Page 81 of Coming Home to Sturcombe Bay
She shook her head, fanning her face with her hand. “It’s too hot in there.”
“Come for a walk then.”
“I can’t do that,” she protested. “It’s my party.”
“It’s your party, so you can do whatever you like.”
He took her hand and drew her out to the front door. Laughing, she let him lead her across the road and down to the beach.
It was a beautiful night. The sky was velvet black, scattered with stars like a million diamonds. The moon was almost full, shining like silver on the dark, tranquil water of the bay. Tiny waves whispered along the edge of the sand, unfurling in long strands of lacy white foam.
“I love this place,” she murmured.
“Good.” He glanced down at her, a question in his dark eyes. “I sometimes wonder . . .”
“What?”
He smiled, shaking his head. “Never mind.”
They slipped their shoes off and strolled along the beach. Cassie felt the sand crunch beneath her feet, and the soft breeze from the sea stir her long hair.
“It’s weird to think that this is my last term at school. Once my A levels are over I’ll be leaving! And you’ll be finishing too, and you’ll be a qualified vet!” She skipped along beside him. “Freedom! Isn’t it great?”
He laughed. “Then come September, we’ll both be in Exeter.” He caught her hands and spun her round, dancing in the sand. “It’ll be so much easier to see each other than with me up in Bristol.”
“Mmm.”
It was ten weeks now since they had got together at Lisa’s party, and they had seen each other almost every weekend, when Liam had come home to Sturcombe. It still sometimes seemed unreal that she was his girlfriend — it had been her dream since she was fourteen years old.
But there was still that other dream, of flying away, far away over the ocean, seeing all those other parts of the world that she had only seen in books or on television, or on the illuminated globe on her bedside table.
That was a scary dream, but it fizzed inside her, unsettling her every time she thought of a future here in Sturcombe, with Liam. She didn’t want to leave him, and now she clung to his hand with both of hers as they scrambled over the jumble of rocks at the far end of the beach beneath the hotel.
There was a tiny patch of sand, hidden from anywhere but directly out to sea. They had often come down here to spend time alone, to swim, to enjoy a picnic, or just to laze in the sunshine and enjoy long, slow, warm kisses.
They sat down, Cassie snuggled between Liam’s legs, his arms wrapped around her from behind. She tipped her headback against his shoulder. “Look at all those stars. Aren’t they beautiful? There must be a million trillion of them.”
Liam laughed softly and kissed her ear. “At least.”
“And the sea. Isn’t it amazing to think that far out there over the horizon it goes on and on, down past Africa and Australia and the Antarctic, and all the way over to America. Do you know, the Pacific is so big that there’s a place on the west coast of South America where, if you could poke a stick right through the centre of the earth, it would come up on the far side still in the ocean — in the Gulf of Tonkin, near Vietnam.”
“That’s wild.”
“And just think, these little waves here — in a few weeks they could be lapping the shores of Fiji or Patagonia.” She gazed out into the far distance, as if she could see it all just by imagining it. “Let’s go for a paddle.” She scrambled to her feet and gathered up her long skirt. “Come on!”
“It’ll be cold,” he warned her, but as she ran down to the water’s edge he was right beside her, his jeans rolled up. Hand in hand they splashed into the waves.
Cassie squealed. “Yikes! It’sfreeeeezing!”
“I told you so.”
Hopping from one foot to the other she gasped for breath. “I can’t . . . believe . . . how cold it is.”
“It’s almost one o’clock in the morning, and it’s still May,” he reminded her. “Of course it’s cold.”
“Okay, okay. You were right.” Laughing, she ran back up the beach and threw herself down in the sand. “I think my toes have got frostbite.”
Laughing with her, he knelt and picked up one foot, rubbing it to massage warmth back into it.
