Ivy Lane: Autumn: (8 page)

‘Shall we go for a walk?’ I gestured towards the road that led to the bottom of the allotments.

‘Good idea,’ said Aidan, sounding relieved.

Aidan fell into step beside me, our bodies close, but not quite touching. We walked for a minute or so before either of us spoke. I felt eighteen all over again, nervous and timid, waiting for him to make the first move.

His hand brushed my sleeve making my skin tingle and I almost gasped.

‘Tilly?’

‘Yes?’

I whirled round to face him and we stopped under a street lamp.

This was it; he was going to kiss me. I could hear my own heart beating.

The light cast an orangey glow over us and fog particles danced in its spotlight. The allotments were completely silent, as if the fog had wrapped everything in layer of cotton wool. I wasn’t even sure exactly where we were, there were no visible landmarks to give me any clues.

‘What happened in August,’ he began hesitantly, ‘I hope I didn’t frighten you off when I asked to see you again?’

Ask me now and I’ll say yes.

‘No. Well, not exactly. I . . .’ Aidan gazed at me under the lamp light, waiting for me to elaborate.

This was my chance to set the record straight. I’d told everyone else, it should have simply been a matter of explaining about James, about all that had happened in my life to bring me to Ivy Lane. A bit of a conversation dampener, though.

I sighed instead and shook my head. ‘It’s complicated.’

‘I see.’ He nodded and his brow wrinkled slightly. ‘It’s just that you were pretty adamant that you didn’t want to see me again and when you didn’t call, I’d made my mind up to admit defeat. But . . .’

We took a tiny step towards each other.

‘Yes?’ I breathed.

‘I decided to give it one last shot.’ He chuckled, stared at the floor and then lifted his beautiful brown eyes to meet mine. ‘I’ll tell you a secret.’ He leaned towards me and whispered conspiratorially, ‘We don’t normally arrange a special preview of
Green Fingers
prior to the show airing.’

‘No?’

He shook his head sheepishly and stuck his hands in his pockets. ‘It was an extremely convoluted ploy to see you again.’

‘You did that for me?’ I whispered. That was possibly one of the sweetest, most elaborate things anyone had done in order to see little old me. I thought I might burst with pride.

‘Listen, I know I’m not much of a prospect, always flying off to the next project, never staying in one place for long. That’s the nature of my job. Most of my stuff is wildlife.’

‘Yes. Alf told me.’

Aidan groaned. ‘I’m sorry. I should have said something earlier. I was very upset to hear about Alf. And Nigel said you found him?’ He studied my face. ‘That must have been awful for you.’

I nodded and swallowed a lump in my throat.

He pulled a hand out his pocket and laid it gently on my arm.

‘But the thing is, overall, I think I’m an all right type of guy,’ he murmured softly. ‘But if there’s someone else in your life, then obviously I’ll go my merry way and never darken your door again.’ He gave a self-deprecating laugh. ‘Look, I have to ask, is it Charlie? Are you and he . . .?’

‘No! Gosh, no!’ I laughed and gasped at the same time and Aidan clasped his chest with mock relief.

The fog suddenly swirled and lifted and I realized that we were next to a clump of apple trees at the edge of Dougie’s plot.

‘Charlie and I are— Oh my goodness!’

Before I could fill Aidan in on the situation between Charlie and I, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye: just a short distance away I could see a pair of feet on the ground, with the worn soles facing upwards. As I stared, the rest of a prone body came into focus.

‘Aidan, look!’

I dashed over and dropped to my knees, closely followed by Aidan. It was Dougie, lying face first in the soil, seemingly fast asleep.

‘Dougie! It’s me, Tilly, wake up!’ I shook his shoulders, but he didn’t make a sound. The beam of the street lamp didn’t stretch this far and I could barely make out Aidan’s face.

‘I think he’s unconscious,’ he said.

‘Get Karen from the pavilion, she’ll know what to do and see if you can find a torch.’

He jumped to his feet and hesitated. ‘You OK?’

I nodded and Aidan sped off up the road.

‘Come on, Dougie, wake up,’ I pleaded. Still no response. I couldn’t bear it if anything were to happen to him, especially coming so soon after Alf. A wasp buzzed low to the ground near his face and I wafted it away. ‘You’re not supposed to be out at this time of year,’ I muttered crossly.

I leaned back to rest on the trunk of a tree. There were still fallen apples on the floor around my knees and I picked one or two up and threw them out of the way.

It seemed so awful leaving him in this position on the cold wet ground, but I didn’t dare roll him over until Karen had taken a look. I gingerly reached for his hand and held onto it, hoping that somehow Dougie would know that I was there.

I heard the door to the pavilion bang in the distance and suddenly a herd of footsteps charged towards us, led by Aidan carrying a torch. Another wasp drifted by and I tutted as I flapped a hand at it.

‘Over here,’ I called.

The entire community had evacuated the pavilion and Karen had to push her way through to Dougie. She crouched down and felt for his pulse.

Charlie appeared and knelt down by my side. ‘OK?’

‘Fine, thanks,’ I murmured.

‘Here, I brought your coat. You must be freezing.’ He laid it over my shoulders and I wriggled my arms into it.

‘You’re a star,’ I groaned. The sudden layer of warmth was bliss. I hadn’t realized just how cold I had been.

I sought Aidan in the crowd, but the beam from the torch blinded my eyes and I couldn’t make out specific faces.

‘He’s probably passed out from too much of that homebrew,’ said Vicky with a sigh.

Karen batted a wasp away and shook her head. ‘I think he’s gone into anaphylactic shock,’ she said, rolling Dougie over and going through his pockets. ‘Damn, he hasn’t got his EpiPen.’ She sat back on her heels. ‘He’s breathing, but it’s faint. He needs hospitalization and he needs adrenalin fast.’ She pulled her phone out of her pocket and began to punch numbers.

‘I’d take him,’ said Nigel, ‘but I’ve been drinking.’

‘I’ll drive!’ I blurted. I took hold of Dougie’s hand again and squeezed it. I hadn’t been able to do anything for Alf, but there was still time to save Dougie.

‘You don’t drive!’ cried Gemma.

‘No time,’ said Karen, rolling Dougie into the recovery position, ‘we need an ambulance.’ She stood and turned away as she gave the information to the emergency services.

‘I can actually,’ I said in a shaky voice. ‘I just haven’t for a while, that’s all.’ Gemma locked eyes with me and I could see she understood.

I didn’t drive. But I could. Our car had been a write-off and because I’d never replaced it, it had been easy to avoid driving. For a long time I was too traumatized even to be a passenger in a car.

I looked back down at Dougie and made a pledge with myself. It was time to get behind the wheel. What if this happened again? What if Gemma went into labour while she was with me? I owed it to myself and to others to be in a better position to help.

It must have been a quiet night for emergencies that evening because the ambulance reached Ivy Lane in record time. Two paramedics leapt out and within seconds Dougie had been given a shot of adrenalin. Karen had apparently been spot on with her diagnosis. Dougie was lifted onto a stretcher and hoisted into the ambulance. He’d regained consciousness, thank God. According to Christine, he had popped back to his shed to fetch a bottle of scrumpy because he didn’t like the Champagne. I bet he regretted that now. Christine offered to go in the ambulance with him and we stood back as it performed a three-point turn and sped off into the night.

‘How did you know, Karen?’ I asked as Shazza wrapped a proud arm around her partner’s shoulders.

Karen rubbed a weary hand over her face. ‘He once told me he was petrified of wasps because he was allergic to their sting. He normally carries a shot of adrenalin with him, but he must have thought he was safe in October.’

‘Wasps are particularly vicious at this time of year,’ said Aidan, stepping towards us. ‘If Dougie stepped on their nest by accident in the fog, they would have gone berserk.’

‘Really?’ I said, feeling myself go all fluttery, the nearer he got. ‘Why’s that? I thought they’d all died or hibernated by now.’

‘Their queen will have abandoned them, flown off to start a new nest for next spring leaving the remaining worker wasps bereft and without a hierarchy.’ Aidan blew on his hands and tucked them under his armpits.

‘They make nests in the ground?’ asked Shazza.

‘Yup. And when there’s rotting fruit lying around, they gorge themselves, get drunk and start looking for a fight.’

‘Fascinating.’ I gazed at him, wondering how on earth he managed to make the antisocial behaviour of wasps so . . . seductive.

We locked eyes and grinned foolishly at each other.
Now where were we . . .?

Our moment had been well and truly ambushed. And it had been going so well. I did a quick mental recap. Oh yes. He’d just done a fantastic job of persuading me that he was an ‘all right guy’ and I’d successfully – I hoped – convinced him that there was nothing going on between Charlie and me. Now if everyone could kindly leave us alone maybe we could pick up where we left off.

‘Sounds like Kingsfield on a Saturday night,’ said Charlie with a sniff, joining our little group. ‘Well, that was all very dramatic,’ he said, grabbing me round the shoulders with one arm and planting a kiss on my cheek. ‘Just as well you two were out here, wasn’t it?’

I tried to edge away discreetly, but Charlie held firm. He looked from Aidan to me. ‘What were you doing out here, by the way?’

I felt my face heat up as Shazza, Karen, Charlie and Aidan all looked at me. Aidan raised his eyebrows, waiting for me to speak. My mouth had gone dry and words escaped me. What could I possibly say to that?

The moment stretched on interminably until Aidan cleared his throat.

‘Evidently absolutely nothing,’ he said. ‘I’d better start packing up to go. Good night.’ He nodded curtly, spun on his heels and with head bowed and hands in pockets strode off towards the pavilion.

My eyes brimmed with tears of frustration as I watched him disappear into the fog.

Nicely handled, Tilly.

There were a million things I could have said in answer to Charlie, any one of them better than drying up completely. No wonder Aidan had got the wrong end of the stick. I was an absolute disaster zone when it came to saying the right thing.

A sudden surge of emotion flooded me and I wriggled free from Charlie’s grasp. Actually, I wasn’t prepared to let this go. ‘Aidan!’

I ran as fast as I dared through the blanket of fog. The door to the pavilion was open and light spilled out on to the road. I darted up the steps following the sound of voices. Aidan was dismantling the TV equipment and talking to Peter.

He glanced up briefly as I came in and then turned away.

I’d have preferred to be alone, but maybe this was better, maybe Peter being here would strengthen my case.

‘Charlie and me . . .’ I said quietly. ‘We’re just friends.’

Aidan flicked his eyes my way and made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a laugh. ‘If you don’t mind me saying—’

‘I’ll, er . . .’ Peter pointed towards the kitchenette and made himself scarce.

‘I think you’re kidding yourself,’ continued Aidan. ‘I’ve seen how attentive he is. And the way he looks at me . . .’ He shook his head. ‘He obviously sees me as a threat.’

I couldn’t deny that; I’d spotted Charlie giving Aidan dark looks myself, but I was amazed that Aidan had picked up on it too. A tiny part of me was thrilled, though. Jealousy, although not necessary an attractive trait, had to be a good sign.

‘I’m sorry about that,’ I said. I took a step closer until we were within touching distance. There were footsteps approaching the pavilion, I had mere seconds to get this right. ‘But it’s not reciprocated, I promise.’

Aidan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. ‘Then why is it complicated?’

‘I—’ I broke off as the hordes poured noisily back into the pavilion.

I pleaded with my eyes.
Give me another chance to explain, another time.

He shrugged sadly and turned as Nigel slapped him on the back.

‘It’s our Hallowe’en party next Friday. We’d love you to come as our guest of honour, do the judging and what have you. If you’re not jetting off somewhere exciting that is?’ he said.

‘Oh. Er . . .’ Aidan looked at me.

My heart started to beat double time.

Say yes. Don’t just think it, Tilly, tell him.

‘Please come,’ I said, holding his gaze.

‘In that case, thank you, Nigel,’ said Aidan quietly, still looking at me. ‘I’d be delighted.’

‘It’s compulsory fancy dress,’ added Nigel.

I grinned at the look of horror on Aidan’s face and let out the breath that I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

Hallelujah.

‘Right, let’s go through the plan again,’ said Gemma, plunging a knife into her pumpkin with surprising force.

I grinned at her. ‘OK. I leave a mysterious note on Aidan’s windscreen inviting him to a secret love tryst in my shed and then I light the candles and wait for him to come and take me in his arms and, well, we know the rest, hopefully.’ I giggled.

‘TMI,’ Mia interjected with a grimace.

‘Sorry,’ I laughed as Gemma rolled her eyes.

‘Why don’t you just drag him to your shed?’ said Mia. ‘Why all the secrecy?’

‘Drag him?’ cried Gemma. ‘Is that the London Zoo school of romance, by any chance? Unromantic dot com, that’s you.’

She tutted and bent back over her pumpkin. Mia responded maturely by sticking her tongue out.

‘Well, I think it’s sweet that you’ve got a crush . . .’ said Hayley, leaving the rest of the sentence hanging. I narrowed my eyes.
At your age
, she’d been about to say, I knew it. She raised her eyebrows at me innocently.