Saturday afternoon, they all turned up at Jess’s parents’ bach and spent the rest of the day swimming and surfing.

Cole lay on a towel, leaned back, rested on his elbows and watched Milly. She came out of the water and scooped up her towel. If she looked good in jeans, she looked great in a bikini. Her hair, even darker when wet, hung around her face in strands. They were finally back to where they were before Christmas. It was all good.

She flopped down beside him. “You should come in and have a swim too, Cole.”

“Soon.” He reached up and pulled her down, so he could kiss her. She rolled enough to rest half on him and half on the towel, all cool and wet from swimming. He was hot from the sun. It felt good. Tonight, he’d sleep on the back of his ute. He had a bit of a canopy rigged up, and Milly had brought her tent. He’d helped her put it up but hoped that was only window dressing for Jess’s parents.

“Hi, Cole,” said Jess’s father, when they arrived. He stuck his hand out to shake. As teachers go, Jess’s father wasn’t too bad. Must be a bit like work to have kids staying at your bach for the weekend though.

Cole pushed the hair off Milly’s face. She smiled at him. He kissed those lips again. She was nice.

“Come on, you two,” yelled Luke. “Enough of that.” Luke grabbed Tessa and flipped her into the water. “Come and swim.” Tessa came up, drops streaming off her face.

Milly rolled away from him and pulled him to his feet. “Come on. Time to cool off.”

The party kicked off after dark. They had a barbecue and then all sat around drinking. Isaac, Luke, Noah and Lewis hauled out the guitars and did a bit of singing. He didn’t bring the drums. They were too hard to transport, so he got to just sit there with Milly beside him, and listen and drink a bit.

Jess’s brother, Denis, had some friends at the party too. He knew them from school. They usually caused trouble. Denis was all right. He couldn’t figure out why Denis hung out with those guys.

At first, they managed to behave themselves. Then Jess’s parents went to bed. Everyone kept drinking and the party started to get scary. The brazier got tipped over. There were live coals and burning logs everywhere. The cavemen were dancing around and jumping over it.

“I don’t like this.” Milly scrambled to her feet. “I want to leave.”

He stood too. He put his arms around her and watched the idiots with the fire. Then someone poured some spirits on it, and it flared up, huge flames. The fools were yelling and yahooing.

Someone would get hurt.

He saw Noah pick up his guitar and go and get Luke’s from beside the deckchair where he’d left it. Noah took the guitars to his car and locked them in. Isaac and Adam did the same.

They didn’t like this any more than Milly did.

He tried to figure out what to do when Jess’s dad came out of the bach.

“Right, that’s enough,” he said. “Time to put the fire out and go to bed.”

Everyone did what he said and slunk off.

Guess that’s why teachers were more willing to have parties like this than other parents. The kids were used to obeying them.

“Is there room for me on the back of your ute?” asked Milly. “I don’t think I want to be on my own in my tent.”

With those friends of Denis’s around, he didn’t want her on her own either.

He hadn’t drunk a lot tonight because sometimes parties just turned toxic and if it felt like something was going badly wrong it usually did, and it paid to be sober when it happened. This one went that way earlier than usual. And he had Milly to look after. Besides he had a double mattress on the back of that ute.

“Plenty of room for two.”

That’s why he had a double mattress. It paid to be prepared too. He walked her to the ute.

Milly kicked off her jandals before she climbed up under the canopy. He sat in the flap, on the edge of the mattress and unlaced his boots.

“It was strange out there, wasn’t it?” Milly sat cross-legged on the sleeping bag that covered the mattress. He could just see her in the moonlight coming through the flap. Her eyes looked bigger than usual, all dark and framed in shadow. Her hair hung around her shoulders, soft and dark. He couldn’t see her lips but could imagine the shape of them as she spoke.

“Yeah. When everyone gets edgy like that it’s a good idea to take off.” He put the first boot beside the mattress and started on the next.

“You don’t mind me being here, do you?” Milly asked quietly.

“Why would I mind?” He couldn’t imagine anywhere else he would want her to be. The clean sheets, the nice pillows, instead of just a sleeping bag on the bare mattress had all seemed a bit of a fantasy when he got ready to pick her up from her house.

Good it had worked out this way. A whole night curled up around her.

He put the second boot beside the first one, flicked the flap of the canopy down to shut out the moon, and crawled over the mattress to where she was sitting.

His shoulder bumped against her in the dark. He sat up beside her, his knee touched hers. He felt her hand touch his shoulder. Then the shadow of her so close he could hear her breathe.

Milly leaned in the last few millimetres and touched her lips against his. “Are you going to make love to me tonight, Cole?”

He pulled away. “If that’s what you want.” He wouldn’t push it if he wasn’t sure that’s what she wanted.

He felt her nod.

Green light.

He turned enough to slide his hand behind her head and gently pull her towards him. His lips touched hers and as the kiss deepened, he lay back down, and she came with him, his head on the pillow, hers too.

He knew the way her body felt against his. They’d been leading up to this for weeks. But now, her softness and shape took on another meaning.

But, he wished they’d talked about it during the day, so he knew. Would she be here if the party hadn’t turned frightening? They’d talked about everything before Christmas, then she went away again.

He slid his hand up inside her camisole. The small breasts were bare. He knew that already. He’d worked out she’d left her bra off when they came back from the beach and she’d got changed.

“You sure?” He felt her nod again. Another green light. “Sit up.”

She pushed herself up to kneeling. He knelt too and took the soft cotton of her top in his hands.

Milly stretched her arms up and her hands touched the canvas of the canopy.

She gave a little giggle at the noise.

He lifted the top over her head. Her body looked just a little lighter than the dark that surrounded them. A pale curved shadow. He ran his hands down the sides of her ribs to her hips, his thumbs just touching her breasts and felt her shiver.

She wasn’t cold. It was warm under the canopy.

“All right?”

Milly nodded again.

She reached for the hem of his t shirt. “My turn.” And lifted it up.

He had to bend a little to help her get it off. He should have made the canopy taller. His elbows touched the top if he stretched up. Didn’t know they’d be playing these games when he made the frame.

He heard the soft flop of the t shirt when Milly dropped it and then felt her hands run down the front of his chest.

“You’re so warm.” Those hands moved carefully from his shoulders to the waistband of his jeans.

He felt his body echo the shiver of Milly’s when he touched her. He slowly released his breath. This could be the most erotic thing he’d ever done. He’d never deliberately taken turns or taken so much time about getting undressed. Usually it was all fumbling and tumbling and all jumbled up. Not clean and slow and silver like this.

Milly’s hands stopped at the fastening of the jeans. “Lie down,” she said.

“Lie down?”

“Yes. I want to touch all of you.”

“Jesus.” Didn’t know she could get bossy about what she wanted. “Hang on a minute.”

He leaned forward and pulled off his socks. He flicked the socks to the end of the mattress and heard them hit the flap. He lay back against the pillows. Fingers linked behind his head.

“Like this?”

Now his eyes were getting used to the dark, he could see more. Milly had become a pale shadow shape with eyes and lips, the outline of breasts, nipples darker.

She leaned forward, planted one hand in the middle of his chest and kissed him. “Just like that.”

He went to hold her and pull her down on him, but she batted his hands away and pushed herself back up.