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18

Jacob

Jacob wasn’t totally humiliated. While Charlotte clearly understood a lot more than just where to put the pieces, she told him after the game that she’d picked up most of the names of the moves from watching The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix. Even so, she beat him with little trouble, helped by a couple of shocking blunders. Jacob, to his credit, felt that he’d performed pretty well considering how distracting it was to be playing chess with perhaps the loveliest thing he’d ever seen, at least up close. Charlotte, with her delightful singsong voice, blonde-haired bob, and sparkling blue eyes had him absolutely smitten. Once he had admitted it to himself, life became a simple case of damage control, to make as few social gaffs as possible. He already knew that after the milk incident, any chance of being more than just a casual acquaintance was off the table, yet here she was, sitting across from him, chatting amicably while she hammered him at chess.

After the game was over and their coffees were finished, they packed away the chess pieces and went to drum up a little interest among the kids. At first, enthusiasm was muted, but after Charlotte decided they should demo a game, in which she gave Jacob another sound beating, the kids slowly began to drift over. Jacob got out the other sets, and an hour later, most of the kids had got the basic moves down, and a couple were even happily engaged in a game.

Leaving Charlotte to explain the intricacies of a knight fork, Jacob went to help Lisa prepare vegetables for the children’s dinner.

‘You’re surviving?’ Lisa said with a grin.

Jacob could only let out a sigh. ‘Do you think she’ll come back again?’

‘She seems to be enjoying herself. She might.’

‘Good because we really need all the volunteers we can get—’

‘You weren’t this enthusiastic when old Stan Rogers came down to teach the children how to weave wicker baskets. It wouldn’t have anything to do with her being young and attractive and you being a career single?’

‘I’m not a career single. I’m just … busy.’

‘Come on, Jacob. I know you. I used to babysit you, remember?’

‘The clearest memory being the classic occasion when you let me eat a whole packet of Digestive biscuits which I promptly threw up in the hall.’

‘That stuff looked like clay, didn’t it? It was only the once. I didn’t know you were going to eat the entire packet.’

‘I’ve still not told Mum.’

‘It’s been twenty years. I think you’re good to take that one to the grave. Look, just go and ask her out. See if she wants to get fish ’n’ chips on the way home.’

‘We usually eat with the kids.’

‘I can lie and say there’s a curfew. Don’t worry, I’ll tell her it was a fib once you and her are an item.’

‘We will never be an item. There’s no way she’d be interested in me.’

‘There you go again. Your mum always said you had no confidence in yourself.’ Lisa leaned close and elbowed him in the ribs. ‘Just be like, “Oi, we’re walking the same way. You wanna get chips?”’

‘You sound more like me than me.’

‘Just take a chance. Roll the dice, Jacob. You know, just for once.’

‘There’s no way she’d be interested in me—’

There was a knock on the kitchen door. Aghast, Jacob looked up to see Charlotte leaning in through the doorway. She looked so pretty he could have fainted. How much had she overheard?

‘One of the kids spilt some orange juice,’ she said. ‘Do you have a cloth?’

‘Yes, dear,’ Lisa said, grabbing one from the counter and handing it to Charlotte, giving Jacob a sideways glance at the same time. Charlotte thanked her, then smiled at Jacob and went out. Jacob felt sure that she held his gaze a little too long before she turned away, but perhaps she was just being polite. His heart began to thunder, and he stared at the worktop, too shellshocked to move.

‘Uh, Jacob … those potatoes won’t peel themselves,’ Lisa said.

‘Right. Sure.’

‘Watch your fingers,’ Lisa said with a chuckle. ‘It must be difficult to see with all those stars in your eyes.’

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to get Charlotte’s face out of his head. When he opened them, he found Lisa had added a few more potatoes to the colander in front of him.