River Deep (24 page)

‘Up there, to the right,’ Pete directed her hand. ‘Cassiopeia. You can trace it with your finger. And everyone knows the Big Dipper, don’t they?’ He traced her pointed finger along the lines of the constellation.

‘Oh yeah!’ Maggie entirely forgot the previous moment of anxiety. ‘It looks like a big saucepan!’

Pete threw her a look but said nothing. He concentrated his gaze back on the view.

‘That really bright star there’ – he picked out a star that shone more intensely than the others – ‘that’s actually a planet. That’s Mars. It’s closer to the earth now than it has been for sixty-five thousand years. The last people to see it like this were the cavemen.’

He put down Maggie’s wrist and withdrew his hand.

‘Don’t you think it’s incredible? Just a few miles of atmosphere and a bit of gravity keeping us from being out there. And we are able to see another
planet
with the naked eye. Can you imagine, Maggie, the millions and millions of planets there must be out there? And maybe, somewhere, people not so different from you or me are doing the exact same thing that we are. Doesn’t that blow you away?’

Maggie stopped looking at the stars and looked at Pete instead.

‘It puts things into perspective a little,’ she agreed as something of an understatement.

Pete turned on to his side, shifting his body a little so that there was a gap of a couple of inches of grass between them.

‘Exactly. That’s what I tell myself when I think about Stella.’ He mentioned her name for the first time that evening. ‘She sent me a general email. I was on it, but so were the rest of the world and his wife.’ He sighed and shook his head. ‘I don’t know, Maggie. I’m beginning to think that that’s it. After all those years of fighting to keep her, she’s out of my reach now. She’s gone.’ He nodded at the sky. ‘She might as well be on Mars.’

Maggie studied his shadowed face.

‘You can’t say that for sure, Pete,’ she said.

She wanted to reach out across the small expanse of grass and touch him, but the fear and potential embarrassment that he might think she was making a move on him prevented her.

‘I mean, if I’m right it sounds like that email was the first communication she’d had with anyone, not just you, so it’s not as if she’s left you out. She’s probably just finding her feet and testing her feelings … it’s
exactly
like with Christian,’ she added quickly. ‘He needs to be sure, Stella needs to be sure. The thing is – and you can’t do this, really – that I managed to get Christian to keep seeing me “as a friend” while he makes his mind up. I’m going to show him how independent I am now, and how I can stand on my own two feet without him. I thought I might even make up a sort of boyfriend to really get him going ––’

Maggie stopped herself. Not only was she sounding mental again, she was completely trampling all over Pete’s own worries with her own.

‘Sorry,’ she concluded. ‘If only you could make Stella see how you were without her. I think if she realised that she didn’t have this cataclysmic effect on your life she might want to be with you more.’ Maggie thought for a moment. ‘Actually, that’s a bit sick, isn’t it?’

Pete grinned ruefully and dipped his head.

‘That’s human nature. It is sick,’ he said, pausing thoughtfully. ‘As it goes, I
had
thought of writing to her about seeing someone, I mean, not exactly seeing someone but getting close to another person.’ He paused and then looked up into her eyes. ‘I’d thought about writing to her about you.’

Maggie opened her mouth and then closed it again.

‘I’m sorry, I know it sounds really weird, but you’re really the only person I know here except Angie, and, well, I can’t seem to think of her in that way, and I’m no good at making things like that up, so …’

Maggie tried desperately to sort out the sense from what Pete was saying instead of just focusing on the fact that he had mentioned he could see her ‘that way’.

‘I just thought that if I could write about my friendship with a really smart, sexy girl like you it’d make her think twice, a bit like your plan with Christian? Oh God, I’ve said too much, haven’t I?’

Maggie sat up and drew her knees under her chin, wondering if Pete realised how much he’d just complimented her. She felt ridiculously grateful. Just to know that someone else, even someone who was in love with another woman, thought she was smart and sexy gave her cause for hope.

‘No,’ she said, ‘No, really. Actually, I’ve thought of a way we can help each other.’

Pete sat up and mirrored her position.

‘Well,’ Maggie said slowly, ‘We like each other, right? We have a lot in common, so … let’s hang out more.’ She lifted her palm skywards as if the suggestion was obvious. ‘You can write to Stella about it and it won’t be a lie, and since this is a very small city, word is bound to get round to Christian that I’m being seen with some blond hunk.’ Maggie grinned at the prospect. ‘That’s bound to make his mind up for him.’

Pete blinked and looked a little uneasy. ‘A blond hunk?’ he said uncertainly.

Maggie clapped her hand over her mouth and giggled.

‘Oh! Oops. Becca, my god-daughter, calls you that. She thinks you’re “lush” – I think that was the word she used. That’s the second person I’ve accidentally told today, and given that the first one was her mum, if she ever finds out she’ll kill me.’

Pete shrugged. ‘I’ll try not to blow it for you,’ he said, and then, ‘Don’t you think it sounds a bit like one of Tucker Jenkins’ plans for an early episode of
Grange Hill
?’

Maggie laughed and clambered to her feet.

‘Well, maybe, but simple plans are often the most effective. I mean, how do you feel when you think about Stella with some Aussie bloke?’

Pete said nothing as he stood up, but even the absence of daylight could not disguise his thunderous expression.

‘Exactly, and that’s how I feel about Christian with Louise, except I met Louise and I quite liked her and that’s confused things. That was a real never-to-be-repeated mistake!’

Pete caught up with her in two easy strides as she began to walk back down the hill.

‘You met her? How?’ he asked.

‘It’s a long story!’ Maggie said, wondering if she should confide in him. ‘Oh, what the hell?’ she thought, and began to tell him.

‘Bloody hell,’ Pete said as they drew to a stop outside The Fleur’s doors. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but you are well out of my league with your conniving!’

Maggie was surprisingly flattered. ‘Well, yes, but it all backfired on me, because it made
me
feel like a cow instead of her, the one that nicked him in the first place!’ She glanced over her shoulder at the door. ‘So do you want to come in for a drink?’

Pete shook his head. His walk with Maggie had done nothing to calm down his rebellious libido, and he really needed to work some of it off. Not to put too fine a point on it, he was worried that if he hung around her any longer and drunk any more he’d pull a Falcon, lose sight of what really mattered and make a stupid pass at her. That would just ruin everything.

‘No, no offence, but I’ve got this email I want to write about some star-gazing I did tonight.’

Maggie smiled up at him. ‘Well, I hope it works. When you think about it, it’s lucky that we met, isn’t it?’

Pete shook his head and nodded towards the moon.

‘Luck’s got nothing to do with it. It’s all down to fate,’ he said seriously. ‘But it’s down to chance whether or not the person we feel for feels the same way.’ He looked momentarily very sad. ‘It’s just a lottery.’

Maggie looked at him sternly before she turned to put the key in the lock. ‘No, it’s not,’ she reminded him. ‘It’s
fate
. And fate is on our side, or we would never have met each other.’

Pete and the ceiling above his bed exchanged equally blank looks. The night had finally begun to cool off and a breeze raised goosebumps over Pete’s bare skin. He sat and looked at his clock. 2.55 a.m. He resisted the urge that had come at last to fall instantly asleep and instead sat naked at his PC.

Dear Stella
, he wrote, and then sat there staring at the two words for several seconds.

It was great to hear from you. Life here has been really hectic recently
. Pete remembered he’d told her he’d already got the studio job.
Work is fantastic, getting better every day. I’ve met loads of really cool
… He deleted the word
cool
and replaced it with
hip. I’ve met loads of really hip people. I have been hanging around with the owner of the local pub (I know what you’re thinking, typical!) She is a really cool girl, though, her name is Maggie. I think I might have mentioned her before. Earlier this evening I took her out to show her the stars and I wondered what you were doing right then? Probably having your lunch!

Pete sat back, pleased with himself. He’d managed to drop in his midnight walk with Maggie and still show that he was thinking of Stella. Genius.

I miss you, Stella, and I love you. Write soon, Pete xx

Pete wondered if
write soon
sounded too needy. He tried a few other alternatives but settled finally on simply
Love Pete
and three large capital
X
’s. He sent the email, feeling a sudden frisson of excitement. He didn’t quite know why, but he really felt that this was the beginning of something new for him and Stella.

He clambered back into bed, grateful to be finally turning the light out, but dismayed to find his head was still buzzing with thoughts he shouldn’t be having. When he’d got in earlier, he’d undressed and lay on the bed, taking his time to think about Stella, savouring her memory. He remembered the last night they’d spent together and how she’d looked as he moved above her, eyes half closed like two silvered half moons, her hands flung above her head in pure abandon. The diamond he had bought her sparkled in the dark, glitterng just like Venus. He recalled the moment they had come in unison again and again until his thighs trembled and his heart felt sore. But towards the end something strange had happened. Mixed in with the jumble of images of him with Stella, Pete found flashes of Maggie crossing his mind like sheet lightning. Maggie in a way he’d never seen her, and certainly shouldn’t be thinking of her. Naked and hot for it, frankly.

‘Well,’ Pete reasoned out loud, ‘she’s a pretty girl and I’m a bloke – it’s only natural, it doesn’t mean anything.’ But as he shut his eyes Pete saw Maggie’s face as it had looked earlier this evening, bathed in starlight.

‘Steady there, tiger,’ he mumbled, already half asleep.

The bar was quiet. Morning sun steamed in through the dirtstreaked windows highlighting the shafts of dust motes that seemed to raise the scent of beer, ash and polish from every surface. Maggie set out her papers into piles in order of priority and began a list. She would pay Christian’s cheque into her own account on Monday so she’d have ready cash when she needed it. The rest of the funding would be in place in The Fleur’s account by the end of the week, and the new cheque books and cards that needed only her signature would arrive soon after that. She’d need an accountant eventually, although she could do the basic stuff herself, and she made a note to call Christian’s.

First on her list of priorities was planning and costing the refurbishment of the kitchen and the main bar. Until she consulted fitters and maybe even builders, she couldn’t really say how long she would have to close The Fleur for, but she wanted it to be for as short a time as possible. She had to have every detail, every contingency plan in place before one stroke of work was done. And, she mused, she needed a chef. A really good, really cheap chef. ‘Catering college?’ she wrote in the margin of her notes. It was a long shot, but maybe she’d find a budding Nigella fresh out of NVQ III. There was much more to think about, but whenever Maggie felt like she was finally getting into it, her gaze would slip off the horizon of her coffee cup and focus on the middle distance. She still couldn’t work out exactly what had happened last night and what it all meant.

Of course there had been her tumultuous meeting with Christian, his rebuttal and then the kiss. Maggie had relived that feeling over and over again as she drifted off to sleep at last, hoping that her dreams would bring it to its rightful conclusion. She had not been disappointed.

But then there was Pete and the way the starlight and the champagne and, yes, even Christian’s kiss had seemed to transform them from mere passing acquaintances into a mutual alliance before her very eyes. He’d told her about getting the idea to use her to get Stella jealous before he even knew her very well. She had told him about how she’d met Louise and how it had all backfired. They’d instinctively trusted one another to tell each other things that anyone else would think were at best ludicrous and at worst highly questionable. What’s more, neither one of them thought the other was particularly barking.

Maggie smiled unconsciously; it was a relief to have someone she could be properly ridiculous with. Sarah was fantastic, but she seemed to think it was her mission to get Maggie back ‘on track’. She didn’t seem to realise that Maggie
wanted
to be careering headlong down her own personal mountain into chaos. She was sure it was only by taking risks that she’d secure Christian once more and for good this time. Pete agreed with her.

She realised she was really looking forward to seeing Pete again later that evening. On the walk home, they’d agreed they’d go to a bar up in town that Christian’s best friend managed. OK, he wasn’t so much a best friend as a business associate Christian also played golf with, but there was a good chance he’d be there, and if he was word would definitely get back to Christian.

But even that walk home had not been the end of the strangeness, Maggie recalled. As soon as she had walked into the shadowy bar she had realised that something was not right. She’d stood stock-still listening to the dark as the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She’d walked quietly over to the bar and checked the till – the drawer was left open as it should be, empty, to show any thieves that what little cash there was was safely locked away.