Ralph: Breaking free - 25. Carine and Beth go boating

And the twins were indeed delighted.

Wearing their best dungarees with heavy shirts and cardigans, plus their warm jackets and new bandanas, they looked charming and were excited to find that Carine was in dungarees too. The weather was dry, but crisp and cold, they’d been in luck. Beth and Carine had brought a picnic, insisting that it had been no bother and when the twins learned that it was Carine’s recipe for the spicy lentils and a couple of other dishes their Father had started making, they were delighted and all set to try everything immediately. But Beth was brisk and organised, and hustled the twins away to help her stow the food, leaving Ralph with Carine in the area at the back of the boat.

“Is your Mum, OK?”

“Yes, thanks. It’s flu, nothing worse thankfully. But she hates it”, Carine grinned, “and God forbid that anyone else cooks family lunch.”

Beth’s head emerged from the door leading down to the cabin, “As if either of your sisters’ places were big enough.”

Carine pulled a face, “As if she’d let either of them host it. But at least…”

Beth gave an answering smile, “We’re free.”

If Beth was slim and boyish, then Carine was large and curvy, she went out in all the right places though even if he had been thinking of girls that way, Carine was a bit too much for Ralph’s taste.

She was also vastly capable and commandeered the boat. With a selection of nephews and nieces, some of whom, Beth once let slip to Ralph, were hellions, Carine was good with the twins and unlike Morrie, let them help with driving the boat. The area around the controls became the place to be and a place of instruction and amusement. Carine was a therapist, but Ralph thought she would make a good teacher. At least, the sort that Ralph would have liked to have had at school.

So, whilst Carine and the twins looked after the boat, Beth and Ralph kept their warm coats on, drank hot coffee and chocolate and sat on the roof and relaxed.

“Nolan busy?”

Ralph shook his head and laughed, “Unbelievable. He and Verne are trying to balance their existing commitments with planning all the new classes at the gym.”

“Posh launch on Friday.”

“You bet. So much to do.”

“I seem to remember that.” Beth gave him a smile, “Being a new business and trying to cram too much in.”

Ralph shook his head and smiled. They sat quietly for a while, enjoying the peace of the canal, with just the twins’ chatter and Carine’s lower, more modulated voice. Mostly it wasn’t possible to hear their conversations in detail, thankfully. Though at one point, Ralph distinctly heard Jane say that it was a shame Nolan wasn’t there, and Alisa added that Nolan was nice and did things with them. Carine had laughed, pointed out that they were doing things now, and deftly steered the conversation away from discussion about their Father’s boyfriend, presumably aware that said Father could probably hear.

Beth had raised one eyebrow and Ralph have given an ironic smile, thankful that the twins’ artless comment had been positive. Then a bit later, clear as a bell, Jane’s voice ‘Would you like children, Carine?’

Beth sighed, “We’re going to have to do it.”

Ralph stared at her, “What?”

She rolled her eyes, “Kiddie-winkies.”

“Aah.”

“Carine loves them, I like them and, well, I don’t think she can see life without children and”, she pulled her mouth into a line, “I can’t really say no.”

“No good reason not to?”

Beth nodded, “And I know that if we do it, I’ll love it. Eventually.”

“So, who?”

Beth laughed, “No question. Carine. There’s no way I’m doing it.”

Ralph nodded, guiltily relieved that he would not have to deal with Beth’s pregnancy leave. “So, when?”

“Not sure. Sooner. Need to sort out a donor and that.”

“Any potentials?”

Beth laughed, “Oh, come on. Do we wander around our men friends asking for samples. Why, are you offering?”

Ralph pulled a face, eyes wide, “I think the twins are enough of a handful already without adding to the collection”, Beth laughed, thankfully. “Besides, do you really want to have your boss’ baby?”

The two laughed.

“Now Nolan’s business bloke, Russ Kahn, we wouldn’t mind him.”

“You wish. Maybe Nolan could ask?”

“Get real, Ralph. In between planning a new business and worry about owing the bloke money?”

“True. And who knows, he may have kids already.”

Beth leaned back dramatically, “Ah! Foiled again.”

“Last week we went to Russ Kahn’s office at the business park so that Nolan and Verne could finalise things.”

“Nice. How was it?”

“Impressive. Huge Drew Wilkinson paintings on the walls, bought specially evidently. Russ Kahn’s choice rather than the interior designer.”

“Classy.”

“Do you know Drew Wilkinson’s work?”

“A bit.”

Ralph bit his lip, “I recognised the name. From way back. Turns out that this Drew Wilkinson is the father of Russ Kahn’s friend, Gordon.”

“As in…”

Ralph gave a tight smile, “My Gordon. I remembered that Gordon’s Dad had been a painter, both his parents are.”

“So… Same bloke?”

“Yeah. Can you believe it.”

Beth shood her head, “Small world, or what. Still, you knew he was around here, after all you saw him.”

“We met for lunch on Friday.”

“Bloody hell, that was quick. Wondered what you were doing. His idea or yours?”

“His. Russ Kahn gave him my number and he jumped at it.”

“Better that way?”

Ralph nodded, “Turns out, we’ve both been beating ourselves up. Wishing we’d done more after the split.”

“Even though you were kids.”

“As if that changes how you worry about things.”

“So, you got the air cleared.”

“Mmm. And… There are spooky sort of parallels. “

“He’s got twins too.”

Ralph shook his head, trying not to laugh. “We’re both disappointments to our parents. He went into the Army despite his parent being arty hippies.”

“All, make love not war?”

“That sort of thing. They’re still the same, evidently. And his husband is a late developer, like me. Girlfriend, well, ex-girlfriend, and a 14-year-old son; the guy took an age to sort himself out.”

“You got on OK, then?”

“We’re thinking of getting together as two families at his parents’ place.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

“Not sure”, he sighed. “Perhaps, after all this time we’ll find nothing in common.”

Beth shook her head, “Come on Ralph, sounds as if you already have stuff in common and if you don’t try you won’t get anywhere.”

There was a shout from below and Beth went down to make more coffee, returning with biscuits and juice for the twins.

“You’re well organised.”

“Always.”

“There is one thing, it seems that Gordon and or his husband Brian are close to Russ Kahn.”

Beth smiled, “As in?”

Ralph shrugged.

The twins insisted that it was nice enough to eat lunch outside, Ralph commented to Carine that the two never seemed to feel the cold and he had visions of having to watch them playing football in the dead of winter. Carine had laughed and commented that there were worst things, and Ralph had to admit that she was right.

They moored the boat, sat on the roof with the food spread out around them. After an element of polite holding back, Ralph gave the twins permission and they dived in, trying everything. Despite the food on offer, the twins were keen to get going; neither Beth nor Carine seemed to mind, and they weren’t actually far from the lock.

Without any prior planning, they ended up moving around. Ralph spelled Carine on the controls whilst Beth sat up top with the twins.

“They’re dead keen on their football, aren’t they?”

Ralph laughed, “They were telling you. It’s certainly got my Saturday mornings all mapped out.”

Carine laughed, “Could be worse, Mum had three of us all mad keen on dancing.”

“Sounds like a logistical nightmare.”

“Yeah. But end of term was worse.”

“Why?”

“Costumes for the shows.”

Ralph nodded sympathetically, “You still do it?”

She shook her head, “Too much going on. ‘Sides, when I hit puberty, everything started expanding”, she gestured to her generously proportioned bust and hips, “I didn’t look anything like how they wanted a dancer to be.”

“Shame.”

“Yeah. Lot of work still to do. So, you better watch those girls of yours.”

“When they get older?”

“Yeah. Make sure they know you’ve got their back and that having curvy bits isn’t a barrier to anything.”

“I think I’ve got a lot to learn.”

She cackled, “That’s parenting all right.”

The twins were restless and kept coming to tell Ralph what they’d seen. Finally, they reached the lock and moored. Carine had joked that they might go through just for the hell of it. But negotiating a lock with two excitable nine-year-olds, eager to join in, sounded like hell and Ralph made sure that it stayed a joke. The remainder of the afternoon was restful, they watched boats at the lock, had ice-cream and then cake on the journey home, and managed to make good time.

The twins announced that they wanted to do it again soon, but the weather was against them. This was the last weekend, then most tourist boat rentals shut down till the Spring. The twins were appalled, to have to wait that long!

This cast something of a veil over their goodbyes, and the journey home. But once in the house, they found lovely smells coming from the kitchen area, music playing and Nolan singing along. It seemed delightfully domestic in a way that hadn’t happened to Ralph for a long time. Of course, the twins immediately wanted to know what Nolan was cooking, but he insisted that it was a surprise and besides they’d already eaten out. Ralph knew that this was the wrong thing to say, their attention would be piqued but Nolan simply laughed. At least they went off to bathe and change easily enough.

Once the girls had disappeared, Ralph kissed Nolan and massaged the man’s incipient bulge. Nolan giggled and Ralph whispered that they would have to wait.

“What’s the music?”

Nolan gave an embarrassed laugh, “I put on an ‘I love the 1980s’ playlist and found that I can sing along to most of the tracks. Mortifying!”

Ralph shook his head, “Well, it certainly beats Frozen and Mulan, but at least it proves one thing.”

“What?”

“You live in a previous age.”

“Cheek.”

They kissed again.

“I missed this.”

“Me too. Verne sends her regards; she made us finish early.”

“Verne. Why?”

“All work and no play…”

“Makes Nolan a dull boy! Good.”

“It’s nice. And I thought…”

“What?”

“Date on Thursday.”

“Thursday? You sure? The night before…”

Nolan rolled his eyes, “It’s like exams. If you’re not ready by then, you’ll never be. Last minute panics are counterproductive, besides we’re on it. So… Date?”

“Perfect. Though I’ll have to schedule my overtime.”

“Still busy?”

“And how. Everything’s needed yesterday and though we’ve talked about taking on extra staff, I’ve not the time to interview them.”

“Vicious circle.”

“Yeah. I’ve reached out to a couple of contractors we’ve used before, see if they can help lighten the load.”

“Won’t that be a bit crowded down there?”

Ralph shrugged, “They can mostly work from home, with any luck. Or I can come up here.”

Nolan wrinkled his nose, “Not very professional, that.”

“But a short-term necessity, I fear.”

Nolan had finished tidying up the kitchen, so he poured them a couple of glasses of wine.

“I was thinking of your idea. Well, Ivor’s idea.”

“For downstairs?”

“Yeah. And I’d love to. It’s just…”

“Hmm?”

“I worry about us. Or rather not us.”

“Looking on the dark side?”

Nolan nodded, “Being realistic?”

“All I can say is, I’ll do my damnedest to make it work.”

“Me too.”

“And worst-case scenario? I managed to divorce Therese and stay friends. You’d be downstairs, not sharing the same flat.”

“We can be civilised. It’s just…”

“Neither of us have done this before, properly, and we’re both scared of getting burned.”

“And it’s a bit fast.”

“So…”

“You’re on!”

“All I need to do now is find some cheap office space.”