Page 61 of Forbid It

“You should dip your feet in at least,” Cassie tells me, turning back to the sea.

“Okay,” I say. “Come on.”

She glances up at me, surprise flickering across her face.

“Okay.”

We drift back to the shoreline. The beach is slowly deserting, the other families packing up and heading back up the cliff to their cars before the temperature drops and the tide crawls closer to the cliff.

“It’s beautiful here,” Cassie says, eyes on the sea sparkling under the sun.

She’s so beautiful, it’s hard to look at her. Like a painting brought to life. Her nose ends with the tiniest slope and I want to press a kiss to the tip. Her cheeks have the slightest smattering of freckles across them and her lips…I would die for another taste. “It is.”

She wades into the surf, and I follow. She could walk straight through into the sea and never return, and I’d follow her like a siren. Even if the water is almost freezing.

“Thank you,” Cassie breathes. “For this.” She gestures to the beach and my family who are finally starting to pack up.

“I think they’d rather you were here than I am.”

“That’s not true.”

“Maybe not. But I haven’t always been.” I rub my hand along my neck and squint into the horizon, into the sun. “I’ve not really done the whole family thing.”

“But you’re so good with them.”

“I make an effort now.” I shrug. “After my injury, the team and my teammates all…left. I had spent so much of my life on one track. I didn’t have time for the people in my past. I didn’t have time for girlfriends or friends outside of the team. I played sixty games every year for ten years, and training every day. I wasn’t making it home for these day trips. But when I was lying around at home with no one checking in, I realized I was all alone.” I squint out to the horizon. “So when Mum begged me to come home, I couldn’t say no.”

“And now?” Cassie asks.

“Now I’m in the group chat.” I glance at her slyly. “And I even reply sometimes.”

She laughs gently. “I mean, when are you slowing down now? You’re always going at full speed, practice, training, working out. What happens when you stop?”

“I don’t have anything to stop for.” Though maybe I would for you.

“Maybe you don’t need to stop right now,” Cassie muses. “Maybe you just need to enjoy the ride for what it is, but know you’ve got something waiting for you when you do.” She kicks her feet through the water, letting the waves swish around her feet.

“What about you?”

“I’ve stopped right now,” she says with a grin, halting in place and letting the water gather around our ankles.

I roll my eyes slightly, before nudging her elbow until we’re moving again, following the path of the tide as it tries to drag us back out. “Turned that phone back on yet?”

She glances away to the horizon. “I don’t need to. I know exactly what they’ll all say. Cassie, go to this interview, Cassie, go to this game, Cassie, go to this restaurant, Cassie, go to this event. Cassie, go, go, go.” She turns to me. “I just want to walk along the beach, y’know.”

“We can do that.”

Rhossili beach is one of the prettiest beaches in Wales. It’s been featured in countless photography exhibitions around the world. The sun starts to set over the Worms Head peak and the towering green cliff cocoons the sand, but I’ve still never seen anything as beautiful as this girl.

From behind I hear a patter of footsteps on the damp sand. “We’re going home now!” Ffion yells as she races to catch up with us. We’ve only walked a couple hundred meters away from the group and she’s run the whole way. “Grandad told me to come get you. Cassie, when we get home can you teach me the ‘Try Me’ dance?”

“Of course I can,” Cassie tells her. “The Kidz Bop version.” She glances at me out of the corner of her eye, and I have to smother a laugh.

26

CASSIE

I’ve spent a lot of my life in the sea, or on the beach next to my house. I bought my house specifically to be next to the ocean, but I’ve never had as much fun as I did today. Even walking back up the endless steep steps to the parking lot was full of laughter and gentle banter. The heat hasn’t dissipated at all and a shirtless Robbie with Sammy clinging to his back as he hiked up the hill didn’t even break a sweat. He put us all to shame.