“Who was it?” I asked.
“It was them! I guess it’s the first time they’ve heard how good they are. I’m coming back down with a cameraman for the garden party.”
“You are?”
“They are seriously good, Rachel,” he said. “They could be the next big thing.”
I dropped Mike at the taxi company and hugged him goodbye. “Sheila is counting the days until you’re back,” he said.
At some point, I was going to have to let Sheila and my mother in on the news that I was staying on for another year. I wasn’t looking forward to either of those conversations.
38
Doug arrived at my place laden with grocery bags and a bunch of wildflowers. I put the flowers in a jam jar and placed it on the table. Then I asked if I could help cook.
“It’s a one-man job,” he said. “Dead easy. Steak and Caesar salad. Maybe some garlic bread.”
“I’ll pour the wine,” I said. “Red or white?”
“Any beer on the go?” he asked. “I don’t want to pass out tonight.”
I opened a beer for him and put it on the counter near the sink, while he washed the lettuce. He asked how the music session had gone, and I shared Mike’s comments about the band.
“They are pretty good,” he said. “I talked to your buddy this afternoon. He seems like a good guy.”
“He’s Sheila’s brother and he’s the best.”
“I thought that was me?”
“Ba-dum-dum.”
We carried on chatting while Doug cooked, then sat down to eat. The steaks were somewhere between rare and perfect, the salad tart and crispy. We were so busy talking, we forgot to put the garlic bread in the oven, but neither of us cared.
“Rachel O’Brine,” Doug said, putting down his fork and looking at me. “You’re a hard one to pin down.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think you enjoys my company.”
I agreed that I did.
“But you don’t let me in.”
“Says the man sitting in my kitchen, drinking my beer.”
He raised his bottle. “Touché. I’ve made a few mistakes this year, Rachel. It was foolish to get annoyed about Christmas,” he said. “Your best friend was down and I guess you wanted to spend time with her.”
“Exactly.”
“But the notes? How could you not tell me about them? Mudder says as far as you were concerned, everyone was a suspect. Not me?”
“Well, you do have a prior misdemeanour.”
He scratched his chin. “Not following.”
“Wait here.” I ran upstairs to my bedroom and searched my underwear drawer until I found the note he’d left on my car after I’d thrown up in his boat. On the way back downstairs, I reread the part where he’d said I’d get my sea legs. Looking back on the year, it felt like I had. On land anyway.
“Exhibit A.” I waved it in front of him.
“You kept it all this time?”
I blushed and made a mental note not to show him the pink ribbon he’d removed from the ceiling the first time we met. We left the dishes on the table and went to the living room.
“Doug, you say I don’t let you in, but as far as I can tell, you have a girlfriend.”
He started to speak but I held up my hand. “Let me finish. Remember I told you about Jake cheating on me?”
He nodded.
“Even now, when I think about that girl arriving at my house, I get upset. It was so humiliating. I mean, I’m completely over Jake, but I did love him and he really hurt me.”
“I’m sure he did.”
“I don’t want Geri to get hurt like I did.”
Doug put down his beer. “Geri’s not going to get hurt,” he said. “Well, not by us, anyway. She’s got a boyfriend in St. John’s, and I think it’s time people knew that.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Geri and I were together but it ended last summer. She loves living in St. John’s and I hates it there. She’s into fashion, nightclubs, the big city.”
“And you’re just a bayman with simple pleasures,” I teased.
He nodded. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“Yes, but why don’t people know about her boyfriend?”
Doug patted the space beside him. “Come over here, fiddle girl.”
I moved closer and he put his arm around me.
“We were the only two in our graduating year that went to university,” he said. “And so people thought we were this golden couple . . .” His voice trailed off, but after a minute, he continued. “It’s like there was this expectation of us being together. From Mudder, too. I never told you the whole story about Mudder’s accident.”
There was another long silence. I waited for him to continue.
“Geri found Mudder after her fall. She was in a bad state. Could’ve died. The tide was coming in, so Geri wouldn’t leave her until the search party found them. So they formed a strong bond. Mudder treats Geri like a daughter. Although it’s more like the prodigal daughter now because Geri isn’t around much anymore.”
“But why did you tell me she was your girlfriend?” I asked.
“Nope. I never did.”
I thought back over the year, trying to pinpoint the moment I’d decided they were a couple. Then I remembered that first night at Biddy’s when Geri arrived and Biddy had said she was Doug’s girlfriend. And the look on Geri’s face when Biddy said it.
“Huh,” I said. “I guess you didn’t.”
Then I remembered the weekend I stayed with Biddy after her accident. She had told me that Doug and Geri weren’t a love match. Had she been trying to send me a message in her subtle way? There was the quite the history of me and misunderstandings during my year in Little Cove. I guess there was room for one more.
Doug spoke again. “Geri thought it was best if we let people down gently. She pretends she’s working every weekend and I hates town, so no one expects me to go in to see her.”
It was getting dark in the living room, but neither of us made a move to turn on the lights.
“Anyway, last week I told Mudder about Geri.”
