Meet Me at the Cupcake Café (61 page)

‘
Auusssttttiiinnnn!
’

‘Come on then, you mucker. Your big brother, by the way, is a total hero.’

‘Are you a goodie?’

‘Yes.’

‘Mr Tyler, can I have a word?’ said the headteacher as he was leaving.

‘Not quite at the moment,’ said Austin. ‘Soon?’

Kirsty watched him as he left the school. She had decided, when she’d seen him, to take her courage in both hands, ask him out once and for all. But he seemed so edgy and distracted and she reckoned it had better wait until afterwards.

‘After lunch?’ she said.

‘Sure,’ said Austin, noticing that as well as being a teacher, she was actually rather attractive. Maybe it was time to look for a nice woman who liked him, and didn’t go out with dickwads. Maybe, if he was never going to get the woman he really wanted, he could start dating again. One day. Maybe.

‘
But now
we have some lions to kill. By stabbing them in the heart, then we’ll take out the heart, then we’ll burn the heart on a fire then we’ll eat the—’

‘Out, Darny. Out.’ Kirsty watched him cross the playground.

Austin took off his jacket and loosened his already badly knotted tie in the hot sunshine. It was a glorious day. Clissold Park had ice-cream vans stationed like sentries at the gates and chattering families, sunbathing office workers and happy old people getting some heat in their bones. Darny and Austin followed the stream through the gates. Just as they reached them, however, Austin heard someone calling his name.

‘Austin! Austin!’

He turned round. It was Issy, pink in the face, carrying a large box.

‘You look very red,’ said Austin.

Issy closed her eyes. This was such a stupid idea. And of course she was blushing again. She was probably covered in sweat too. This was really daft. She followed them into the park. Darny had come straight up to her and taken her hand. She squeezed it, needing the reassurance.

‘I like it,’ said Austin. ‘Red suits you.’

He wanted to kick himself for saying something so stupid. They stared at one another for a bit. Nervous, Austin turned his attention to the box. ‘Are those for me? Because you know I can’t take—’

‘Shut up,’ said Issy. ‘I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I can’t … anyway, they’re not for you to eat, they’re for Darny. And they didn’t come out right anyway, they’re a mess, and …’

Without even thinking about it, without even looking at them, Austin took the box in his hands and hurled it with all his might. It flew from his long fingers straight into a copse of nearby trees. The pink of the ribbon streamed against the bright blue of the sky and the green of the trees, but the box did not burst.

‘Darny,’ said Austin, ‘that was a huge box of cakes. Go find it and they’re all yours.’

Darny shot off like a bullet from a gun.

Issy looked after him in consternation. ‘Those were my cakes! With a message on them!’

Austin took her hands suddenly, urgently, feeling that he didn’t have much time.

‘You can make more cakes. But Issy, if you want to send me a message … please, please, just tell me what it is.’

Issy felt the warm, firm pressure of his hands on hers; found herself staring up into his strong, handsome face. And suddenly, suddenly, for almost the first time in her life, she felt the nerves desert her. She felt calm, and at peace. She didn’t worry about what he was thinking, or how she looked, or how she was doing, or what other people thought. She was conscious of nothing other than her absolute and present desire to be held by this man. She took one deep breath and closed her eyes, as Austin tilted her face up towards his, and she gave herself up entirely to his fierce and perfect kiss, in the middle of a busy park, in the middle of a busy day, in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world.

‘Me sick?’ came an angry-sounding voice from somewhere far away. ‘Why are you sick? Who’s sick?’

Reluctantly, and both more than a little pink and sweaty, Austin and Issy jumped apart. Darny was standing there looking puzzled.

‘That’s what your cakes said.’

He held up the battered and bruised box, with the remnants of five cakes inside, one missing. He’d arranged the letters to spell M-E S-I-K.

‘Is that the message you wanted me to get?’ said Austin.

‘Uh, not quite,’ said Issy, feeling dizzy and light-headed and thinking she was about to faint.

‘OK,’ said Austin, smiling broadly. ‘OK, Darny. We are going to have lunch, then five minutes of lions, and then Issy and I have some business to attend to, OK?’

‘Are you coming for lunch?’ asked Darny, before haring off to chase some pigeons. ‘Cool!’

They stood and watched him go, smiling.

Issy looked at Austin, eyes wide.

‘Wow,’ she said.

‘Well, thanks,’ said Austin, looking embarrassed. Then he looked at her again. ‘Christ,’ he said urgently, ‘come here. I feel like I’ve waited bloody ages for you.’

He kissed her hard, then stared at her so intensely she felt like her heart might burst.

‘Stay,’ he said, fiercely. ‘Please stay as sweet as you are.’

Chapter Nineteen

Simnel Cake

6 oz butter

6 oz soft brown sugar

3 eggs, beaten

6 oz plain flour

pinch salt

1 tsp ground mixed spice (optional)

12 oz mixed raisins, currants and sultanas

2 oz chopped mixed peel

zest of 1 lemon

1–2 tbsp apricot jam

1 egg, beaten, for glazing

Buy almond paste from the supermarket. You can make it yourself, but we are not crazy people.

Knead the paste for one minute until it is smooth and pliable. Roll it out to make a circle 18cm in diameter.

Preheat oven to 140°C/gas mark 1. Grease and line an 18cm cake tin.

For the cake, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs until well incorporated and then sift in the flour, salt and mixed spice (if using) a little at a time. Finally, add the mixed dried fruit, peel and grated lemon zest and stir into the mixture.

Put half the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Smooth the top and cover with the circle of almond paste. Add the rest of the cake mixture and smooth the top, leaving a slight dip in the centre to allow for the cake to rise. Bake in the preheated oven for 13/
₄
hours. Test by inserting a skewer in the middle – if it comes out clean, it is ready. Once baked, remove from the oven and set aside to cool on a wire rack. Top the cake with another thin layer of almond paste.

‘He’s taken a turn for the worse,’ whispered the nurse; but Issy had known that already – there had been no letters, no recipes. Not for weeks.

‘That’s OK,’ said Issy, even though it wasn’t, dammit. It wasn’t fair. Her grandfather had lived so long, was everything to her, and surely he deserved to see her happy.

The room was hushed, with one or two machines ticking in the corner. Grampa Joe had lost even more weight, if that were possible. There was so little left of him now, just a fine layer of skin on top of a pale, hairless skeleton. Austin had wanted to come, of course; over another of their long nights of wine and shared experiences and a conversation that didn’t seem able to stop, he’d told her about his mother and father, and the crash that had ended his lazy, easy student lifestyle and turned him into the carer of a bumptious four-year-old, infinitely lovable, but who’d made Austin put on a shirt and tie before he’d been quite ready for it.

It was all she could do not to say it right then. The more she got to know him, Issy realized, the more she … well, she wasn’t going to say the L-word just yet. It wasn’t appropriate at all. But he made every other man she’d ever known seem like pretty small beer in comparison. All of them. And now she was sure, she wanted it to spill off her tongue; to shout it to the world. But not until it was time. And now she wasn’t even sure she had time.

‘Gramps,’ whispered Issy. ‘Gramps! It’s me! It’s Isabel.’

Nothing.

‘I’ve got cake!’ She rustled the wrapper. For once, she’d made his favourite rather than hers; the hard, flat simnel cake his own mother had made for him, decades and decades ago when he was a small boy.

She hugged him, and talked to him, telling him all her wonderful news, but he didn’t respond to her voice, or to her touch, or to her moving around. He was breathing, it seemed, but only just.

Keavie put her hand on Issy’s arm. ‘I don’t think it will be long now,’ she said.