Page 75 of The Riviera House Swap

For someone who rode some sort of deathtrap of a bike, this was a bit rich, Nina thought. He’d wobbled across town somehow despite the weather this morning which was about as safe as ice skating across a half-frozen lake in winter. Still, it was nice that he cared.

‘Yes, do go carefully,’ she found herself saying.

Sabine laughed. ‘You are my parents, now? Yes?’ she said. ‘Yes, Mum and Dad, I will be careful, I promise.’

Nina laughed.

‘But truly, I will,’ Sabine said, a more serious look coming over her face as she looked at her drenched brother. ‘In any case, I am only driving seventy kilometres tonight to the first campsite. I will take it easy – there is no rush.’

Antoine nodded. ‘Good,’ he said, with a small smile.

Goodbyes over, Sabine put her foot on the accelerator and the VW roared, sending a cloud of grey smoke from its exhaustpipe, which Antoine looked at worriedly, before bumping off the kerb and starting to trundle down the road, gaining speed. Sabine’s arm remained out of the window waving until she turned the corner and was gone.

They waited a moment or two until they could no longer hear the sound of her van, then looked at each other. ‘Coffee?’ Nina asked, looking at the state of Antoine’s jumper. ‘I can pop that in the dryer if you like.’

He looked at it as if for the first time. ‘Oh. Yes. Perhaps that would be a good idea, if you are not too busy?’

‘Nothing to do at all,’ she replied. ‘Especially in this weather.’

Inside, he peeled off the offending sweater, his T-shirt lifting up a little to reveal his belly button. It was strangely intimate to see the little flash of flesh and she found herself looking away. Which was ridiculous – if it had been hotter, she may well have bumped into him on the beach with his whole torso on display. It was just the unexpected glimpse that made her feel a little strange, especially now they were alone.

‘So,’ he said as they sipped coffee and shivered as the warm liquid put paid to the damp cold they’d brought in from outside. ‘You are looking forward to having some time alone?’

Nina smiled. ‘Well, maybe,’ she said. ‘But I think I’m going to miss Sabine a lot.’

Antoine nodded. ‘Yes, me also. It would be nice to have a sister and brother who stay in one place,’ he said.

‘But Jean-Luc is here most of the time?’

He shrugged. ‘Yes. Then when he is here, we work together. Sometimes, we are too much for each other! Sabine, she connects us somehow. We both like to look after her, maybe,’ he smiled. ‘But she can never stay still.’

Nina smiled. ‘I’ve noticed!’ she said. ‘I envy her really.’

‘But you are here,’ he said. ‘So, it is the same. You are both free spirits.’

She almost laughed at his misreading of who she was. Yes, she’d come to France for a month, but doing a house swap – bricks, mortar and all – and having her job held open for her was about as far from being a free spirit as it got. Still, she liked him seeing her that way.

‘I am sorry,’ he said suddenly. ‘For what I said to you.’

She felt her cheeks get hot. ‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘It was nice.’

He nodded. ‘I feel a little embarrassed about what I said. That Pierre might have changed,’ he said. ‘I am glad that you have found some happiness there. Well, almost glad,’ he shrugged.

‘Thank you.’

‘And things, they are good?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I think so.’

‘You only think?’

She blushed. ‘I mean they are,’ she said, her mind flashing back to the strange encounter with the woman at the restaurant.

‘Then I am happy for you,’ he said, smiling.

‘Thank you.’ She looked at him, feeling the need to say something else; to express something that welled in her chest when thinking about what he’d said to her. But it wasn’t something she could put into words. Unless that word was: nngggghhhhaargh!

‘And you have told your boss to break herself?’ he said, changing the subject.

---