Page 38 of The Island in Bramble Bay
He walked up to her and placed his hands on her hips, kissing her gently and saying softly, ‘You look beautiful.’
‘Thanks, you look handsome,’ she grinned, returning the compliment.
‘You take my breath away.’ He kissed her gently, wishing that they were alone and not about to host a huge party.
‘It’s going to be great tonight,’ she said, taking his hands in hers and squeezing them reassuringly.
She was wearing make-up but rather than the thick, overdone look that Jessica favoured, Maggie’s was subtle and only served to enhance what was already there. The fact wasn’t lost on Charlie that it was a sign she was worried about the party, and he briefly took her into his arms and held her for a minute.
‘You’ve got nothing to worry about. You’re stunning and I love you.’ He stood back, looking into her dark blue eyes.
‘I love you too, Charlie.’ She reached up to kiss him, holding his gaze for a few more seconds, letting the words settle between them.
‘Let’s do this.’ He led her downstairs where a few guests had begun to arrive and took a glass of champagne from a tray for each of them as they made their way outside.
It was dusk and the decks were lit with thousands of fairy lights, twinkling all the way down to the water. There were beanbags, hammocks, sofas and tables spread around encouraging the party to be outdoors – there was only so much of an invasion Charlie could take.
‘It looks brilliant, doesn’t it?’ said Maggie. ‘Maybe we should get some fairy lights for your place? Your other place,’ she added, giving him a look.
‘Maybe we should. I think that’s Ed arriving, we should go say hi.’
He led the way back into the house to where Ed and his wife were handing their coats to the cloakroom attendant.
‘Charlie! It’s quite a place you have here. I want you to meet my wife Rosemary. Honey, this is Charlie and his partner Maggie. She’s British.’
‘It’s lovely to meet you both,’ said Rosemary. ‘I love coming out to the lake, it’s a beautiful spot you have here.’
‘Come through,’ said Maggie, ‘Grab a drink and we’ll go down to the jetty.’ She glanced at Charlie who loved that she understood he wanted to speak to Ed. He didn’t want her to feel she had to behave like a corporate wife but he was grateful.
‘Listen, Ed. I haven’t talked to Maggie about staying yet, so if we could keep it to ourselves tonight I’d appreciate it.’
‘No problem. We’re not here to work tonight anyway. Shall we catch up with the girls?’
They all sat on the jetty, on a conveniently-placed pair of rattan sofas until Charlie saw that Jared had arrived and excused himself, bounding up to the back of the house.
‘Hey, Charlie. Thanks for the invite. This place is awesome. I had no idea you’d got a place on the lake!’
‘I got it just after I left. Lived here for about a year, I guess.’
‘So, I talked to Ed. You’re going to stick around for a while, huh?’
‘It’s a possibility. I need to talk to Maggie but I want to be involved. I really miss it.’ Charlie grabbed a couple of beers from a big tub of ice and handed one to Jared. They both leant on the balustrade, looking down to the water, watching Maggie laughing with Ed and Rosemary.
‘Is Maggie staying too?’
‘I don’t think so. I want her to but she has her job back home. It’s more practical for me to base myself here for intensive periods, as Ed put it. I mean, it’s not permanent, just to get the new product off the ground. I think we can make it work short term.’ He hoped they could. ‘Are you coming in on it?’ he asked Jared.
‘I’m still thinking about it, but it’s tempting,’ said Jared sincerely. ‘It’ll be like back in the day when we were proper partners.’
‘Eat, sleep, code?’ grinned Charlie.
‘You know it.’ They embraced briefly, clapping each other on the back, then as they pulled apart, Charlie saw Jared’s face drop. ‘Christ. It’s Jessica,’ he said.
Charlie turned around to see Jessica standing on the deck, just behind where they’d been talking. Although this time she wasn’t alone. Her companion was a long-haired man who hadn’t taken any notice of the party dress code and was wearing black jeans and a t-shirt with a software brand logo on it. The fact that Jessica was with someone should have been reassuring but a cold dread crept over Charlie.
‘What are you doing here Jessica?’ he asked, already knowing that he was paying the price for asking the event company to contact High 5 directly for a list of employees and ‘relevant friends of the company’, he remembered saying.
‘Not pleased to see me guys?’ she said smugly. ‘This is Drew, he works with me,’ she said leaning into Drew in a way that suggested they were more than colleagues.
