Impossible to Forget(108)

Tiger shrugged. ‘Travelling isn’t the be all and end all,’ he said. ‘Sometimes it’s nice to stay put for a bit. Put down some roots.’

He still wasn’t looking at her, as if he didn’t want to see her reaction. She wasn’t at all sure how to respond. She had just assumed that he would leave her. Wasn’t that what Laura going to Newcastle was all about, a safety net for her so that she wouldn’t be entirely alone? Tiger would pick up his travels where he had left off and she would live in the flat on her own, with Maggie and Leon, and possibly now Daniel and Hope keeping an eye on her, ready to step in and help in case of disaster.

‘What are you saying, Tiger?’ she asked him.

‘Nothing, really,’ he said, full of bluff. ‘Nothing.’

But he was. Romany could see it written all over his body language.

‘Stop doing that a minute,’ she said. ‘Talk to me.’

Slowly he got to his feet, stretching and rubbing at the small of his back. He turned to face her. He looked anxious, nervous even. Romany didn’t recognise it and wasn’t sure she liked it. This wasn’t who Tiger was. He was the joker in her pack, light-hearted and never taking anything too seriously, least of all himself. He stuffed his dirty hands into his jeans pockets and looked at his feet.

‘Are you saying that you’d rather stay here than go back on the road?’ she asked him.

‘Well,’ he began. ‘It’s kind of taken me by surprise, how much I’ve loved being here. It’s cool, making a home. I started trying to make stuff nice for you, but then I really got into it.’

‘You’re really good at it,’ said Romany. ‘I mean, just look at this place. It’s never looked so good. Mum would be amazed!’

Tiger gave a little laugh, more a huff than anything. ‘Yeah, she wasn’t that big on that kind of stuff, your mum. And I got to thinking that maybe I’ve had enough of not being based anywhere. Don’t get me wrong. I still want to be out there. There’s so much to see. But perhaps I’m ready to do it in smaller bites, more like a holiday than a way of life. God, listen to me. I sound so bloody middle-aged.’

He rolled his eyes, laughing at himself, but Romany thought she saw something else. He really wanted her to understand, to say that he could stay. This new plan was entirely dependent on her say-so.

She didn’t hesitate. ‘That would be fantastic!’ she said. ‘I’d love it!’

She opened her arms and threw them around his shoulders. She could feel him relax as she hugged him, as if he had been building up to this moment for a while and was deeply relieved that it was finally out in the open.

When they separated, he said, ‘I don’t mean that we have to move. That was just an idea. Obviously, this was your mum’s place and it’s full of all her memories.’

Romany nodded. He was right. It was. But the memories were in her head; in Tiger’s, too. She didn’t need a place to attach them to. In some ways, a fresh start as she went off to university might be perfect timing. It wasn’t like leaving her mum behind, but more taking her with her into her new life.

‘I reckon a place with a garden might be nice,’ she said. ‘As long as we’re not too far out of town. I still want to be able to walk home from a night out.’

Tiger was grinning broadly. ‘Well, maybe we can start looking over the summer,’ he said. ‘Get this place valued and see what we could afford. And I was thinking I could get a job. Maybe be a tour guide around the city. I reckon I’d be good at that.’

Romany nodded enthusiastically. ‘You would,’ she said. ‘You’d be really good.’

She tossed his suggestion around in her head for a moment. A part of her was worried that things were changing too fast, that she needed to give herself time to process it all. But then she remembered that this was Tiger. He might have worked out how to use a vacuum cleaner, but he was no Maggie. They wouldn’t be going anywhere fast.

‘You know, you should have said what you were thinking before,’ she said.

Tiger shrugged. ‘I didn’t really know that I was thinking it myself until recently,’ he said. ‘It was something Maggie said. I’m starting to wonder whether your mum didn’t have all this planned out in advance.’

Romany thought about her conversation with Daniel earlier. She nodded. ‘I’m beginning to think you might be right,’ she said. ‘Listen, Tiger, can I ask you something? Something personal?’

Tiger looked slightly uncomfortable, but he nodded.

‘Tiger’s a nickname, right?’

Another nod.

‘So, what are you actually called?’

He looked at her, then up at the ceiling, then down at his feet and then finally back at her.

‘You have to promise me that you will never call me it,’ he said.

‘Okay,’ agreed Romany.

‘And you absolutely, under pain of death, must not tell Maggie.’

Romany nodded.

He dropped his head and in a very quiet voice whispered, ‘Derek.’

Romany bit her lip, but not before a snigger escaped.





57


Hope stood at the bottom of Monk Bar waiting for Romany. The shops were closing up, the streets full of people picking up last-minute things and tourists all determined to make the most of every moment of their day in historic York. The steps up to the ancient city wall were busy with a stream of visitors coming back down and the evening sun shone on the sandy-coloured stone of the medieval turret, making it glow.