Page 110 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon
‘Then we can have some adventures.’ He waggles his eyebrows at her.
She giggles. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Some road trips, maybe. We could go north. And a bit of a day trip to Sydney. We could even stay overnight – my cousin has a place in Manly.’
She can feel it, sitting here in her parents’ back garden: there’s a fence around her now but her life is opening up in a way that it wouldn’t without Brett. He makes plans. Hedoesthings. And he wants her to be part of it all. Road trips may not seem like much to some people but to her they mean going further than she ever has; seeing things, meeting people, becoming someone who has a full and interesting life.
‘I’d love to do that,’ she says.
‘You want to travel overseas?’
She’s dreamt of it, of course, but that’s never seemed possible, financially or practically. Her mother would never let her go anywhere on her own and because she hasn’t had many friends to date, she put it out of her mind. But with him …
‘Yes, I do,’ she says.
‘Yeah?’ He looks excited. ‘Where to?’
‘Everywhere!’ It’s out of her mouth before she realises how ludicrous it sounds. Who wants to goeverywhere?
He laughs. ‘Me too! Where will we go first?’
We.How sweet that sounds.
‘I don’t know! There are so many places to choose.’
He nods. ‘We’ll have to save up. So we have time to think about it.’
‘You probably want to go somewhere you can surf, right?’
‘Not really. The beaches are so good here. Why would I go anywhere else?’ He screws up his face. His sweet, tanned, lovely, wonderful face. ‘I reckon Italy is top of my list. Venice, yeah.’
‘Venice?’ She’s surprised – she would have thought he’d like California or Florida or someplace where it’s sunny.
‘You don’t think it’s wild that the whole city is on the water?’
He looks so animated, and she thinks that this is yet another side of him to discover: the part that is curious about the world, that wants to see and experience things.
‘And there’s all the art and stuff. Yeah, I reckon Venice is the go.’
‘I’ve love to go there. I’d love to go anywhere.’
‘That makes it easy, then, doesn’t it.’
He moves his chair closer to hers, a little to the side so he doesn’t hit her cast-bound legs.
Thrillingly, she realises he wants to kiss her. It’s still so new, this idea that this young man wants to kiss her, put his hands on her skin, be so close to her. Be as close to her as she wants to be to him. It all feels so natural, as well as amazing.
As they kiss it’s as exciting as it was the first time. More so, actually, because now she knows to look forward to it. They keep kissing and she thinks about kissing him in Venice. In Rome and Florence. In Paris and London and New York City. So many places to go with him. So many places to be happy with him.
Once the kiss is over it’s almost dark. Who knows how long they’ve been entwined.
The outside light goes on and Josie realises her parents must be home.
The back door opens and her mother steps out.
‘Hello, Brett,’ she says, smiling. It looks like a genuine smile, although maybe she’s just good at pretending to be happy to see him.
‘Hi, Mrs Martin,’ he says, pronouncing it the Spanish way.
