The Harder They Fall (49 page)

“To El-e-a-nor,” they all repeated, over-emphasising James’s pronunciation of her name.

“Thank you for an amazing honeymoon,” Shaunna continued, “and for letting us share it with you.” A chorus of thank-yous followed, and Eleanor cleared her throat. They all fell silent, and Adele turned off the water jets, delighted with herself for getting the right button first time.

“Can I just say how honoured I am to have friends like you. Who would have thought it, that twenty-two years on…”

“Twenty-three,” George corrected.

Twenty-three years on from..."

“Nearly twenty-four, actually,” Adele interrupted again.

“Good grief! However many years it’s been since that first party...”

“Don’t remind me,” Shaunna said, shoving her elbow into Andy’s ribs. Eleanor rolled her eyes and continued.

“…that we’d still all be together, enjoying a night in the mountains and sharing a drink or two.”

“Or three,” Adele said.

“Or five!” Shaunna laughed, examining her glass in mock horror.

“I don’t want to keep going on, so I’ll finish by saying thank you.” She turned and looked at Josh as she said this. “For always being there for me.” He smiled and nodded tearily. “And here’s to the next twenty-something years. I love you all.” She stopped speaking and turned away, overcome with emotion.

“Aww, Ellie, that was beautiful,” Adele said, and everyone applauded.

“OK, OK, enough already!” Eleanor chastised. “Now why the hell’s my glass empty?” She took it over to Shaunna, who had set up all of the wine bottles within easy reach of the hot tub, and sat on the steps, chatting to Kris, who was getting ready to join the others.

“I don’t mind, you know,” Josh said to George. “Go in, if you want to. I’m quite happy spectating.”

“And I’m quite happy sitting here, spectating with you,” George said, taking Josh’s hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. Josh looked down at their hands, entwined in his lap, and moved closer.

“Kiss me,” he said.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Umm. OK.” George leaned forward and planted the quickest, lightest kiss on his lips.

“No. Kiss me properly.”

Josh was staring deep into his eyes and even if he’d wanted to resist, which he didn’t, there was absolutely nothing he could do now to stop himself. He felt his lips part of their own volition, compelling him forwards, to meet with Josh’s, the soft perfume of his hot breath filling his nose and his mouth, the gentle pressure of those wonderful lips against his, opening them further, until he could resist no longer and pushed back. For those few seconds everything else in the world melted away and they were all that there was.

“Josh-u-a and George on a bal-con-y. K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” Adele chanted, breaking the spell. George opened his eyes to find that Josh was laughing, but he wasn’t backing off.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, waving a hand in Adele’s general direction without breaking eye contact with George. “As you were.” Shaunna and Adele started giggling and Andy splashed them.

“That was the best kiss I’ve ever had,” George said, still unable to move away.

“That was the only kiss I’ve ever had,” Josh told him.

“Well, you’re obviously a natural.”

“Hmm. I don’t know about that. I think I might need to practise a bit more.”

“I see. So you liked it then?”

“Yes, George. I liked it.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Yes,” Josh said, trying to be serious, “I do need to ask you to do something for me, though.”

“What’s that then?”

“Please don’t say ‘I see’ like that.”

“Like you say it, you mean?”

“Exactly.”

Andy lay there for a while, listening to his niece in the room next door, shouting ‘Addy’. She probably wanted her breakfast, so it wasn’t him she was after at all. With that thought, he rolled over and pulled the duvet, giving it a good tug to free it from where it had hooked over the edge of the bed, and covered his head. He felt a bit rough, not surprisingly, as they’d all carried on drinking late into the night, which perhaps wasn’t the best idea with a five hour journey ahead of them. These thoughts were just drifting from him when the duvet was suddenly snatched away, and his eyes flung themselves open. He rolled onto his back and turned his head.

“Shit.”

Shaunna sat up and pulled the covers around her, leaving him completely exposed. He grabbed the bottom corner of the duvet and quickly covered his lower half.

“Please tell me we didn’t…”

“Erm, well. Let’s see. You’re naked. And I’m naked, so…”

“Did we use any protection?”

Shaunna leaned forward and glanced around the floor, taking the duvet with her. “Erm…”

Andy pulled a pillow from behind his head and put it over his groin. She gave him a quick smile.

“Oh God. Not again!”

The journey home was a subdued one in most quarters: Jess was sleeping fitfully, lying across the back seat of Josh’s car with her head on Kris’s lap, whilst he tried to ignore how hot his legs were and read a script. George was reliving that kiss, the memory of the sensation bringing with it both fulfilment and a hunger for more. Josh was flitting between a similar mind state and much more complex thoughts about what the immediate future held. James and Eleanor had turned off the motorway to head across country in order to drop Oliver back at his mother’s, which left just the two cars in convoy, with Dan, unusually, trailing far behind. Andy and Shaunna were acting very strangely, and Adele was restless, clearly preparing to say something that she didn’t think Dan was going to like. If she was going to start an argument, he hoped she’d wait until they got home, although a quick glance in the back was enough to tell him that if Adele suddenly turned into a giant cup of coffee, the other two wouldn’t even bat an eyelid. This ridiculous vision brought with it an awareness that he was getting very sleepy, and he wound down the window an inch or two.

“Can you ring George and see if they’re stopping off anytime soon?” he asked. Adele did so and five minutes later they pulled in at the next service station, where the others had been for around ten minutes. Josh was standing outside, drinking from a vast takeaway cup and evidently having the same problem with fatigue. It wouldn’t have been half as bad if they’d been able to leave earlier, but they’d waited until they were sure they were no longer intoxicated from the night before, and now it was getting dark. Dan gave his back a good stretch and headed inside to get his own dose of caffeine. Another couple of hours and they’d be home.

Back in the cars, with Andy taking the final leg again; Adele decided to sit in the back, behind Shaunna, who was watching the tiniest bead of water make its way along the rubber sill of the window. As they left the services and picked up speed, the droplet was squashed flat and ceased to exist. Now she had nothing to distract her.

“Want some music?” she asked.

Andy shrugged. “If you like.”

Shaunna switched on the stereo and turned it up to a volume where it could be heard over the road noise. Andy checked his rear view mirror and signalled to pull out, catching a glimpse of Adele’s pensive expression. He couldn’t decide whether it was because of his driving, or something else, but it was obvious that she was about to start one of her mini rants. Less than five minutes down the motorway, and predictably as ever, he saw her turn to Dan and smile ever so sweetly. Not wanting to be party to another of their arguments, he focused his attention on the road ahead and tried to tune her out. However, it soon became apparent that the people in the back were unaware that everything they were saying could be heard, loud and clear, in the front. Andy chanced a peek at Shaunna and saw that she too was pretending not to listen. The conversation went something like this.

Adele had been so worried when the plane crashed in Kathmandu; they all had, and for a while it looked like she was going to be bringing up little Shaunna all alone, to which Dan pointed out that she had lots of very good friends and as such would never be alone. She told him to stop interrupting and he did accomplish this for a short time, while she continued to relive the horror of being at home, so helpless and ‘sick to the stomach’ each time the phone rang, dreading the terrible news she was convinced would arrive every minute of every day. Dan remarked that he only had flu; she let out a shrill squeal and he backed off again. Her relief at finding out he was alive and on the mend was immeasurable, and she’d been having a good long think over the last week (Andy knew what Dan wanted to say at this juncture, but he refrained from doing so), and, the thing was, she still wasn’t ready to say yes to getting married, but, if he’d like to propose again, she would happily agree to a long-term engagement.

Now, at this point, if Andy had been Dan, he thought, he’d have just said yes and got on with secretly congratulating himself for finally snagging the girl of his dreams. Instead, he asked her if she was ‘out of her mind’, because, and he thought it a reasonable consideration, they weren’t teenagers anymore. They were an almost middle-aged couple with a child, not to mention the fact that his brother was going to be forty next year (thanks for the reminder, bro). Adele listened and said no more. The music played on. Andy kept his eyes on the road; Shaunna traced circles on her knee with her finger, the silence stretching on through the miles ahead. Dan started fidgeting and shifted his position. Shaunna took her lip balm out of her bag and pulled down the sun visor to use the mirror. Andy grinned, impressed with her cunning.

“Adele,” Dan said finally, turning in his seat as far as he could and shuffling over so he could reach across the sleeping toddler between them. Shaunna lifted herself in an attempt to see what Dan had in his hand.

“Where did that come from?” Adele asked.

“My pocket, where d’you think?”

“And do you normally keep it in your pocket?”

“Always.”

“Oh.”

Ever the optimist, Andy thought. He briefly made eye contact with his brother in the mirror and gave him an encouraging wink. A few seconds passed before Dan addressed Adele again.

“I can’t very well ask you if you’ll marry me, when you just said you won’t, can I?”

“So be creative.”

“I’m trying!” he snapped in exasperation.

Shaunna’s neck was beginning to ache from holding it in such an unnatural position. It was futile anyway, because she couldn’t see a thing, as they were now on a section of motorway with no lighting. Andy pulled out and overtook the car in front. Come on, he urged silently. What is he waiting for?

“Adele,” Dan began for what he hoped would be the very last time. “When we were in juniors, I asked you to come to my birthday party, and you said you didn’t want to be the only girl there. When we started high school, you refused to come and watch the football team, and gave me the same excuse. And again when I asked you to come visit me at uni.”

“What has that got to do with anything?”

“The thing is, Adele, after thirty years I still ask the question, hoping that one day you’ll give me the answer I want to hear. You always were and will always be the only girl. So please, will you just say yes?”

The pause that followed wasn’t very long really; Andy knew this because he was counting down the signs to their turning, and even then he almost missed it.

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“To getting engaged,” Adele clarified. “As for getting married? One day, maybe.”

She held out her hand and Dan lifted the ring from its box, a ring that had been transferred from pocket to pocket, forever waiting for the singular word that would set it free. He slid it onto her finger and held it there. Andy and Shaunna breathed a united sigh of relief and bumped fists.

At Jess’s request, Kris had phoned her mother when they stopped at the motorway services, to tell her that Jess had flu and also that she and Andy had broken up. Thus, her mother was at the door the second they arrived and came out to the car to greet her very sick daughter. Kris carried Jess’s bags inside, then Josh dropped him off too; Shaunna was just returning from taking Casper for a quick circuit of the block, having got back a good twenty minutes ago, thanks to Andy’s inability to stick to the speed limit. Casper went crazy when he saw Kris, and was obviously still feeling very proud of himself, strutting with his head held high. Josh waved wearily as he pulled away, glad to be almost home.

Alas, the relief was short-lived, for it was only when he pushed the front door open against the pile of mail and the rubberised underlay folded back on itself, concertina-style, that he remembered the state in which he had left the house; in an instant all of the pain of the weeks preceding their holiday came rushing back. George stepped past him, picked up the post and straightened the underlay with his foot, watching patiently as Josh found the courage to once again face the demons he had yet to exorcise.

“Come to me,” George beckoned. “Forget about the carpets and everything else. They’re just things. Come on. Come to me.” Josh took a deep breath and held it. “I’m going to make coffee,” George offered hopefully. Josh tried his best to smile. George moved away, towards the kitchen, listening out for the sound of the door closing.

“How can a house make me feel like this?” He’d made it as far as the hallway and couldn’t bring himself to face the devastation all around him.

“How does it make you feel?”

“Out of control.” He edged closer.

“In what way?”

“Like everything’s wrong. It all needs to go. Look at the kettle, for instance.”

George examined it and shrugged. “It’s a kettle. It serves a purpose.”

“But it’s old and noisy and takes too long to boil.”

“You bought it two months ago. I was with you, remember?”

“I should’ve bought the other one, with the blue LED.”

“And if you’d bought that one, we’d be having the same discussion about how you should have chosen this one instead. Wouldn’t we?”

Josh sighed and turned away from the kettle, the urge to pull it from the wall socket and throw it across the room almost too hard to resist.