‘Sorry,’ Cal mumbled from Hattie’s shoulder. ‘Couldn’t help myself.’
‘Well, we might as well join together now since we’re all here,’ Ben said, noticing the rest of the menfolk staggering unsteadily towards them. He nudged Bridie. ‘What do you reckon, Sweet Pea? Fancy a trip up the Tunnel of Love with me? All euphemisms entirely intended.’
She smirked before quickly turning it into a disapproving eye-roll for the benefit of the others. ‘I think the Chamber of Horrors is more appropriate to us, don’t you?’
‘Fine by me. Feel free to hold my hand if any ghoulies jump out at you. Or any other parts of my anatomy that might comfort you.’
‘All right, go on then,’ Bridie said. ‘I mean, not all right to grabbing your bits, all right we can join up now.’ She turned to the rest of the group. ‘If we get separated then don’t forget we’re meeting at the Sunset Bar and Grill at six, OK?’
Ben took her elbow to hold her back as the others wandered off to explore the rest of the park.
‘What?’ she whispered.
‘Leave them to it and come play hooky with me. They can manage to organise their own fun for a while, I’m sure.’
‘They’ll get suspicious if we both go missing.’
‘Nah, they’ll just think we got lost in the crowds. Big groups get separated in theme parks all the time.’ He watched until the others were out of sight, then tossed the remains of her candy floss into a nearby bin and pulled her behind one of the soft toy crane machines for a kiss.
‘Well?’ he whispered when he drew back.
She smiled. ‘All right, that was a pretty persuasive kiss. But just for a bit, that’s all.’
He took her hand and gave it a squeeze.
‘You’re a bad influence, Ben Kemp,’ she told him as they snuck off hand in hand in the opposite direction to the rest of their group.
‘What can I say? I missed you. I don’t want to hang around that lot pretending to be mean to you and not being allowed to touch you for the next hour.’
She glanced up at him. ‘Aren’t you bored of this yet?’
‘Bored of what?’
‘This. Me. Being Mr Boyfriend Guy. I thought you might’ve started to find commitment tedious by now.’
He frowned. ‘Is that a joke?’
‘I guess… yes and no,’ she said, shrugging. ‘You’ve always been the country’s leading advocate for single life: having the freedom to flit between women and ditch them when you’ve had enough. I can’t help worrying the novelty of doing the relationship thing might wear off eventually.’
He stopped walking to pull her into his arms. ‘This isn’t some new hobby or challenge for me, Bridie. I meant it when I told you I loved you. Why would I want to be with any other women now I know I can have something like this with someone like you?’
‘Something like what?’
‘You know. Sex with someone who’s a mate as well as someone I really fancy. Someone who turns me on and makes me laugh, not infrequently both at the same time.’ He kissed the top of her head. ‘Someone who’s you.’
She smiled. ‘That’s sweet, Ben.’
‘So, do you feel better?’
‘Yes. Sorry. I can’t help feeling a bit insecure, that’s all, when I think about all the water that’s passed under our particular bridge.’
‘Well, we’re done passing water now.’ He frowned. ‘That didn’t come out how I meant it to.’
She laughed. ‘I could tell.’
‘I just mean, we’ve found each other now. The people we’ve been, the things we’ve said: that’s finished. My days of casual sex are very much over, I promise you.’ He kissed her again. ‘And I’d really like it if you could try to move on too. It’s a long time since we were eighteen. I’m not going to hurt you again, I promise.’
‘I know that. It just takes a bit of adjusting to after all this time, knowing you really love me.’
‘And for me too.’ He pressed her hand. ‘But it’s amazing. No one ever fell in love with me before.’
‘They would if they’d really known you.’
He smiled. ‘Like you do, you mean?’
She laughed. ‘Yeah. Let’s conveniently overlook the fact I was convinced I hated you for nearly a decade.’
‘You’ve been making up for it the past four weeks though. Parts of me are feeling very well-loved.’
‘Shameless as ever. Some things never change.’ She nonchalantly examined her nails. ‘Sooo… you and Cal seemed to be shaking hands pretty energetically when I spotted you on the bench. What was that all about?’
‘Oh, nothing. Just a new… carburettor he’s getting. He’s pretty excited about it.’
‘Mmhmm. Nothing else?’
‘Such as what?’
She smiled. ‘Come on, Uncle Ben. You know, don’t you? Cal told you.’
‘All right, yes,’ he said, smiling too. ‘Who told you?’
‘Technically, no one. Hattie gave herself away when I took a sip of her virgin bellini.’
‘Aunty Bridie and Uncle Ben.’ He shook his head. ‘The kid’s doomed.’
‘I know, poor sod.’ Bridie glanced around the park. ‘Well, where shall we go to play then?’
‘Back to the hotel? If I’m banned from going to strip clubs then I think it’s only fair you fill the window in my schedule with some nudity.’
‘We haven’t got time, sadly.’ She pointed to a nearby rifle range. ‘There you go, there’s something phallic and explosive you can play with if that’s where your mood’s taking you.’
‘That looks like a suitably manly pastime for the chief stag,’ he said, nodding. ‘Maybe I can earn myself some boyfriend points by winning you a cuddly toy.’
They approached the range and Ben paid for a go.
‘Right,’ the man running the game said, handing him a rifle. ‘Three shots per go, mate. You get ten points for hitting the outer circle, twenty for the inner circle and thirty points for a bullseye. Ninety points’ll get you one of the big cuddly toys; the other prizes are all ticketed. Good luck.’
‘OK. I’ve got this.’ Ben lifted the rifle to his eye to take aim, and Bridie smiled.
‘You look like you’re in a Western or a gangster film or something.’
‘Quiet, moll. You’re putting me off.’ He took a shot, hitting the target’s dark blue outer circle. ‘See? I’d have got a bullseye then if you’d kept schtum.’
‘Mmm. I’m sure you would.’
Ben took aim again, this time managing to miss the target completely. His third and final shot hit the inner circle.
He sighed. ‘Well that was crap. Sorry, Bride. I’ve failed as a man.’
Bridie patted his bum. ‘Never mind. I still love you now you’ve been downgraded to mere beta male.’
‘What do I win for thirty points then?’ Ben asked the bloke running the game.
‘Anything off this,’ the man said, holding out a tray of small plastic toys and tacky jewellery for him to look at.
Ben selected a cheap-looking ring with a purple heart-shaped gem in the centre and eyed it critically. ‘And that’s four quid’s worth, is it?’
‘Sorry,’ Bridie said to the man. ‘He’s a Yorkshireman: getting his money’s worth is in his veins.’
Ben guided Bridie away, then took her hand to slide on the ring he’d won. ‘Here you go. Sorry it’s not a teddy.’
She smiled. ‘Really, that finger?’
‘Heh. I hadn’t even noticed.’ He smiled at her left hand in his. ‘Suits you though.’
She held up her hand to waggle her new ring, watching how the gaudy plastic gemstone caught the dying sunlight.
‘I love it, Ben.’ She stood on tiptoes to kiss him. ‘Thank you.’
He slipped an arm around her. ‘Let’s get out of here, eh? We can have a romantic walk on the seafront and I’ll share a bag of chips with you.’
Half an hour later they were sitting on the beach by the big pier, watching the sun sink into the
ocean as they ate a ketchup-slathered cone of chips between them. The air was alive with sound: the brightly lit trams carrying visitors up and down the promenade to view the town’s world-famous illuminations; the beeps, bells and whistles of fairground games and rides, and rowdy merrymakers visiting the bustling nightspots that looked out over the sea.
‘It’s funny going on holiday to the seaside when you live at the seaside,’ Bridie said. ‘Feels sort of treacherous, enjoying someone else’s beach.’
‘The others’ll be heading to the restaurant now,’ Ben said, taking a look at his watch. ‘We should go back really.’
‘Yeah. In a bit. It’s nice here.’
Ben held out a chip to her, and she opened her mouth for him to pop it in.
‘What have you and the boys been up to today then?’ she asked him, resting her head on his shoulder.
‘We went for a pub lunch, played a few testosterone-fuelled rounds of massively competitive crazy golf then headed to the Pleasure Beach. What about your lot?’
‘We went to see a drag act with great legs called Dolores, drank more cocktails than we really should have at lunchtime and the girls pumped me for information about the secret boyfriend they think I’m hiding from them.’
‘What, another one?’
She smiled. ‘I like to keep a few on rotation.’
‘Did they get anything out of you?’
‘I did confess there was someone. I didn’t say it was you though, obviously,’ she said, helping herself to another chip. ‘It was sort of nice, to be honest, chatting about it. I love having you as my little secret, but I’ve been dying to talk to Hattie too. I can’t help it when it’s all new and exciting.’ She glanced up at him. ‘How would you feel about telling them? I don’t mean now, but when the time’s right.’
‘I’d feel simultaneously massively embarrassed about all the times I’ve railed against romance and love and massively proud of my fit new girlfriend.’ He leaned down to kiss her. ‘But it’ll be worth it. I’ve never been happier than I have this past month and I want everyone we care about to know it, no matter how humiliating it is for me personally.’
She smiled and snuggled into the arm he’d stretched around her. ‘Ben Kemp, talking about feelings and all that girly stuff. I feel like you’ve been body-snatched.’ She glanced up. ‘Don’t let them swap you back for the other guy, will you?’
‘The other guy was just a front to hide the fact I’m a bit of a soppy bastard, apparently. That came as a surprise to me as much as anyone.’ He pressed his lips to her head. ‘All it took was you, Bridie.’
‘You really don’t miss the playboy lifestyle? Not even a bit?’
He drew her body tighter against his and inhaled the scent of her hair. ‘Doesn’t matter. Even if I did, it could never compare to this. If I have to choose between the joys of single life and being with you, you win every time.’
‘I know what you mean,’ she said, reaching up to squeeze his fingers on her shoulder. ‘I owe Hattie and the girls a lot really. Not that I’d ever admit that to them.’
He frowned. ‘The girls? Why, what have they got to do with it?’
‘I just mean that if it wasn’t for them, I’d never have known how you really felt about me. It was only overhearing them talking about how you’d confessed it all to Cal that made me realise you’d been telling the truth when you told me how you felt at camp.’
‘Eh?’ He looked down at her. ‘How I confessed all what to Cal?’
She blinked. ‘Well, you know: your feelings for me. How you’d been in love with me for years, but you were too afraid of me knocking you back to tell me. I guess Cal couldn’t help himself telling Hattie. You know how those guys are. If you tell one then you might as well be telling them both, right?’
‘What?’ Ben shook his head. ‘Hang on a minute. What?’
‘What happened to your brother and the maid of honour lass?’ Graham, a friend of Cal’s from work, asked him as the stags and hens sat around a group of tables at the Sunset Bar and Grill with a drink each. ‘I haven’t seen them since we left the Pleasure Beach.’
‘They’ll have got lost in the crowds somewhere, probably,’ Cal said. ‘There are a few others we’re still waiting on too. I’m sure they’ll all turn up sooner or later.’
‘Are they a couple then?’ Graham sounded disappointed. ‘Shame, I was going to take a crack at her later. Bit bossy, but she’s a nice-looking girl.’
‘Well, no, they’re not exactly what you’d call a couple. At least, not officially. It’s a bit complicated.’
‘Those two have definitely snuck back to the hotel for a quickie,’ Hattie whispered when Graham’s attention had been claimed by someone else.
‘Almost certainly.’ Cal put an arm around her and squeezed her tight. ‘Hat?’
‘What?’
‘I love you, all right? I mean, I really bloody love you. Don’t ever forget that, will you?’
She laughed. ‘OK. How much beer did you drink today?’
‘This isn’t beer talking, it’s me. I want you to know, that’s all.’
‘I do know, don’t I? You asked me to marry you, which was a pretty big clue. What’s brought this on, love?’
‘I’ve just been thinking about how lucky I am. And how I’d never do anything to jeopardise that.’
‘Like what?’
‘Just… anything.’ He drew her closer to him. ‘I’m going to miss my cuddle tonight. It feels weird now, falling asleep without you next to me. Sure you don’t fancy sneaking in after Ben’s asleep?’
Hattie smiled. ‘You know that’s not allowed. No hotel sex shenanigans or we’ll get in trouble with the organisers.’
‘Right. The organisers who are even now back at that very hotel sneaking in a shag before we go out.’
‘I know, the massive hypocrites.’ She patted his knee. ‘Never mind, one night apart won’t kill us.’
‘No, I suppose not. We’ve got our whole married life ahead of us to catch up on that sort of fun.’
Hattie frowned as Bridie and Ben appeared in the restaurant, striding towards them with some seriously black expressions on their faces. ‘Hello. Here comes trouble.’
‘Oh knickers,’ Cal muttered. ‘Hat, I strongly suspect that we’ve been rumbled.’
Twenty-Seven
‘Right,’ Bridie said when she reached the group at the table, folding her arms. ‘You lot have got some serious explaining to do.’
‘You. And you,’ Ben said, pointing accusingly at first Cal, then Pete.
‘Yeah, and you three as well.’ Bridie glared at Hattie, Meg and Ursula, who did their best to assume innocent expressions.
‘Who, us?’ Hattie said sweetly.
‘Did you or did you not tell Bridie I’d confessed, in my own words, that I was secretly in love with her?’ Ben demanded.
‘I don’t remember telling her that.’ Hattie glanced at Meg. ‘Meg, did you tell Bridie that?’
‘I cannot recall telling Bridie that. Urs, did you tell Bridie that?’
‘All right, stop,’ Bridie said, holding a hand up for silence. ‘You had a conversation at camp about how Cal had told you Ben confessed he’d been in love with me for years. Don’t play innocent.’
‘There may have been some such conversation,’ Hattie admitted. ‘We didn’t know you were eavesdropping on us like a dirty little spy, did we?’
‘Bollocks you didn’t. You set me up, you bastards!’
‘And you,’ Ben said, scowling at Cal. ‘My own brother. You and Pete deliberately lured me to the doors of that bloody beer cellar, didn’t you?’
‘Well…’ Cal cast a guilty glance at Pete, who shrugged. ‘All right, let’s just say we didn’t not do that.’
Bridie shook her head. ‘Ben, can you believe these guys?’
‘I know. Our best friends. Destroys your faith in humanity, doesn’t it?’
‘Entirely.’
Ben turned to glare at Cal again. ‘What did you li
e for?’
‘We didn’t lie. Or not exactly.’ Cal pointed at Pete. ‘It was his idea.’
‘Grass,’ Pete muttered.
‘Well? Was it your idea?’ Ben demanded.
‘Yeah, and a bloody good one it was too,’ Pete told him stoutly. ‘We were doing you a favour, mate. By rights, you should be offering to buy me a drink and name your firstborn after me in exchange for sorting you out with such a top bird.’
‘Come on, you know you guys have got feelings for each other,’ Hattie said soothingly to the two wronged parties. ‘All right, so maybe we set up the conversations, and it was a fib about hearing you confess it – or a little white lie anyway. We didn’t make up the part about you being secretly in love with each other though, did we? Everyone knew it but you; it seemed only right to give you the push you needed towards realising it for yourselves.’
‘Who are you to tell us what we feel?’ Bridie demanded. ‘You’re not the bosses of us.’
‘Yeah,’ Ben said. ‘You lot can’t just play God with people’s emotions. Me and Bridie are the only ones who get to decide what we’re feeling.’
‘You’ve spent ten years dancing around each other, shagging every lass but her in your case and dating every lad but you in hers,’ Pete said to him. ‘I’ve watched you at it since you were barely out of school, and at nearly thirty you still haven’t moved any further forward. How long were you going to wait to stop lying to yourselves? Till you were both on Zimmers?’
‘That’s not your call to make.’
‘So you’re saying you didn’t have feelings for each other, are you?’ Cal said.
Bridie flushed, waiting for Ben to speak. But he remained silent, standing at her side red-faced and seething while he scowled at his brother.
Right. He was just going to let that hang there, was he?
‘Well yeah, obviously we always cared about each other,’ she said after it felt like a few millennia had passed, trying not to catch Ben’s eye. ‘You know, as friends. You had no bloody business chucking the L-word about like that with no evidence. Totally out of order, right, Ben?’
Love at First Fight Page 23
