Concerned that Melody hadn’t spoken about Rhys and what he had done to her, Zac decided to check she was all right. ‘Melody,’ he began.
‘Yes?’
She sounded so happy but he needed to check she was fine and not dwelling on what had happened. ‘About earlier.’
‘Earlier?’
‘In the car park.’ He had to pull to the side of the narrow road to let another car go past and looked at her to try and gauge her thoughts.
‘Oh, that.’ Her smile disappeared and she turned to look back out of her window. ‘Please don’t ruin our evening talking about him, Zac.’ Looking back at him, she reached out and rested her hand on his. ‘I just want this evening to be about you and me,’ she added softly. ‘Nothing else.’
Happy to do as she had asked, he nodded. ‘Whatever you want.’
‘Thank you.’
Shortly after, they arrived and parked the car. ‘Look at that sunset,’ he said, taking her hand.
Melody was too busy staring at the enormous steel and willow puffin instalments and didn’t seem to hear him. Deciding they needed to go and walk up to the puffins first, he led her there, not wishing them to miss the spectacular sunset either.
Leaving her there, he retraced his steps.
‘Where are you going?’ she shouted, starting to walk after him.
Zac raised his hand, wanting her to stop. ‘I’m only going back far enough to be able to take photos of you standing with them,’ he explained. ‘I presume you’ll want some.’
‘I do, thanks. I’ll take some of you afterwards.’
He nodded, loving how easy it felt to be with her. ‘We can take some selfies when we’re further away.’ He noticed the sun was going down quicky, but turned back to face her again. Seeing how the golden light glowed on her and the statues, he sighed. ‘These are going to be amazing photos,’ he insisted. ‘You’re going to love them.’
His assurances made her laugh and he quickly took more photos of her, enjoying seeing her so happy. ‘There,’ he said, checking he had enough good photos for her to choose from. ‘I think that’ll do.’
She ran towards him and checked the screen. ‘Brilliant work. Right, your turn now. We need to hurry if we’re not going to miss the sun setting.’
He ran to stand in front of the puffins and smiled for a few seconds, then hurried back to her, taking her hand closer to the cliffside. ‘Look at that,’ he said, slipping his arm around her shoulders, then remembered he hadn’t yet taken their selfies. He quickly took a few photos, struck by the golden hue on Melody’s beautiful face as she stared in awe at the spectacular sunset.
Then, pushing his phone into his back pocket, he stared in silence at the scene in front of them. It didn’t matter how many times he watched a sunset on the island or how many places he had visited, nothing ever compared to a sunset over the Channel from the coastline in St Ouen as far as he was concerned.
He felt her arm slip around his waist and wished he could capture this moment and never have it end. Standing here with the woman he was falling in love with in his arms, enjoying one of his favourite things meant an enormous amount to him.
‘There,’ she said quietly as the sun disappeared behind the horizon in the distance. She turned to him.
Zac smiled down at her. ‘What did you think? As good as I said it would be?’
‘Perfect,’ she said quietly, slipping her arms around his neck and pulling his head down so that their lips met in a kiss.
Zac held her tightly, kissing her and relishing every second. He couldn’t imagine ever experiencing another evening as perfect as this one.
28
MELODY
Melody sat in the kitchen nursing a cooling cup of tea. She gazed out of the window, loving how the different-coloured hollyhocks framed either side, and thought back to seeing Rhys earlier.
He would not have been happy to see her and Zac together and she couldn’t blame him. If he had fallen out of love with her and then met a beautiful girl who seemed to suit him in all the ways that she didn’t, she probably would have been upset too. But it wasn’t her fault Rhys refused to accept that their relationship was over. She also wasn’t sure what else it would take for him to grasp that she was not going back to him.
‘Are you all right, Melody?’
Hearing Zac’s concerned voice, she forced a smile. ‘I’m fine now. Honestly,’ she said, aware that he would still be concerned about the after-effects of her being grabbed by Rhys. When he didn’t seem convinced, she admitted, ‘I was thinking about Rhys though.’
