Chapter 62

Ray tapped his fingers fretfully against the telephone, then punched out Bev's number. How often had Bev been at a loose end on a Sunday and rung him, to suggest going out somewhere – i.e. containing plenty of men – for lunch?

But the phone rang and rang. Bev wasn't there. Of course she isn't, thought Ray as he hung up, she's over at Tala's being all happy and couple and so lovey-dovey it made you want to be sick.

Honestly, talk about ingratitude. You take the trouble to sort out your friends' hopeless lives for them, you find them their perfect partners . . . and the next thing you know, they've swanned off into happy-ever-after-land without so much as a by-your-leave. Huh, you'd be lucky to get a postcard.

If it wasn't for me, Ray thought, Bev would never have met Tala in the first place. And Takao wouldn't have met Max. Indignantly, he pulled his jersey over his head, bundled it up and flung it in the direction of the stairs.

Typical, as long as they're alright, that's all that jolly well matters.

Never mind me.

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When the doorbell rang an hour later, Ray knew that whoever was at the door, he really didn't want to see them.

Sprawling across the sofa in front of the TV, plucking your eyebrows whilst watching Little House on the Prairie, was possibly the most effective method going if you were desperate for that white-rabbit-struggling-to-break-in-a-new-pair-of-contact-lenses look.

Oh yes, massively flattering, thought Ray, surveying the result in his eyebrow-plucking mirror and making the unhappy discovery that his eyes exactly matched his Germolene-pink shirt that hung on the back of the chair. Of course I'm going to open the door and frighten whoever's on the doorstep witless.

The doorbell rang again.

He ignored it.

It rang for a third time.

Ray crawled across the sitting room floor and up on the window seat, inching his eyes over the window ledge like a sniper in the forest . . .

And came face to face through the glass with Kai Hiwatari.

Hugely embarrassed, imagining how silly he must look, Ray instantly ducked down again.

'Too late, Ray.' Kai, his voice carrying clearly through the closed window, didn't bother to hide his amusement. 'I looked just now and saw you with your big bottom in the air, wiggling across the carpet.'

Yanking the front door open, Ray said indignantly, 'I do not have a big bottom.' As an afterthought he added, 'And even if I did, it wouldn't matter. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having a big bottom.'

Not that he wanted one himself – no thank you very much – but it seemed only right to make the point. After all, Max's bottom wasn't exactly what you'd call petite and Takao seemed pretty smitten with it.

'Would you like me to say I saw you delectable little bottom wiggling across the carpet?' Kai grinned, unperturbed by this outburst. 'I will if you want. I just thought it might alarm you, seeing as I'm not normally the flowery-compliments type.'

This was true, Ray couldn't deny it. Still, he was sure there was a hint of a compliment lurking in there. Deep down.

Somewhere.

'I didn't want to answer the door in case you were a Jehovah's Witness.' Ray stepped back reluctantly, and wished with all his heart he hadn't been quite so vigorous with the tweezers. 'And I haven't been crying, okay? I've just plucked my eyebrows.'

'I'll believe you, thousands wouldn't.' Kai's dark eyes flickered over Ray's clothes. 'Why are you only in your jeans?'

'I had to take my sweater off, there was sick on it. Not my sick,' Ray added defensively. 'Mattie's.'

'Glad to hear it. Florence and Tom get away on time?'

'How did -?' Ray stared at Kai, wondering how he could have known they were leaving today. Then he wondered why he was bothering to wonder, since pretty obviously Florence had rung and told Kai herself.

'She was just keeping me in touch. Thought I might be interested.' Kai's tone was neutral.

'If she told you I was lonely and needed cheering up –' Ray began furiously, but Kai stopped him in his tracks.

'She didn't. Actually, I'm the one in need of help.'

Oh well, that stood to reason, Kai looked so utterly helpless standing there in his dark-blue sweatshirt and faded Levis, with his battered leather jacket slung over one broad shoulder and his humorous dark eyes glittering down at Ray in that completely unfair way.

'Go on,' muttered Ray, wondering if he was ever going to be able to look at Kai without experiencing that swooping sensation – like leaping dolphins – in the depth of his stomach.

'I've got a new kite in the car,' Kai told him. 'I need to get some serious practice in, so I can dazzle that nephew of mine with my skills. And I need someone to untangle me when it all goes horribly wrong.' He paused. 'Fancy a trip to Parliament Hill?'

'Dazzle him with your skills?' echoed Ray. 'Better take a tent with us, then. This could take years.'

Kai's mouth began to twitch at the corners.

'Is that your charming way of saying yes?'

Determined not to let Kia see how overjoyed he was, Ray replied, 'Actually, it's my charming way of saying: what the hell, I could do with a good laugh.'

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When had he last come up here, that time with Florence? It must have been back in April, Ray finally worked out. And now it was November, but the kites were still out in force.

The sun was out too, brightening a cloudless hyacinth-blue sky, but it was colder than before, an icy north-easterly wind zinging through Ray's hair and numbing the exposed tips of his ears.

All over the hill, children wrapped up against the cold raced around, battling to seize control of frantically flapping kites and miles of unravelled nylon cord. The adults, expertly coaxing their kites into performing gymnastic displays of Olympic brilliance, stood their ground and scarcely moved at all.

Racing around like a lunatic and getting garrotted by your own kite string was clearly a very immature thing to do.

To impress his nephew, Kai had bought a monster of a kite, crimson and double-winged and as uncontrollable as a charging rhino. Every time Ray threw it up into the air, it leapt skywards for a few seconds, lulling them both into a false sense of security, before plummeting back to earth with a vengeance. Twice, it had missed Ray's head by inches and he'd had to learn to dodge out of the way. When he took his turn at trying to fly it, it promptly hurled itself into the nearest tree.

Kai inched his way along the high branch around which the cord was tangled.

Fit body. Very fit, Ray couldn't help noticing. For about the hundredth time in the last hour.

'I don't know why you're bothering,' he shouted up at Kai. 'That kite is a psychopath. It doesn't deserve to be rescued. You should teach it a lesson and leave it up there to rot.'

The kite was released at last, amid a flurry of falling leaves. Kai swung himself down from the branch and landed next to Ray. Having glanced briefly at him, Kai busied himself brushing bits of bark from his jeans.

'The thing is, some kites are easy, you get on with them from the word go. Others need a bit more work. You can either give up, or you can persevere. But if you get there in the end . . . well, that makes it all worthwhile.'

Ray's nose and cheeks were pink with cold. He had tugged the sleeves of his warmest sweater over his knuckles and his arms were wrapped around his waist, but he was still prone to fits of uncontrollable shivers. He watched the kite slither off across the grass then begin to leap upwards, straining against its leash like a slavering Rottweiler.

'Take it to the vet. Have it put down. If you really want to impress your nephew, take up rollerblading instead.'

'You're freezing. Here, put my jacket on.' Kai shrugged it off and placed it around Ray's shoulders.

'I didn't know it was going to be this c-cold.' Surreptitiously, Ray sniffed the collar of the jacket, breathing in a lungful of that oh-so-familiar aftershave. 'I suppose you tried to persuade your girlfriend to come up here with you, but she had more sense.'

There, managed it at last! He'd slipped the subject into the conversation but in such a deft and casual manner that Kai wouldn't guess how long he'd been dying to bring it up.

'Girlfriend,' Kai said thoughtfully, winding the kite back towards him.

'You remember. Blonde. Posh-looking. Waves at you like this.' Ray waggled his fingers in a pseudo-friendly fashion, accurately mimicking the girl he'd seen sitting in Kai's car.

He was careful not to sound too bitchy. That wouldn't do at all.

'I think you must be talking about my sister,' Kai said. 'Caroline. Eddie's mother.' Helpfully he held out his hand, palm downwards, indicating the height of his nephew. 'You remember Eddie.'

'Your sister.' Ray breathed out slowly. 'You made me think she was your girlfriend.'

'Did I?' Kai frowned, not altogether convincingly. 'Oh no, she's definitely my sister. Although she certainly wishes I had someone. In fact she's so desperate to see me settled down, she spends her life trying to set me up with her single friends.'

He wasn't exactly looking thrilled. Exercising caution – and a degree of jealousy – Ray said, 'And you haven't found one yet that you like?'

The kite, fully rewound now, had arrived back at Kai's feet. It flapped rebelliously amongst the fallen leaves like a truculent teenager.

'It can't escape if we sit on it.' Kai held one wing down with his Timberland-booted foot until Ray was settles on the kite, then joined him. 'Oh yes, I've definitely found one I like.'

Kai's faded denim knee was inches away from Ray's own, his tone amazingly casual. Almost as if he was telling Ray about a car he had seen and was thinking of buying.

Ray swallowed and tried to concentrate on the panoramic view stretched out before them. This was London, home to millions and millions of people. But at this moment in time, could any of them be more confused as he was?

At last, lamely, he said, 'Well, good. What's this one like?'

'Difficult.' Kai shook his head and tapped the crimson material beneath them. 'Like this kite. Never does what you want him to do. Veers off in all the wrong directions . . . keeps getting tangled up with other kites . . .'

Ray's heart began to thud like a marching band. In his stomach, the dolphins leapt.

'Is he seeing anyone now?'

'No. I've kept away for the last couple months, to give him time to get over something that happened.' Kai paused. 'It hasn't been easy, but it was something I knew I had to do.'

Crash bang, crash bang, thud thud thud.

'What does he look like?' said Ray, his gaze fixed helplessly on the distant horizon.

'Oh, ugly. No, that's a joke,' said Kai as Ray's shoulders stiffened. 'Not ugly at all. Incredible amber eyes. Very kissable mouth. Black hair with gold bits at the end.'

'Tendrils,' Ray murmured, 'not bits.'

'And, of course, he has a delectable little bottom. Not that there's anything wrong with having a big one,' said Kai. 'Big ones are fine too.'

The view, Ray discovered, was becoming a bit blurred. He wiped the back of his hand hurriedly across his eyes.

'Why now, Kai? After all this time, what made you change your mind?'

'I haven't.' Kai shrugged. 'My mind was made up months ago.'

'But –'

'Other kites,' Kai said simply. 'Like I said, he kept getting tangled up with other kites.' He paused, his dark eyes serious. 'Are you over Bryan?'

Ray nodded, unable to speak. Directly above them, a large yellow and brown kite hovered like an eagle. Twenty yards away a young girl jumped up and down yelling, 'Don't crash it, Daddy, don't let it crash on those people's heads!'

'Concussion,' Kai sighed. 'Just what we need. Have you any idea how long I've spent rehearsing this moment? It was supposed to be so romantic.'

'It still is.' Ray spread his arms wide. 'Sitting here with me, risking brain damage to be with me . . . I call that madly romantic.'

Kai smiled and touched Ray's icy cheek.

'Mad, certainly.'

'Go on,' Ray whispered, 'kiss me, I dare you. And the first person to look up at the kite is a sissy.'

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'Daddy, Dad, what are those people doing?'

'Making a spectacle of themselves, Rachel. They're exhibitionists, darling. Don't look at them.'

Ray began to giggle helplessly and the kiss disintegrated. He rolled over onto his back and watched the yellow and brown kite disappear as it was towed down the hill.

'I think it's time we went home,' said Kai. 'Before I really do become an exhibitionist.' He gave Ray a long look. 'I love you. More than anything. You know that, don't you?'

'Well, I do now,' said Ray. 'But next time, could you not wait quite so long to mention it?'

'Right from the start, the first time I saw you.' Kai shook his head, remembering.

'Love at first sandwich,' murmured Ray, feeling ridiculously happy.

Kai stood up and pulled Ray to his feet. The next second, a gust of wind carried away the kite they'd been sitting on. Ray let out a cry of alarm and made a helpless grab for it as, with a defiant flick of its tail, the kite whisked joyfully skywards.

'Leave it.' Kai reached for Ray's frozen hand. 'One difficult kite at a time is as much as I can cope with.'

They made their way downhill towards the car.

'Florence is going to be so mad she missed this,' said Ray.

'She'll know soon enough.'

'They're away from the whole month.'

'When she rang me yesterday, she gave me the phone number, the fax number and the e-mail address of their hotel in Miami,' Kai explained. 'She wants to be told the millisecond anything remotely romantic happens.'

'Honestly!' Ray tried hard to look indignant.

'And there's something else she wants you to know.' Kai sounded pleased with himself.

'What?'

'She definitely approves.'

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Dolphin-san: Well folks, this is the end. I really hope everyone enjoyed this and I thank all who stuck with this through the whole crazy journey.