Grace switched hers to silent as well and stretched out her legs. The whole ‘having to be permanently connected to the rest of the world’ thing got to her sometimes.
‘Do you remember the days when there was only one phone in the house?’
Will smiled. ‘Yes. Ours was in the hall, and we were told not to use it without permission on pain of death.’
‘Ours was in the front room. My dad used to go ballistic about the phone bills. With two girls at home who needed to speak to their mates a lot, they were high.’
‘I can imagine.’
‘But I found a way to outsmart him.’
She’d got Will’s interest.
‘How?’
‘A boy at school’s dad worked for BT and he gave me a special number that the engineers used to test the phone. It was something like 147. So, I used to sneak into the front room when no one was looking, ring the number and then run out again. Then I’d shout out “I’ll get it!”, rush back in, ring a friend’s number and talk away for as long as I wanted, with my dad thinking they’d made the call. He couldn’t work out why the bills weren’t going down.’
Will stared at her for a moment.
‘Wow. Very naughty. But also impressive. I bet you were a right handful as a teenager.’
‘You could say that.’
Memories of staying out late and keeping her poor dad waiting up for her came back into her mind. He’d be sat in his pyjamas in the kitchen with a cup of tea and the paper when she got back from whatever party she’d been to, and the rows would start.
‘I did give my dad the runaround, I will admit.’
‘I feel for the guy.’
‘So did I, once I grew up and had kids of my own that I worried about as teenagers, still worry about as adults. I loved my dad to bits, but at the time I didn’t think where I was going and what I was doing were any of his business. It’s funny how your mindset changes.’
‘I think all teenagers like to keep a few secrets from their parents. Which is probably a good thing.’ Will’s smile had her wondering what sorts of secrets he was talking about. ‘Every generation thinks they’ve discovered the wonder of sex, don’t they?’
Ah, those sorts of secrets. She didn’t want to start swapping stories of teenage fumbling.
‘I feel sorry for kids these days,’ she replied. ‘We had so much more freedom. There wasn’t all this tracking your loved ones with phone apps and knowing where they are every moment of the day and night.’
‘No, you’re right. In the holidays, my mum would chuck us out of the door in the morning and not expect us back until teatime. No one had a clue where we were or what we were doing. Usually, nothing much. Riding our bikes to the stream, smoking or trying to chat up girls was probably as far as it went.’
Grace had an inkling that Will hadn’t had to try too hard. She accepted another glass of wine and a small piece of the moon-shaped birthday cake, then they both lay back on the blanket. There wasn’t a lot of shade on the beach, and unless she did something fast, she was in imminent danger of dozing off.
The extra layer of her swimming costume under her clothes made her even hotter. She’d put in on before she left in case there wasn’t anywhere easy to change. She hadn’t fancied doing it under Will’s eagle eye.
‘How about a swim before we head back?’
Will had taken the words out of her mouth.
‘Just what I was thinking.’
Grace stripped off and rushed into the sea before she couldchange her mind or be confronted with Will without hisT-shirt.
He overtook her after just a few strokes, but she caught him again at the edge of the bay and shouted over. ‘Last back to the picnic gets a prize.’
They raced neck and neck to the shore, but Grace just pipped him to the post as she flopped down on the blanket on her back.
‘Yes! Winner!’
Will lay down beside her and leant over so his face was inches away. Grace thought for one crazy moment that he was going to kiss her, but she didn’t have time to find out whether it was something she wanted, as he rolled away again.
