‘How did it go?’ she asked, her sweater getting soaked in seawater as she hugged him extra tight, but the salty kiss he planted on her more than making up for it.
‘Jimmy would laugh his head off at me on the back of that board.’ Amanda swept her hair out of her eyes. ‘But it went well.’ She touched Sean’s shoulder. ‘Thank you, sweetheart.’
‘Aye, no bother, Mum. Dad would have loved it, especially the bit where I got a face full of ashes.’
One by one, the others followed, welcomed back with kisses and hugs. Bea and Cal, Alicia and Jamie, Carli and Niall. Cherry noticed Nate’s face brighten at the sight of Summer, and their hug lasted a beat too long for only friends.
‘You’re next, by the way.’ Sean slipped his hand into hers.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You’re getting on a board. In fact, lessons start tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow? Sean, it’s nearly winter!’
‘It’s early autumn, woman. And we’ve got to get those bucket list items checked off, one of which was “toughen the fuck up”.’ Playfully, he squeezed her cheek.
‘Oh, and what happens if I say no to surfing lessons?’
‘Then I’m afraid your punishment is sleeping in the other room again.’
‘Aye, right. As if you’d ever let me go back there.’
He grinned. ‘Fair enough. I might be that transparent. I’m actually terrified that if I’m naughty, you might go back there to punish me.’
‘And what about if I’m naughty?’
‘If you’re naughty, Paradise, then your punishment will be doled out in every room of the house and will involve all those things you once promised to my pillow.’
Cherry laughed and leaned into him, so glad to have the real thing to hold. ‘You don’t even know half of what I promised to that pillow.’
As the late afternoon sun gilded the waves behind them, Sean slung his arm around her. ‘That’s exactly what I want to hear. Now, let’s go home and you can tell me all about the other half – and then some.’
Epilogue
THE FOLLOWING JULY
‘You ready?’ Sean’s deep voice thrummed as if vibrating from the depths of the loch.
Cherry nodded. Was this nuts? Yes, this was nuts. She was chest deep in loch water in a matching white vest and leggings. Her husband was facing her in nothing but swimming shorts and a white Jacobean Ghillie shirt, now drenched, affording her a front-row view of every rippling muscle in his upper body and shadows of his tattoos through the soaked fabric. The dream had been him in a kilt to go with the shirt, but the weight made it a drowning hazard, and they were too deep in the water for it to show in any photos.
The photos that all of Sean’s family would be taking from the shore of the loch.
Also holding a camera was Cherry’s mum. Who would have thought Pamela Paradise would be standing there, side by side with Amanda Butler as if they’d been friends forever rather than having met last night? It warmed Cherry’s heart,even if it also made her a little nervous. If all they talked about was colour swatches, fine. She couldn’t contemplate anything else, not today.
Cherry turned to her loch-soaked husband, the man taking her breath from her one married day at a time. And none more so than today, for his willingness to say yes to her whimsy.
She cradled her arms around his neck. ‘Thank you, Seany.’
He pulled her in. ‘What for?’
‘Everything. For marrying me one year ago, for sticking with me, for loving me, for renewing your vows today and, mostly, for humouring me on this.’
‘Listen, nothing makes me happier than doing this, Cherry. I could never for the life of me work out what was the point in me learning how to do it. Cara and Eilidh always told me that it would help me sweep some woman off her feet one day, and now I realise that, for once, they were right.’
‘Come on!’ Voices called from the shoreline. ‘Do the lift! Do the lift!’
Sean leaned back a little and smoothed Cherry’s hair from her hairline. ‘Before we do this, I have something to say, too.’ He lowered his hands to cup her cheeks. ‘This past year has been the best of my life. Right after the worst thing happened, the very best thing came along. Sometimes I look at you, and I don’t actually know what to say. Hard to believe, right? You fit so perfectly into Kinshore, into my family, my life. I love you, Cherry, so, so much.’
