What on earth was wrong with her? Of course he couldn’t see her?
Or could he?
She had seen him quite clearly even before she had zoomed in for a closer look.
She had been sitting at the table, sketching. She told herself that it was Tom’s cottage and the immaculately kept garden she was focusing on, but that wasn’t the case at all.
The truth was that every sketch she had drawn during the last couple of weeks, contained a tall, broad-shouldered, bare-chested man toiling in the garden, his well-defined muscles rippling in each pose he adopted.
The fact was, she had drawn several pictures of Jasper. The garden, the cottage, and everything else were merely added extras. The man was the only thing that she had drawn in any detail.
‘Damn him,’ she said, picking up her phone. ‘Why can’t I get him out of my head?’
Angry with herself, and with him, she decided to go for a walk. She needed to get out of this cottage. She would go to the beach via the sloping cliff opposite. She might even paddle when she got there.
She would take her sketch book and draw something other than Jasper Bright. Anything other than him.
Tossing everything she would need into a large shoulder bag, including a towel just in case, and a bottle of water, she ambled up the path. She still hadn’t done much to the front garden, nor to the back for that matter. The weather had been far too hot, and unlike Jasper, she couldn’t take her T-shirt off if the heat became unbearable.
Well she could if she wore her bikini beneath. But gardening in a bikini top might come with its own set of difficulties.
The sheep had been taken indoors, their fleeces too thick to keep them cool in the glaring sunshine on the clifftop, so the walk to the beach was a solitary one. But she was glad of that. Since arriving in Bluewater Bay her cottage had seemed to be bursting at the seams with people, and she treasured these days on her own.
She hadn’t seen Tom for a while. Not since she had visited him in hospital on the day of his accident. She had considered taking Jenny with her to see him, but that might seem weird to everyone concerned. But she was too cowardly to visit him on her own, just in case she went when Jasper was there.
She had almost done that once last week. Luckily she had spotted Jasper’s car coming up the lane and had managed to hide behind a bush on the verge. She was still closer to her cottage than to Tom’s so she had scurried back to her cottage, hoping that no one had seen her.
She had sent Tom a couple of texts saying that she was busy with the cottage, and with some urgent work, so she couldn’t get to see him for a while. The work part wasn’t true. She didn’t wantto tell Tom that she wouldn’t – or couldn’t – risk visiting him because she didn’t want to see Jasper.
She didn’t know whether Jasper had told Tom what had passed between them, or about his girlfriend, or anything concerning him and Lara, but again, she couldn’t ask Tom if he had. Just in case he hadn’t.
She reached the sandy beach, which in this tiny section of the bay was almost completely empty save for one other couple. They were so engrossed in one another they hadn’t seen or heard her approach. She wondered if she should leave them to it and head back to her cottage, but she was far enough away not to bother them or for them to bother her.
Nevertheless she moved a little further away from them. She spread out her towel, kicked off her sandals and walked to the water’s edge. Dipping in one foot, she shivered. Despite the heat of the day, the water was freezing. Maybe not quite freezing but far too cold for her, or anyone she would’ve thought, to swim. But she knew people were in the main area of the bay, down in the valley. They were clearly brave.
She headed back to her towel, her toes sinking just a fraction into the sand as she walked and she felt the sun on her back. She sat on the towel, shifted her sunglasses to the top of her head, and closed her eyes. Her cheeks tingled with heat from the sun. If she sat here for long, she would get a suntan. In October! How crazy was that?
She eased back onto the towel and stretched out her arms and her legs so that she was like a long pole. She wiggled her toes and let out a contented sigh. This was the life. She couldn’t do this if she went back to Woking.
Ifshe went back to Woking.
She hadn’t given that much thought since she’d arrived. Although after what happened between her and Jasper, she had told herself she would go home at the end of the month. Shewasn’t sure how long he was staying. When he’d told her he had taken time off, he hadn’t said how long.
She was doing it again.
Thinking about Jasper.
She had come to the beach tonotthink about him.
A loud splash made her sit upright.
No!
Surely not.
It couldn’t be.
And yet it was.
