A Summer to Remember (17 page)

A tiny table was set in the centre of the room. It was one of the few items of furniture in the place, and it looked as lost as a dinghy out at sea. Nina’s eyes scanned the room, her homemaking gene placing a comfortable sofa here and arranging a bookcase there. Tall candlestands would look just perfect and large pottery vases filled with flowers would brighten the room.

‘What do you think?’ Dominic asked, his hands dug deep into his pockets, his shoulders hunched close to his body, as if nervous of her reply.

‘It’s lovely,’ Nina said truthfully, ‘but perhaps a woman’s touch might help.’

‘Are you offering?’ His eyebrows rose suggestively and then he blushed as if he realised that that was the sort of thing Alex would say, not him.

Nina cleared her throat. ‘Well, I know this is your workspace, but it could be a little more homely,’ she said gently, trying to keep the conversation as neutral as possible by veering the talk towards curtains and cushions. ‘You know, with some fabrics here and there. Just a few touches.’

Dominic nodded, scratching his chin. ‘I’m not very good at that. Besides, after doing the place up I couldn’t afford to buy a bean, let alone a beanbag.’

Nina smiled. ‘If it’s any consolation, I don’t own one of those either. All I have is currently in my room at the mill.’

‘But you’re—’

‘Twenty-eight – I know,’ Nina said, as if she’d been found guilty of a heinous crime.

‘I wasn’t going to say that,’ Dominic assured her.

‘But you were thinking it?’ she teased.

‘No! I was going to say that you’re not some flako artist.’

‘But neither are you,’ she said with a smile.

‘Yeah – right!’

‘But you’re
not
!’ Nina stressed. ‘Everyone knows how difficult it is to make it, even when you’re as talented as you are. It just takes a lot of hard work and a little bit of time.’

Dominic looked at her. ‘You’re marvellous!’ he said.

Nina blushed. She really must make an effort not to be quite so nice to him all the time.

‘I can’t believe you did all these,’ she said, changing the direction of the conversation as quickly as she could by admiring a group of sketches he’d hung haphazardly on the walls. ‘And these are beautiful, too. Are they for your show?’

‘No. The ones over there are going to the show.’

Nina looked across the room at the stack of paintings. ‘Wow, you’ve been working so hard, Dommie.’ She then took a step closer to inspect the trio of pencil sketches that had captivated her. Three women; two in profile and one gazing straight at the artist. Nina wondered who they were. They certainly weren’t Faye.

‘Who are they?’ she asked.

Dominic joined her by his pictures. ‘I cheated with those. They’re not of anybody real. They’re inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites.’

‘They’re so lovely – so serene.’ Nina stared at them, their soft beauty quite captivating. From the corner of her eye, she could see Dominic staring at her.

‘What is it?’ she turned to look at him.

‘Your mouth. I’d never noticed before, but it’s just like a Rossetti.’

‘Rossetti? What’s that? A kind of pasta?’ she said with a tiny smile.

Dominic smiled. ‘No! He was a painter – from this period,’ he motioned to his sketches. ‘He painted beautiful women. And your mouth is just like one of his sitters.’

‘Is it?’ Nina’s fingers flew up to touch her lips. She cleared her throat. ‘Let’s eat, shall we?’

Nina couldn’t help noticing how different Dominic was from Alex. For a start, he didn’t get up and come round to the other side of the table to tickle her. But it was more than that. He was fundamentally different. Where Alex had sped Nina along the Norfolk lanes in an Alfa Romeo Spider to a pub meal, Dominic had walked her by the riverside to a home-cooked dinner. Where Alex had teased, joked and made a thorough nuisance of himself, Dominic was quiet, calm and thoughtful.

There were several moments throughout the meal when Nina felt sure that Dominic was going to interrupt Handel’s
Water Music
to say something significant, but each time he stopped himself short. His expressions had certainly seemed to indicate that there were unspoken words tumbling around in his head but, whenever she’d thought he was about to speak, he’d merely placed another fork-load of food into his mouth.

By the end of the meal, Nina was beginning to get frustrated. Had he something to say? Perhaps he really wanted to talk about Faye. After he’d silenced her by the river, Nina hadn’t dared to mention her name again. But, even though she desperately wanted to help bring the two of them back together again, she wasn’t one to mince words either. If he had something to say then she wanted to hear it.

‘Dominic? Is there something you want to ask me?’ she said, taking a sip of the wine he’d poured for her.

Dominic looked up, startled. ‘What?’

‘You look as if you’ve been trying to say something for the last half hour, and you’ll end up with indigestion if you don’t say it soon.’

His eyes widened at her openness. ‘What makes you think I’ve something to say?’

‘Because I know you. Well, I
used
to know you,’ Nina corrected. ‘And I know when you’re on the verge of saying something. Like the time when you’d dropped Alex’s toothbrush in the toilet and were hovering around on the landing waiting for somebody to help you, but not actually telling them what the problem was. Remember?’

‘I remember,’ he said with a reluctant nod.

‘Well, you’ve got that same expression on your face now. Am I right?’

He half-smiled. ‘Yes,’ he said.

‘And remember the time you sneaked down the stairs at half-past ten at night pretending you couldn’t sleep? And really it was because you were bursting to tell me what you’d made your mum for Christmas? A tissue-box covered in celebrities cut out of old—’

‘
Hello!
magazines!’ Dominic finished. ‘Yes. I know.’

‘You scared me half to death when I saw you standing behind me in your pyjamas! And I still don’t know how
Roman Holiday
ends.’

‘Sorry!’ he smiled, looking self-conscious at the fact that he had once been a little boy who had worn Thomas the Tank Engine pyjamas. ‘Blimey Nina, I do wish you didn’t remember all that babysitting stuff quite so clearly.’

‘Sorry,’ she said.

‘It’s as though you’re trying to stop me from saying what I want to say.’

‘So there
is
something you want to say?’ Nina said. Dominic looked at her and Nina felt herself straightening in anticipation. ‘What is it?’

‘Well, it’s not that easy,’ Dominic said quietly, leaning forward slightly in his chair.

Nina began to fidget. ‘You know you can tell me anything, don’t you?’ she encouraged.

Dominic nodded. ‘I know. You’re marvellous.’

‘Don’t be starting all that again,’ Nina warned.

He pushed the remains of his pasta around on his plate. He wasn’t going to eat it, but he hadn’t quite finished with the cutlery yet.

‘Dominic!’ He looked up from the large swirl he’d created in the thin layer of sauce. ‘Are you going to tell me or not?’

He put his knife and fork down and nodded. ‘As long as you don’t interrupt. Just listen to what I’ve got to say – before you say anything.’

‘Okay,’ Nina said, a mixture of anticipation and anxiety bubbling in her stomach.

Dominic cleared his throat to begin. But a sudden loud knocking on the door prevented his words from ever leaving his mouth.

Chapter Fifteen

‘Helloooo! Anyone at home?’ a cheery voice called.

It was Alex. Of course it was Alex. It was
always
Alex. Who else could arrive with such an accurate sense of timing?

‘Hi, Dom! Hope I’m not interrupting anything,’ he said as he barged into the room, a mischievous grin lurking in the corners of his mouth as he eyed Nina and Dominic at the table. Together. Alone.

‘Well, you are actually,’ Dominic began, but he might just as well have said nothing.

‘I was looking for Nina,’ Alex said, as if that was the most natural explanation in the world.

‘Were you?’ Nina met his gaze full-on and felt herself reddening.

‘Yes,’ Alex said, moving an artists’ palette off a nearby stool and noisily drawing it up to the table. Dominic watched in amazement as his brother stretched an arm towards the centre of the table to reach the baguette.

‘Mind the candle!’ he warned, his voice fuelled by fury. Alex shrugged and blew it out.

‘You should watch these things – dangerous, you know.’

‘Only when you’re around,’ Dominic said under his breath.

The brothers looked at one another and Nina half-expected to see a bolt of lightning at the place where their eyes met.

‘What are you eating, anyway?’ Alex asked, eyeing the remains of Dominic’s plate with unreserved disgust.

‘Pasta salad,’ Nina smiled. ‘It’s really good, Dominic.’

‘What – Dom made it?’ Alex said incredulously, as if the notion of making one’s own food was preposterous. ‘Sure it’s not a defrosted M&S job?’

‘No, it isn’t,’ Dominic all but growled. ‘Just because your idea of food is to throw a couple of tenners across a pub counter—’

‘Excuse me, bro, but my idea of food is to take a beautiful young lady out for a meal, not subject her to eating in a room that smells like a cat’s weed in it.’

‘It’s turps. And it doesn’t smell that bad,’ Dominic said with a weary sigh.

‘So, what was it?’ Nina asked in a slightly raised voice, trying to dispel the tension that was rising between the brothers as fast as her colouring. Honestly, it was as if the last decade had slipped away and she’d reprised her old role as referee, trying to keep the warring brothers from starting a fight.

Alex eyed her leisurely as he stuffed his mouth with a portion of torn bread. He then shrugged. ‘Nothing in particular. Just wanted to see you.’

‘Well, we’re eating,’ Dominic pointed out.

‘No!’ Alex laughed.

‘Yes!’ Dominic retaliated. Nina was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable and fidgeted in her chair. But it wasn’t her job to intervene any more. She couldn’t tell them off and send them running to their bedrooms like she had done in the past.

‘I was thinking,’ Alex said, breaking the brief barrier of silence, ‘we should really go swimming.’

‘What?’ Dominic blurted.

‘Yes!’ Alex cried. ‘It’s certainly warm enough.’

‘But it’s after eight o’clock,’ Nina said.

‘So?’

‘And we’re still eating,’ Dominic said.

‘God – you’re such a killjoy, Dom,’ Alex groaned, scraping his stool back from the table. ‘Nina? Fancy a quick dip in the river?’

‘Er—’ she looked at Dominic, but his eyes were fixed firmly on his plate. ‘Maybe another time?’

‘Might not be another time,’ Alex said, unbuttoning his shirt as he strode over to the door. ‘Best to go with these things, I say.’

Nina watched in amazement as he whipped the shirt from his body and turned around to look at her. ‘Sure you’re not tempted?’ he asked, his hand on the door.

‘No, she’s not,’ Dominic said angrily and, for a moment, Nina thought he was about to get up from his chair and thump his brother right in the middle of his tanned chest.

‘Okay!’ Alex held a hand up in resignation, the twinkle in his eyes seeming to brighten.

‘But thanks,’ Nina said and Alex nodded before leaving and closing the door quietly behind him. For a millisecond, Nina could have sworn he’d winked at her, but it was so fast that she convinced herself she must have imagined it.

Turning her attention to Dominic, she watched as he stood up and collected her plate, piling it noisily on top of his own.

‘Dommie—’

‘It’s Dominic, Nina. Please don’t call me Dommie anymore.’

‘Sorry,’ she said quickly. ‘I was just going to say that that was really nice. Thank you.’ Again, she was fully aware that his high spirits at the start of the evening had evaporated the moment his brother had appeared.

‘Dessert?’ he asked, making it sound like an order instead of an offer. Nina nodded and Dominic disappeared behind a wicker screen that sectioned off his tiny kitchen.

What had he been about to say when Alex had waltzed in? Nina rested her head on her hands and sighed. That was the second time Alex had done that to Dominic. He really did have an uncanny sense of timing. Perhaps that was all part of being an older brother? But how could she find out what it was that Dominic had been about to tell her?

‘Do you want a hand in there?’ she asked, trying to sound as jolly as she could.

‘No,’ Dominic said simply and curtly.

Nina listened as he moved about the kitchen, and almost leapt from her seat when she heard a plate clatter into the sink and Dominic cursing under his breath.

No, she thought, she wouldn’t find out what Dominic had wanted to tell her tonight. The moment had been lost.

Nina woke from a sleep so troubled that even the rush of the river couldn’t soothe her. She leapt out of bed and shook her head vigorously, like a waterlogged dog. Her bedroom at the top of the house was hot and humid and she walked across to the window to open it, the night air warm and still, filled with the scent of honeysuckle and roses.

She took a few deep steadying breaths.

‘Oh God!’ she whispered, as she acknowledged what was happening. She started to pace the room, her nightie twisting around her legs in a gauzy bondage as she moved.

‘Dommie Milton has a crush on me?’ she said into the empty room and, if she wasn’t mistaken, she was beginning to believe that Alex was making a play for her, too. She’d done her best to block it out, but it had been quite obvious tonight and there was no running away from it any more.

She thought about the way Dominic had behaved – the little looks, the blushing, his being tongue-tied, and she thought about his fury when he’d been interrupted by Alex. She’d been so naive to think that she could just be friends with the boys.

‘Oh God,’ Nina groaned, wondering if it was too early in the morning to ring Janey for advice. She could just imagine what her friend would say though.

‘
What are you complaining about? Why not enjoy the attention? It’s not every woman who has two handsome brothers running after her! You’d be mad not to make the most of something like that.
’