Page 60 of The Seaside Cocktail Campervan

Lucy looked around. Nobody was watching, and even if they were, what did she really care? Come on Luce, no more playing it safe.

Oh, sod it! Up she stood, and ripped off her shorts, pulled up her top, now down to her undies too, with Daisy looking on bemusedly. The morning air cool and freeing around her as she ran, the dew wet under her bare feet. She was laughing too, and then ran right in to where Jack waited in the shallows. The chill of the sea suddenly took her breath away.

He splashed her, gently at first, and then more, Lucy scooping back great handfuls of salty water at him. Both of them dripping from their eyes and faces. She then kicked up a huge arc, which totally drenched him. He pulled a grimace and lurched towards her, grabbing her up in his arms, both of them giggling, as he pretended to dunk her upside down, until she begged for mercy.

It was fun and fabulous and carefree, and Lucy hadn’t laughed so much or felt so alive in an age.

Jack held her close, gazed into her eyes as he gave a smile … but then released her, diving off under a wave and beginning to swim out to the open sea. She followed him out of the shallows, swimming by his side, bobbing over the swell. Soon, they were lying on their backs like a pair of sea otters, watching the world start to wake back onshore.

Lucy turned her head towards Jack, watching the waves gently lift and lower him in the gorgeously cool water. She didn’t want to think about the current fight between her head and heart, the line in the sand that had to be drawn: friendship, that’s all it had to be. For now, for just a few more magical moments, she’d let the sea and the sun nurture her on this beautiful summer’s morning.

7 p.m.

On the beach

Jack x

Chapter 33

Back at her cottage, Lucy found that she couldn’t drown out her thoughts of the night before. How it had felt to lie down beside Jack. To hear his breath, feel his warmth. And, as they fell asleep, so close, the inevitable touch, however brief and inadvertent. Was he so unreliable that she’d always need to keep her distance? And why, oh why, was her skin tingling just remembering being near him?

His words as they parted, ready to leave the magic of the island, still lingering in her mind:

‘Luce … take care of yourself, now.’

He’d looked her right in the eyes, and her head was swimming. This was what she wanted after all, wasn’t it, a bit of distance. But now it felt far too much like a goodbye.

So many feelings crushing her inside, so many words left unsaid.

And then, after a pause, a chink in that wall re-opened, just as he was about to step inside Ruby’s cab. ‘Hey, and if there’s ever anything you need … or I can help with … well, you know where I am.’

‘Thanks, Jack.’

By evening, her fingers were itching to send Jack a message, but she wasn’t sure what to say. That she’d had a good time, enjoyed their morning swim (she’d loved it, in fact) … and, her mind was drifting here, enjoyed the feel of his warm body by her side? Hah, that, she would never admit to. But why? She was meant to be steering clear, moving on, of course. Stepping out of the danger zone.

Jack saved her the trouble, as a ping on her phone announced he’d texted her first. Her hand shook as she clicked on the message.

Look Lucy, I know things have been a bit weird between us, and I know you’ve reasons not to trust me. But well, I can’t stop thinking about you. And it’s okay to tell me to get lost, but a guy’s got to try.

The text stopped there. Three glowing dots teasing her while he wrote on.

Well, I think we have a bloody good time together. I’m sure you feel that too. So, here goes. Would you like to meet up tomorrow? X

She was both delighted and seized by indecision.

Would she? Should she?

What if Papa hadn’t run after Nonna with the umbrella that night? It had worked out for them, hadn’t it?

What if she kept herself so walled up, she never gave herself the chance to love again? What kind of a life would that be?

Lucy’s trembling fingertips paused over her phone’s keyboard, and she took a slow breath before replying, Okay, yeah why not – before she had a chance to change her mind.

Where are you thinking? she quickly added.

She waited for a tense second or two …

I’ll come over your way to Embleton. Meet me on the beach, 7 p.m. X