Chapter 16
‘We’re not getting out of it,’ Charlie says later that week. It’s Thursday afternoon and he’s just got off the phone to Adam. ‘He wants a night out.’
‘I can’t. I’m in Ireland this weekend, remember?’
‘You’re leaving Saturday morning, though, right?’
I nod.
‘He’s talking about tomorrow night. Mum can’t babysit on Saturdays – it’s the busiest day at the campsite. She’s coming here at six. Up for it?’
‘God, yes. Wow,’ I muse. ‘An actual night out with proper drinking and everything. Are you sure you guys don’t mind me gatecrashing?’
‘Of course not. Just watch out for my brother. He’ll probably make a move on you before the evening’s out.’
‘He’ll get a slap around the face if he does,’ I say indignantly.
‘I would give anything to see that. Anything.’
Pat arrives half an hour earlier than promised on Friday night.
‘Well now, that’s a jolly sight,’ she says warmly, coming into the kitchen.
I’m sitting at the table with April, feeding her chicken and veg. She can use a spoon, but it takes her forever to eat and Charlie wanted her sorted quickly. I took his place when he went to let his mother in.
Pat comes over to give her granddaughter a kiss on the top of her head and then puts her hand on my shoulder in greeting. April has been bopping along to the music blaring out of Charlie’s new radio. I’ve plugged in my iPod because we couldn’t find anything we wanted to listen to.
‘Is this Johnny Cash?’ Pat asks, raising her eyebrows when ‘One Piece at a Time’ comes on.
‘Yep,’ I reply, spooning finely chopped chicken into April’s willing mouth. I’ve obviously developed an immunity to the mush, because it no longer makes me want to throw up. Small steps.
‘Oh, I do like this one.’ Pat sits in the empty chair beside me.
‘I don’t think I’ve heard it before,’ Charlie comments.
‘Listen,’ I prompt him. ‘He’s building a Cadillac, nicking all the parts from the garage where he works. Check out the description of the car he ends up with.’
Charlie leans against the wall and smiles down at me as he focuses on the lyrics.
‘That’s brilliant,’ he says eventually.
‘Isn’t it?’ I return his smile.
April makes a swipe for the spoon.
‘Oops, sorry, I’m getting distracted.’ I feed her another mouthful and glance at Pat to see she’s wearing a slightly perplexed expression on her face as she looks between her son and me.
Charlie nods at my seat. ‘Swap?’
‘Sure. I’ll go and get ready.’ I walked here this morning and brought my going-out stuff with me.
‘You go, too, love,’ Pat cuts in before he can sit down. ‘I’ll feed April.’
‘Okay, cool, I’ll just jump in the shower.’
‘Yes, you’ve got sawdust in your hair,’ she notes shrewdly.
He’s been working on a tree house this week, but it’s unlike any other tree house I’ve ever seen. It looks absolutely incredible – the ladder steps and supporting posts are made out of gnarled-looking wooden branches, and he’s even thatching a roof for the top. I thought it was almost finished, but Charlie says he probably still has another week working on it to go. I can’t imagine how productive he’d be if he had more help with April.
The sun is still high in the sky and it’s warm and clear when we walk into town that evening. The wind and rain from earlier on in the week are a distant memory.
‘Why don’t you take anyone up on their offers to help with April?’ I ask Charlie. I’ve seen Jocelyn around a couple of times since that first day out on the street, and yesterday I overheard her telling him that she’d be happy to look after April any time. He replied with a grateful thank you, but said he was managing fine.
He said the same thing to his sister-in-law, Kate, when she called earlier this week, and, when Charlie was out of the room and Pat and I were talking about his tree house in the garden, Pat confided that she’d offered to have April at the campsite on Mondays and Tuesdays, but Charlie had said no.
‘I just. . . I don’t need to. If I’m up against it, maybe, but I’d rather take on less work and be around for April. At least for this first year. I know Nicki would have wanted that.’
‘But April adores your mum. Does she get on with your dad, too?’
‘Oh, she loves him,’ he replies. ‘It’s a shame you haven’t met him, yet, but one of them has to stay behind at the campsite in case anything goes wrong.’
‘So April might quite like to spend Mondays and Tuesdays with her grandparents?’
‘I wouldn’t like it,’ he mumbles.
‘You’d miss her,’ I realise, smiling.
He shrugs. ‘Yeah. She’s my world.’ A beat. ‘That sounded really corny.’
I flash him a sidelong smile, but he’s staring down at the footpath. His hair is still damp from the shower and partially falling into his eyes. It looks darker when it’s wet.
‘To be honest, if it weren’t for Nicki’s book, I wouldn’t have a choice,’ he confides. ‘I’d have to take on more work to make ends meet. It’s probably just as well the sequel is going ahead.’
‘Did you take some persuading?’ I got that impression from Fay.
‘Mmm. To be honest, I was shocked when Fay asked me about them drafting in a ghostwriter. I think Nicki would’ve hated the idea of someone else finishing the story she’d poured her heart and soul into.’
I feel a bit sick listening to this.
He casts me a sideways look. ‘Sorry, perhaps I shouldn’t have told you that.’ He can sense my discomfort.
‘It’s fine, go on,’ I reassure him, even though it’s not fine and I’m not sure I want him to go on.
‘It was Kate who swayed me,’ he continues without further encouragement. ‘She showed me some of the reader reviews. I couldn’t believe how many people desperately wanted a sequel. Kate thought that I had a responsibility to them. She felt that Nicki would’ve agreed with her.’
‘Maybe she’s right,’ I say, feeling grateful to Nicki’s sister for convincing him. Nicki’s teenage diaries haven’t given me the best impression of her, but they were both only young when Nicki wrote about her, and she’s obviously very supportive of Charlie now.
‘Yeah.’ He sighs. ‘Anyway, the additional money coming in from Confessions means that I can work less and look after April. I know Nicki would have prioritised her daughter over her book, so I guess someone else finishing it might be what she would have wanted, after all. I’ve been consoling myself thinking that, in any case.’
‘That makes sense,’ I say as he takes a deep breath. I think he wanted to get that off his chest.
I hope he feels better for having done so, even if his confession has made me feel queasy. If this were a film, Nicki would probably haunt me into getting the sequel exactly how she wants it. Christ, what a thought! It’s just as well I don’t believe in ghosts.
‘Thanks,’ Charlie says. ‘Now we should probably talk about something else or I’ll end up crying into my pint.’
No argument from me, there. I’m more than happy to change the subject.
‘This is my first night out since she. since we lost her,’ he adds.
My eyes widen at his revelation. No pressure to make tonight a good one, then.