Undertaking Love (14 page)

Oh good, he was turning around. Melanie felt the heat flood her cheeks.

‘Could I, err, have a word please?’

Rupert slid his glasses down his nose and glanced over his shoulder as if he expected her to be talking to someone behind him. Finding no one, he shrugged and sauntered back across the road.

Melanie faltered. Close up he really was a rather attractive man, in a clean cut and useless sort of way.

‘I have something … a parcel. It’s to be delivered to the chapel.’

‘Have you mistaken me for the postman?’

His smug smile did nothing to lessen the pompousness of his joke, but Melanie decided to play along with a nervous laugh.

‘Hang on there a sec please …’ She ducked back inside the funeral parlour, and emerged again a few seconds later, dumping the big box awkwardly into Rupert’s arms.

He stared at it with a furrowed brow. He’d obviously been expecting something redirected from the regular mail, not a brightly covered gift box. He looked at Melanie blankly.

‘It’s fireworks. From Gabe.’

His jaw tightened, giving away his annoyance.

‘Fireworks? What the hell for?’

‘It’s July fourth. Americans have fireworks. Independence Day, and all that.’

A look of pure hatred turned Rupert’s handsome face momentarily ugly. Melanie took the limp flowers dangling from his fingertips and laid them on top of the gift box as an idea formed in her head.

‘The card has fallen off. It’s on my desk. I could get it, if you think … ‘

Melanie held her breath as she waited for him to connect the dots, and breathed out as the light of understanding clicked on.

‘Should I get it, do you think?’ She tipped her head to the side and regarded Rupert with round, innocent eyes.

‘No, no need for that. I’ll see that Marla gets them.’

Melanie nodded and rewarded Rupert with a small smile for taking the bait.

‘’Kay then. Thanks.’

She watched him swagger away towards the chapel, struggling to get his sunnies back in place before he opened the door.

Melanie brushed her clammy hands down her skirt as she went back inside. Rupert had just gone up a notch in her estimation. Perhaps now he would be the ally she’d hoped he would be. She slumped into her chair, exhausted. All this duplicity was turning out to be hard work, but also strangely enjoyable. Hell, she might even let herself eat the Mars bar later she’d been saving up for a special occasion for the last three months.

‘Rupert, that is so thoughtful!’ Marla flung her arms around Rupert’s neck and hugged him tight. His gift touched her deeply. She hadn’t expected him to even realise the significance of the date, let alone go out of his way to find fireworks in the middle of summer.

‘Will you help me with them tonight?’

She pulled the lid off the box as she spoke and laughed with delight at the sight of the multi-coloured rockets.

‘We’ll have to do it here though, your garden is way too small for that thing.’

Rupert eyed the large firework in Marla’s hand. She nodded. He was right. Her garden was tiny with overhanging trees, and Rupert’s communal apartment garden was out of the question. No, the chapel garden out back would be perfect.

She placed the rocket back in the box and turned to Rupert. His skin was warm and smelled of expensive aftershave; she wound her arms around him and nestled into his neck.

‘Thank you.’

His hands moved straight down to massage her bottom as he sought out her lips with his own.

‘You can show me the full extent of your appreciation later.’

She kissed him and leaned back in the circle of his arms.

‘Oh, go on then. I’ll let you light the first rocket.’

Rupert laughed low and dirty.

‘You’ve just lit my rocket.’ He rocked against her and pinched her bum hard to prove his claim. Marla jumped away and slapped his hand.

‘Rupert, I’m at work. Come back later.’

He rolled his eyes.

‘You’re the boss. I’ll be back at eight. Be ready for action.’

Marla watched him leave, not entirely sure if he’d been talking about the fireworks or not. Probably not. She bit her lip, and tried to summon enthusiastic thoughts, not prepared to give headspace to the fact that the thought of sex with Rupert didn’t excite her as much as it really ought to.

She knelt down and fussed Bluey’s ears.

‘Don’t worry darling, I’ve got some lovely furry earmuffs and a big bone to distract you from the fireworks.’

Bluey was impractically large for her office, but her neighbours complained if she left him at home because he wailed like a baby. As long as he was with Marla he was happy, a feeling that went both ways. Bluey’s constant presence at her side was something she’d come to love and rely on. On previous bonfire nights he’d proven himself to be mostly unfussed by fireworks, which was just as well if he was going to be here for their little display later.

Melanie took the Mars bar out of the fridge and sliced it into tiny slivers, before arranging it on the plate in a perfect spiral.

‘I’m going to my room.’

She wasn’t sure why she bothered to tell her father. It wasn’t like he could actually care less whether she was in her room, or in the house at all for that matter. As long as his dinner hit the table at six o’clock and she left betting money on the side each morning, he didn’t give a damn what happened in between.

Up in her room, Melanie perched on the edge of her bed and slid open the bedside drawer. Gabe’s post-it note from a few weeks back was the only thing in there, and she held it for a few seconds to help herself to calm down. She’d just placed it back in the drawer and reached out for a piece of chocolate when the most terrible thought struck her.

The
other
note.

The note from the fireworks box was still on her desk.

Shit, shit, shit.

Cold panic iced her heart. There was no way she could leave it until the morning. Gabe might get there early and spot it; she couldn’t bear him to question her on what had happened.

She’d have to go back and get it right now. Thank God Gabe had trusted her enough to give her a set of keys. He’d never know that she’d been back there this evening.

She tipped the Mars bar into the dustbin in disgust and dashed outside.

‘Happy Independence Day, gorgeous.’

Marla clinked her glass against Rupert’s outstretched one with a smile. She was all warm inside and out from two glasses of champagne and the last rays of the evening sunshine.

‘I think it’s dark enough now,’ she declared as she fished around in the box for the lighting rod. As a child back home in the States they’d have rowed out on the lake near her mother’s Florida holiday house to watch the July Fourth fireworks with blankets around their shoulders, but in its own unexpected way, this was just as exciting.

She banged the stake into the lawn and nodded towards the box.

‘Choose one.’

Rupert studied the contents and picked out a small fountain.

‘A reserved choice, sir.’ Marla laughed as the swish of flame shot along the fuse, sending a spray of gold shimmers up into the dwindling light.

‘What shall we have next?’

She rummaged in the box like a kid in a sweetshop and came out with a huge rocket in her outstretched hands.

Rupert took it from her with a look of barely disguised alarm on his face and pranced around with stiff arms as if she’d given him a live grenade with the pin pulled out.

‘It’s not even lit yet, idiot!’ Marla giggled.

He somehow managed to get it onto the spike, still as skittish as a pony as he flicked the lighter ineffectively towards it.

‘Move over, Guy Fawkes. Let me.’

Marla took the lighter, igniting the fuse like a pro, and they stepped back hand in hand to watch the rocket fizz into life. It hissed and sizzled for an uncertain second, before whooshing up into the darkening sky in a glittering cascade of scarlet stars.

Marla clapped with delight and set up the next one straight afterwards, this time a spangle of blue stars. A ball of homesickness lodged in her throat as she imagined the beautiful rainbow skies over America tonight. In that moment she forgave Rupert for his reticence to light the fireworks. He’d given her this wonderful surprise; she should cherish his kindness far more than she did.

She wrapped her arms around him and tilted her chin up with a smile.

‘Rupert, thank you. I love you for this.’

‘I love you too, Marla.’

His arms felt a lot like those warm July Fourth blankets from her childhood.

She let herself melt against him as he kissed her long and slow, and for the first time in a while, he was the only man on her mind.

Gabe heard the bang in the sky as he searched for the key to the front door of the funeral parlour in his pockets. Being the boss meant that he was never off duty, even on days like today when he’d already put in fifteen hours at the convention. He’d just called by to make sure all was well, and that Melanie had remembered to deliver the parcel to Marla. Not that he really needed to go inside for confirmation, given the blaze of tiny blue stars in the sky. He grinned, glad that she’d obviously accepted the fireworks in the spirit they were given.

The sound of her laughter drifted across to him from the back garden of the chapel. Was she having a party? Her laughter pulled him across the space between their properties like a shard of metal to the Hadron Collider. He was powerless to resist. He didn’t actually try all that hard, to be honest. He hoped he would be a welcome visitor at her door tonight.

He pushed the side gate open a little and stopped short. If it was a party, it was an exclusive one. Just Marla and Rupert, wrapped in each other’s arms, the glow of a couple of candles on the table casting a gold gleam over Marla’s hair.

She looked more relaxed than he could ever remember seeing her as she smiled and thanked Rupert for bringing her fireworks.

Rupert?

Then she kissed him. How the hell had that sly gobshite managed to pass off Gabe’s gift as his own? But much as he wanted to steam in there and show Rupert up for the liar he was, he couldn’t bring himself to smash up her fragile happiness for his own gratification. He backed out of the gate, his ears ringing with the words of love he’d overheard.

Rupert caught sight of Gabe’s receding back over Marla’s shoulder. He wanted to laugh out loud with triumph and punch the air. Marla had said she loved him, and all in clear earshot of Ryan. He couldn’t have planned it better if he’d tried. Jesus. Marla was setting up yet another bloody rocket. Would she never get bored? He hated fireworks and was dangerously close to his limit of fake
oohs
and
aaahs
. This called for something stronger than champagne. He let himself into the side door of the chapel in search of Dora’s whisky.

After that moment, things seemed to happen in slow motion, and yet at breakneck speed too. Marla’s earlier instruction not to open the kitchen door because of Bluey had gone in one ear and out the other. As he opened the door the loud crack of the rocket rendered through the quiet night like a gunshot and startled the slumbering dog into a panic.

The big hound bolted straight past him across the lawn, not even registering his mistress as she lunged for his collar and ended up holding instead the ridiculous fluffy headphones she’d slid over his ears as he slept. He cleared the side fence in one easy leap, out onto the high street beyond. The squeal of tyres and the sickening thud of metal preceded Marla’s scream by mere seconds.

About to call it a night, Gabe sat astride his bike and saw it all happen, so fast that there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop it.

The racing green Mini hurtled down the road at some pace; Marla’s big furry guy hadn’t really stood a chance. Not that the driver could have expected a Great Dane to come hurtling into its path, but all the same Gabe was pretty sure that they had been a considerable way over the speed limit.

He was off his bike and running as Marla came flying out into the street, her red hair streaming behind her like a danger flag, tears coursing down her cheeks as she fell to her knees in the pool of blood at the dog’s side. She cradled his big, still head in her lap, unable to look at the mangled mess the car had made of his side.

Marla didn’t register Rupert’s arrival at her side, nor the driver’s door on the green Mini as it creaked open. All she could see was her big beautiful boy. She knew he’d gone. The light had left his gentle eyes.

Gabe looked over in confusion as Melanie staggered from the Mini.

‘Melanie … what were you doing here at this time of night?’

His dazed receptionist was shaking from head to toe. He placed a steadying hand on her shoulder.

‘Are you hurt?’

‘I don’t think so.’ Her lip wobbled. ‘I didn’t see him, Gabe, I swear, I didn’t. He came out of nowhere. One minute the road was empty and the next …’ She waved an arm towards Bluey and tears spilled down her cheeks. Gabe guided her down onto the pavement and grabbed a blanket from the back seat of the Mini to wrap around her shoulders.

‘Sit there for a few minutes and get your breath. I’ll be back soon, okay?’

He rubbed her back for a second to comfort her, then headed back to where Marla still knelt beside Bluey.

Marla ran a hand over Bluey’s matted coat. She felt Rupert pat her shoulder, and accepted the pristine hankie he shoved into her hands.

‘Come on Marla, get up.’

His fingers were firm on her shoulder but she didn’t budge.

‘Sweetheart, please.’ He reached down and attempted to manhandle her onto her feet.

‘Leave her be.’ Gabe’s voice cut through the fog around her as Rupert tried again to haul her up, and once again she resisted his hands.

‘On your feet, Marla, come on. I’m going to call the vet to come and fetch the dog.’

What had started out as a genuine gesture turned into an awkward tussle as Rupert jockeyed for control of her, of the situation.

Gabe stepped forward and placed a hand on Rupert’s arm. ‘I said leave her be.’

‘Fuck off, Ryan.’