Chasing Charlie (37 page)

MARA

There was so much going on that evening that for quite a long time I completely forgot about Covington. Quite why someone would go home to the States via London was beyond me but Ed had assured me that he had a healthy trust fund to back him up. More importantly, he'd said, he was a good friend and he wanted to meet us all. Especially me. It didn't make any sense but I couldn't help but feel quietly thrilled.

‘I really don't understand Covington's interest in me,' I'd said to Ed, quite possibly repeating myself.

‘You can call him Cov, you know, Mars.' Ed had looked at me with amusement.

‘I think if you're blessed with such a grand name, you should use it.'

Ed's mouth twitched. ‘Well, that'll be up to you.'

I tried to imagine some American coming to see us. A man who had set up several projects in India, including improving access to clean water for hundreds of people and embedding micro-finance schemes. He was a voracious reader. And I had to admit, going by Ed's photographs, he wasn't bad-looking at all. From the little I knew about him he sounded nothing like the self-absorbed depressive that Mark was. The little I knew about him made him sound quite close to being a saint.

‘But why me? Why would he be interested in this boring librarian?'

‘Come on, Mara, I've told you already. He's heard a lot about you and thinks you sound pretty amazing.'

‘And based on a few conversations had in an exotic location he's going to spend hundreds of pounds more than he needs to and stop over here on his way home?' I'd asked.

‘He's probably got a round-the-world ticket or something, Mars.' He'd sighed, frustrated with my sharp tone. ‘You're talking as if our friendship is worth less because we met travelling. Like it's some flimsy thing that won't last. We got on really well, you know. He's one of the people I've met who gets me the best in the world.'

I looked at him hard but he was undeterred.

‘You of all people should understand that, Mara. What about Claudia and Sam – you met them travelling and look at them, they're family now, right?'

‘But that's different,' I said.

‘How, exactly?' he asked.

I scowled at him and he put his arm around me, and his kindness made me feel fragile.

‘Could it be that you're happy to share your friends with me but not as happy to share me with my friends, Mars?'

I tried to unpick what I was feeling. I knew in my heart he'd hit on the truth but I couldn't logically make it all line up in my head. He had been speaking about this Covington character a lot since he'd come home. Could it be that I'd been feeling jealous of Covington as well as worried about Sam? Perhaps blaming everything that's seemed wrong in the past few weeks on Sam had been unfair of me.

‘You know, I reckon you two are going to have a lot in common,' Ed said.

So when the doorbell went for what felt like the fiftieth time that evening, I wasn't sure whom to expect. It wasn't until I saw the shadowy figure of a man with a large rucksack behind the frosted glass that I twigged.

I opened the door.

‘Hello, is this—'

He was the most beautiful man ever to stand at my door, with warm, intelligent eyes full of truth and a drawing of a bicycle on his T-shirt and—

‘Oh, don't tell me, you must be Mara.'

‘I— sorry, I'm so rude, please come in—'

‘Thank you, I've heard so much about you, Mara,' he said as he passed by me, so close, in the narrow hallway, and I placed my hand on the wall behind me and inhaled deeply to try steadying myself. Maybe Ed was right; maybe this Covington creature and I would have a lot in common. I hoped with all my heart that we would.

ED

After Rebecca had been picked up I watched Sam all night, laughing with Mara, with Kate, with Claudia and with John. She chatted with Dad for ages, asking him lots of questions about his time in the navy, before the wife and kids came along, and he couldn't have looked happier if he'd tried. She seemed to be making a point of not looking my way, although when Cov turned up she stared at me pointedly, her eyes flicking to Mara. ‘Could he be any more perfect for her?' she was saying. ‘I know!' I stared back and felt sky high. But she never sat with me or leant against the kitchen counter alongside me, like I hoped she would. Not until all the food was gone and everyone was piled into the sitting room did she come and find me. I was outside. Ever since working in Scotland, I'd got into the habit of spending a few moments outside at night. Of course Queen's Park at night didn't come close to the in-your-face vitality of the Highlands but after ten o'clock most people were at home and it was much quieter. I couldn't wait for Katherine's project to begin. She'd called me through the week. Yes, please, I'd said. More time in Scotland and ten weeks away from London on a job with Sam. Definitely.

‘They're lovely, aren't they?' she said at my arm.

I turned, heart racing. Finally! Then I chided myself – must keep cool, must keep cool.

‘What are?'

‘The trees. I'm going to miss that park.'

‘You should have bought two,' I said.

‘Two what?'

‘Two of those prints, the one you gave Mara. Didn't it remind you of these trees?'

‘How did you know?'

I shrugged and looked at her cute round face, her frizzy hair all crinkly and golden under the street light, and I wondered why I hadn't noticed the faint sprinkling of freckles over the bridge of her nose before.

‘So . . .' She looked at me, cheeky and open and complicated and really very simple all at once and my whole body ached with how much I wanted to take her into my arms right there and kiss her like the mad dog I felt. But I wouldn't. Not yet. She had to be completely Charlie-free. I couldn't bear her chasing any part of him, even the whiff of his smart cologne in her mind. No, I would wait, just a little bit longer.

‘So?' I answered, and looked out at the park again. I sensed her smiling and felt her lean her head on the side of my arm, and I smiled at the bare trees as they waved at us from across the street.