Page 71 of The Making of Jonty Bloom
Devan knew he shouldn’t ask, but he did. “Why might we be in a rush?”
“Someone might be chasing us.”
“Why?”
“Because of what I have planned.”
Devan wasn’t sure whether Jonty was winding him up, though he suspected he was. He did a three-point turn, tucked in close to the grass verge, and they climbed out.
Jonty grabbed his bag and the jackets and handed Devan his. “It’s about a mile and a half walk, but I promise it’s well worth it.”
“Is this the naturist place?”
“Yep. It’s full of nature. If we’re lucky we’ll see seals and gannets. If we’re really lucky we’ll see a minke whale. If we’re super lucky we might see two large cocks.”
When Devan caught hold of Jonty’s hand as they walked down the road, the smile Jonty gave him made his heart skip.
“Might we actually see a whale?” Devan asked.
“It’s possible.”
“Maybe you could sing one in.”
Jonty groaned. “You heard that couple? People have such unrealistic expectations. Being able to check in at nine in the morning. Multiple whales frolicking and flicking their flukes, pods of dolphins running alongside the boat smiling up at the cameras, orgasms that last minutes. Though I’m going to be disappointed if I don’t see two large cocks. I’ve heard it’s a possibility. Where do you usually go on holiday?”
Devan still wasn’t used to Jonty’s abrupt changes of direction. “I don’t generally go to the same place twice. It depends what…” He gave a short laugh. “For the last couple of years, Ravi has dictated where we spent our holidays. Skiing in Colorado. Sailing in the Caribbean. We went to Lapland to see the Northern Lights, though they didn’t cooperate much to Ravi’s disappointment. Mine too.”
“I’ve seen them here.”
“You have?”
“It doesn’t happen often and there’s more chance the further north you go, but yep, a couple of times when I was with Tay. One of nature’s amazing magic tricks.”
“Is Tay your best friend?”
“Yes. Since we were eleven. We met at secondary school. God, I hated school. I bet you loved it.”
“I wouldn’t use the wordlove.”
“I was bullied. Tay was a couple of years older and he stood up for me.”
“Griff was bullied.”
“Because he had cerebral palsy?”
Devan nodded. “He was called names, tripped, had his bag emptied out. I got into trouble for doing a bit of bullying of my own, but at least they stopped hounding Griff. Though sometimes I wonder if Griff would have been better learning to deal with them himself. It felt right at the time, to step in, but all his life, people have stepped in to help him with one thing or another. He’s used to thinking everything revolves around him. Hard to be mad with someone who struggled to walk, struggled with a lot of stuff.”
“But not with fucking your fiancé.”
“Thank you for reminding me.”
“Oh, had you forgotten?”
Devan huffed.
“Stick it in a box and lock it away,” Jonty said. “That’s my expert advice. Of course, it sneaks out every now and again to bite you, but you just have to shove the memory back and lock it up. Remember what I said? If you let it ruin your life, you’re the loser. You’re better off without Ravi and maybe your brother won’t end up marrying him.”
Jonty sighed and looked up into the sky. “We are so lucky with the weather. If it had rained, I’d have had to keep you in bed all day.”
