Any slight anxiety about making it out of the house undiscovered was allayed by his mum running upstairs and into the bathroom, handily enough. Once he heard the hiss of the shower, Curtis dragged on a hoodie and made for the stairs, snuck out of the door and marched along the car-lined streets. He’d never done anything like this and he didn’t like the knots of apprehension in his stomach. But he also felt a defiant sense of liberty.
For once he wasn’t going to wimp around waiting for his parents to make decisions that affected him but were made without him. This time he’d act. Let them react for once!
Chapter Twenty-six
Leah was spending Saturday with Scott and Natasha, both of whom seemed to half-live at her house at the moment. Sprawled in a chair, Scott had the Odeon’s programming for that evening open on his phone and Natasha, perching on his chair arm, was putting together her most persuasive arguments to be included in the arrangements, preferably after a visit to Pizza Hut.
‘But if we take you, we have to see some PG nonsense,’ Scott teased.
‘It could be 12 or 12A, too.’ Natasha treated him to her most winsome smile.
‘And we have to pay for you.’
‘I might be able to get some money from my dad. Or I’ll wash Leah’s car and then she can pay for me.’
Leah lounged crosswise on the other armchair. ‘My car’s clean. Wash Scott’s. It looks as if he rolled it in a field.’
Solemnly, Scott shook his head. ‘She’s not tall enough to reach the roof.’
‘I am!’ Natasha shot to her feet and extended an arm over an imaginary Ford Focus.
‘That’s not right to the middle.’
‘It is–’
The doorbell bing-bonged and Leah tutted at this disturbance to her lazy Saturday afternoon. ‘Get that, Natasha, and we’ll discuss you coming to the cinema.’
‘Awesome!’ Natasha darted into the hall.
‘She’s coming to the cinema,’ Leah told Scott, giving him a shove with her toe. ‘It’s you who’s in doubt.’
‘Awwwww pleeeeease.’ Scott made his biggest eyes and saddest face. ‘I’ll waaaash your caaaar.’
From the hall, they heard Natasha’s excited treble. ‘AweSOME! What’re you doing here?’
Leah raised her eyebrows. ‘Who’s awesome enough to be told they’re aweSOME?’
‘Justin Bieber? Hannah Montana?’
Natasha burst back into the room, eyes sparkling. ‘Look!’
A tall sandy-haired figure sidled into view.
Leah sat bolt upright, feeling as if the floor had shifted beneath her chair. ‘Curtis? How did you get here?’
Curtis let his hair swing forward. The sides of his head were freshly shaved. ‘Train.’
Leah licked suddenly dry lips. ‘Who’s with you?’
He shook his head.
Natasha rounded on him, ponytail flying, voice shrill with excitement. ‘You came on your own?’
He nodded.
Leah swung her feet to the floor, her ‘trouble’ antennae vibrating frantically. ‘Sit down,’ she invited. ‘Natasha, how about you get drinks?’
Natasha danced off to the kitchen as Curtis lowered himself to the sofa, gaze darting around the room as if loath to encounter anybody else’s.
Leah made her voice friendly but firm. ‘It’s fab to see you but what’s going on? Do your parents know where you are?’
‘I wanted to see Natasha. It’s not that far.’ He glanced over his shoulder at the door. Leah’s stomach lurched on an uneasy suspicion that he might be contemplating vanishing back through it.
Natasha, bless her ingenuous little socks, had simply accepted his presence as an unexpected treat. Leah would pretend to do the same.
She turned to Scott, who was regarding Curtis warily. ‘Maybe Curtis would like to come to the Odeon with us. Why don’t you show him what’s on?’
‘Right.’ Scott’s smile was stiff but he tilted his screen so that Curtis could study it.
Leah slipped out through the hall and into the front garden. She fumbled with her phone. This time she’d ring. A phone call might be less easy to ignore than a text. She tapped Ronan’s name in her list of contacts and held the handset to her ear.
But all she heard was a beep. She checked the screen. Number unobtainable. What? Impatiently, she opened an internet browser window and looked up the phone number for Buzz Sightseer. That, at least, rang. A man answered.
‘Is Ronan Shea there, please?’ Leah was dismayed to hear how breathless she sounded.
‘He’s busy.’
‘I’m Leah Beaumont, we met in France–’
The man sounded irritated. ‘Tell him to keep his holiday romance out of the workplace.’
‘It’s not–’ The dialling tone.
‘Moron,’ she snarled at the phone.
Behind her, the door opened and closed. She turned to find Scott, hands deep in his pockets. ‘Ringing Curtis’s mum?’
‘His dad. I don’t have his mum’s details. But I’m getting number unobtainable.’ She tried Ronan’s number again, exhibiting the screen message to Scott. ‘Could he have blocked me?’
Scott shrugged. ‘Get the mum’s number from Curtis.’
‘But I don’t want him to know what I’m doing until I’ve talked to one of his parents. You don’t think he’s here with permission, do you? And what if he goes off again? Worse, what if Natasha goes with him? The hair dyeing showed that she’s capable of doing stuff just to please him and she’s as unsettled at home as he is.’ She tried Ronan again. Number unobtainable.
‘Let me try.’
‘What good will that do?’
But Scott took the phone, tapped a few times, and handed it back. The screen message had altered to Calling Ronan.
Slowly, Leah positioned the phone. ‘How did you do that?’
Scott shrugged.
In her ear, Ronan sounded surprised but warily pleased. ‘Leah?’
She snapped her attention to the situation she needed to focus on. ‘Curtis has just shown up at my house.’
A moment’s silence, then rank disbelief. ‘In Cambridgeshire?’
‘I guessed you wouldn’t know.’
Ronan growled, ‘Too bloody right I don’t. Can you put him on?’
She hesitated. ‘He doesn’t know I’m calling. I’m worried he’s a flight risk, and there’s even a remote chance Natasha might go with him because things are still troubled for her family-wise. Can you or Selina come?’ Her heart sank an inch at her acknowledgement that Ronan and Selina would forever be coupled up by sharing Curtis.
‘Can you keep him there?’
‘If I can keep Natasha here I probably stand a good chance. They lit up like Christmas trees when they saw each other. I’ll get them making something chocolatey.’
‘Fantastic.’ Relief rang in his voice. ‘What’s your address …? OK, got it. And … Leah? Thank you. I want–’ He paused, then said hoarsely, ‘Just thank you.’
The call over, Leah turned her gaze on Scott. ‘So what was the issue with my phone?’
Scott shrugged and scuffed a foot.
Heart sinking, Leah recognised the signs of Scott closing up. ‘OK. I need to stabilise the Curtis situation before anything else. But after that we definitely need to talk.’ She hurried back into the house, following the sound of Natasha’s high-pitched giggles to the kitchen, making sure she entered as casually as if they were back in the gîte. ‘Want to make chocolate baskets? It’s more fiddly than making chocolate bowls but you get to pop balloons.’
Curtis grinned down at Natasha. ‘Cool.’
Her face shone as she beamed up at him. ‘Amazeballs.’
Automatically, Leah moved to the sink to wash her hands. ‘I think I’ve got plain, milk and white chocolate so we can really be artistic. We can add food colouring to the white chocolate, too.’
Natasha gave a series of bunny hops to join her at the sink. ‘Rainbow chocolate! What shall we put in the baskets?’
‘Ice cream?’ Leah suggested. ‘Or we could make mini muffins while the baskets set in the fridge.’
‘Muffins!’ Curtis tied up the front of his hair without a single glance at the door and Leah felt her anxiety cool a few degrees.
As she was supervising the blowing up of the balloons and the breaking up of chocolate, Leah realised that Scott hadn’t followed her back into the house. She checked through the window … but he wasn’t standing on the drive where she’d left him.
His car had gone. Her heart performed a slow, unhappy flip-flop.
‘What colours have you got?’ demanded Natasha.
‘Several, I think. Open that cupboard and you’ll see them.’ Leah turned away from the window. Her conversation with Scott would have to wait.
But it would take place. Because something wasn’t making sense in the largest possible way, sending butterflies swooping unpleasantly in her stomach.
But focus, focus. There was a more urgent situation to be dealt with. Chocolate duly melted and the white batch laced with red and blue food colouring, Leah left the teens happily drizzling it criss-cross over the bulbous end of the balloons to form spiky chocolate baskets while she phoned Michele to rapidly update her on the situation. ‘So I need to keep Natasha here to keep Curtis here. Is that all right?’
Long years as a teacher of adolescents had made Michele reassuringly pragmatic. ‘Of course it’s all right. What a monkey Curtis has been! His poor parents must be frantic. Are both Ronan and Selina coming?’
Leah kept her voice light. ‘We’ll see who turns up.’
Call ended, she stared at her phone contemplatively. Then, as a test, she pulled up Ronan from her contacts and sent a text.
Leah: Just confirming address: 28 Grace Road, Bettsbrough, Cambs.
She only had to wait a minute before her phone beeped.
Ronan: Got it, thx.
Test conclusive.
Ronan phoned Selina from the apron outside the hangar. A small white private jet taxied past him towards the runway while he waited for her to answer.
She sounded impatient. ‘What?’
He replied equally tersely. ‘I’ve had a call from Leah to say Curtis has turned up at her house. He got to Cambridgeshire by train.’
Several seconds of silence. Then, ‘What?’ in a quite different tone, the mixture of astonishment, dismay and fear that parents reserve for the exploits of their children.
‘Where did you think he was?’
‘Footie practice. Although he is a bit late back. I was about to text him.’ Then Selina seemed to collect her wits. ‘Is he all right? How did he get the money for the train?’
‘Don’t know about the money but he’s OK. Presumably he was feeling lovesick and knew we wouldn’t let him go to see Natasha, so used footie practice as a smokescreen. Hopefully Leah can keep him with her till I get there.’
‘Pick me up. I’ll come with you.’
Ronan was in no mood for Selina to order him around. ‘It doesn’t need both of us. What if I have to put up in a hotel? I haven’t got the money to splash about renting two rooms.’
Impatience returned. ‘We’ve shared before!’
‘We’re not going to share now.’ He took a breath. ‘I understand why you want to come but we know he’s safe and in good hands. I’ll keep in touch with you.’
‘And you want another crack at Leah,’ she snapped.
Mentally, he counted to ten. ‘I would value the opportunity to try and put things right between us, yes. Having my ex-wife in tow really won’t help and I think I deserve your co-operation. I’ve been pretty good to you, considering that you owe me a lot, including the roof over your head.’
‘Are you suggesting that if I don’t co-operate you’ll hoof me out?’
‘No. I’m suggesting that you might wish to repay my kindness with a little of your own.’ And if I don’t pick you up there isn’t a whole hell of a lot you can do about it.
She blew out a ragged sigh. ‘All right,’ she agreed, grudgingly. ‘Ring me –’
‘– the second there’s something to tell. Yes.’
Tucking his phone away, Ronan ran into the hangar and stormed into Henry’s office without knocking. ‘I need to charter a helicopter – at cost would be nice.’
From behind his desk, Henry lifted a supercilious eyebrow. ‘Why the hell should I charter you a helicopter at cost? You’re down on the rota to take the three thirty. If you don’t, it’ll mean an official warning.’
‘Curtis has taken himself off to Cambridgeshire alone by train. He’s turned up at a friend’s house and I want to get to him before he gets the wind up and vanishes.’
‘Oh. Crap.’ Henry sat back. He even looked vaguely sympathetic when he added, ‘Bloody kids!’
Sensing capitulation, Ronan played his trump card. ‘I’ll resign with immediate effect if that’ll swing it. But I must get to Curtis.’
Henry gave a wintry smile. ‘Even I’m not that much of a shit. Take Buzzair Three. I’ll call someone in to cover the three thirty.’
Relief sent adrenalin surging through Ronan’s veins. Tossing back, ‘I might not get back today,’ he strode out to tell Liam that Buzzair Three was going to need fuel to an airfield near Peterborough. He grabbed the keys to the cabin and his emergency travel kit from his locker, then on the chart identified an airfield about twelve miles southeast of Bettsbrough. After planning his route he rang Leah back.
She answered guardedly. ‘Hey. I’m busy making chocolate baskets right now,’ which let him know Curtis was still there and obviously within earshot.
Deep relief swirled through him. ‘Is there anyone to pick me up from Conington Airport? The flight should take me thirty to thirty-five minutes and the aircraft’s almost ready to go.’
‘Let me see what I can arrange and I’ll text you,’ she answered.
‘Fantastic.’ For an instant he let pleasure wash over him at the knowledge he’d soon see Leah again. Then Liam came to give him the thumbs-up and Ronan headed out to the apron and the silvery bulk of Buzzair Three to stow his kit and embark on his pre-flight checks, not allowing his emotions to compromise thoroughness and method. Satisfied, he climbed into the left-hand seat and worked through his instrument checks before switching on, feeling the familiar shudder as the rotors began to revolve. He slipped on his headset. ‘London City, this is Buzzair Three preparing for take-off, heading north over the London stub.’
London City came straight back and in less than a minute Ronan was performing a visual check that he was clear to bring the helicopter into hover. Henry, Liam, Cindy and Janine had come to stand at the mouth of the hangar. Henry even raised a hand in farewell, as if their friendship wasn’t entirely dead.
For the next half hour Ronan lost himself in the familiar tasks of flying: calling Stapleford Airfield, then Stansted, as he passed through their zones, then London Information for the simple last leg of the journey. It was a nice easy approach to the local airfield and he requested permission to land and leave the aircraft, possibly overnight. He was soon in the helicopter parking area, putting the engine through its two-minute cool down.
He hardly noticed the silence as he stowed his headset and retrieved his bag. As he stepped down and secured the aircraft he spotted the unmistakeable pink bulk of The Pig near the airfield admin buildings and a figure waving. He never thought he’d be so glad to see Michele.
‘This is exciting! I feel as if I’m in a James Bond movie,’ she called, as he jogged up. Wasting no time, she climbed up into the driver’s seat, her top stretched over her now visibly pregnant belly.
He hopped into the passenger side. ‘Thanks.’ He got his breath as she drove up to the barrier and off the airfield. ‘How long will it take us?’
‘About twenty minutes. So, apart from your son running away, how’s everything with you?’
He blew out his cheeks. ‘Oh. You know.’
She laughed softly. ‘Leah’s been miserable, too.’
He was so cheered by her response that he didn’t mind her spending the rest of the journey sighing over the fact that Jordan was still living with his dad. Ronan had to text Selina and tell her he’d landed, anyway, and Henry to confirm where he’d left Buzzair Three.
The chocolate baskets were setting in Leah’s fridge and Curtis and Natasha were watching The Hunger Games on Leah’s laptop in her little conservatory off the sitting room when a woman’s voice coo-eed, ‘Helloo-oo,’ from the front door.
Curtis squeezed Natasha’s hand. ‘That your mum?’
Natasha stuck out her bottom lip. ‘I hope she hasn’t come to take me home. If she has, I’ll ask her to let you come, too.’
‘Right,’ he said, hollowly. Somehow, he doubted that Michele would accept him as unquestioningly as Leah had. Leah was cool. Michele was a teacher. Now the satisfaction of making his destination and the excitement of being with Natasha again were fading, he’d already begun wondering what came next.
He wasn’t left wondering for long. A familiar voice said, ‘Hello, Curtis.’ And it certainly wasn’t Natasha’s mum.
‘Hey, Ronan!’ Natasha twisted around to beam at him, not seeming to realise that Ronan might not be very pleased over Curtis’s surprise visit.
‘’Lo,’ Curtis added, cautiously.
His dad came in and sank down in a cane chair, fixing Curtis with an uncomfortable stare. ‘I’m glad to see you safe. We need to talk.’
Curtis felt his face heat up. ‘OK.’ His dad never got shouty or sweary like some dads did, but the inflexibility of his voice told Curtis to expect a bumpy ride over the next few minutes.
Leah spoke quietly from the doorway. ‘Natasha, can you help me clear the kitchen, please?’
‘S’pose.’ Natasha sighed and paused the film with exaggerated patience. The sliding glass door between conservatory and lounge closed behind her, leaving Curtis alone with his dad.
His dad didn’t smile. ‘When Leah rang me to say where you were I nearly had a heart attack. What made you come without asking anyone?’
Curtis fiddled with one of the studs on his trousers. They were cool trousers, bought from Camden Market. ‘Wanted to see Natasha. Didn’t think you or mum would let me.’
Just for the Holidays Page 28