‘Yes, I asked him.’
‘And?’
‘There are some things he has to figure out. Of course, he likes the idea, I knew he would, but there are practicalities. He said he’ll ring on Sunday,’ she said neutrally and Niall wasn’t sure what to read into that, because the words alone led him to believe that it could be a possibility, but the tone cautioned him not to set his heart on it. ‘So, have you plans, for the weekend?’
‘Maybe,’ he said disinterestedly, because he didn’t really have any plans, except that Dan, the guy who had managed to pick him up off his living room floor, clean up the mess he’d made and then smooth things over with his mother, had texted an hour earlier and invited him to go for a hike and a cookout if the weather was fine. Niall surprised himself when he realised that he wouldn’t half mind going for a hike with the guy. It certainly beat knocking about the village on his own, or worse, hanging about the house while his grandmother tiptoed around him, trying to walk the fine line between spoiling and stifling him.
‘You won’t…’ she said softly. ‘You won’t do anything stupid, will you?’
‘Mum, I’ve never considered doing anything stupid. That was an accident, but no, I have no intention of jumping into the sea in a bid to end it all any time soon,’ he said sarcastically.
‘Please, don’t talk like that,’ she murmured, because after a long day in the surgery, she was too tired to fight with him.
‘Sorry,’ he said and he meant it. He must have, because he couldn’t remember when he’d last apologised for one of his cynical comments. ‘Anyway, I might go for a hike, tomorrow, with Dan.’
‘Dan?’ she said a little vaguely, perhaps trying to picture some local kid. ‘Saturday? I was going to ask you to come over to Ballybrack with me. There’s an exhibition and…’
‘Why don’t you bring Gran and Mrs O’Shea? I’m sure they’d love all that stuff.’ He wasn’t sure what that stuff was, but his mother’s idea of an afternoon out generally involved looking at some scruffy artist’s work, hanging in a coffee shop where a sliver of cake set you back a fiver and they still expected a donation on top of that.
‘Hmm, maybe.’
Niall closed his eyes that night, knowing that the response from his father could go either way, but maybe that didn’t seem as terrible as it might have a week earlier, or even just before he’d run into Zoe Huang.
14
Elizabeth
The improving weather also brought more people down onto the beach. Youngsters had set up a barbecue the previous day. Jo had rung to tell her that she might need to think about buying a swimming costume. Elizabeth knew her friend was probably right, but at the same time, she surprised herself by not wanting to give in.
‘It’s too dark for anyone to see very much,’ she said as they made their way further down the beach than usual. ‘And, let’s face it, at my age, they’re not going to spend a lot of time gawping at me.’ She threw her head back and laughed at this.
‘Who is this brazen hussy and what have you done with dear old square Elizabeth?’ Jo looked at her and there was no mistaking the amusement in her eyes.
‘Yes, well, I haven’t completely lost the run of myself; we’re still the Ladies’ Midnight Swimming Club. No mention of harlots there!’ Elizabeth said without thinking too deeply about it.
‘I like that,’ Lucy said simply. ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could get more of the village women down to join us? I bet it’d halve the number of aches and pains we see in the surgery if we did…’
‘That would be lovely,’ Elizabeth said.
The following night, they were racing down the darkening beach. Elizabeth couldn’t wait to get to their perfect spot and the delicious feel of the ocean cloaking her whole body and soul. Lying on her back, with the icy waters about her, looking up at the stars dotting the black sky was her release. For the ten minutes of capering about in the stinging cold, she felt altogether and utterly more alive than she’d ever imagined possible. Her whole existence had somehow transformed into a life with meaning far beyond what she could have ever expected. She talked to villagers every day that once she would have hardly known. She knew that as much as she liked Lucy and Alice, they were every bit as fond of her in return.
The icing on the cake was this: swimming with Jo and Lucy, here in the darkness, occasionally in silence, sometimes talking about nothing important but, more often sharing their deepest worries and always finding something to laugh about.