Don't Let Me Go (12 page)

Barely suppressing a smile, Charlotte got out to fill up with petrol before driving on to Aroha. Though she’d have liked to stay at the Centre for a while watching Chloe interacting with the other kids, it was important that she didn’t create a scenario where Chloe might want her to stay every morning. So after making sure she was settled and Boots was safely tucked in her locker, Charlotte drove on to Kerikeri to pick up some new socks and vests for Chloe and maybe a pair of jandals, as the locals called flip-flops, for herself, before meeting Bob.

With it being a Monday Katie’s salon would be closed so there wasn’t much chance of running into her, which Charlotte could only feel grateful for, since she really wouldn’t want to be facing her right now, knowing what she did. However, after Rick had told Katie, Charlotte would want to be there for her in any way she could, since heartbreak was something Charlotte knew all about. When it had happened to her she’d truly believed she’d never get over it, yet here she was, six months on, and she hardly thought about Jason Carmichael at all. When she did, she had to admit that a part of her longed to go back to the happier days they had shared, or at least to a time before her world had turned inside out. And yet she wouldn’t really have things any other way than they were now, because painful as it had been to lose Jason back then, he’d left her to return to his wife and children, which was where he belonged, and now she was here with Chloe, where they belonged.

It would all come right for Katie in the end too, Charlotte felt sure of it, because sooner or later it did for everyone. She just hoped, for Katie’s sake, that the process of letting go of her dreams and moving on to new horizons wasn’t going to prove anywhere near as difficult as Katie might fear.

Katie was sitting at the table beside the window in her flat, staring down at the comings and goings of the street below. She was barely taking anything in, not even the roar and wail of a fire engine as it lumbered out of the station, or the wave of a friend who’d spotted her sitting there.

She was usually to be found here when working at her computer, often with a coffee and very occasionally a cigarette if she was in the mood. The table was only cleared when someone came round for a bite to eat, or on Mondays when she had a general tidy up. Neither was on the agenda this morning. In fact housework and socialising couldn’t have been further from her mind. She’d even forgotten she was supposed to be going surfing with Josie and a few others at Matauri Bay. She’d cried off with menstrual cramps when Josie had rung to find out where she was, so now she was simply sitting here trying to compose an email to Rick, but nothing was coming out right.

She didn’t want to lose him, she felt panicked, terrified, desperate at the mere thought of it. She’d do anything, literally
anything
to keep him, but what was it going to take? The images of him embracing Charlotte Nicholls on the beach on Saturday night were brutal and tormenting. Every time she tried to blot them out they seemed to grow larger and sharper and more intimate than ever. They’d been so easy and natural with each other . . .

She swallowed hard on the tears drowning her throat. The memory hurt so much, made her feel broken and worthless and vengeful inside. She’d loved him for so long, far longer than even he knew. He was the reason she’d given up her degree course at Durham and moved out here. Of course they hadn’t been an item then, in fact he’d been seeing someone called Ursula, from Perth, at the time. They’d been at uni together, apparently, but the relationship hadn’t lasted. Katie had gone out of her way after the break-up to get him to notice her as more than the niece of his stepmother’s friend. It hadn’t worked, but at least he hadn’t brought anyone else home in the years that had followed. It would have been truly insufferable to be forced to watch him with someone else, to pretend that she was happy for him, and willing to befriend a girl who was threatening to waltz off with every last part of her dreams.

When they’d finally got together she’d truly believed the time had come for them. They’d been so crazy for each other at first that they’d been unable to keep their hands off one another. She couldn’t really remember now when that had changed, probably because it had happened so slowly.

‘But you can’t keep up that level of passion for ever,’ she used to tell herself, sure it was what would be said if she confided in her Aunt Sarah or one of her friends. She hadn’t told anyone, because she was afraid of injecting life into her insecurities by spreading them around. The only time she’d ever mentioned it to Rick was on the phone one night after he’d failed to come home from Auckland three weekends in a row. She hadn’t made a big deal of it, simply remarked, almost casually, that she hoped he wasn’t going off her, and when he finally showed up, on the fourth weekend, he’d brought a diamond ring with him and had asked her to marry him.

Of course she’d said yes, it was what she’d been waiting and praying for virtually since the day they’d met.

Both their families had been ecstatic. Her divorced parents had flown over from their separate parts of England to attend the beach party Bob and Anna had thrown to celebrate the engagement. And during the months that followed she, Katie, had actually paid for several old friends to visit. They’d been as blown away by Te Puna as she’d hoped, and of course by Rick: how could they not be when he was so welcoming and charming and his parents were such generous hosts? She’d read her friends’ gossip on Facebook afterwards and had felt so proud of how well they said she’d done for herself, and was so thrilled by how pleased they all were for her, that she’d only wished she could fly
everyone she’d ever known
to Te Puna, so they could see it all for themselves.

Sighing shakily as she checked her mobile in spite of knowing it hadn’t rung, she got up from the table and wandered across the spacious sitting room with its tan leather sofas and animal-skin rugs to the open-plan kitchen. Rick’s dad had found this place for her, the salon with a two-bedroom apartment above, back when she’d first decided to follow her heart and take up hair-styling for a living. Her parents had always been against it, saying she needed a proper career, but when she’d chucked in uni and come here to live, her Aunt Sarah had encouraged her to exploit what appeared to be a natural skill. So, using most of her savings, she’d trained at the Northland Hairdressing Centre in Whangarei, and within days of qualifying she’d landed a job with one of Auckland’s most prestigious salons. Two years later, just after she’d got together with Rick, Bob had told her about the shop in Kerikeri and before she knew it a team of workmen was redesigning the place to her and an architect’s specifications. This meant that Bob, who’d put up most of the funding, was her partner now – though not sleeping, he was always uncomfortable with that title, even in jest. His role, he said, was to let her run her business the way she deemed best while he kept an eye on the books.

So far the arrangement had worked perfectly, and since her client list was constantly increasing – she now employed four stylists and two juniors – there was no reason for anything to change. And nor would it, as long as she kept her head and did nothing rash. She needed to tread very carefully now, so carefully that she barely knew what the first step should be, though she guessed she’d taken it by leaving a message for Rick to call as soon as his meeting was over. What was she going to say to him then, how was she going to put what she’d discovered into words he would even believe, never mind be ready to hear?

Unless he already knew.

No, he couldn’t, it just wasn’t possible.

She was still so stunned by what she’d learned, and how easy the information had been to find once she’d started looking, that she’d returned to the computer several times just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. In some ways she almost wished she was, until she remembered that her and Rick’s physical relationship had slumped into another decline around the time Charlotte Nicholls had arrived at Te Puna. And recalling the scene on the beach on Saturday evening, she was ready to believe anything of Charlotte Nicholls, or Alexandra Lake as she’d been known before.

It was ten fifteen now, and Rick’s assistant had said the meeting was due to finish at ten. He was usually quite prompt at ringing back, but maybe the meeting had dragged on longer than expected. For all she knew there hadn’t been a meeting at all and he was deliberately avoiding her. If that were the case then maybe it would be good for him to know that she only had to make one phone call now, just one, and within a matter of days, maybe even hours, Charlotte Nicholls would be right back where she belonged.

Glancing at the clock she decided to wait until eleven and if she hadn’t heard from him by then . . .

She took a deep, shuddering breath.

Did she actually have the courage to make that call?

She guessed she wouldn’t know until the time came.

Chapter Seven

CHARLOTTE HAD LEARNED
early on that being anywhere in town with her stepfather was a bit like being with a celebrity – everyone knew him and everyone wanted to say hello, or get stuck into a chinwag if they possibly could. Though she’d arrived at the Pear Tree, on the outskirts of town, over ten minutes ago they hadn’t managed much more than a greeting yet, in spite of Bob having deliberately placed himself on the river-view terrace with his back to the door. His friends and neighbours were still somehow finding him, and the obvious touristic couple at the far end of the terrace were clearly dying to know who he might be.

‘Sorry about this,’ Bob apologised with an endearing blush as yet another backslapping, loud-laughing townsman took himself off to wherever he’d appeared from. ‘I should have come to the bach, it would have been easier.’

‘It’s OK,’ Charlotte assured him, as entertained by all the comings and goings as were the audience of two still glancing their way. ‘But I can’t help wondering what you’re doing here. Aren’t you Mr Dentist at the Maori Health Trust on Mondays and Tuesdays?’

‘I am indeed, and I shall be heading over there as soon as we’ve had our coffee,’ he told her, checking who was ringing his mobile and letting the call go to voicemail. ‘Not many on the list today, or there weren’t when I rang in earlier. Funny how no one ever likes going to the dentist, when I thought I was such an amiable chap.’

Knowing that the government paid him handsomely for his surgeries at the settlement these days, and that he used most of the money to bribe his reluctant patients to come for treatment (the rest went to various other Maori causes), Charlotte was about to respond when a waiter appeared with their coffees, followed by Grant Romney in full police uniform and the usual playful gleam in his eyes.

‘Hey you guys,’ he mouthed with a thumbs up as he listened to someone at the end of his mobile. ‘Yeah, right Jack, got it. I’ll be there in about ten. OK mate, see you,’ and tucking the phone in his shirt pocket, he came to shake Bob’s hand. ‘Sorry to interrupt,’ he said, stooping to kiss Charlotte’s cheek, ‘but I saw your car outside and thought I’d come and invite you for a sleepover.’

Startled, and no less so when she realised he was speaking to her, Charlotte said, ‘Well, that’s very kind of you, Grant. How could I possibly refuse? Let me see . . .’

Laughing, he told her, ‘I mean Chloe, of course. Bev’s staying with me and Polly the weekend after next, so we said he could have a few friends over on the Saturday night and he wants Chloe to be one of them.’

Surprised, and touched by the offer, especially since Bevan was at the big school now, Charlotte replied, ‘To be honest I’m not sure if she will, but I’ll put it to her . . . Who else is going to be there?’

‘He’s got a few on his list, a couple more girls if that’s what you’re thinking.’

It was. ‘OK, I’ll see what she says. It’ll only be her second sleepover, and you know how shy she can be . . .’

‘You’re welcome to join in,’ Grant assured her. ‘We’ll do a barbie and get the kids to put up tents. If the weather’s good they might sleep out, but that’s not a given and I guess that could be a big ask for a delicate little thing like Chloe, sleeping rough.’

‘Oh, she’s camped on the beach with Danni and Craig before now,’ Charlotte assured him, ‘and actually lasted right up until the tide came in, which was about three hours, so she’s not such a lightweight.’

Grinning, he said, ‘Give Polly a ring and let her know what you decide. Of course, there’s room for you too, mate,’ he told Bob, ‘don’t want you feeling left out now, do we?’

‘I was just getting there,’ Bob informed him, ‘but darn it, I’m sure Anna and I are going to a wedding in Paihia on that day.’

‘And if you’re not, you are now,’ Grant retorted with a laugh. ‘Well, seems like I’ve got myself a villain to take to the courts in Kaikohe, so I’ll be on my way. You have yourselves a great day now,’ and fishing out his phone as it rang he gave them a salute as he disappeared back inside.

‘We’re going to get to the point of why we’re here in a minute,’ Bob commented wryly as he picked up his coffee. ‘In fact, you know what I’m going to do . . .’ And getting to his feet, he called over one of the waiters, spoke quietly in his ear and by the time he sat down again Charlotte realised they were now going to have the terrace entirely to themselves, apart from the couple already there, with no more interruptions.

‘Best coffee in town,’ he declared, after downing his double espresso in one go.

Unable to argue with that, Charlotte sipped her cappuccino and glanced away from the couple who were still watching them with interest.

‘So, our little sweetheart’s birthday,’ Bob announced, switching his mobile to vibrate only.

Though Charlotte was smiling, she couldn’t help feeling nervous too, since the last thing she wanted was to find herself pouring cold water on his suggestion, especially when he was finding it difficult enough to forge a relationship with Chloe.

‘I was thinking,’ he stated, looking up at her with his clear, frank eyes, ‘with your permission, of course, that she might like a puppy.’