of the war, how they’d known each other for a long time in the village, stories about Stan, then Olive’s cottage… Maddie pulled both shoulders up to her ears and stifled a yawn. She wasn’t sure she could take any more to drink and she just wanted her bed.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure by the doorway. He spotted her, raised his eyebrows and slowly started walking over to her. A waiter stopped him and offered him a red wine from the silver tray he was carrying. Greg hesitated then grabbed the drink and carried on walking towards Maddie, fixing her with his stare. You could feel the energy about him, how people moved out of the way. He certainly was the tallest man there. A waitress stood, clutching her tray, and watched him make his way across the bar. For Maddie, it was as if the whole room faded away. His muscly legs were encased in pale blue jeans with a navy-blue fleece. He looked rugged, liked he’d just stepped off a windsurfer – which he had, Maddie realised with a giggle – amongst the suits, smart dresses and shiny shoes.
As he approached her, he stopped, swept his eyes over her body and then back up to her face. She felt a tingle and put her fingers to her mouth to stifle another giggle. How much had she had to drink?
‘Maddie.’ He put his drink on the mantelpiece and nodded at her. ‘You look better.’
She took a deep breath. ‘Yes, I am. Thank you, by the way, for um, well, I was a bit out of my depth.’
A smile twisted on his lips. ‘Literally.’
She could feel a blush rising up her chest.
‘You were the last person I thought I’d see,’ he murmured.
‘I could say the same! What are you doing here?’
He took a gulp of wine. ‘Teaching kids to sail and windsurf – and then I saw this pink outline out of the corner of my eye. I heard someone screaming on the boat, tacked and raced over on the windsurfer – hauled you out.’ He winked at her as her chest swelled. He used to do that during their tutorials.
‘Well, I’m very grateful. I was just about to scatter Olive’s ashes – I caught my shoe—’
‘Greg, old chap.’ A man in a dark suit came up behind Greg and clapped him on the back.
‘Eric, good to see you,’ Greg said, shaking his hand.
‘Didn’t know you knew Olive?’ The man took his glasses off, wiped them with a handkerchief, and peered more closely at Greg.
‘No, I don’t, it’s um, this is Maddie.’ Greg placed a hand on Maddie’s shoulder and she felt a jolt of electricity run down her arm. ‘She knew Olive.’
‘Oh, you’re Maddie? She used to talk about you! Very fond of you she was. She was a great girl, old Olive, such a shame, but you know, last time I visited her in that care home, up in Hampshire, she didn’t know who I was. Sad, really. Happens to the best of us.’ He looked at Maddie and touched her sleeve. ‘She never did have kids, did she?’
Maddie shook her head. ‘No, sadly, she didn’t.’
‘Right, well I need to go. Good to see you, Greg. Mind and come and find me about that boat – any day’s good but Wednesday.’
‘Right.’ Greg nodded, then he glanced at his watch. ‘My coat, Maddie, can I get it?’
Maddie let out a breath. The room seemed to swim before her. She wanted to find out more, realising he hadn’t answered her question earlier. ‘What are you doing here, by the way? Why aren’t you in Cornwall?’
‘Things are a bit tricky. We… I… I’m working here now. There’s a water sports centre based along from Brightwater Bay. They needed a temporary manager.’ He shrugged, then drained his glass. ‘Actually I need to get back – I’m mentoring someone this evening.’
Her heart plummeted. Time fades some memories, consigns them to the recesses of the brain. But not all, she thought, feeling a shudder in her chest, as she watched his mouth curl around the glass, and the memory of that first time came rushing into her brain. She had always loved his lips.
They’d been at the Freshers’ Ball. It had been a week since they’d first met. Most of the girls in her corridor at the halls had been boasting about how much sex they’d had that week, but Maddie didn’t want to confess that she’d not