probably underestimated how nervous he was of meeting people en masse. Anyone new was bound to be an object of curiosity at first, as Tiff was probably finding, and with his obvious injuries, their curiosity could well cross the boundary to intrusiveness.
‘The lure of the tombola and the splat the rat stall were too much to resist?’
He laughed. ‘Exactly … Aaron’s a good bloke and I’d not want to let his mum down.’ He held Marina’s gaze. ‘It’s not as if I can hide away forever, is it? I’d have come earlier but I had to deal with a problem with the office IT stems.’
‘It’s OK to hide sometimes … as long it’s not forever.’
‘No.’ He glanced around. ‘How’s it going?’
‘Pretty well. The good weather helps and we’ve got lots of grockles as well as locals.’
‘Grockles?’
‘Tourists.’ She laughed.
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Do I count as a grockle?’
‘Not if you live here.’ Not if you plan on staying for any length of time, she wanted to add.
He took in the blue and orange bunting flying from the lifeboat station and the BBQ stand, which was being run by Marina’s fellow Wave Watchers. Smoke spiralled into the air and the smell of hot dogs made her nose twitch.
‘Have you eaten yet?’ he asked.
‘No time.’
‘Aaron’s gone to the barbecue. Shall I text him to get you something?’
‘That would be great. Thanks.’
Marina was grateful for a slight lull in custom while people focused on getting something to eat themselves so she could have a precious few moments to chat.
Lachlan looked around him. ‘You know, this reminds me a lot of the family days at the base and in the town. We’d have stalls like this and a hog roast, and we’d open up the hangars so the families could see what we did and have a look around the aircraft. My sister’s kids loved it …’ He gave a wry smile. ‘The weather was never this good though. It was usually raining, or about to rain. That’s the Highlands for you.’
She was pleasantly surprised he’d shared even a snippet about his background and for a few minutes they spoke about Scotland, leading Marina to wonder if he missed his homeland, despite any unhappy associations. He must surely miss his family, especially the nephew and niece he’d mentioned. At no point did he even hint at being involved with anyone on the base in the romantic sense.
She could, of course, simply ask Evie, but that would really be stepping over the line. She’d have to be patient and wait for him to tell her, unless any more information came her way by chance. Yet even if it did, she would still want to hear it from him directly. She wanted to hear from him full-stop.
She felt drawn to him and wasn’t quite sure why. Maybe it was because of the empathy she felt for him, or the fact that she thought he had a body that was fit in every sense of the word – reflecting whatever he’d been through with an austere beauty that fascinated her. She’d seen more of it than most people in Porthmellow … and she didn’t have to know him that well to have physical feelings for him every time she glimpsed him from afar or, like now, when he was close enough to touch … It was strange to feel the pull of attraction again. She hadn’t experienced it since Nate, since the ‘honeymoon’ days when they’d spent a lot of time in bed.
Her face warmed at the memory and the association with Lachlan. It unnerved her to be so powerfully drawn to him when he was so unaware.
‘Here you go. I’m starving.’ Aaron returned with the hot dogs and stayed to eat them while his partner, Ellie, went to see her sister on the wild foods stall.
Marina accepted gratefully, having not eaten since breakfast, and took a fifteen-minute break while she ate the hot dog. As soon as she’d finished, she re-opened the sideshow with a warm glow of pleasure when she realised that Lachlan showed no signs of leaving yet.
Aaron rubbed his hands together. ‘Right, mate. Let’s have a go at splatting this rat.’
Lachlan laughed. ‘Not sure I’m in a fit state to splat a marshmallow these days, but I’ll try anything once.’
Marina smiled to herself and got ready, determined to do her best to thwart them.
Aaron went first and missed all three of his goes before handing the splatter – a toy plastic baseball bat –