wishing he could be in Cornwall, Zack often scrolled down the favorites list on his laptop and clicked on the Perran Sands webcam to remind him of home. Today he didn’t have to; he was here, seeing it for himself.
It was Friday afternoon, sunny and breezy, school was out for the weekend, and the good weather had brought people flocking to the beach. The Atlantic Ocean was glittering and whipped up, breakers were rolling in, and the surfers were out in force.
Zack smiled at the sight of two surfers in particular. Joss in her little wet suit was struggling with a crisis of confidence. Ellie had been helping her for the last thirty minutes, showing her how to stay balanced on her board, yelling encouragement alongside her each time she attempted a new wave, then catching and consoling her when she came tumbling off.
Last-minute wedding preparations were occupying his parents back at the house. They had encouraged Zack and Ellie to escape down to the beach with Steph, Gareth, and the twins for a couple of hours. Tizz had taken Zack aside this morning and murmured not so subtly, ‘This one’s worth hanging on to, you know. She’s fab.’
And he had felt torn on so many levels, because on the one hand he hated deceiving his mother, but on the other hand she was the world’s most incurable blabbermouth.
Plus, she was right. He knew only too well that Ellie was worth hanging on to. But he was also terrified of making his feelings known and ruining their amicable working relationship. Worse than that, in fact—running the risk of wrecking everything. Being scared wasn’t an emotion Zack was familiar with, but it had him in its grip now. Last night he had wanted so badly to kiss her; he’d been on the brink of giving in to temptation. Only imagining the awkwardness at the wedding if she rejected him out of hand had stopped him from giving in and just doing it.
And here they came now, racing up the beach together with their boards under their arms and the others following behind.
‘I’m f-f-freezing.’ Joss, her teeth chattering violently, collapsed to her knees and unzipped her suit.
‘Wasn’t she brilliant?’ Ellie grabbed a turquoise towel and began energetically toweling her dry.
‘She was.’ Zack loved Ellie’s enthusiasm, the light in her gray eyes, the way her skin glowed and the tip of her nose had turned shiny and pink with cold. ‘Here, you get yourself warm; I’ll help Joss.’
Which was noble of him, because of the two of them he knew who he’d rather warm up.
‘Ellie, look at me! I’m not cold!’ Lily, who loved nothing more than a bit of sibling one-upmanship, came dancing up to them. ‘Can we play volleyball next? Volleyball’s my favorite!’
‘In a minute, sweetie.’ Ellie was now vigorously toweling her own hair; when she’d got herself looking like a scarecrow she pulled a comical cross-eyed face at the two girls.
‘Zack, I’m good at volleyball, aren’t I?’ Joss turned to him, bristling with indignation. ‘I’m better than Lily is.’
‘Oh!’ Lily pointed over Zack’s shoulder.
‘What?’ Zack started to turn, to see what was happening behind him. And that was when everything went black.
***
So this was Mya. Ellie had seen her making her way across the sand towards them, holding a playful finger to her lips. Dark haired, curvily attractive, and wearing a surprising amount of makeup for a trip to the beach, she was sporting a white lace shirt, tight black jeans, lots of silver jewelry, and… gosh, by the smell of it, a good half-bottle of Chanel No. 5.
Well, it was either Mya or one of the Kardashians. But from the way she was now kneeling behind Zack, her hands covering his eyes and her smile beaming from ear to ear, Ellie thought she could probably guess which.
‘Surprise!’ Mya let him go at last. ‘Hi, you! I just dropped in on your mum and she said you were all here, so I thought I’d come on down.’ She gave Zack an enthusiastic just-good-friends kiss and a hug before greeting the rest of them with a cheery smile. ‘Hey, kids, excited about tomorrow?’
‘Ellie, this is Mya.’ Zack performed the introductions. ‘Mya, my girlfriend Ellie.’
‘Yes, hi, Steph told me you were coming to the wedding. Nice to meet you.’
Mya was friendly and cheerful, but Ellie knew she was being given a thorough once-over and most probably found sadly lacking. Oh well, couldn’t be helped. She combed her fingers through her Worzel Gummidge