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‘Let’s do it together,’ she said softly.
They let Archie hold the kite. Even though it was tugging at his little hand like an impatient dog, he was strangely calm. His huge dark eyes widened when Charlie cut the string, and then he and Dora gazed up into the sky.
But Charlie didn’t watch its final fluttering journey. Instead he was watching them, and thinking about the journey he had made them take.
Acting on his father’s wishes, he had brought the two of them here. He had fulfilled his duty as a son against considerable odds and he had united his family, so bringing honour to the Lao name.
He should be feeling immense satisfaction.
But he couldn’t shift a sense that in succeeding in one way he had failed in another. And being surrounded by his family today seemed to exacerbate that feeling, so that by the time they had finished eating lunch he was fighting an urge to call Mario so he could work off his pent-up tension in the gym.
Finally everyone left, and Archie went to have a late nap. But now that Charlie and Dora were alone he felt more tense than ever.
‘Do you want to go for a swim?’ she asked.
He felt her eyes on his face. ‘No, I’m not really in the mood.’
Shaking his head, he shifted back against the sofa and tried to stretch out the tightness in his spine.
‘Is your back hurting?’
‘It’s fine. I’m fine.’ He frowned. ‘I’m sorry, I’m not very good company right now.’
‘That’s okay.’ She bit her lip. ‘I can go, if you want.’
‘No.’ He caught her hand, and the warmth of her skin seemed to stop one thing building in his chest but start another.
‘I wish I could do something to help,’ she said.
‘I can think of something.’
It was a joke—sort of—but it sounded crass and clumsy.
He shook his head. ‘Sorry, I don’t know why I said that.’
‘You’re upset.’ She hesitated. ‘It’s okay, Charlie. You don’t need to apologise. I do understand. I know you must miss your father a lot—not just today, but every day. There are so many reminders of him.’
Himself included. He looked down at her hand in his, and some of the tension in his body eased. Dora felt like an antidote. Unlike everyone else in his life, she couldn’t hide her feelings.
It wasn’t that she didn’t try. And to people who didn’t know her—people like him, sitting in this house, reading that stupid report—she probably looked as if she didn’t care about anything.
Only he knew now that wasn’t true. Dora cared a lot. And the way she behaved was the clearest demonstration of that. Not just the self-sabotaging, but the way she sang on stage.
But he had spent so long suppressing and ignoring his feelings that he couldn’t even admit them to those closest to him.
Would that be Archie’s fate too?
He couldn’t imagine it.
His little brother was so elemental, his tears and smiles moving like clouds passing swiftly in front of the sun.
But Charlie must have been like that once. Only that was even harder to imagine.
‘Charlie...?’
She was looking at him, uncertainty and concern vying with each other in her face.
‘I’m just wondering if you think maybe we should...’ she glanced up at his face, not angry, but pensive, a little tense ‘...if I should meet your mother before the party—you know, in private...’
