Page 38 of Daydreaming at the Boathouse Cafe

‘How would you know?’ asked Hannah, feeling defensive.

‘Because you’re about as good an actor as your big brother, which is absolutely terrible,’ said Lily, with a grin.

‘So what gives?’ asked Beth.

Hannah sighed. ‘So I stripped off down to my underwear in front of him,’ she began. ‘And, like you said, he stopped me going into the lake.’

‘Thank goodness,’ added Ella, with a firm nod.

Hannah put her hands over her face and groaned. ‘And then I kissed him,’ she said, her words muffled against her palms.

There was a long silence before she peeped through her fingers where she found her three best friends grinning at her.

‘It’s not funny,’ she told them.

‘It kind of is,’ said Ella, with a wide smile.

‘A romantic kiss?’ asked Beth, all starry eyed.

‘Not really,’ said Hannah, grimacing.

‘What did Alex do?’ asked Lily, getting to the point.

‘Nothing,’ said Hannah, feeling a dull pain. She felt rejected even though it had been the absolute right thing for Alex to do. ‘He was the perfect gentleman.’ Hannah frowned. ‘Then it all gets a bit hazy. I’m pretty certain I threw up and then the next thing I remember is him helping me inside and up here. I’m so embarrassed!’

‘It’s Alex,’ said Lily with a shrug. ‘He’ll be fine about it, I’m sure.’

‘Yeah, he’ll laugh it off,’ added Beth. ‘You just need to talk to him.’

Hannah grimaced. ‘I’d rather just pretend that it never happened, to be honest.’

‘He’s one of Ben’s oldest friends,’ said Lily. ‘He’ll understand. We’ve all been drunk at one time.’

‘Yeah, what’s the problem?’ asked Ella. ‘You’ve known him for years.’

‘What if he thinks that I’m awful?’ said Hannah.

‘He would never think that,’ Lily told her.

Hannah shrugged off the duvet and shakily stood up. ‘I’m going for a shower to drown my sorrows,’ she told them.

As she stood under the powerful jets of water, she thought back to what her friends had been trying to tell her. Yes, Alex was lovely. After all, he was safe. Her brother’s best friend. It was fine.

Why on earth had she kissed him? Was it because she actually liked him?

Yes, he was supremely fit. It worked well with the ladies, so she’d heard. Or rather, tried not to hear. She always knew where she was with him. Safe. Trustworthy… and yet suddenly she felt in unfamiliar territory, as if something had changed between them.

Of course it hadn’t, she reminded herself, feeling cross. It was just one drunken kiss, that was all.

After all, they never flirted with each other. Besides, she wasn’t sporty enough for him. Nor tall. Nor anything. She most definitely wasn’t his type.

Aimee was absolutely his type on paper. She was everything that Hannah wasn’t. Confident, athletic and far more suited to Alex than she could ever be.

Hannah decided there was no way she was interested in him. No way. Yes, she’d checked him out in his swimwear but she was allowed to look at him, wasn’t she? After all, he was the most handsome guy she knew. She knew him so well. And he knew her too. Which was why nothing was going to happen, she told herself.

So why did she keep replaying the kiss in her mind and wondering what would have happened if she hadn’t been drunk? Would he have kissed her back?

It didn’t matter, she realised. Because she had seen how relationships worked out in the end. There was too much pain to take the risk.