She pats me on the arm as she strides over to the car and they all wave as Raff starts up the engine. Tiny bounds around at my feet, ready to play, and I take a picture of the loveable hound on my phone. Then I forward it on to Alice with a message.
Hi, I’m the biggest Tiny you’ll ever meet. Fancy joining me and Zach for a dog walk this weekend? x
‘I feel like I’m in that scene fromTitanic,’ Alice calls out, her arms splayed wide as she stands at the top of Mam Tor. I’d wrap my arms around her waist, Jack and Rose style, if it weren’t for Tiny having decided to do a poo at this very moment. I shoot him daggers for scuppering my romantic moment with Alice.
She turns and heads back towards us, cheeks pink with the bracing wind. Alice even manages to make walking gear look good. Her hiking boots are topped with pastel socks, her bare legs stretching up to denim shorts. A soft green jumper makes the colour of her eyes dance. Her hair’s pulled back today into a pony tail and I realise that my heart has set on fire every single time I’ve seen her.
‘It is glorious up here,’ she beams.
Tiny barks in agreement and gets a chin tickle for his efforts. Lucky pooch.
‘So a walk was a good suggestion? You didn’t mind the early start?’
‘A great suggestion,’ she says. ‘Plus I’m used to getting up early with work, although you did rob me of my only lie-in of the week.’
‘My apologies,’ I grin. ‘It can get really busy up here in the summer but there’s nothing more beautiful than watching the sunrise over the Peaks.’
‘You old charmer.’
I laugh at that. ‘Am I?’
‘Look at this place! It’s stunning and super atmospheric. Anyone would think you were trying to woo me, Zach.’
‘I am,’ I reply, too fast.
Stop sounding so keen or she’ll be out of here!
Alice had turned her face to the rising sun, eyes closed in the sunlight, but now she opens one eye and gives me a look, like she’s amused by me. ‘So you come here a lot, then?’ she asks, deftly stepping past my awkwardness.
‘I do, yeah. My brother Raff moved out here a while back with his family.’
‘Are your parents nearby, too?’
‘No, Mum and Dad split up when Raff and I were kids. They’re both Italian and Dad moved back to Italy while Mum stayed here. They shipped us off to boarding school and then Mum moved over to Manchester for work.’
‘I imagine boarding school isn’t the kind of Harry Potter dream everyone thinks it might be.’
I laugh at that. ‘I definitely didn’t get an invisibility cloak or a half-giant for a best mate.’
She’s paused, watching me with a gentleness in her eyes that makes me feel like she empathises. But somehow, I sense that now is not the time to ask her too much about her story, growing up. Besides, Ellie was right when she said I should focus on just having fun with Alice today.
‘How about that one?’ I ask, pointing up at a cloud puttering slowly through the sky.
‘Easy,’ Alice says, lying on her back next to me, our fingers touching as we watch the clouds float by. ‘That’s a rabbit.’
‘No way!’
‘All right Picasso, what doyouthink it is?’
‘A frog, obviously.’
‘It’s definitely a rabbit and I’m speaking from a position of great knowledge. Don’t tell me you need me to remind you about my A at art A Level again, do you?’
I pull myself up on one elbow and Alice shields her eyes with her hand, her face lit up with amusement.
‘Well then, once again I find myself bowing down to your superior knowledge,’ I grin, leaning down to kiss her. The warm summer sun’s on my back, the light breeze whipping strands of her hair onto my face. There’s a smell of …
OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE, TINY.
