Page 41 of Escape to the Sun

Louis moved behind her, pointing over her shoulder to guide her gaze.

‘There. See it?’

She wasn’t sure whether she moved or it was Louis who closed the rest of the gap between them, but when she felt his frame against her, she leant into him, her concentrated frown giving way to the beginnings of a smile as he wrapped his free arm around her waist and she pressed her hand against his, holding him firm.

Too soon he was pulling away, but it was only to shift position so he could face her. She did her best to hold onto his hand, threading her fingers through his as he moved, only giving up her grip when he framed her face with gentle fingers, his gaze intense and totally on her.

‘I was going to say this is the best view up here, looking at you, but I realised that’s about as corny as it gets, so I won’t.’

She grinned. ‘Oh, I don’t know. It sounds good to me.’

‘I meant what I said the other night.’

‘Which was what, exactly?’ She wanted him to reaffirm what she’d remembered but hadn’t felt convinced of, that he wasn’t rejecting her – even though it felt like he had.

But Louis misinterpreted. ‘I didn’t think you were that pissed. You really can’t remember?’

She shrugged. ‘Some of it’s a bit hazy.’

Louis laughed, then his expression became serious. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I am seriously attracted to you, but when we got back to your cabin…’ He shook his head. ‘It struck me that you should have been enjoying your time on the Ballygowan with someone else. That you and he should have been making love in that room, and I shouldn’t mean anything more to you than being the captain of the ship you chose for your honeymoon – it felt… I just wanted you to be sure. To want to be with me because you want to be with me – do you know what I mean?’

‘Not because I’m on the rebound from Ian…’

Louis nodded and Hannah cursed herself for bringing Ian’s name into the mix again. But she supposed it had to be faced. Louis was as entitled to know how she felt about him as vice versa. Was entitled to know whether her attraction to him was genuine, or if she saw him as nothing more than a moment in time. A holiday romance. An escape from reality.

‘I came on this cruise in desperation,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know what else to do with the tickets, or myself, to be honest. Yes, I did want to run away. I wanted to hide and pretend and forget. And I still wonder how I’m going to face reality when I do go home. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But I also know I didn’t feel this way when I met Ian.’ She shook her head. ‘Oh my God, he is the last person I should be talking about up here, with you, but I think it matters. He was everything I thought I should want – that’s the best way I can think of to describe him. My family loved him straight away; he has a steady job, lives locally to the deli, isn’t ever going to stray very far away from Southampton, doesn’t kick puppies or shout at kids.’

Louis laughed, and she grinned.

‘But seriously, I thought it was right.’ Hannah swallowed, not sure how to phrase what she wanted to say next. ‘Thing is, Louis, I feel the complete opposite about you. Not about the kicking puppies or shouting at kids – I don’t think you’re likely to do those things either – but it’s everything else. My family have never met you. You neither live nor work anywhere near me. I know almost nothing about you – in that respect you’re a complete unknown. I’ve lived a very risk-averse life, and you are the opposite of that. And yet, I can’t ignore the way I feel every time I’m anywhere near you.’ She paused, searched his expression for cracks, then ploughed on. ‘It’s incredibly unsettling and logically it would be better to run away from you, rather than towards you. But it’s exciting, too. It’s mad, because I don’t know you at all. And yet I don’t think I can ignore this. I don’t think I want to run away. Not again. Not from you.’

‘Then don’t,’ he said. Two words versus the barrage she’d unleashed on him. Two simple words that cut through all the noise, all the thoughts and worries and the mess Hannah knew she still had to deal with.

‘But what if…’ She tried again, tried to convince herself, as much as him, that what was about to happen was a bad idea.

He shook his head, pushing a loop of her hair away from her face as he leant forward, tipping his face to meet hers. She’d wondered if kissing him sober would feel as good as it had when she had been drunk, or whether she’d remembered it wrongly. Turned out that part of her memory had been searingly accurate. She melted against him as they deepened their kiss, him wrapping his arms around her waist as Hannah threaded hers around the back of his neck and the rest of the world slipped away.

22

Ruth could have done with longer staring out at the horizon, but when Nathan scuffed his way across to her for the third time she caved and said they could head down into the town.

She’d tried to give Hannah and Louis some time to themselves, but within ten minutes of arriving at the summit of Fort Louis, Nathan declared the whole area as being ‘basic AF’ and before he could expand on the meaning of the letters – not that Ruth couldn’t work out their meaning for herself – she had promised him food once they were down in Marigot in exchange for hanging out at the summit a while longer.

‘You should stop meddling in Hannah’s life,’ he’d said, his features set in a deep frown as he trudged away for a few more minutes.

Ruth hadn’t felt as though she was meddling, not really. She might have tried to impart some wise words about making life choices – or rather, explained via her own sorry tale how not to do it – but she wasn’t forcing the two of them together. If anyone had manipulated the scenario, it had been Millie, for which Ruth still felt a twist of pride.

There had been no mistaking the vibes between Hannah and Louis when they left the fort. Only the most unobservant could fail to notice Hannah’s coy smile, or the way Louis had become hyper-aware of Hannah’s every movement, his focus on her and for her alone as they made for the car. Or the way their hands kept brushing against one another, fingers entwining for a second before separating again.

With a couple of hours still available for them to spend on the island, the consensus was to find a beach. After all, no right-minded person cruised to the islands of the Caribbean and then didn’t take advantage of their most readily available asset, the spectacular coast.

Millie, nose still in the guidebook, suggested they headed for Mullet Bay.

‘It’s got powdery white sand, and the sea is usually calm, it says.’ Millie shuffled the pages of the book, then said, ‘What’s undertow?’

‘It means the currents in the water can be strong,’ Louis said.

Millie frowned. ‘Why does it say it’s usually calm, then? It also says, “Always swim with others nearby, because there aren’t any lifeguards”.’