fingers touched this time, I didn’t go quite as hot as when he held my hand in the car, but it was a close-run thing.
‘What did you wish for?’ he huskily asked, ramping up the heat again in spite of my best efforts to keep it at bay and making my insides fizz as dramatically as the cheery display which was still going on around us.
‘If I tell you that,’ I swallowed, ‘it won’t come true.’
The truth was, I hadn’t made a wish. I’d been so pre-occupied with keeping my temperature in check, that I hadn’t had time.
‘That was fun,’ said a girl next to me as she pushed her extinguished sparkler into the bucket of sand. ‘Are there any more?’
‘Afraid not,’ I said.
‘We’ll have to buy more next year,’ remarked Sam, as he breathed in the evocative but not unpleasant acrid tang the sparklers had left behind.
I liked the thought of Wynmouth celebrating the solstice again next year, even though I wouldn’t be there to join in with the fun.
‘Smells like autumn,’ said Hope, as she wandered over, with a big grin on her face. ‘Don’t you think?’
‘It does,’ I agreed, ‘we’ll all be wanting toffee apples for breakfast at this rate.’
‘I have a spicy baked alternative to those,’ said Sophie as she began refilling everyone’s cups with yet more punch. ‘Remind me to give you the recipe, Tess.’
‘I will,’ I said, throwing caution to the wind and holding out my cup for a refill. ‘Thank you.’
‘Are you going to play?’ Hope asked Sam with a nod to where his guitar case was propped against a deckchair.
‘I’m not sure,’ he said, ‘perhaps later when everyone is too tipsy to take much notice of my mistakes. It’s been a while. One thing I am sure of though, is that we need to move the party further up the beach before the tide catches us.’
By the time we had moved everything and were settled on to the sand in front of the café where I’d never seen the sea reach, there weren’t many of us left. Multiple stars were beginning to shine and someone had lit a small fire in a brazier in celebration of the season. I helped pass around the blankets and sleeping bags to the hardy last few which would help stave off the developing chill.
We all found a comfy spot and Sam began to quietly strum a melody on his guitar and sing a few words. I didn’t hear any bum notes as I closed my eyes, thinking that I probably shouldn’t let Sophie top my drink up again. I couldn’t remember if I’d three or four cups now, or possibly even five. I breathed slowly and deeply, thinking that there was something very hypnotic about the lapping waves, the crackle of the fire and Sam’s surprisingly soulful voice.
I sat and listened as he softly worked his way through Ed Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’. I remembered how much I had loved the video which had accompanied the release and how I had wondered whether I would ever find someone who would feel like that about me.
I had once thought I could have felt like that about the person who had given me my first kiss and I had certainly still believed it might be possible the day he dramatically pulled me away from the cliff edge, or rather rescued me from his dog who was intent on tipping me over it, but my memories were a fantasy. That kiss hadn’t been what I remembered at all, just like lots of other things in my life, including my parents’ far-less-than-perfect marriage. It seemed I had skipped merrily through life either wearing rose-tinted specs or a blindfold.
Before I had a chance to check them, I felt warm tears running down my face. I quickly wiped them away with the back of my hand, stood up, turned my back on the party and walked down the beach back to the shoreline. I wasn’t quite as steady on my feet as I would have liked, but I needed to compose myself away from the group. Sophie’s punch was clearly having an impact I hadn’t expected. It was releasing my pent-up emotions as well as relaxing my body – a truly heady combination as it turned out.
‘Tess!’
I closed my eyes and ignored the voice behind me because it was the last one in the world I wanted to hear.
‘Hey!’ it called again. ‘Wait up.’
‘I just need a minute,’ I croaked, still not looking back