‘You are not upstairs,’ he declared accusingly. Then he saw Lucas and Kayleigh and peered in at them with his shy smile. ‘You are here as well.’
Lucas, who had been listening to Joseph and Oscar, turned to exchange high fives, making Carmelo’s eyes dance with pleasure. ‘Yup, we’re here.’
Kayleigh grinned. ‘Hey, Carmelo. Maybe you could help Joseph show us around?’
Joseph waved Carmelo forward. ‘Would you like to show your friends where you spend some of your time?’
Soon Carmelo was leading the party from room to room, clicking his fingers when he was struggling to summon the English word for something that he knew better in Maltese. Elle fell to the back of the pack, enjoying the spectacle of Carmelo coming out of his shell.
Oscar moved back to stand beside her. ‘Your boyfriend arrives today with another woman?’
Elle’s stomach dropped unpleasantly. Ah. She’d all but forgotten that Oscar thought Lucas to be her boyfriend. She’d just been relieved that he’d backed off.
‘Kayleigh works with children in England, so she’s interested in the centre,’ she said, as if that explained everything.
‘And she borrows your boyfriend?’ Oscar persisted.
Elle tried to look blank, as if she didn’t understand what Oscar was getting at. ‘She doesn’t need to borrow my boyfriend.’ Which had to be true, as Elle didn’t have a boyfriend, Lucas wasn’t Elle’s to lend and Kayleigh already had him.
A sly grin began to spread over Oscar’s freckly face. ‘This is interesting.’ He watched Kayleigh link arms with Lucas. ‘Very interesting.’ He smiled that irritating smile again as they climbed the stairs to the next floor.
Inwardly, Elle groaned. But as Joseph turned to her at that moment for a presentation on what took place in the computer room she was able to abandon the conversation. Nevertheless, as she poured out her enthusiasm for her role at the Nicholas Centre, she was uncomfortably aware not only of Lucas’s silent contemplation but of Oscar’s grin.
Once her spiel was finished, Elle could have let the tour move on without her. But that would have meant giving Oscar the chance to lurk around in the computer room, too, so she chose to stick with the group as it drifted downstairs to settle around the largest kitchen table. Elle helped Maria hand out drinks, and then waited until Oscar was seated so that she could choose a chair that wasn’t next to him.
Carmelo’s face shone with pleasure from his spot between Kayleigh and Elle. Talking animatedly about school soon ending for the summer, he swung his legs and sucked Pepsi through a blue-striped straw. At the end of the table Lucas and Joseph conversed quietly. Oscar watched Elle.
After twenty minutes, Lucas rose, saying to Joseph, ‘That’s really generous of you. If you’re certain that you don’t mind?’
‘We can look to see what fits you on the way out.’
The pair led the group out of the kitchen. To Elle’s surprise, Joseph took Lucas into the room where the rails of donated clothing hung. Surprise turned to plain astonishment as Lucas selected a pair of jeans in a thirty-two-inch waist.
‘It doesn’t matter if they’re a bit short because I’ll cut them off, anyway.’
‘What are you doing?’ Carmelo demanded.
‘I need a couple of new things. Joseph says that as I’ve offered to help the centre with something, I can take these.’
Carmelo’s quick eyes darted from Lucas’s face, to the jeans, and then to Joseph, who looked on, hands in pockets.
With a rush of understanding, Elle glanced at Lucas with new respect. As he had no need for donated clothing, if he was accepting something he was doing it for a reason. It seemed pretty obvious to Elle what it was.
She adopted a regretful tone. ‘That doesn’t really apply to official volunteers.’ Then, as if struck by a sudden thought. ‘But Carmelo has often helped me in the computer room. Could he choose something, Joseph?’ She was rewarded by a flash of warmth in Lucas’s eyes.
Joseph sucked his teeth, gazing ruminatively at Carmelo. ‘I think he was a big help to you, moving machines in the computer room?’ He raised his eyebrows at Carmelo. ‘Perhaps four items, for the help that you gave to Elle?’
Hesitantly, Carmelo hovered closer to the clothes rack, watching as Lucas worked through the hangers. Slowly, Carmelo began to smile as he chose two brightly coloured T-shirts and a pair of black shorts. And, lastly, a pair of jeans. ‘I cut them off,’ he declared.
After Carmelo had slipped behind a curtain to try his new clothes and Maria had OKed their fit, Kayleigh and Lucas went up to the activity room with Carmelo to seek out Axel, who was in charge of scissors, to perform surgery on the jeans, and Elle headed back to her computer room.
With translation help from one of the minotaur crowd, Elle settled down to assist a shy nine-year-old, Natasha, with creating a new e-mail account, thinking about what Lucas had done for Carmelo. Evidently, Lucas-present was a more mature and thoughtful man than Lucas-four-years-past. Lucas four-years-past might have wondered why nobody told Carmelo that his clothes didn’t fit, without realising that Carmelo had very few clothes to choose from. He certainly wouldn’t have created a scenario calculated to provide Carmelo with additions to his wardrobe without hurting his pride.
Natasha had fallen into inactivity, gazing at the screen. Elle tapped it. ‘Click. Hawnhekk.’ Aileen had taught her a few new Maltese words, including the one for ‘here’. And one thing that made Elle’s lack of Maltese less of a handicap in the IT stakes was that most words from the world of computers were understood in their English form. Face clearing, Natasha moved the cursor to the spot that Elle had tapped, and clicked her mouse. ‘Good. Tajba.’
Then she glanced up as Carmelo slipped into the room, looking like a mini Lucas in denim cut-offs and a T-shirt. He smiled self-consciously as he took up station at the machine closest to the one where she sat with Natasha.
‘You look great,’ Elle said. Carmelo’s smile stretched into a huge grin.
A couple of hours later, Elle hit the sweltering streets. Late afternoon usually offered a softening of the heat, but today sweat prickled down her back and it felt as if the soles of her feet were scorching even through her sandals.
The visit of Kayleigh and Lucas to the centre had been unsettling. Lucas had done something really useful in getting Carmelo to accept donated clothes, a feat that neither Joseph nor Maria had been able to pull off.
But, in turning up with Kayleigh, he’d aroused Oscar’s curiosity.
Waiting to cross the road, she felt as if the passing traffic was coating her with dust. It would be so good to get on the Shady Lady and shower. Or go off somewhere and swim. She imagined the cool blue water closing over her. She was so hot she’d probably sizzle.
Finally making it through to the gardens, she was able to see two figures on the Shady Lady’s flybridge. Her sore feet didn’t falter. Elle could only be glad that at least she liked Kayleigh. How much worse would it have been if Lucas had hooked up with someone who’d mounted a campaign to oust Elle from the boat?
She discarded her bag and her sandals at the foot of the steps to the flybridge and made her way up.
Lucas lounged comfortably, the jeans from the donated clothes rail folded on the deck. Kayleigh was at the table with her feet up, reading a magazine that fluttered in the breeze.
‘Good trick with Carmelo,’ Elle commented, taking off her hat and using it to fan herself.
Lucas shaded his eyes. ‘He’s a nice kid.’ He got up with an easy rolling movement and opened the fridge, gesturing to Elle to help herself.
She knew that water was better for both hydration and thirst-quenching, but her hand went to the Cisk as if magnetised. In seconds she had removed the top and gulped down the entire contents of a bottle, finishing with a sigh of satisfaction.
Lucas laughed, reache
d for another bottle and whisked off the top. ‘Treat this one with a little more respect.’
‘Cheers.’ Elle took the fresh bottle as she dropped down onto a seat in the shade of the bimini.
‘Lucas seems reluctant to share the strategy that got Carmelo to accept the new stuff,’ observed Kayleigh. ‘My guess is that he’s arranged to make a donation and just made up the story about agreeing to help at the centre to make Carmelo comfortable.’
Elle retorted without thinking. ‘Made up? Lucas? You don’t know him very well.’
Kayleigh turned a gaze on her that was full of curiosity. ‘I suppose I’d sort of forgotten for a moment that you’ve known him for longer than I have.’
Lucas stepped in. ‘What I suggested to Joseph is that Dive Meddi do a Bubblemaker Session for the kids, which involves a fun presentation at the centre and then a sort of mini scuba taster in the pool. I haven’t asked Vern, my boss, yet. What do you think, Elle? Would some of the volunteers from the centre get involved?’
Elle turned the idea over. ‘I’m sure they would. There are kids there who would love it so I’m a bit worried that you might be inundated.’
‘Usually, we’re not. They come to the presentation but not everyone likes the idea of the actual scuba.’ He glanced at his watch and rolled quickly to his feet. ‘I’ve got a night dive, so I have to get off.’
He patted his pockets to check his possessions, blew a kiss to Kayleigh, skimmed his way down the steps, jumped off the boat and ran into the gardens, appearing only in glimpses as he headed for the bus stop.
It was quiet in his wake. Kayleigh seemed lost in thought and Elle wasn’t sure what the etiquette was when your ex left his present girlfriend with you. She sighed.
Kayleigh looked up. ‘Am I in your way?’
‘No,’ answered Elle, quickly. ‘It’s just that I’ve been promising myself a swim. You’re welcome to hang on here for Lucas.’
‘He’ll be gone for hours.’ Kayleigh dismissed Lucas with a wave. ‘A swim sounds fantastic. My hotel’s only just along the Strand; I could pick up my stuff.’
‘Great,’ Elle lied. She didn’t really want to nurture her disconcerting liking for Kayleigh by hanging out with her but she was unsure how to put that across without hurting feelings. ‘I’ve been swimming along at Tigne, in front of the Fortina Hotel, but Joseph told me about Font Ghadir. I was going to take the bus.’
‘Sounds fantastic.’
So Elle found herself waiting for Kayleigh outside the Sea Creek Hotel, having refused an invitation to go up to her room. The mere idea of seeing Kayleigh’s bed, where, presumably, Lucas made love to her, sent horror boiling through her veins.
Kayleigh emerged from the hotel with a big smile and a beach bag, chatting amiably as they secured a place on the big turquoise bus.
It wasn’t until they alighted that Elle was able to see that this coast, which she’d only caught a glimpse of in the early days of her stay, was quite different in character to the creek.
They had another busy road to cross but then they walked down a flight of concrete steps to a significant shelf of rock filled with sunbathers and, further along, a beach cafe on stilts. The open expanse of the Mediterranean rolled waves up to the rocks and the only boats visible were well out towards where the sea met the sky.
Elle gazed around. ‘This is amazing. Like a lunar landscape by the sea.’ A scampering breeze blew her hair across her face and she twisted it up, finding a clip in the pocket of her bag to secure it.
In two minutes their dresses were discarded in their bags and they were picking their way over the scorching rocks towards the sparkling waves in their swim things, glad to plunge in and exchange overwhelming heat for the tingling chill of salt water.
Clearing her eyes as she bobbed up, Elle swam clear of the rocks. She didn’t fancy scratches from toothy serrations or from the spiky black sea urchin colonies.
Leaving Kayleigh to her own devices, she began a brisk breaststroke. The sea was so lively that she felt a little as if she was swimming in an ‘endless’ pool, where the water flow cancels out any headway the swimmer makes. Her ears filled with the hiss and splash of the waves, the flutter of the wind and children shouting to one another as her shoulders and thighs grew pleasantly heavy with the exercise.
Finally, she let the waves carry her back to the ladder and hauled herself up, heading back to where she’d abandoned her bag. Kayleigh was already drying off in one of the last pockets of sun as the buildings lining the road above were now shading much of the beach.
Shaking out her towel, Elle sat down, blotting seawater from her hair and her skin. For a time she joined Kayleigh in quiet contemplation of the waves and the few small boats that had come close to shore.
Eventually, Kayleigh stirred. ‘Lucas told me about you and him planning to get married.’
Elle kept her eyes on the restless ocean. ‘It was a few years ago. The wedding idea never really got underway.’
‘But you were a couple.’
‘Yes.’ Elle turned to meet Kayleigh’s eyes. ‘I suppose it seems weird that Lucas and I are living in the same boat. I’m surprised that you haven’t created hell over it – most girlfriends would. But there’s nothing between us, now, honestly.’
Kayleigh regarded her with curiosity. After a moment, her head dropped back as she laughed. ‘I’m not “most girlfriends” and I wonder at your definition of “nothing”. Lucas must have felt it was right to tell me about you.’ Her smile broadened. ‘As you obviously know, he has a well-developed sense of what’s right. Or what he thinks is right. I think life’s too subjective for it to be clear what’s right and what’s wrong, most of the time, but he doesn’t see that, of course.’
‘No,’ Elle agreed, with feeling.
‘Do you still love him?’
Elle felt her face flood with heat. ‘Y-you honestly don’t have to worry about anything like that.’
Kayleigh pulled out her dress and slid it over her head. ‘I don’t worry. I think I’ll head back to my hotel, now.’
Elle was glad: Kayleigh was unsettling. ‘I’ll hang on here, move into the shade for a bit.’
She sat on for a long time, glumly uncomfortable with Kayleigh’s suspicions that Elle still had feelings for Lucas.
Which made her wonder, with a greasy swirl of self-doubt, whether that meant that Lucas suspected that she did.
Simon obviously had.
It was depressing to think that everyone might think the same. And be pitying her.
Chapter Twelve
Next morning, Elle got up early and in a bad mood.
Kayleigh was being so unfeasibly reasonable about Elle and Lucas living together on board the Shady Lady that it had made her feel guilty.
She sighed as she gazed into a fridge almost devoid of food. The galley not being over blessed with storage and her not having a car made frequent food shopping a necessity, but she’d been busy with more interesting things lately.
Going hungry wasn’t going to improve her disposition so, swinging the fridge door shut, she started the little coffee machine, grabbed her purse, hopped ashore and, the kiosk not being open for breakfast, ran across to a cafe on the other side of the road. Here, she sat herself at one of the small round tables on the pavement and, succumbing to the mouth-watering smell, ordered a bacon roll.
A battered green pick-up truck racketed onto the garage forecourt nearby, pausing only long enough to disgorge a man from the passenger side before it rejoined the stream of traffic.
Elle started to realise that the man was Lucas, and that he’d spotted her and was waiting for a gap in the traffic so that he could cross towards her. His hair was tangled, he needed to shave, his T-shirt looked as if he’d slept in it, but somehow the overall effect was that he’d just stepped out of an advert for something ad
venturous.
‘What have you ordered?’ He yawned.
‘Bacon roll.’
‘Mind if I join you? After the night dive I stayed over at Vern’s and I need something to soak up the alcohol.’ He yawned again.
‘I’m taking mine back to the boat.’
‘Good idea.’ He poked his head into the cafe and added two rolls to the order; then he turned back to Elle. ‘Shall I go put the coffee on and you bring these over?’
‘The coffee’s on.’
‘Fantastic. I feel as if I could drink pints of it.’ He smiled lazily, apparently unaffected by the terseness of her responses.
Nettled by him intruding on her bad mood, for an instant she was tempted to change her plans and eat in the gardens. Then she sighed. Under the weight of her gloomy waking thoughts she’d pretty much reached the conclusion that she needed to talk to Lucas about the Kayleigh situation. Might as well be now.
So, ‘You bring the food, I’ll pour the coffee,’ she said.
‘Wonderful.’ His attention was on counting out euros from his pocket.
Elle crossed back to the Shady Lady, white and gorgeous in morning sun already hot enough to make her shoulders tingle. She poured the coffee and carried the mugs up to the dinette in the saloon. Two plates, two sheets of kitchen roll in lieu of napkins, one bottle of tomato ketchup, and the table dressing was done.
In five minutes, Lucas appeared, a white takeaway container in his hands. ‘Breakfast is served.’ He put everything down and stretched tiredly. ‘What’s up? Your smile fallen overboard?’
She chose a roll and squirted ketchup neatly on the side of her plate. ‘Yesterday, Kayleigh hinted that she suspects there’s still something between us.’ Then, honestly, ‘More than hinted. I don’t think she’s happy.’
Lucas put down the roll he’d been holding. His eyes shone black. ‘Why should she be unhappy?’
Elle stared. ‘Seriously?’
The Wedding Proposal Page 13