me? It reminded me of a line in my favorite book, though:
A raging fire ignited deep inside me then seemed to climb out of me and ignite the space between us, as Amanda’s eyes left mine and drifted down to my lips.
I quickly looked away. This was so overwhelming it was hard to know what to do with it. These were feelings that I’d only ever read about in books and had been sure I would never actually experience.
“I don’t know about you, but I could do with some breakfast,” Noah said, pulling off onto the road again.
“Me too.” I tried to force a smile into my voice, but suddenly I wasn’t feeling very smiley.
CHAPTER 58
We found a diner by the beach and ordered waffles with bacon and syrup and strawberries, a breakfast that Zen wouldn’t eat in a million years. But here I was eating it, and scooping the last remaining splotches of syrup up off the plate with the edge of my fork and pouring it into my mouth. When we were both done, syrup and coffee and enough stimulants in us to forget we’d spent the entire night out, Noah put his elbows on the table, cupped his face in his hands and looked at me.
“So, we did the teen years last night. What about re-living something a little earlier?”
I pushed my plate to the end of the table and copied his body language. “What?”
Noah looked out over the sea and started thinking. “I’m trying to remember what I was up to at age twelvish.”
“Like that.” I pointed to the poster on the wall behind us.
Noah swiveled round. “Yes! Exactly like that,” he said with a grin on his face, and stood up. “Come on!” He slapped some notes down on the table and stood up.
I looked at the poster for a while and then turned my attention back to Noah.
“Okay, but we’re going to need to buy swimwear. I’m not doing that in the bikini Sindi gave me,” I said, imagining bikini bottoms and tops being ripped off by the force of all that water.
Noah nodded. “Let’s go.”
“I don’t know if I can do this,” I said, looking up at the massive waterslide in front of us. We’d found a surf shop, bought some swimwear and were now at uShaka Marine World, Africa’s biggest aquarium and water park.
“Of course you can.” Noah slipped an arm through mine and gave me a little pull as he walked us towards the waterslide, which seemed to reach up into the sky. “You have to, anyway. No childhood is complete without waterslides. Besides, when you’ve done them once, you’ll want to do them over and over again. It’s the law of waterslides: they’re addictive.”
I reluctantly walked towards it and stared up. I doubted this would be addictive. I was sure I would do this once and never again. But I was determined! “Okay,” I said. The whole point right now was to try and live the parts of my life that I’d missed out on. To throw off the heavy chains of fear and anxiety that had weighed me down for so long, to throw caution to the wind and, and . . . I faltered.
“Can’t we do a smaller one first?”
“Nope! Where’s the fun in that?” Noah’s grip on my arm tightened and he started pulling me a little quicker now.
“You’re right! Let’s do it,” I said, trying to psych myself up. “Sure. Why not! Yes!” But the more I said that, the less it actually made me feel psyched.
The staircase up to the waterslide was absolutely terrifying, and it quickly became evident that I hated heights. Something I wouldn’t have known, since I’d never been up anything so high before. I grabbed onto the railings on the side and crouched down as I walked, making myself as low to the “ground” as possible.
Noah chuckled.
“What? It’s not funny. It’s terrifying . . .” I said, getting even lower to the stairs now.
“It’s all part of the experience. You’ll be okay,” he said, and then, my heart stopped, and it wasn’t from the height, it was from the feel of his hands on my waist as he reached out and placed them there.
“You’re safe,” he said softly. And I did feel instantly safer, but I also felt something else, something . . . wow!
No one, no man—no one—had ever put their hands on my body before. Not like