Page 28 of Limits
‘A nod's as guid as a wink tae a blind horse,’ she told him. Pav gave her a bemused smile but nodded his head slowly anyway.
‘I’ll remember that,’ he told her solemnly, received another poke in the shoulder, and then chuckled as she moved away.
‘I’ve got to go and hand these around,’ Millie muttered, gathering up the large box after depositing a plate of shortbread on the table.
‘I’ll help,’ Pav said, moving to stand behind her – too close, as seemed to be his wont, and she felt that hollow feeling in her stomach again. ‘You baked these?’
‘She won the National Federation of Women’s Institutes South West division annual baking competition with her Victoria sponge,’ Gammy told him, and Millie rolled her eyes.
‘Come on then, Mary Berry,’ Pav said, giving her a nudge and a smile before they moved off to distribute the shortbread.
Pav spoke toeveryone. He brought the whole, normally dull and lifeless, home to life. One man should not be allowed to have that much charisma, it was almost frightening. Millie wasn’t sure that Doris Gibbs, who was well into her nineties and had had a new pacemaker fitted last month, would survive the heavy dose of Pav-charm complete with kiss that she received on her papery hand. He was a health hazard.
‘So,’ he said as they made their way back to the table through his many admirers. ‘Baking, huh? I wouldn’t have pegged you as the cupcake type.’
‘Baking is perfectly suited to me,’ Millie muttered. ‘It’s all about precision, maths really, and it’sdull.’ She paused, then added: ‘Like me,’ under her breath.
They were next to their table now and the bingo was about to start. Still, he laid his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. She forced her eyes up to meet his.
‘Is that how you see yourself?’ he asked softly, pushing back over her shoulder a hank of hair that had fallen forward. She blinked but didn’t reply. His face moved closer to hers until all she could see was the dark brown, almost black colour of his eyes. She sucked in a sharp breath as his citrusy masculine scent filled her senses. It was like she was hypnotized – in the middle of a residential home of all places. ‘Idon’t think you’re dull. Nothing about any of the time I’ve spent with you has been in the least bit dull.’ As if to emphasize his point his shoulder was shoved from behind by Lindy’s stick again.
‘Ye mak a better door than a windae,’ she shouted at him. Pav smiled, not breaking eye contact with Millie.
‘What does she mean?’ he whispered.
‘She’s … um, she’s saying that you make a better door than a window.’ Millie glanced over his shoulder at an irate Lindy. ‘She wants you to sit down so she can see the bingo caller.’ He smiled and his hand moved from her shoulder to grab hers, tugging her down in the chair next to him and keeping their fingers linked as the caller read out the first number. For a good minute Millie was transfixed by the sight of her hand in his larger one. When she finally looked up she noticed that the caller had had to repeat the number several times. All eyes were on the two of them, and Gammy was smiling so widely she was practically bouncing in her seat. Millie could feel the blood whooshing in her ears and she felt out of control.
But somehow, a small part of her, buried deep in the dark for so long, was working its way back to the sun, and a tiny part of that black hole of loneliness was filled.
And she was terrified.
*****
‘You really don’t have to do this.’ Millie whispered, darting a furtive look at a grumpy Lindy, who was perched on Pav’s passenger seat.
It was safe to say that tonight had been one of the weirdest evenings Pav had experienced in a while. But that was fine. In fact, strangely, he found that the whole thing had been more than fine. He’d been annoyed when Millie had declined his dinner offer, so he’d decided to saunter down to the radiology department that day and change her mind. When he found that Millie was at Advance Life Support training, he got talking to Don and subtly coerced him into spilling the beans about where Millie spent her Friday nights.
Some men might balk at crashing bingo night at a residential home and being the only man in attendance. But if there was one thing Pav was good at it was brazening out a potentially awkward situation. By the end of the evening he had those women eating out of his hand. He jerked forward with another poke to his shoulder and sighed – well,practicallyall of them eating out of his hand.
‘Let’s get going, laddie,’ Lindy shouted, and Pav felt yet another sharp poke in his shoulder. He was of course used to women being in his car; but they were usually under the age of a hundred, and did not in general prod him in the arm with their sticks for no apparent reason.
‘I … really, it’s okay,’ Millie said, wringing her hands and frowning up at Pav with huge eyes. ‘I always take her home after bingo. It’s no trouble. She’s just being stubborn.’ It turned out that Lindy was not actually a resident of the home; she just attended bingo night. Her son brought her and Millie always took her home. But tonight Lindy wanted Pav to drive her and she wasn’t taking no for an answer.
‘I’m taking her,’ he told Millie, reaching up for her hands and pulling them apart to hold in his larger ones. She started in surprise (something she always seemed to do when it came to physical affection) and her eyes dropped from his to fix on his shirt collar before she swallowed. He moved closer, focusing on her lips, and heard her quick indrawn breath as she stiffened. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ he said, his lips a hair’s breadth from hers. Before she could pull away he brushed his lips against hers in a barely-there kiss, which was broken when he received another poke in the shoulder. Millie used the opportunity to snatch her hands away and take a step back. Pav grinned; he’d take her retreat for now but he had felt her shiver when their lips met, and he could see her dilated pupils even without direct eye contact.
‘Okay, okay,’ he said, turning to Lindy and holding his hands up in surrender. ‘Let’s get going.’
As he drove away he looked in his mirror to see Millie still frozen on the pavement. Her hand lifted so that her fingers could touch her mouth.
‘Yer a chancer, hey, laddie?’ Lindy piped up from the passenger seat, and Pav smiled.
‘That I am, Mrs McBride, that I am.’
Pav eventually slowed to a stop in front of the small terraced house. He got out of the car and pulled open the passenger door but Lindy remained firmly in her seat.
‘I cannae get oot, laddie,’ she told him. ‘Millie always helps me.’ Pav nodded, extending his hand to take hold of hers.
‘May I escort you inside, Mrs McBride?’
