Home Stretch by Graham Norton

Home Stretch by Graham Norton

Author:Graham Norton [Norton, Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2020-10-02T00:00:00+00:00


1987

XI.

Bernie was panicking. Her wedding was the next day. She pulled at the straps of her light cotton top.

‘Is there a mark? Carmel, will you look? Am I after burning myself?’

Her friend and bridesmaid-to-be gave a cursory glance.

‘I put factor fifteen on you, you can’t have burnt.’

Bernie sank down on the low wall by the parked car.

‘Why did I come? This is pure stupid. If I have tan lines with my dress tomorrow, I …’ She waved a hand in front of her face. David, her fiancé, knew that this meant tears were not far away. He sat on the wall beside her and put a protective arm around her neck.

‘You’ll be perfect, Bernie. Perfect.’ He kissed her shoulder and was slightly disconcerted to see the skin turn momentarily white where he had pressed his lips against it. ‘Maybe slip on my T-shirt just to be sure.’ He took off his top and Bernie wriggled into it.

A bit late for that, thought Linda, Carmel’s sister and non-bridesmaid, watching as the sun sank towards the horizon.

‘Thanks, Dave.’ The couple looked into each other’s eyes and kissed.

Carmel sighed. This was supposed to be a fun day out, a last hurrah for the old gang, but really she was sorry she had come. Bernie and David all over each other, her sister Linda with a puss on her all day, and Martin, well, he was the worst of all. She knew the only reason he had been included was because he had a car. He had never really been part of their old gang, but David had insisted that they should accept the offer of a lift. Bernie had been nearly as bad – you’d have thought that they’d never been in a car before, so excited were they at the prospect. Now, Carmel was having to fight the urge to say that she’d told them so: Martin might look cooler now with his car and his floppy hair, but he was still an oddball. Why had he dragged along the kid from the pub? And then refusing to stop in Schull so they could get ice creams. He had sworn blind there was a shop with a freezer in Trabinn but there was no such thing. She was starving, and there was no sign of Martin with the keys to the car.

While the lovebirds were crouched on the low stone wall that surrounded the car park opposite the caravan park, the two sisters leaned on either side of the blue estate car. Small drifts of sand were daubed haphazardly around the dusty tarmac. For once there seemed to be no breeze and the flag announcing the entrance to the caravan park hung limply by its scratched and faded pole. Linda kicked one of the tyres. She had thought this invitation was some sort of olive branch from Bernie and Carmel, but they’d both been right cows ever since they left Mullinmore. Barely a word out of them.

‘Look, should we start walking over to Crookhaven? There’ll be a pub or something.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.