Page 88 of The Secret Life of Beatrice Alright

He shrugs. ‘It’s okay. I wish I knew.’

‘Oh.’

‘He won’t ask the doctors.’

‘Maybe it’s better that way. I mean, do any of us really know how long we have anyway?’

He turns towards me and his glassy eyes hurt my soul.

‘He’s talking about going to some festival at the beach tomorrow,’ Shayne says.

‘The Kite Flyers festival in Malahide.’ I nod knowingly. ‘Looks great, I saw it on Instagram.’

‘Yeah. That’s the one. He barely has the energy to pull up his socks and he wants to go fly a kite.’

‘Then we’ll pull his socks up for him.’

Shayne rubs his eyes before he brings them to meet mine.

‘I think you might be right; I need some time off work.’ I swallow the enormous wedge of panic that admitting that out loud and the financial setback that will come along with it stirs. ‘But I don’t need to sit around feeling sorry for myself. I need to go kite-flying.’

He laughs. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Very. And it will be so good for Ellie too.’

His face glows, and although it’s freezing outside I feel warm and fuzzy inside.

‘Do you still want that coffee?’ he asks

I glance out the window at the small log cabin, nestled at the edge of the car park under some tall trees. The door is firmlyshut, and there is aCLOSsign hanging crookedly on the front.TheEDhas clearly worn off over winter.

I laugh. ‘I don’t think we’re getting coffee.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he says. ‘This was a terrible idea.’

I shake my head. ‘This was a great idea.’

‘Driving miles to a closed coffee shop in the middle of nowhere was a great idea?’

‘Yes! Because now, we’re going kite-flying.’

He smiles, and my insides flutter. ‘Yes, we are.’

THIRTY-SIX

I almost miss Cora’s call. My phone is on silent and I’ve also turned off the vibrate function. The buzz, buzz, buzz of a phone vibrating on the ground is too risky when your life is that of a storage closet stowaway.

‘Hello,’ I whisper, placing the phone to my ear.

‘Hey. Just checking in. How are you feeling?

‘Much better, thanks.’ I lower my voice even more.

‘Where are you? I can barely hear you.’

‘Ellie’s asleep,’ I say, truthfully.

‘Ah, okay. Up for a visitor yet? I’m off tomorrow.’

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