Karen Cooper
thought of herself as a plump girl but in reality she was just a couple of
dress sizes bigger than her older sisters.
In every other
respect she was clearly a Cooper, the looks were unmistakable.
All the Cooper girls
had Auburn hair and an abundance of freckle.
And each one of the
sisters thought their siblings were much more attractive than they were, whereas
in reality they were all very pretty.
Karen was a tall
girl like Jane and facially she favoured Kath.
Although she
wasn’t born by the lake she was only two when she moved to Coopers Villa and
she had no memory of living anywhere else.
Karen also took
the credit for being responsible for them being on the lake in the first place.
Because when she
was a baby she contracted meningitis and had to be rushed to hospital, and it
was her illness that brought about the reconciliation between her Dad, Paul,
and Granddad Harry.
Apart from the
Auburn hair and abundant freckles, another trait she shared with her sister was
that they all possessed a propensity towards hard work, clearly inherited from
their parents.
Whatever she
wanted she would get because she was a hard worker, it had helped her through
her education and it would help her in her chosen profession.
But there were
limitation though even for a strong work ethic, for example hard work was not
going to get her anywhere with Chris O’Neil.
She was convinced
he didn’t even know she existed and she had been in love with Chris since she
was 12 years old and she was now 18.
The Cooper girls
may have been late comers to Teardrop Lake but the O’Neil boys were all
Lakesider’s born and bred and whereas all the Cooper girls had Auburn hair and
freckles all the O’Neil Boys had black hair and wild gypsy eyes.
Chris was 22 years
old and worked as a paramedic.
He was the best
looking of the O’Neil brothers and was as a result very popular with the girls,
but the sort of girls who kept throwing themselves at him were not the type of
girl he was looking for.
Like his elder
brother Terry, what Chris was looking for was a girl he could settle down with,
and a girl like that hadn’t yet thrown herself at his feet.
However Francis, the
youngest of the O’Neil’s, who was 19 and was in his second year at University,
studying English had other ideas.
Unlike his
brothers he had no interest in a long term relationship, or settling down.
His plan was to
get his degree and then travel the world with no burdens and no responsibilities
to way him down.
Dakota Harris was
17 year old and she was the pretty girl of Teardrop Lake and she lived at Shoe
Buckle House on the northwest side of the Lake, and she was a tall and slender girl
with long dark hair.
She was on the
outside at least ultra-confident and ultra-popular with the boys who she kept
dancing on strings but they were only boys.
She was always
immaculately turned out, painted, perfumed and powdered and ready to impress Mr
Right.
But apparently he
was never looking her way, whoever he might be.
But for all her
big talk and bravado she was fast approaching 18 and hadn’t even been kissed.
Even her tomboy
big sister was engaged to a gorgeous man, and an army Captain at that.
Because she was
pretty and because she knew she was pretty, Dakota always talked big when it
came to the opposite sex, and her friends bought into it.
But it was all
bravado, if one of the men she flirted with actually came on to her she would have
run a mile.
Outside she was
sexy and confident but inside she was a shy and dowdy little mouse.
Karen Cooper’s
hard work took the form of working multiple shifts waitressing at the Brown
Windsor restaurant where her sister Jane was the Sous Chef.
But that was just in
her spare time, the rest of the time she was serving an apprenticeship at the
Purplemere Film Studios where she was training to be a makeup artist.
Peter Lutchford
the renowned film director who also lived on the lake got her the position.
She also help her
sister Jane with her home dining engagements as well as doing makeovers to the
inhabitants.
That was how she
first got to know Dakota Harris and they soon became good friends because of it
and Dak let Karen practice her make up skills on her.
Dakota was convinced
she was never going to be kissed and especially not before she reached her 18th
birthday.
She could quite
easily get a kiss in time if she acted like a tart but she wasn’t a tart and
she wanted her first kiss to be romantic, not desperate.
Meanwhile Karen
was still dreaming of a romantic affair with her prince charming Chris Cooper
but was resigned to the fact it would never happen.
On the Saturday before
Christmas Karen had a rare night off and was around at Dakota’s house,
Dak’s parents were
out to dinner and her older sister, India, was meeting her friend Penny at the
airport.
So they had the
house to themselves and Karen out did herself with Dakota’s makeover.
“Wow” she said “I
look really hot”
“Not bad eh?”
Karen said admiring her handiwork
“I look about 20”
Dak said “Don’t you think?”
“21 maybe” Karen
added
“Let’s go to the
pub then” she suggested
Karen thought
about it for a moment and said
“I don’t know” she
said “I look rubbish”
“You can borrow
something of Indie’s and I’ll do your make up” Dakota said
Karen reluctantly
agreed so half an hour later they were laughing and joking and on their way to The
Woodcutters Arms in Shallowfield.
At the same time
Dakota was doing Karen’s makeup Chris and his brother Fran were just leaving
Lakeside Villa bound for the same destination.
It was Chris’s
first weekend off for a month and Francis had only got home from University
that day.
The pair of them
hadn’t been out for a beer together for almost a year so they thought a few
jars at the pub might just fit the bill.
There were three
pubs at the Teardrop Lake end of Shallowfield, The Woodman’s Axe, The
Woodcutters Arms and The Foresters.
Ant the names
clearly reflected Shallowfield’s dependence on forestry over the centuries, the
pubs at the other end of town had more of an agricultural flavour in their
naming, The Wheatsheaf, the Plough and the Farmers Tavern.
But all of those
were too far to walk to so they decided very definitely to restrict their choices
to the forest end.
Chris had drunk in
all three at one time or another so he didn’t really have a preference and Fran
didn’t care which one they went to as long as Chris was paying so they went to
the closest the Woodcutters.
Dakota hadn’t been
to the pub before and although she looked old enough to be in there after the
makeover she had no ID so Dak went and found a table and Karen bought the
drinks.
The girls were sat
at a corner table facing back towards the bar.
“Look who’s just
come in” Dakota said and Karen looked up and saw the O’Neil brothers standing
at the bar.
As soon as she saw
them Karen got all flustered and her cheeks flushed.
“What’s wrong with
you?” Dakota asked
“Nothing” she said
trying to look anywhere but at the bar.
“You fancy one of
them don’t you?” Dakota probed “Which one?”
“Chris” she
reluctantly replied
“How long have you
fancied him?” Dak quizzed
“Since I was 12”
she replied
“Why didn’t you
tell me?” she asked
“Because nothing will
ever come of it” Karen said definitively and took a drink then she glanced at
the bar just as Chris looked across at them and smiled
“He’s looking over
here” Dakota whispered
They both smiled
back at him and then Karen said
“Well he’s not
looking at me is he?”
“Well he’s too old
for me” she said “I like Fran”
Karen spent the
next 20 minutes sneaking glances at Chris as he laughed and joked with his
brother, every now and then he would throw a glance at her and she would look
away.
There were a
number of girls who approached them but whatever they were after they left
without it.
Dakota suddenly got
up and announced she was going to the loo and almost as soon as she left there
was movement at the bar at Chris started walking towards her.
“Hi Karen” he said
“Hello” she
replied “Dakota’s gone to the loo”
“I know I saw her
go” he said “it was you I wanted to talk to”
“Me?” she said
incredulously
“Yes you” he replied
“Why?” she asked
“Blimey you don’t
make it easy for a bloke” he said
“I don’t understand”
she said
“I wanted to ask
you something while Dakota was in the ladies” he explained
“Oh I see” Karen
said with a sigh “you want her phone number I suppose”
“No” Chris replied
with surprise “Why would I want her number?”
“Sorry”
“I wanted to ask
you out” he explained
“Me?” she said
incredulously
“Oh no not again,
yes you” he replied
“I’ve been wanting
to ask you out for ages but you’re always working somewhere or other and I
never get a look in”
“Seriously?” she
asked
“Yes” he replied
“So?”
“Yes” she said
“Now was that a
question or an answer?”
“Definitely an
answer” she said and grinned like a Cheshire cat.
“Good” he said “now
can I get you a drink?”
Chris walked to
the bar just as Dakota returned from the toilet and Fran joined his brother at
the bar.
When he first
walked to the bar and saw Karen sitting at the corner table he congratulated
himself on his choice of venue and hoped Christmas had arrived early and seemed
he was not to be disappointed.
“Well?” Dakota
asked when she returned to the table.
“Well what?” she
replied
“Did he ask you?”
Dakota asked
“Yes” she said
excitedly and they hugged
“But how did you
know?”
“Fran told me” she
replied
“But how did he know?”
“Chris told him?”
Dakota said
“Oh”
“Anyway Fran told
me” she said “and then he kissed me”
“Where?” asked Karen,
wide eyed with curiosity
“On the lips
stupid”
“No I mean,
Where?” she explained “Where were you when he kissed you”
“Oh outside” Dakota
clarified
“What were you doing
outside?” Karen asked “Apart from being kissed”
“Well I went to
the loo” Dakota explained “and when I came out Fran was there waiting for me
and he told me no to go back to the table because Chris was asking you out”
She paused for
breath
“Which was taking
forever by the way, and we were blocking the door so he suggested we went
outside and that was when he kissed me, in the moonlight, it was very romantic”
“Wow” Karen
responded “And did he ask you out as well?
“Yes” she said excitedly
and they hugged again
“Who’d of thought
it, I have a date with an O’Neil”
Karen said
“Me too” Dakota squealed
just as the boys and the drinks arrived.
As they reached
the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel on the way home from the pub they split up.
Fran took the left
fork so he could walk Dakota home and romantically kiss her in the moonlight
once more.
Chris and Karen
took the right fork and walked slowly hand in hand in the moonlight, they were
in no rush to get home.
“Fancy that, Chubby
Karen is walking hand in hand with Chris O’Neil” she said inside her head
While Chris was
thinking to himself how lucky he was.
“Was that romantic
enough for you?” Fran asked moments after his lips left hers
“It was
acceptable” she said
“Perhaps I should
have another go” he suggested
“Definitely worth
a try” Dakota said obligingly
Francis O’Neil
felt ten feet tall as he headed for home despite the fact that the evening had
not gone as planned.
It was just
supposed to be a few pints with his brother Romantic kissing was certainly not
part of his plan at all but as soon as he saw Dakota Harris sitting in the bar
trying to look all grown up, he was smitten.
Hook, line and
sinker, smitten.
And this from the
man who had no interest in a long term relationship.
His plan to get
his degree and travel the world with no burdens and no responsibilities to
weight him down was in tatters.
But then maybe he
could take her around the world with him, she wouldn’t be too burdensome.
Chris and Karen
still hadn’t reached either of the Villa’s by the time Fran came running along
the road
“Don’t mind me” he
shouted as he sprinted past.
When they got to
the top of the path that led down to her house they came to a halt and he
turned to face her and he kissed her soft lips, in a long and sensual kiss.
“I’ve been waiting
a long time to do that” Karen said
“Me too” he
concurred
“How long?” she
asked
“A couple of
years, almost three to be precise” he confessed
“I was 12” she
admitted “when I first noticed you like that”
“Was it worth the
wait?” he asked
“It was for me” she
said
And then he kissed her again which she took to mean “me too”
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