Page 54 of The Island in Bramble Bay
‘Okay, well I’ve got my own work to do.’ She strode off down to the boathouse.
Charlie felt defeated. He hated confrontation which was part of the reason why he’d run to Lake Tahoe when he’d found out about Jessica and Jared. Since that day, he hadn’t spoken about any of it to Jessica even though they’d been working together. It had seemed better just to get on and leave the past alone.
‘Is it too early for a drink?’ Jessica asked as he went back into the house.
Charlie stood for a moment, kneading his eyebrows with his fingers before he pushed his hair back and exhaled. It was going to have to be said.
‘You shouldn’t have just turned up here, you knew I was heading back in a couple of days. What are you doing?’
Jessica put her magazine down and came to stand in front of him. He could smell her perfume she was so close to him, and he had a brief flashback to when this kind of proximity to her used to drive him wild.
‘I’ve loved working with you on this, Charlie. It’s made me reflect on what I lost when I let you go. We need to give ourselves another chance, put the past behind us and pick up where we left off.’ As she spoke she reached out and took his hand, placing it on her cheek, leaning in and stroking the back of it before he had the chance to take in what she was doing and pull away.
‘No, we don’t. Your chances ran out with me a long time ago. I’m collaborating on this with you as a favour to Ed, that’s all. If you came for any other reason than the project, you should leave now.’ His heart was beating through his chest with the adrenaline and nerve it was taking him to finally be honest with her. ‘I love Maggie, we have a life together here. It’s over for me and you, apart from the work, it’s over. Anyway, I thought you and Drew were together?’
She slipped her hand onto his waist and caressed the skin underneath his shirt. ‘No, Charlie. You’re wrong. Drew just works for me. It’s nothing.’ She planted a kiss on his lips and then stepped back to show him her phone. It was a photo of him asleep in his bed in the apartment in San Francisco.
Not able to say anything, Charlie stumbled up the stairs, his lips tingling, all he could smell was her and he thought he was going to throw up. What the fuck was she doing to him?
51
MAGGIE MOORED THE boat at the quay on Bramble Island, her guilt at taking Charlie’s boat overshadowed by her anger at his inability to stand up to Jessica. What was it about that woman that she couldn’t leave him to get on with his life? And why couldn’t he seem to bring himself to tell her that?
She headed straight for the office. While she was feeling like this, frustrated, raving mad, it was best to throw herself into something. Work was the answer. As she walked through the woods, the smells and sounds of the island soothed her and she felt calmer by the time she opened the door. None of the volunteers were there, it was the middle of the afternoon so they’d be out leading Treks.
Maggie sat down at her desk, it was familiarly cluttered with her notes and piles of paperwork and post to check through. It had been a while since she’d had a normal day in the office what with the Treks, Ben’s visit and then Charlie coming back and she had a bit of a backlog. Scanning through the frightening number of emails, she came across one from Ben to Rob Tanner with her cc’d in.
From: [email protected]
Hi Rob,
To update you on the progress on site at Bramble Island: all trees have been identified and confirmed expendable by Charlie Mackenzie, the forester. I propose planning consent be applied for based on the attached grid references. Some concern was raised by Clare who runs the visitor centre – the tree marking has prompted questions from visitors about what is happening. It may be wise to actively manage an information release as soon as possible, in advance of the planning application.
Best, Ben
Maggie hoped that Alex would get back to her quickly so that she could pitch her water lodge proposal before the planning application was submitted. She had a feeling that if it was afterwards, it would be too late to change anyone’s mind. But in the meantime, there was something else she could do.
The island was quiet. Rain was forecast and Maggie could smell it in the air before the drops began to fall. It was warm, summer rain so she didn’t mind getting wet and didn’t change her pace at all. It felt good to defy what she would normally do. Instead, she revelled in the absurdity of letting herself get soaked through. She headed for the lodge site and wandered through the wood untying the plastic ribbons from the trees. After all, they were marked on a map now, why invite speculation when it might all come to nothing?
Back at the office, all of the volunteers were taking shelter. Maggie hung her soaked fleece on the back of the door and pulled on a hoodie which she’d left there at some point.
‘Hey, Maggie. Long time no see,’ said Josh.
‘What are those?’ asked Alice of the ribbons which Maggie had dumped on the floor.
‘They were marking the trees for the lodge project but now that the locations have been mapped and Charlie’s had a look at the trees, there’s no need for them.’ She shuddered as she thought of how Ben had described the trees as expendable and how he’d made it sound in his email as if Charlie thought that too. As if.
‘I think Ben wanted them left, actually,’ said Alice as Megan rolled her eyes.
‘Visitors are wondering what they’re for and we don’t want to alarm anyone before we know what’s going to happen.’
Alice looked sulkily at Maggie but didn’t say anything else.
Maggie made a snap decision, ‘I’ve got Charlie’s boat. Who wants to go to Sandbanks for fish and chips?’ She needed to get away from the island and being alone would be a terrible idea. ‘Megan, you can drive.’
‘Brilliant!’ said Megan. ‘Give us twenty minutes to get ready and we’ll meet you on the quay. You look like you could do with drying off anyway.’
