‘Linc.’
So, the music was him rather than a stereo. Jade should’ve known. ‘He’s very good, yes.’ Was she gulping her fizz too fast? With any luck, she could excuse herself in a second and go off to find another glass.
‘Top up!’ Patricia cried out from a couple of metres away, sixth sense alerting her to an almost drained glass.
‘You know,’ Patricia confided in them both after she’d filled Jade’s glass, ‘tonight reminds me of when I was a girl and I’d sneak down here with my boyfriend to be alone…if you know what I mean.’
‘I think we all know what you mean,’ said Etna before nudging her friend. ‘There’s Joseph, let’s go and join him.’
‘How can you see in the dark?’ But Patricia followed on, leaving Jade to enjoy her champagne once again.
She was about to go and mingle but when she turned, she bumped into the solidity of a man’s chest. And all of her senses heightened as she looked up at Linc. But how could the music still be playing?
‘You thought it was me?’ he grinned, seeing her reaction. ‘I’ll be playing later on. This is a CD I recorded, and I wanted to be a part of the gathering tonight, even if only at the start.’
She gulped back more champagne. He looked gorgeous with a cheeky smile that hid how sensitive and kind he really was, which did little to tell you this was a man who was on your side and who listened. ‘Don’t tell people you’re taking requests,’ she advised. ‘You’ll be playing all night if you do and they’ll be dancing until dawn.’ They both looked over at a group of girls dancing away already.
‘It’s not a school night so I’m happy with that.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ she laughed, ‘I’ll be up at 4:30 a.m.’
‘Go from the party to work.’
She burst out laughing. ‘Maybe ten or fifteen years ago I might have done just that.’
Lucy came over proffering skewers with marshmallows pushed onto them. She was doing the rounds and urged them to get in there quick with a turn at the campfire.
As they plunged their skewers towards the flames – not too much, not too little, just enough that the marshmallows wobbling on the ends took on a charcoal tinge on the outside – Jade asked whether he’d settled in at the cottage.
‘Yup. Moved in three days ago. I have to be honest, it’s good to have my own place.’
She inspected her marshmallow one more time and decided it was done. ‘I’ll bet.’
Deeming his marshmallow done too, he stepped away and let someone else have a turn. But he’d only just bitten into his gooey treat when he pulled a face.
‘Not a fan?’
He lowered his voice so as not to offend Lottie, who’d brought the marshmallows in a valiant effort to supply everyone here. ‘They’re a bit overrated.’ But he demolished the rest before stowing the spent stick and Jade’s into the rubbish box someone had thoughtfully brought down here.
When Linc inclined his head towards the water’s edge, Jade walked that way with him and as soon as she was on the wet sand she took off her sandals and looped them over her fingers. With her other hand she pulled her hair away from her face again as they walked, leaving the revellers behind, the darkness not alerting anyone else to their departure.
‘How have you been?’ Linc braved.
‘I’ve been good.’ She wasn’t sure what to say. ‘I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.’
‘Me too.’ He seemed a bit stuck for words, like she was. ‘I’ve mainly been considering how surprising life can be. Sometimes in bad ways that push us to the edge, but sometimes in a good way.’ He took his time, considered his words. ‘If my life hadn’t been in such a rut, I never would’ve come this way. Heritage Cove was just a village where my auntie lived; I never thought it could be a place I might settle down, or where I could be happy.’
He was happy? She turned to look at him but as they walked with the sea on the right, the beach on their left, he kept his gaze fixed ahead.
He continued. ‘I wasn’t in the best place when I first came to the Cove and I think that’s why I didn’t ask you out before. I needed to get my own head sorted first.’
‘I can understand that.’ And she did, more than most.
‘If you’d told me a few months ago that I’d take a job helping refit a bakery or shifting rubble outside a waffle shack and helping to build an outdoor area, I never would’ve believed you.’
‘Are you trying to say that things happen for a reason?’
‘No, I hate that saying.’ He moved ahead of her and turned so they were facing each other as they came to a stop. ‘I prefer the word serendipity.’
