Page 27 of A Sky Full of Stars
‘If you’re not back by six-thirty, do you mind if I pop into the annexe to get the dog food?’
‘That’s fine,’ Charlotte replied. ‘And thank you for looking after him for me, Lorelai.’
‘You’re more than welcome,’ Lorelai replied. ‘Thank you for getting my grandson away from his desk!’
‘ItisSaturday, Gran,’Tristan replied, looking like the teenager he’d once been when he lived with Lorelai. ‘I wasn’t planning on workingallweekend.’
‘Yes, dear,’ Lorelai said mildly, but she exchanged a knowing look with Charlotte. ‘Have a lovely time.’
As Charlotte followed Tristan out to his car, she shook her head. Whilst the relationship between grandmother and grandson was definitely adorable, she wondered if she was ready to be a part of that dynamic.
29
‘So, are you going to tell me where we’re going, or shall I just drive until you scream at me to stop?’ Tristan glanced at Charlotte and then pulled onto the main road to Bristol.
‘Is that your usual MO?’ Charlotte laughed. ‘I mean, Lorelai warned me about you…’
Tristan shook his head. ‘What did she say? I can never decide if she wants me to settle down or is intent on sabotaging my love life.’
‘Oh, she didn’t say much,’ Charlotte replied. ‘But she did mention you kept your cards close to your chest a lot of the time, and I think she finds that frustrating.’
‘She’d love it if I confided in her about everything,’ Tristan said softly. ‘She can’t quite get to grips with the fact that Thea and I are adults now, and we like to keep some things to ourselves.’
Charlotte wasn’t sure what to say to that. Having never discussed Lorelai’s place in Tristan’s life, and only being on their first ‘official’ date with him, she wasn’t sure what to reveal about what she knew about his family history. The snapshot she had on her phone would be waiting a little longer.
Thankfully, Tristan pre-empted her. ‘I’m sure Gran’s told you about what happened to Mum and Dad,’ he said. ‘I mean, I’d be surprised if she hadn’t at least mentioned it, given the fact you’re working at Observatory Field.’
Charlotte was taken aback by his straightforward tone. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but perhaps it was worth having this conversation while he was driving: somehow it made the subject easier to broach. ‘Yes, and I was so sorry to hear about it, Tristan. I can’t imagine what you and your sister must have been through.’
She glanced at him as she said this, but his face seemed carefully expressionless. His hands were relaxed on the steering wheel, and he was staring ahead, focusing on their journey.
‘It’s all right.’ He took his eyes off the road again and smiled momentarily. ‘I’m not going to break down into tears, or beat my chest, or burden you with a whole pile of emotional baggage. They died. It was a long time ago. If you hadn’t been lodging with Gran, I probably wouldn’t even have mentioned it, at least, not on a first date, but it seemed the right thing to do to get things out there, especially since you’re working at Observatory Field.’
‘I appreciate you being so up front about it,’ Charlotte said. ‘I was worried my working at the site might be stirring up bad memories. Would you rather we didn’t talk about it?’
Tristan smiled again, and Charlotte’s heart did a little skipping beat that she tried to ignore. ‘Since I’m going to be up there on site myself soon, it would be daft to ignore it, but, for today, it would be nice just to focus on where we’re going and what you’d like us to do. How about you direct me and tell me when to stop? Do we have a deal?’
‘It’s a deal.’ Charlotte smiled back at him, which he just saw before returning his eyes to the road ahead. She consulted Google Maps on her phone, which mercifully, had come back into range a few miles after they’d left Lower Brambleton. Perhaps she should give Tristan at least some idea as to where they were headed.
‘I thought I’d take you to a few places around Bristol that I discovered when I was an undergraduate,’ she said.
Tristan quirked an eyebrow. ‘Missing academia already?’ he teased.
‘Well, the best haunts I ever found were when I was a first year in Bristol,’ Charlotte grinned. ‘Best pubs, best views, best nights out I could remember… or in some cases, I couldn’t remember. Working for North West Wessex has its charms now I’m older and wiser, but the University of Bristol taught me how and where to have a good time!’
‘I look forward to sharing a day of that with you, then,’ Tristan smiled back, and this time Charlotte definitely had to tell her heart very sternly to stop messing about.
A short time later, Tristan had parked in the multi-storey car park at the top of Bristol’s Park Street, which was smack in the middle of the city’s university district. Known to a few million BBC viewers of the hit TV showThe Outlaws, which was a love letter to the city, Charlotte adored this area of town for its history, heritage and the imposing edifices of the cathedral and the Wills Memorial Building, which was near to the museum. Maybe it was because when she visited these places and climbed the towers that rose like stalagmites along one side of Park Street, she felt as though she was getting closer to the skies she’d spent her academic career observing, or maybe it was just the need to get a bit of height and perspective at various points in her life.
‘So, where do we start?’ Tristan asked, once they were out into the sunny expanse of Clifton Triangle.
‘Do you fancy working up an appetite before lunch?’ Charlotte asked as they mooched towards the green space of Berkeley Square. ‘How are your climbing legs?’
Tristan looked wary. ‘Pretty good, so long as you’re not planning on making me climb the Avon Gorge today.’ He gestured to his feet. ‘I don’t really have the shoes on for it.’
Charlotte giggled. ‘Nothing so intense in this heat. But are you all right with heights and slightly confined spaces?’
Tristan’s expression changed from wary to outright suspicious. ‘What have you got in mind?’
