amelia had described. In mine, the couple in the front carriage were holding hands, and the more I thought about it, the more certain I became that Amelia had never said anything about that at all.
15
‘I’m sorry. This wasn’t how I wanted our date to end.’
‘That’s okay,’ I said, brushing back my hair, which the wind was currently whipping across my face. ‘And besides, it’s not arealdate, remember?’
Nick gave his crooked grin, which was growing on me a little more than it should.
