Page 60 of A Sky Full of Stars
Thea sighed, but then tried to hide a smile. ‘I, er, might have taken things into my own hands a bit…’
Tristan’s pulse started to race. ‘What have you done, Thea?’
At that moment, Lorelai’s doorbell rang.
Tristan turned to Thea, who seemed to be preoccupied by something on her phone. ‘Do you want to get that?’ she asked.
‘Nah,’ he responded. ‘Probably just someone selling something. I mean, who calls round on a Sunday afternoon?’
Thea raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you sure you won’t just go and answer it?’ The doorbell rang again. ‘Could be important…’
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake!’ Tristan muttered, then glanced around guiltily in case his niece and nephew had come back into earshot. ‘I’ll send whoever it is away with a bloody flea in their ear at this rate.’ He pushed himself off the sofa and meandered reluctantly towards Lorelai’s front door, silently cursing his sister under his breath as he went. If it was a cold caller, he’d make sure they knew they shouldn’t be inconveniencing his grandmother, especially on a Sunday afternoon.
Unlocking the door, he took a deep breath before he pulled it open, but the words died on his lips when he saw who was standing on the doorstep, looking almost as nervous as she had the first time he’d seen her.
‘Charlotte?’ he said, his heart suddenly in his mouth. ‘What on earth are you doing here?’
58
This was a terrible idea.The look of shock on Tristan’s face when he opened the door to Nightshade Cottage was enough to make Charlotte want to jump back into her second-hand Volkswagen Polo and scuttle back to Bristol. Comet, though, had no such reservations and was scrabbling frantically at the back window of the car, eager to escape and greet his old friend, Tristan.
‘Er, hi,’ Charlotte said, twisting the ring on the middle finger of her left hand, just for something to do. ‘I came as soon as I could. Thea sounded pretty stressed on the phone when she called me earlier. How can I help?’
Tristan’s blank look of incomprehension made Charlotte twist the ring on her finger even more tightly. He looked as though he didn’t have the faintest clue what she was talking about.
‘You’ve spoken to Thea today?’ Tristan eventually replied. ‘What about?’
Charlotte’s heart sped up. ‘Er, about the papers Lorelai found in the attic? The ones that she needed some help to decipher? She asked if I could pop down and spend a couple of hours looking through them, since there were too many to post. I said I’d see if there’s anything I could do to help.’
Tristan wrinkled his brow. ‘First I’ve heard of it.’
‘And me.’ Lorelai’s slightly amused voice emanated from the kitchen, where she was helping Cora and Dylan to separate their newly collected conkers into two carrier bags. ‘Come in, dear. Tristan, it’s rude to keep a guest on the doorstep.’
Charlotte began to realise what had happened, a split second earlier than Tristan did. Her face burned with embarrassment and not a little awkwardness. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘there’s obviously been some sort of misunderstanding – I’ll get going…’
‘Don’t be daft!’ Thea emerged from the living room. ‘Tristan’s getting sleepy and lazy on the sofa this afternoon, and he could do with a walk. Why don’t you take Comet over the woods? Don’t you think it’s about time you talked?’
Charlotte shook her head. ‘When you called me this morning, you said you needed my help. You lied to me to get me here. I’m up to my eyeballs in work, Thea, and I haven’t done much driving since I bought my car! I dropped everything, scared the bejesus out of myself on the A38, not to mention the horrible lanes around here, and now you’re pushing me to talk to Tristan when you know damned well we called a pause? What the hell were you thinking?’
Thea, clearly shocked by Charlotte’s outburst, dropped her gaze first. ‘You’re right,’ she said quietly. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have interfered. But when I saw that text of yours, something inside me just snapped. Can’t you see what everyone else does? You two need to talk things through. I’ve never seen Tristan so happy as he has been this summer, and I’m willing to bet, despite how things ended, that you were happy too. I don’t know much about romance, but I do know a good couple when I see one, and I know my twin brother. I’m sorry I lied to you, but now you’re here, don’t you think it’s worth at least having a chat?’
It was rare that Charlotte couldn’t think of a logical answer for something, but standing on the doorstep of Nightshade Cottage, a place where she’d spent so much time over the summer, in front of a man she knew she was really falling in love with, despite everything, all she could do was concede that his meddlesome twin sister might just have a point.
‘All right,’ she muttered. ‘But I can’t stay long. I’ve never driven in the dark.’
Tristan, who’d clearly been as taken aback as Thea had been by Charlotte’s outburst, finally spoke. ‘Do I get a say in it, or am I just expected to go along with this scenario?’ He turned to look at Thea. ‘Charlotte’s right – you shouldn’t have interfered.’ He shook his head. ‘You were literally just talking to me about triggers, and you spring this on us? After all the hassle that the last lot of paperwork Gran found caused?’
Thea’s face fell, and Charlotte could see that Tristan’s words had really hit home. Reluctant to interrupt, but unwilling to see them descend into an argument, she put a hand on Tristan’s arm. ‘Look,’ she said gently. ‘Thea might not have been right to get me here like this, but since I am… how about we go for that walk? What harm could it do? To be honest, I need to relax a bit after that drive, and Comet’s great company but I could do with some conversation too. What do you think?’
Tristan turned back to face her, and Charlotte felt her mouth going dry, and her palms starting to sweat. She’d forgotten just how much of an effect he had on her when they were close, and she knew she had to get moving before the adrenaline really did kick in and scupper her resolve. ‘Come on,’ she said gently, ‘let’s get Comet out and have a wander in the woods, shall we?’
‘OK,’ Tristan said after a beat. He glanced over his shoulder. ‘Don’t go anywhere until we get back, sis. You and I will be having a word later.’
Charlotte suppressed a smile. She might not have known Tristan that long, but she detected a distinct note of levity in his voice, now he’d decided, like her, to make the best of an unexpected situation. She popped open the boot of the Polo and clipped Comet’s lead to the dog’s collar before he could escape into the familiar territory of Lorelai’s back garden. Something told her, by the end of this walk, she and Tristan would both have to decide where they stood.
59
‘So…’
