river by now?’
Lily shook her head. ‘No, my dear, let’s leave them to it. I want to go and see the dressmaker’s across the way.’
And, of course, they had to go and sit in the old-fashioned Subway carriage for a bit, even though they had both done it many times before. While they were sitting, waiting for the sound effects that would make them feel that they were rushing through a tunnel, Lily nudged Jade again. ‘But tell me, don’t you think that he is quite a handsome man?’
‘Who, Archie?’ Jade said, wilfully misunderstanding.
Lily snorted, poking Jade with her stick. ‘As if! You know who I mean.’
Jade considered Nick for a while. Thinking about how she had seen him on the bridge, all pale and tired with his hat jammed down over his ears. Then the transformation she had seen today, wavy brown hair flopped untidily over his forehead as he sang lustily at the top of his voice. And the flash in his bright blue eyes when he had grinned at her.
‘Well,’ she said reluctantly, ‘I guess you could maybe say that. Just a little!’ she amended, as the older woman gave a crow of victory. ‘And that doesn’t mean I’m going to start dating him. I couldn’t cope with dating someone like that. It would just be too much to worry about.’
Lily looked at her with a knowing look. ‘I hear you. But then again, isn’t it worthwhile sometimes taking a chance in life?’ She heaved herself off her seat, gathering her stick up in one small feathery hand. ‘Now, get me to that café. I’m parched for a cuppa.’
The four of them sat at a square table in the café. Archie abandoned his wheelchair in favour of a proper chair. Three of them had soup, and Nick went for a massive cheese and pickle sandwich. The place was busy, with people chattering all around them. A couple of children ran around the room, laughing as they dashed in and out of the tables. The smell of fresh coffee made it seem warm and cosy.
‘I can’t believe how much stuff they have crammed in here.’ Nick waved his arms around to illustrate his point. Even the café had small displays littered around the edge of the room. ‘They have cars stuck up on the walls! And a whole steam train! I don’t know why I’ve never thought to come here before.’
‘That new tram looks very spangly,’ Jade remarked, knowing Archie had been keen to see it.
Archie sighed happily. ‘Ah yes. Brings back a lot of happy memories. Now, I remember the time I jumped off the roof of one, just to avoid the ticket inspector …’ And he was off, waving his arms around as he told them what had happened. Jade didn’t mind. All of his stories were interesting ones, and she loved hearing about how things used to be.
‘So how did you start doing these trips?’ She realised Nick was speaking to her and drew her attention back to him, blushing slightly as she remembered her earlier conversation with Lily.
‘You mean how, or why?’ Jade wasn’t sure exactly what he meant.
Nick had just taken a bite of his sandwich and took a moment to swallow before answering. ‘I mean, what got you into it. How did you think about doing this stuff? You know, giving up your free time just to take other people out.’
From the pause in his voice she knew he had almost been going to say old people. She winked at him, just to make him aware that she had caught his almost-mistake, and the back of his neck tinged slightly with pink. Intelligent, though, with Lily and Archie sitting right there. Her eyes twinkled, thinking of how the conversation would have gone if Nick had said the word old. Maybe not though. Lily and Archie were chatting away on the other side of the table, completely engrossed in a discussion about different models of trams.
‘My gran died a couple of years ago. I miss her a lot.’
Nick’s eyebrows rose. This obviously wasn’t what he had been expecting her to say, but Jade carried on. ‘I used to mope around the house. It was my mum who got me into this.’
She indicated one of the younger grey-haired helpers, sitting a couple of tables away. ‘Connie over there is friends with her. So I started coming down to the home to help out, just to get out of the house. And then I met Lily.’
Lily looked over at the sound of her name. ‘What was that, dearie?’
She put emphasis on the dearie, and Jade laughed, knowing it was on purpose. ‘I was just telling Nick how much of a burden you are and how I hate taking you out.’
Lily reached over and gave Jade’s hand a quick squeeze. ‘Gripe away, dearie. I’m used to it. Especially living in the same place as this old codger.’
Archie drew in a breath, pretending to be offended.
‘Sorry.’ Lily’s eyes twinkled. ‘I should have said, living in the same place as this fine gentleman.’
‘It doesn’t make your complaint any better, you know, wrapping it up in such fine words,’ Archie grumbled.
Nick lust looked at them all, and then burst out laughing. Creaky laughs, as if they were a little rusty with lack of use, but laughter all the same. And Jade just had to follow suit. She was so happy to be here, and Nick being around just made things better. She suspected he and Archie might be good for each other. If only she could persuade Nick to come back again. If she knew he had someone else keeping an eye on him, then she could leave him alone, happy in the knowledge that he had some kind of support network to keep him going.
They finished their lunch and Jade caught the attention of some of the other helpers, whose nods of agreement showed that they were also ready to go. By the time they were gathered back at the front of the museum it was past one and Keith was waiting with the minibus. The piled in, Jade sitting next to Nick again.
She touched his arm gently. ‘Enjoyed yourself?’
Nick turned his face towards hers, and she could see he was grinning again. ‘Very much so. Far more than I expected to, actually.’
‘Good.’ Jade decided to just say what was in her head. ‘Because I was hoping you’d come back when we go again in two weeks.’ Nick was silent, and Jade wondered if she’d misjudged him. ‘Of course, if you’d rather not, then—’
‘No!’ Nick interrupted her. ‘It’s just – well – won’t that other guy be back next week? I wouldn’t want to trample on his patch.’
Jade laughed. ‘Oh, we always need people. There’s always someone who can’t make it each week. And we can only take as many people out as we have helpers. So you’d be very welcome.’
Nick ducked his head, obviously embarrassed and happy at being wanted. And Jade suddenly wondered exactly what he had gone through, to drive him to stand on that bridge and have those kinds of thoughts. Maybe she would get to the bottom of things. And if not, then at least she could try to provide him with some sort of community to love and support him while he was here.
‘I’ll walk you to the station,’ Jade said, when everyone was safely back and they had said their goodbyes.
Nick looked like he was about to protest, but then he seemed to change his mind. ‘That would be great. And you really should give me your number too.’
‘OK, OK.’ Jade pretended to reluctantly give in, smiling at him again. She recited the number, while he typed it into
