Page 72 of The Wishing Tree Beside the Shor
‘It’s nearly midnight!’
‘Exactly. It’s boiling tonight. This is Wales – you have to make the most of the rare times it’s warm enough to go in the sea. Go on. I’ve always wanted to go night-time skinny-dipping and I never have. And I bet you never have either.’
‘For very good reason! You’re completely mad!’
He grins like it’s a compliment. ‘Something to remember us by when you’re back in your block of flats and your boiling hot restaurant kitchen.’
That sets my nerves wrangling for an altogether different reason than stripping off in front of Ryan, but his wide smile and the glint in his eyes is impossible to ignore. ‘I’m not taking my clothes off in front of you!’ Unlike his curved muscular body, I’m not skinny enough to be made for skinny-dipping.
‘Underwear-dipping then.’ He rips his shirt over his head with one swift move, and honestly, it’s a good job itisdark because even in this low light I can see the outline of his abs, and if we were in full daylight I might not be able to stop myself licking them.
He takes his phone out of his pocket and drops it on top of his T-shirt on the sand, and notices me watching. ‘No one’s going to steal it. There’s not a soul around. You’ve been living in London for too long, Fee.’
That I can definitely agree with.
I watch the ripple of muscles as he toes first one shoe and then the other off, and then he steps back, leaving the three-quarter-length trousers on. He flashes a grin at me and takes off running down the beach towards the low tide, giving me privacy to strip off, and although it’s tempting to just go and paddle at the shore, itiswarm tonight, and I have enough regrets when it comes to Ryan that I don’t want to add “not moonlight swimming with him” to the list.
I slip my trainers off and put my phone next to his, wondering if it’s more likely to be stolen or eaten by Baaabra Streisand, who has come to stand next to me in some display of feminine solidarity as I reluctantly strip my T-shirt off too. Whoever thought I’d be bonding with a sheep, topless, on a moonlit night?
I’m wearing a scaffolding-like sports bra that’s goingnowhere, but I use my top to cover our phones in case any would-be thieves wander by, and then feel guilty for being so cynical.
Somewhere down the beach, Ryan shouts as he enters the water.
Baaabra is still standing there, looking between me and the phones, and I wave my hand for her to follow me, surprised when she does. Maybe she’s hoping this’ll lead to her chance to drown me as we start running down the beach together, feet sinking in the wet sand where the tide hasn’t long gone out.
‘Oh my God, that’sfreezing,’ I shout as I crash into the ocean.
Ryan holds his nose and sinks under the water and surfaces again with a splash, wet hair across his forehead as he pushes it back and shakes seawater out of it, and I squeal when it splashes me. I pluck up the courage to duck under the surface too … I’ve come this far, I may as well go all the way now.
When I come back up, blinking sea salt out of stinging eyes, I splash him too and he laughs and dives towards me. He swims around me, a wide expanse of tanned skin and muscled back that my hand automatically reaches out and trails down as he comes up next to me.
My hand falls away as he stands up to full height, using both hands to swipe seawater away from his face. He comes nearer and I’m certain he’s going to lower his lips to mine, but an annoyed “baa” draws our attention to the shore.
The tide’s reached its lowest point and is on the turn again now, and Baaabra Streisand is on the edge of the shallowest waves, looking down disdainfully when her hooves get wet every time it creeps further up the beach.
Ryan reaches out and lifts my hand again, pulling it to him on the surface of the water. ‘Do you miss it? If I ever left here, it’d be the worst part for me. I’d miss living by the sea. Not many people get to live in places like this, and it’s easy to forget how privileged we are sometimes.’
I let my other hand drift across the calm surface of the waves. I haven’t been in the sea since the summer I left. I used to swim here every day and I’d never realised how much I miss it.
‘It’s funny how fifteen years ago, I couldn’t wait to get away. And now …’ I look towards the tree on the clifftop and then back at him. ‘I wish I didn’t have to.’
He steps closer and uses the grip on my hand to tug me against him, our bodies pressing together with very little clothing on the upper half. And wet, dragging bottoms on the other half, which I’m certain are going to let out a stream of embarrassing air bubbles at any second.
‘Fee, can I say something?’ His thumb brushes across my hip where his hand is splayed out, so hot that even in the cool water, I’m convinced there will be a pyrography-style burn mark on my skin when he releases his fingers.
I nod, too lost for words to do much else.
He pulls me impossibly closer and his chin comes to rest on my forehead, his other hand tangling in my wet hair and cupping my head as he holds me against his chest.
His heartbeat sounds louder, amplified by the water, so loud that it almost drowns out the quiet words he whispers against my forehead.
‘I stopped believing in wishes because the last time I made a wish on that tree, it was fourteen years ago. I’d been missing you like mad for a year. The wish was that you’d come back into my life when the time was right. I’d given up on it until the moment you walked in. Since that day, I’ve trusted in the sycamore tree. I don’t know if the time is right now, but if you’re not happy where you are, change it. Fee …’ He pulls back and waits until our eyes meet. ‘I couldn’t ask you to stay before, but if it’s what you really,reallywant now …’
I know he’s serious because he can say thatwithoutmaking a Spice Girls reference.
‘You deserve to know how happy that would make me, andyoudeserve tobehappy, wherever that is.’
My entire body breaks into goose bumps and I can feel every single fine hair on my arms rising, and it’s probably a good thing we’re in water because it’s keeping me buoyant when every muscle in my body has forgotten how to work.
