by Julie Caplin
The woman’s eyes lit up. ‘Mr Todd, welcome.’
‘Hey, Ma, how are you?’ He gave the pint-size woman a big hug, picking her up off her feet, as her severe face relaxed into giggles.
‘Todd! Really.’ Despite her remonstration, Sophie was relieved to see that Celine’s frown didn’t quite meet her eyes. ‘Honestly, he is naughty. With everyone else Mahalia is an absolute martinet. Quite why she dotes on him so much, I’ll never know.’
Mahalia giggled and when Todd put her down, she pinched his cheeks. ‘He so good looking, Cee. Now Chef want you to try the beef Carpaccio and you need make up your mind which crystal for tomorrow. The Lalique or the Baccarat?’ The diminutive woman put her hands on her hips. ‘I need decision today, lady.’
‘I was thinking the Swarovski.’
‘Eeeugh, no,’ screeched Mahalia, swatting at the other woman with her hands. ‘Too trashy. They no good.’
‘She is so bossy,’ said Celine. ‘And I couldn’t live without her. See you later.’
And the two of them walked away, Celine’s blonde head bowing down next to the dark head.
Todd watched them go with a wistful smile. ‘There they go, the Rottweiler and the Pekinese. You know they’re best friends.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, when no one else is around, Mom spends all her time in the kitchen with Mahalia, gossiping and drinking coffee and watching repeats of Gilmore Girls and Riverdale. Not that she’d ever admit it and if she heard me say that, she’d have my tongue cut out.’
‘That’s so sweet, although it sounds familiar.’ Sophie thought of her parents and how they first met. The tale of her dad taking refuge in the kitchen, getting under the feet of his new housekeeper at Felston Hall after his ex-wife refused to move out, was one of Sophie’s favourites.
‘Hmm, sweet is not a word I associate with my mother.’
‘She’s very glamorous.’ Sophie smoothed down her linen dress, worrying that maybe it was a bit too casual. Even dressed in a sarong, Celine looked a million dollars.
Todd tugged at the loose dress over her swimming costume. ‘Don’t worry. You always look gorgeous. Come on, I’ll show you around.’
‘Fancy a dip?’ asked Todd.
‘I’m not sure I dare,’ answered Sophie, looking around the pool area, the last stop on the grand tour, which was grand. ‘It’s so … quiet.’ The word perfect had been her first choice.
Wooden decking surrounded the long rectangular pool which had been tiled in deep blue with a wave design picked out in a glittery twinkling mosaic. White rattan sun loungers, topped with navy-and-white cushions, all propped up at the same height, were arranged in pairs with a matching table and a co-ordinating parasol separating the two. Rolled navy towels had been placed exactly two thirds of the way up each bed and a little pot of bright-red geraniums sat on each table.
‘It is lovely,’ said Sophie, not wanting to sound ungrateful at the offer, but she didn’t want to be the first to move one of those carefully placed rolled-up towels. To litter up one of the sunbeds. Put her sunglasses and sun cream on a table.
You couldn’t deny the house was gorgeous and seriously sumptuous, the superlatives were endless … but it didn’t feel like a home. Everything had been placed. Nothing left. Nothing scattered. Even the family photos, all formal pictures, were grouped in silver frames on the grand piano in the sort of lines that felt as if they owed everything to military precision and nothing to family pride.
Suddenly she realised she was biting her lip and from the slightly amused expression on Todd’s face, she knew every thought had been transparently displayed on her face.
‘Come on, come and meet my brother.’ He grabbed her hand and led her towards the back of the house and down a corridor she’d missed spotting earlier.
No wonder this room was tucked away, with its battered leather sofa, pile of video games and a huge wide-screen TV. It looked comfortable, slightly worn and much more like a family den. A boy of about thirteen sat on the edge of the sofa hunched over a controller, completely focused on the screen in front of him, on which airborne dragons ridden by longbow-wielding elves, which Sophie knew were called Lairfolk, battled with an alien species which bore a marked resemblance to flying otters.
‘Hey little dude,’ said Todd.
The boy’s head whipped round and he jumped up, abandoning his controller. ‘Todd!’
‘Marty!’ teased Todd, mirroring his brother’s excited arm waving.
The boy skidded to a halt just short of Todd’s outstretched arms as he noticed Sophie, and his own lanky arms dropped awkwardly to dangle at his sides.
‘Hey,’ he muttered. ‘You’re back.’
Todd ignored the sudden loss of enthusiasm and swept his brother into a hug, rubbing his knuckles into the top of the boy’s head until Marty wriggled and started play-fighting back.
‘How are you, little dude?’
‘Taller than Mom,’ said Marty with a pugnacious lift of his chin that belied his reedy build and thin shoulders.
‘This is my friend Sophie. This here’s my little brother.’
Marty scowled at him and gave Sophie a perfunctory nod but she spotted the give-away firming of his lips.
‘Hi Marty. Good game.’ She nodded towards the screen.
His shoulders lifted. ‘Do you play?’
She smiled at his sudden eagerness. ‘I have been known to,’ she said with a self-deprecating twist to her mouth.
‘Wanna play?’
‘Not just now,’ said Todd.
As Marty started to turn away, a flash of disappointment in his eyes, Sophie jumped in.
‘I’d love to.’ She moved around to the front of the sofa, ready to take a seat. ‘But only if I can be a Swirenguard and have a Rating Nine Dragon Wraith.’
She giggled at Todd’s startled look while Marty immediately perked up, rubbing his hands together, and handed her a second controller. ‘Cool. You’re on.’
He looked back at his older brother. ‘Todd?’ and even before he could answer, the boy was already scrabbling under the sofa and pulling out a third controller.
‘What the heck?’ He gave Marty a cocky grin. ‘I’ve never even heard of this game … but looking at the opposition, little dude and English, I feel a victory coming my way.’
Sophie winked at Marty. ‘I think we need to show him a thing or two. This is war.’
‘This is war,’ echoed Marty and fist-bumped Sophie. Her heart turned over at his easy acceptance of her as over his head Todd mouthed, ‘Thank you,’ to Sophie with a warm smile.
Half an hour later, Todd was pleading for a break. ‘Seriously, you guys are monsters. Ganging up on me like that.’
‘What did you expect?’ said Sophie with a superior tilt to her head, nudging Marty.
‘Yeah, bro. Me and Sophie creamed you.’
‘Sophie cheated,’ said Todd, laughter dancing on his face.
‘How did I cheat?’ asked Sophie with mock indignation.
‘You didn’t say you’d played before.’
‘You didn’t ask.’
‘Yeah Todd, you didn’t ask,’ chorused Marty.
Todd rolled his eyes. ‘And how did you know those evil fairy things were down the mine-shaft before you got there?’
‘Yeah, actually that was pretty cool.’ Marty’s admiration made her grin. ‘And when you raided the serpent’s nest to get more arrows. This version only came out two days ago.’
‘I never had you down as a gamer.’ Todd’s puzzlement made her raise her eyebrows at both of them with an impish smirk.
‘Well …’ she paused, unable to keep the glee from her face. ‘I might have had a bit of inside knowledge.’
‘You had a preview copy?’ asked Marty, his eyes growing wide.
‘Better than that. I’ve seen its inception. My neighbour is Conrad Welsh.’
Marty’s mouth dropped open, his eyes even wider now, while Todd looked blank.
‘Should I know who th
at is?’ he asked.
‘H-he … h-he …’ Marty spluttered.
‘He’s, well actually, he’s a she, is a games developer. And quite well known.’ Marty nodded vigorously at that. ‘She lives next door to me in London.’
Marty was now blinking furiously, holding his chest as if he were hyperventilating.
‘She’s a … well, friend is stretching it. Conrad is a loner, she doesn’t really do friends, or rather, she doesn’t know what to do with them.’ Sophie often thought of her as a stray kitten she’d adopted. Her neighbour rarely tore herself away from the computer screen to bother with things like visits to supermarkets, so Sophie had taken to visiting with regular food parcels as if she were some elderly impoverished neighbour instead of a socially awkward twenty-three-year-old with more money than she knew what to do with.
‘I get dragged in to help her test the games. She’s a bit … she doesn’t like strangers in her flat and won’t let the games leave her place before she’s happy with them, so it was me or nothing.’
Marty had just about found his breath. ‘That’s seriously sick,’ he said, his awestruck attitude lasting for another few minutes as he peppered Sophie with questions, much to Todd’s silent amusement.
At last Marty ran out of steam on the games front. ‘Can we go boarding?’
‘Sure,’ said Todd. ‘I’m dying to get out on the beach.’
Chapter 18
As the three of them crested the top of the dunes, Sophie stopped and gazed down the endless length of the beach, the spit of yellow sand contrasting against the blue for as far as the eye could see.
Todd, with a body-board tucked under one arm and a bag loaded with beach towels, turned back to look at her with an I-told-you-so grin. ‘Wonderful, isn’t it?’
‘Unbelievable.’ The wind tossed her hair across her face as she stared out towards the vast expanse of the sea. It was sobering to think that there was nothing between here and Portugal. It was also a very handy distraction from Todd’s tanned muscular legs covered in dark hair. Did the man ever look anything less than delicious? Even super-casual today in colourful patterned board shorts and a faded Timberland T-shirt, with the wind tugging the dark hair into tufts, he still looked like he was modelling surf gear.
With a whoop at the sight of the sea, Marty ran off down the dune, his feet churning up the surface of the beach, leaving a wake in the wind like the Roadrunner.
Underfoot, the pale fine sand felt like cool waves as she sank up to her ankles, wincing at the occasional prickle of pine needles and twigs. It was hard work, especially when she also carried a cool box which might as well have been weighted with rocks. ‘Come on.’ Todd grabbed her hand and tugged her down the dunes and together they floundered down towards the water.
Marty had already run down to the sea, his indecipherable shout of joy carrying back to them, his lanky limbs flailing like a mad scarecrow as he dragged his body-board behind him.
They set up camp to a chorus of yells from Marty, chiding them for their slowness as he ploughed straight into the water.
‘That is the Atlantic, isn’t it?’ asked Sophie dubiously.
Todd nodded.
‘Isn’t it cold?’
‘Only when you first get in, but he’s like a fish. Never seems to feel it.’ He spread the towels out. ‘Thanks for joining in with him – that was … good. He gets a bit lonely out here all summer surrounded by adults. Mom and Dad’s friends’ kids are all our age.’
‘It wasn’t a problem. And who doesn’t love a bit of hero-worship?’ teased Sophie.
‘Yeah, you’ve definitely made a hit.’
‘Ah well, definitely a case of who you know in this instance.’
Todd looked up from smoothing down one of the towels over the sand. ‘No, Sophie. You were kind, like you always are. I bet you’d have had a go at that game even if you’d had two left thumbs, when you saw how much spending some time with me mattered to him.’
Sophie shrugged his comments off. ‘He clearly adores his big brother.’
Todd screwed up his face and looked out to where Marty was already diving into the waves. ‘He’s a good kid. I wish I could do more to … I feel bad that he’s stuck out here.’
Over the crash of the sea they could hear Marty yelling for Todd to come in.
He hesitated, one hand already pulling at the hem of his T-shirt.
‘Go on.’ She eyed his body-board. ‘I think I’ll leave that to the experts. Spend …’ she gulped and busied herself, pulling a book and sun cream out of her bag as, in one fluid move, Todd pulled his T-shirt off over his head, ‘s-some time with Marty. I’ll be quite happy. Here. Watching people. People watching.’ She pushed her sunglasses firmly up her nose. Gosh, it was hot. Her mouth had gone very dry. ‘Yes. Go. I’m fine. Fine.’ Please go. Please take that exceptionally hot bod with you.
With a quick wave, and was there a slight twist of amusement to his lips, Oh please no, Todd jogged away and Sophie sucked in a long breath. Honestly. Get a grip, woman. She was as bad as a teenager. Yes, he was very pretty, to look at. Look, not touch. Her flipping hormones needed reminding who was in charge here, but even as she was trying to remind herself that he was a friend, as he’d been at pains to make clear this morning at Jones Beach, her imagination had progressed from wondering what it might be like to touch that smooth skin around his waist, to what it would be like to be held against a very, oh yes, manly chest.
Cross with herself, she opened the cool box, picked out a bottle of water and took a long cool swallow. Enough. She was going to relax. Enjoy the sensation of being on holiday. It had been a long time since she had nothing to do but sit in the sunshine with a book and soak in the atmosphere. It was also highly entertaining watching Marty and Todd ploughing through the waves, teasing and laughing at each other, joining another group of young men who all looked very similar in their board shorts hanging off lean, lanky torsos.
The beach wasn’t exactly crowded but there were plenty of interesting people to observe from behind her sunglasses. Down where the waves ran out of steam and licked at the sand, a woman who looked like Sarah Jessica Parker strolled past hand in hand with a handsome man … Oh my goodness, it was Matthew Broderick.
After surreptitiously watching them until they were out of sight, she leaned back on her elbows enjoying the sun on her face, and Sophie realised that for the first time in a very long time, she actually felt content and happy with her lot. Carefree, as if a load had been lifted from her shoulders.
Shocked with the realisation, she sat up, digging her hands through the sand, letting the grains run through her fingers, like the memories sifting through her head as she tried to pick through where things had gone wrong.
When she’d come out to the US, she’d been running, with no thought beyond getting on the plane and escaping. Putting herself into limbo. Now she was here, it was liberating because there was no pressure. And with that weightless lack of responsibility here, it came to her that in London she’d been ground down by expectation. So busy waiting for the next step, she’d neglected the now. Ground down by waiting for James. Putting her life on hold in readiness for when he would ask her to marry him, when in fact she’d not been happy. She let out a half-laugh. She’d turned this trip down originally because of him. The usual pattern of not doing things because she was waiting for when he would commit to her. Sitting on the sidelines playing second fiddle to his mother. Playing video games with her neighbour, feeling superior because Conrad needed looking after, when the truth was, she had nothing better to do while she was waiting for James. A continual rubbing away of her self-esteem. Tension cramped her stomach as she remembered being reasonable and not stamping her feet because James always put his mother first. Now she knew why, her stomach knotted with the familiar fury. She’d been so bloody spineless and pathetic. She’d wasted so much time. Her own fault. She’d let herself do that. She couldn’t blame James for that.
And worse still, she’d almost star
ted to walk the same path with Paul. Playing second fiddle at the outset.
She picked up a handful of sand and let it seep away through her fingers. It was a painful analogy for her life at this moment. Letting it seep away.
A shadow came over her and she looked up to see Todd, droplets of water glistening on the hairs on his forearms, standing in front of her.
‘You look fierce,’ he said and with a start she realised she’d been grinding her teeth.
‘And hot …’ he grinned, exuding his usual confident charm. ‘Want to come and cool down in the sea?’ He held out a hand.
All her anger drained away, replaced by amusement at his deliberate double meaning. What was she doing brooding when she should be enjoying the here and now? Life didn’t get better than this. The Hamptons. Sunshine. Todd. With an answering grin, she threw out her hand to grasp his. ‘Sounds like just the thing,’ she said, letting him haul her to her feet. ‘What happened to Marty?’
‘He hooked up with some boys his own age whose parents have a beach house down the street.’
‘That’s good.’
‘Yeah, they’re here for a month. Hopefully it’ll be company for him. I don’t feel quite so bad about only being here for the weekend.’
As they neared the water, she took off, throwing a cheeky grin over her shoulder. ‘Last one in buys champagne at Onyx.’
Laughing, Todd gave chase, splashing after her, deliberately kicking up the water, making her flinch and squeal at the cold spatters. Just keeping in front of him, she ploughed in, slowing as the wet sand caught at her feet, taking sharp indrawn breaths at the water’s icy bite on her sun-warmed skin.
‘Cold, cold, cold,’ she rasped, thrashing through the waves, sucking in her stomach as if that might somehow delay the touch of the water. Todd caught her up, pulled at her hand again to try and slow her down.
‘Not fair,’ she yelled, her hair plastering across her face as she turned to him. He nodded over her shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. When she wheeled round she found a huge wave gathering momentum and heading straight towards them.
Bracing herself for the hit, she felt Todd grab her waist as the wave rolled into them. It was stronger than she’d expected, making her stagger to her knees. Frothing water crashing over her shoulders and chest, dousing her in a wall of instant cold, turning her nipples into tiny pain-filled pebbles, and she was glad of Todd’s support as the undertow sucked at the sand under her forelegs.