Page 68 of Matilda’s Summer of New Beginnings

He sang the last note, and let it die away on the summer breeze, then laid his hand flat on the guitar to silence that too. ‘Hello Matilda!’ he said, in a perfectly normal voice. ‘I was wondering when you’d find me.’

‘Throat all better now?’ I said. It was a particularly silly thing to say, but I couldn’t think of anything else.

‘Yes thanks.’ He smiled at me, and that somehow broke the spell. ‘Not sure what caused it. Oh well.’ He shrugged and laid the guitar down. ‘I think this was Polly’s. Well done Polly.’ Then he got to his feet and stood before me. I looked up and, oddly, realized for the first time just how tall he was. Which was ridiculous, because I’d known him for years and this wasn’t the first time we’d been together on our own.

But it was the first time I think I felt like he had been thinking about me the way I’d been thinking about him. He reached out and took my hands, and looked down at them, then looked back up and locked eyes with me.

‘I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say at this precise moment,’ he said, in a very Jay-like, conversational tone. But I could see his nose and ears were turning pink again, and the scarf was coiled up on the grass like a soft woolly snake, so we didn’t have that to blame in this instance. ‘So, I thought I could sing it better.’

‘You sang it very well,’ I replied.

‘I learnt the whole album. In case I had to use some of the other songs to get my point across.’

‘Nope. That song was enough.’

‘So . . . is it . . . is the point taken then?’ He looked a little pained, and I felt sorry for him.

‘Point very well taken,’ I said. ‘If it’s the point I’m sort of hoping it is.’

Because wouldn’t it just be my luck if he wasn’t making some sort of declaration to me, and had just learnt a song to please a friend. Actually, that was a point.

I needed to clarify the point.

‘Ummm — can I just — clarify the point, though?’ I asked. Then cringed as it sounded so awful out loud. I hurried on. ‘I mean, did you just learn the song to cheer me up or something? Or was it for any other reason?’ I could feel myself growing pinker now.

There was a flicker of mischief in Jay’s eyes, and he tilted his head sideways. ‘Like what sort of reason?’

I stared at him. Good God, was I going to have to embarrass myself by expanding on the subject?

‘Ummmm . . .’ I started.

But then he surprised me and shook his head. He reached up and put his finger on my lips, then leaned forward and suddenly we were kissing.

In that moment, the world of Padcock and the Summer Fayre and all the plans I had been tossing around for my future just flew away and there was only me and Jay in existence in the whole wide world.

Eventually, we pulled away.

‘Does that clarify things?’ he asked in a low voice — and that voice did funny things to my insides and to my knees. I swear I would have slithered to the ground had he not been holding me. My word, there had been a lot of knee-buckling over the last few minutes, and I was usually a pretty sturdy both-feet-on-the-ground sort of person.

But I was no angel, and it was my turn to tease him — because hey, this was Jay at the end of the day. Wow, I had to park that thought for a moment and come back to it. Jay had just kissed me!

‘Not really,’ I said, fighting back a smile. He looked at me, and then realized I was teasing — a slow smile lifted the corners of his mouth. ‘I think I need a little further clarification,’ I said.

‘My pleasure.’

And he clarified things for a good few minutes more.

* * *

Afterwards, once my heart rate had returned to normal and my feet had returned to earth, we still held hands, but he drew me gently to the ground and we sat next to each other on the warm grass.

‘So are you going to tell me what the scarf was all about?’ I asked.

Jay looked at the scarf and grinned. ‘Ah yes. I’m afraid I was a bit of a fraud this morning.’

‘No kidding!’

‘Yeah. It’s stupid, but I knew that if I went on the stage, I’d win. It just always happens — it’s kind of like the standard thing at the Padcock Fayre. “Jay’s the reigning champion, and ha ha he’s won again”. I wanted to break the trend. I might not have done it the proper way though.’ He looked embarrassed.