Page 29

The T-shirt was warm from lying in the sun on the rocks and as the soft cotton brushed her face, she couldn’t help but breathe in Matt’s scent, earthy and familiar. Slipping on his T-shirt was like slipping on a comfort blanket. She’d better not get used to the feeling.

‘I hope Freddie’s OK,’ she said, dragging her thoughts away from Matt. ‘Roo must be so worried.’

‘I’m sure he will be. I got into so many scrapes when I was little, though it must be scary for him. He’ll bounce back. Kids do.’

Zennor nodded. ‘Yeah. Thanks for coming, though I feel a bit of a numpty to be honest. I should have got out on the hotel beach but I wanted everything to be perfect. I should have brought a waterproof pouch with my phone, though God knows where I’d have hidden that. I’ve done every reckless thing I tell people not to.’

Matt looked at her with a grin. ‘Well, the circumstances were fairly unique. There’s no protocol for being a mermaid.’

‘There is, actually, and I didn’t even follow that.’ She leaned back with her hands splayed on the sand, thanking her stars for that feel of dry land. ‘I’m an idiot.’

‘That’s not how I’d describe you.’

His eyes raked over her, leaving a trail of heat wherever his gaze landed. His hair was drying, the ends fluffy, and his body glistened with droplets. ‘You were trying to be kind and do something special.’

His hand closed over hers, curving around her fingers. It felt so warm, so safe – though safe probably wasn’t the word to describe the feelings surging through her. Her nerve endings tingled and her stomach tightened with a knot of lust. How could Matt still do this to her body? They were mature adults, not hormonal teenagers.

It would be so easy to take his hand and move closer; to kiss him and feel his body against hers again.

The drone buzzed in front of them. It must still be filming.

She pulled her fingers away and scrambled to her feet. ‘I’ll kill that bloody drone operator.’

Matt looked up. ‘Why are you bothered? I don’t think they saw anything.’

‘There was nothing to see!’ she said, wondering if the drone had captured that brief moment of contact. ‘Matt, I’m really grateful you were able to come along and – help me.’ She refused to say ‘rescue’ out loud. ‘It was kind of you but don’t think we’re going to start anything up.’

He folded his arms defensively. ‘Stop worrying. I can promise you that I’d never dream of starting anything between us ever again. In fact, I’d put the chances of seeing a real mermaid far higher than us ever getting back together.’

‘Were we ever together formally in the first place?’

‘Depends what you mean by formally,’ he shot back. ‘I thought that – even though we were young – we meant something to each other.’

‘We did. I … But it wasn’t our time. I went to uni and then – you just left to go travelling.’

‘Yeah. I did. You had a new life, and I didn’t want to hold you back. I couldn’t just hang around waiting for you to move on. I had to find something in my own life to replace – to focus on,’ he said.

Somehow, the conversation she’d dreaded having with Matt was happening: all the old feelings had been stirred up and were swirling around them again. She couldn’t downplay the hurt she’d felt when she found he’d gone travelling – even if it had probably been for the best. It was a hurt that had now resurfaced, along with a desire that scared her with its intensity. They’d barely held hands and she’d almost jumped on him. If they’d kissed – who knew what would have happened next?

‘You never said a word about how much you felt before the wedding or when we were young. You let me go off to uni without even asking if we could make a go of things.’

He stared at her, lips parted, clearly dumbfounded by her outburst. The drone was high above, but even so, she could barely hear his reply.

‘Would it have made a difference if I had told you how I felt – when you first went to uni or when I found out you were engaged to Trev? You’d made your decisions and I’d have looked needy and desperate. I would never have held you back. You must understand that.’

‘I do, but you never even tried to explain why you took off. You just let me go right on and make—’ Mistakes, she might have added.

‘I only wanted you to be happy. You did love Trev,’ Matt said. He spoke softly yet with a sadness that made Zennor’s spirits sink. So many lost opportunities.

‘I did,’ she said, unable to deny the fact that she had been in love with Trev. Or thought she was. Those feelings had been powerful and real.

He folded his arms. ‘And would you really have broken it off if I’d come to you as soon as I was back home and found out you were engaged? What if I’d begged you not to marry him before the wedding? Would you have broken it off and run away with me?’ Matt scoffed. ‘Somehow I don’t think so.’

Zennor didn’t know how to reply. She’d been dazzled by Trev as soon as he walked into her life: he’d swept her off her feet.

‘There you go. Your mind was made up. If I’d said anything before the wedding, you’d have hated me and I’d only have made you unhappy.’

Zennor was goaded into reacting sharply. ‘But you did do those things. You did wreck my wedding and drive a wedge between me and Trev. You told everyone, all my friends and family, that you thought I was making the biggest mistake of my life – when – when it was too late.’