Page 20 of Just for the Season

‘Focus. Do you, or do you not, want me to put my arm round your shoulders?’ Marcus asks, his voice stern but his eyes twinkling.

‘Yes please,’ I say, giggling even more.

‘Okay. Great.’ And then he shifts further towards me, and I move towards him, and then he places his arm around my shoulders, and I lean against him.

He has a lovely, masculine scent, and is very large and solid, and of course handsome, all of which might possibly make this seem almost genuinely romantic, in that on paper you’d have to call him attractive and say that we were in a loose hug, if his body weren’t unbelievably rigid as he lightly holds my shoulder.

I’m laughing so much now that I think I’m in danger of being sick.

‘The reason for all the mirth?’ he enquires.

I look up into his face, still laughing. ‘You’re just so rigid,’ I say. And then I gasp. ‘Nooooo, not in that way. I mean, you might be, but I’m not touching you there, so I wouldn’t know. Gaaah. No. Gaaah. Erm. Please just ignore everything I said. What I meant was that you seem a little tense.’

Now it’s Marcus who’s laughing. As he laughs, his body relaxes, and it feels as though his arm around me is, well, friendly, really.

‘I’m going to say goodnight to you two lovebirds.’ Gran has popped up from nowhere, which is a surprise to me because while she’s in excellent shape for her age, she is eighty-five, and not super fast on her legs. ‘You look as though you’re having a lot of fun together. It’s lovely to see how much you make each other laugh. Goodnight, Frankie.’

I stand up, only wobbling a bit as I do so, which is an achievement, and hug her.

‘See you tomorrow,’ she says. ‘At about half twelve?’

‘Yes. Great, thank you. Night.’

I watch her out of the room, and then turn a little awkwardly round. I can’t really sit back down into the circle of Marcus’s arm, because that would be truly weird given that Gran has gone and she was the only person we were actually pretending for. Although…

Still standing, I bend a little so that Marcus can hear if I speak quietly. ‘I hope you don’t mind but… we’re going to have to pretend to some people, as in not tell everyone the truth immediately.’

‘Because this village is powered by gossip and someone would tell your grandmother?’

‘Yes,’ I say miserably.

Marcus rolls his eyes.

‘Sorry,’ I say, even more miserably.

‘Yeah, I think this was a what-could-possibly-go-wrong kind of situation.’ He doesn’t actually look angry, more just kind of resigned.

‘Sorry,’ I repeat. I’m too tired to think of anything else to say. I just want to go to bed. ‘I think I’m going to go now.’

‘Yeah. Probably a good plan.’ He looks round the room. ‘Where’s Ellie?’

Ellie, it turns out, is deep in conversation with a man of about our age who I don’t recognise.

Hmm. Ellie never dates anyone. I think it would be lovely if she did date. I don’t want to disturb her.

‘You know what?’ I say. ‘I’m going to just go home by myself.’ I hiccup again. ‘Dammit. I thought the hiccups had stopped.’

‘I’ll walk you.’

‘There is really no need.’ I just want to be alone now.

‘It’s fine. We don’t need to talk; no-one will be watching us.’ He has a very square jaw and it’s looking very obstinate. ‘And you’re on my way.’

‘Okay. Fine. Thank you. Very kind.’

Marcus laughs. ‘You sound so sincere. Come on.’

‘I’ll just let Ellie know.’ I can’t just walk out and leave her. ‘I don’t want to interrupt her, though. You know what. Change of plan. I’ll just sit on this sofa and wait. Please don’t feel you have to wait with me. You can go. Or mingle. Or something. I’ll just snooze.’ And I sit down and close my eyes.