It was sudden, unexpected and all the more exciting because of it. She had thought he might at various points throughout the evening, but there was a reticence that she found sweet, respectful, despite being desperate to take things up a notch.
It was a wonderful kiss.
Their first and one she would never forget; the start ofthem, the beginning. It was a kiss given chastely and without embarrassment, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to lean in. A tiny peck that turned into something lingering, open-mouthed, wet-mouthed, soft-lipped, and gloriously life affirming! Each moment of contact an electric shock of bliss that evoked teenage lust and a desperate, desperate desire for more. Her fingers roamed his bare arms as he stroked her neck and she placed her hands in his hair and felt the solidity of his form beneath her touch as the fire built and built ...
Right there on the doorstep, anyone could be passing! She moved backwards and found it hard to breathe, to find words, quite overcome and entirely consumed by the physical contact.
She felt him watch her leave.
‘Hope the day passes as quickly as last night!’ he called, and she thought she might burst.
He had kissed her.
She had kissed him!
And it felt wonderful!
This was not merely a vague hope that lived in her imagination, nor was it the fanciful imaginings of another life while she swam, or one of the daydreams that comforted her before sleep claimed her; this was Edgar telling her that he too wished he could magic time forward until they saw each other again. Edgar,Ed, who part-owned this lovely house on Fore Street. A house she had walked by a hundred thousand times without knowing how significant it would become. Ed, who just might be sticking around. She felt a little dizzy, a little out of sorts; this no doubt due to the heady and complex emotions that filled her right up and the fact she’d polished off three large glasses of the other, pink stuff on an almost empty stomach, and hadn’t slept.
‘Tawrie?’
‘What?’ She stopped outside the table tennis club and looked back to the step on which he perched, leaning on the doorframe, his arms folded, as if there was nowhere he’d rather be. She put her hands on her hips in a mock huff. ‘What?’ she called again.
‘Just ...’ He smiled at her and she got it.Just... for the sheer joy of saying the other’s name out loud.Just... in anticipation of the evening ahead.Just... in memory of that kiss. No matter that her loins had gone into overdrive and she wanted nothing more than to run back inside and take the kissing malarky upstairs, she was also aware of Connie’s wise words:
‘You’re sweet, lovely, slightly grumpy, serious-faced Tawrie Gunn and I don’t want you to get hurt...Just don’t give too much of you away...’
And she hadn’t. The most intimate part of their evening was when Ed had grabbed a wool blanket and thrown it over their legs as they lay on that wide, comfortable sofa.
Having managed to grab her kit without disturbing the other two Gunn residents of Signal House, her ride down to Hele Bay Beach was swift. She waved to Jago and Maudie who were already pulling strokes a little way out in the bay.
‘Morning, fellow Peacocks!’ she yelled, and heard their laughter by way of reply. It seemed only natural to share the joy that wanted to explode from her. The water felt warm today – of course it did – and as she let her shoulders dip beneath the surface she closed her eyes.
‘Here I am ... here I am, Dad,’ she whispered. ‘Where to start? I have news, I guess. The man I told you about, he and I ... I can hardly get the words out! We spent the evening together, well, longer, actually. And it was sweet and easy and I think I would have been happy sitting on that sofa with him for eternity. I know it sounds crazy, impossible! We’ve literally only just met and yet, I hardly dare say it, it feels like something incredible. I wish you’d felt that, I wish you’d had it. I can’t imagine Mum staying sober long enough for you to have shared what we did last night. And my heart breaks for all that you missed out on. I would so love for you to meet him. I really would.’
‘Are you going to bob around all morning, Ms Gunn, or is there swimming to be done?’ Maudie came alongside and cut her chat with her dad short.
‘To be honest, I’m rather liking just being still.’
‘I get that. Sometimes it’s the best way to clear the head. And there’s no better place to do it than right here in the water. Aren’t we lucky?’ The old lady cupped a handful of water and splashed her face, which was wrinkled, sun-damaged, freckled, and beautiful with all the life it spoke of.
‘We are. Very, very lucky. Especially me right now. I think ... I think I might be in love, Maudie.’ She had to tell someone. Had to let the news out!
‘Tawrie! Oh well, that’s absolutely marvellous! Good for you! Is it with the young man you were chatting to on the beach?’
‘Yes.’ Her smile a visceral reaction at picturing his face. ‘I feel daft saying it – dramatic even. Like some infatuated teenager. Even I don’t think it’s possible! But it’s how I feel.’
Maudie turned in the water to face her. ‘Never feel daft about it, Tawrie. It’s a story not everyone gets to tell: how they started, when they started and how they knew.’ It was almost instinctive, the way her eyes sought out Jago as he swam through the waves. Tawrie couldn’t help but wonder if a long love was possible for her and Ed, and the very thought sent a ripple of joy right through her.
‘How did you and Jago start and when did you know?’ She was curious.
‘It was a very, very long time ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth!’ They both laughed out loud; she loved this woman’s humour! ‘Oh, Tawrie, so much has happened in our little lives, lots of things that I probably should remember but have forgotten, but meeting him ...’ She closed her eyes briefly and lay back in the water. Tawrie did the same and the two bobbed alongside each other like plump, recumbent starfish on a rock. ‘Every detail is etched in my mind like a photograph. Even the scent of the gardenias that my mother had cut from the garden and put in an earthenware jug on the hall table. If I close my eyes I can smell them.’ Maudie closedher eyes again and inhaled deeply, as if doing just that. ‘Our parents were friends and my mother mentioned that Jago Bray was coming over with his mum, and honestly, my heart sank. I wanted to go and see my friends, play tennis, not make polite conversation with some ghastly boy my mother was introducing me to. I knew for a fact that if she liked him then I most definitely would not! Besides, I had my eye on Gerald McIntosh from the youth club.’
‘So what happened?’ Tawrie trod water and let the waves soothe her muscles and ease her spirit.
‘What happened is that in he walked and he was smiling, and I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was powerful, surprising, and in my mind I said, “There you are!” Like ... like ...’
‘Like you’d been waiting for him, you just didn’t know it.’ Tawrie spoke softly of her own experience.
