Page 89 of Calling Frank O'Hare

‘There was an underwear shop in the airport and I figured you wouldn’t have time yourself.’

She laughed with that gorgeous tinkling laugh of hers and held the knickers against her hips. ‘Over the jeans or underneath?’

‘Oh underneath, I think. Or without. Yes. Definitely without.’

She kissed him again. ‘Wait here.’

‘I’ll stick the dinner in the oven.’

She waved the knickers in the air. ‘Make sure you put it on a low setting.’

Frank put the lid on the casserole dish, popped it in the oven, and turned it down low. This was the sort of thing he’d envisaged doing at the start of the Easter break, but things don’t always turn out as planned, do they? Anyway, today’s plans were as follows. Make love to the most incredible woman in the world. Have a nice dinner with a good bottle of wine. Share some stuff. The plans hadn’t yet got as far as deciding how much stuff he was going to share. Probably not the bit about stalking the most incredible woman in the world’s former lover. He would tell her about Eve and Billy though. When they were not long into their relationship, Netta had told him all her secrets and he’d told her about Ellen. After that, they’d promised each other no secrets. Frank hadn’t meant to keep quiet about Billy and Eve, it was just something he didn’t want to think about. Hiding from things again. But he was new man Frank now, and it was time he stopped.

‘Just having a shower.’ Netta’s voice floated down from the landing.

He remembered another thing new man Frank was going to do. Exude passion. ‘Okay. Dinner’s on low. I’ll come up.’ He smoothed down his hair, undid a few shirt buttons, and pulled his stomach in. Make way for the all new passionate Frank.

He went up to the bedroom he’d helped Netta decorate. They’d made a decent job of it. Da wouldn’t be displeased with it. It had been Edie’s room once. She’d been a good friend to him over the years. He liked to think he’d repaid her in kind.

The first time he saw Netta she’d come to view the house after Edie had died. She was Annette Grey then. Quite a broken thing, her ex-husband’s doing. He’d liked her immediately, but when their friendship turned into more than that, he couldn’t have been more surprised. He’d made a complete mess of their first date, gabbling on about Ellen as if they’d had the perfect marriage. In spite of that, they’d ended up having the most amazing sex in his kitchen. Frank had yet to work out how it had happened, other than they were very drunk. He’d woken the next morning in full panic attack mode and nearly ruined everything. He’d never really understood why until this week. Driving through those long, empty roads and replaying the past in his head had helped him work it out. Ellen had once said she’d scarred him for life. She had. Almost. It took a very special person to show him that love was not something to fear.

That person came in wrapped in a towel. ‘You look miles away.’

‘I was just thinking about the first time we made love.’

‘As I recall, I frightened the pants off of you.’ She dropped the towel to reveal herself in her new knickers.

He pulled her closer. ‘Well I’m a big strong boy now.’

Her eyes moved downwards. ‘So I see.’

Frank propped himself up on a pillow and put his arm around Netta. He didn’t want to sound arrogant but he’d been pleased with his performance. Passion had been undeniably exuded.

The casserole’s aroma wafted up the stairs. Netta sniffed the air. ‘Mmm that smells good. I’m embarrassed to say, I’ve rather gone back to bad old ways when I’ve been on my own. Beans on toast and ready meals, except when Mum took pity on me.’

‘Also guilty. How many days do we have the house to ourselves?’

‘Two or three.’

‘I’m sorry to have run off and left you.’

‘Never mind. Family’s important. Talking of which, tell me more about Martin and Cousin Finn.’

Frank kissed her head. She was quite right, family was important. He’d let himself forget that. ‘We’ve not always hit it off, me and Martin. He’s only a bit younger than me. When we were kids I guess he looked up to me. That was fine when we were kids, but him always wanting to tag along got in the way when we were teenagers. Finn’s a bit younger than Martin. His mum and my mum are sisters. They lived a couple of doors down from us. His dad was killed in the Troubles so my dad became his proxy dad.’

‘Poor kid.’

‘Aye well, it wasn’t exactly common but it happened. So Martin tagged along with me, and Finn tagged along with Martin.’

‘That’s sweet. Like the Three Amigos.’

‘Actually, there were four of us.’

Frank was interrupted by his phone ringing. He rustled around in his jeans pocket and found it. ‘It’s Siobhan. I’d better take it.’

‘Where is he?’ Siobhan hadn’t even bothered to say hello.

‘What?’

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