Page 53 of A Merry Irish Christmas
‘I won’t. I promise.’
He trotted out of the room and they heard him going upstairs.
When he was gone they all turned to Hilary questioningly.
She shook her head. ‘I’m not saying anything. I promised. You’ll just have to wait and see.’
Mary noticed her throwing Evan a nervous glance as they heard Charlie thundering back down the stairs. He burst into the room dressed in a Spider-Man costume, complete with mask, and trotted up to stand in front of Evan.
Evan’s reaction was everything a five-year-old Spider-Man fan could have wished for. He gasped, eyes wide.
‘It’s me!’ Charlie squealed, pulling his mask off.
‘Awesome costume, dude!’ Evan said, high-fiving him.
‘Santa bringed it,’ Charlie told him.
‘So you’re Spider-Man too?’
Charlie giggled and squirmed in delight. ‘I’m the Irish Spider-Man.’
‘Well, that’s good because I don’t have my Spidey suit with me,’ Evan told him confidentially. ‘I’m off duty. So you’ll have to take over for me if there’s any trouble.’
Charlie nodded solemnly.
Evan patted the sofa beside him. ‘Come and sit with me. Us superheroes have to stick together, right?’
Charlie clambered onto the couch and nestled close beside Evan, grinning up at him happily.
They all fell quiet as the movie started, but Charlie was only focused on the screen half the time. He turned to gaze worshipfully at Evan every few minutes, his eyes raking wonderingly over his face, and he constantly watched for his reaction to what was happening in the movie. He giggled with Evan when there was a funny bit, and snuggled closer to him, clutching his arm when E.T. and Elliott were in trouble.
‘It’s okay, buddy,’ Evan said, putting an arm around him. ‘They’re going to be all right.’
Mary sat on Evan’s other side, aware of his thigh brushing hers, and pretended not to notice him surreptitiously swiping tears from his eyes when E.T. and his friends took to the air on their bikes. That was the part that always did for her too. If only Evan would put his other arm around her and she could burrow into him like Charlie was doing. Lucky Charlie.
18
‘That was fun,’ Evan said later as they walked home from the O’Sullivans’. They’d left with a large parcel of leftovers and a bag of paperbacks. Carmel had been delighted to discover that Evan was a big reader and had presented him with the first three books of her Bowfield Brothers series.
‘Thanks for coming with me. I really appreciate it.’
He shrugged. ‘I had a good time.’
‘Honestly? You didn’t mind it?’
‘Of course not. They’re really nice. And dinner was awesome.’
‘You were great with Charlie. Sorry he monopolised so much of your time. I hope it wasn’t a drag for you.’ After the movie, Evan had played Mario Kart with Charlie until it was time for him to go to bed, and then Charlie had begged for Evan to read him his story.
‘He’s such a cute kid.’ Evan’s smile was full of warmth, and it tugged at Mary’s heartstrings. He was such a natural with children. There’d been none of that stiff awkwardness people who weren’t used to being around children often had. He’d seemed like he was genuinely having fun playing with Charlie.
‘And Chuckles really liked you.’
‘Ah, well, I knew I had to get on his good side if I didn’t want to be peed on,’ he said with a laugh.
‘I was worried you’d hate every minute of it, and I was regretting being so pushy about making you come.’
‘Well, I’m glad you did.’
