As the three of them crested the top of the dunes, Sophie stopped and gazed down the endless length of the beach, the spit of yellow sand contrasting against the blue for as far as the eye could see.
Todd, with a body-board tucked under one arm and a bag loaded with beach towels, turned back to look at her with an I-told-you-so grin. ‘Wonderful, isn’t it?’
‘Unbelievable.’ The wind tossed her hair across her face as she stared out towards the vast expanse of the sea. It was sobering to think that there was nothing between here and Portugal. It was also a very handy distraction from Todd’s tanned muscular legs covered in dark hair. Did the man ever look anything less than delicious? Even super-casual today in colourful patterned board shorts and a faded Timberland T-shirt, with the wind tugging the dark hair into tufts, he still looked like he was modelling surf gear.
With a whoop at the sight of the sea, Marty ran off down the dune, his feet churning up the surface of the beach, leaving a wake in the wind like the Roadrunner.
Underfoot, the pale fine sand felt like cool waves as she sank up to her ankles, wincing at the occasional prickle of pine needles and twigs. It was hard work, especially when she also carried a cool box which might as well have been weighted with rocks. ‘Come on.’ Todd grabbed her hand and tugged her down the dunes and together they floundered down towards the water.
Marty had already run down to the sea, his indecipherable shout of joy carrying back to them, his lanky limbs flailing like a mad scarecrow as he dragged his body-board behind him.
They set up camp to a chorus of yells from Marty, chiding them for their slowness as he ploughed straight into the water.
‘That is the Atlantic, isn’t it?’ asked Sophie dubiously.
Todd nodded.
‘Isn’t it cold?’
‘Only when you first get in, but he’s like a fish. Never seems to feel it.’ He spread the towels out. ‘Thanks for joining in with him – that was … good. He gets a bit lonely out here all summer surrounded by adults. Mom and Dad’s friends’ kids are all our age.’
‘It wasn’t a problem. And who doesn’t love a bit of hero-worship?’ teased Sophie.
‘Yeah, you’ve definitely made a hit.’
‘Ah well, definitely a case of who you know in this instance.’
Todd looked up from smoothing down one of the towels over the sand. ‘No, Sophie. You were kind, like you always are. I bet you’d have had a go at that game even if you’d had two left thumbs, when you saw how much spending some time with me mattered to him.’
Sophie shrugged his comments off. ‘He clearly adores his big brother.’
Todd screwed up his face and looked out to where Marty was already diving into the waves. ‘He’s a good kid. I wish I could do more to … I feel bad that he’s stuck out here.’
Over the crash of the sea they could hear Marty yelling for Todd to come in.
He hesitated, one hand already pulling at the hem of his T-shirt.
‘Go on.’ She eyed his body-board. ‘I think I’ll leave that to the experts. Spend …’ she gulped and busied herself, pulling a book and sun cream out of her bag as, in one fluid move, Todd pulled his T-shirt off over his head, ‘s-some time with Marty. I’ll be quite happy. Here. Watching people. People watching.’ She pushed her sunglasses firmly up her nose. Gosh, it was hot. Her mouth had gone very dry. ‘Yes. Go. I’m fine. Fine.’ Please go. Please take that exceptionally hot bod with you.
With a quick wave, and was there a slight twist of amusement to his lips, Oh please no, Todd jogged away and Sophie sucked in a long breath. Honestly. Get a grip, woman. She was as bad as a teenager. Yes, he was very pretty, to look at. Look, not touch. Her flipping hormones needed reminding who was in charge here, but even as she was trying to remind herself that he was a friend, as he’d been at pains to make clear this morning at Jones Beach, her imagination had progressed from wondering what it might be like to touch that smooth skin around his waist, to what it would be like to be held against a very, oh yes, manly chest.
Cross with herself, she opened the cool box, picked out a bottle of water and took a long cool swallow. Enough. She was going to relax. Enjoy the sensation of being on holiday. It had been a long time since she had nothing to do but sit in the sunshine with a book and soak in the atmosphere. It was also highly entertaining watching Marty and Todd ploughing through the waves, teasing and laughing at each other, joining another group of young men who all looked very similar in their board shorts hanging off lean, lanky torsos.
The beach wasn’t exactly crowded but there were plenty of interesting people to observe from behind her sunglasses. Down where the waves ran out of steam and licked at the sand, a woman who looked like Sarah Jessica Parker strolled past hand in hand with a handsome man … Oh my goodness, it was Matthew Broderick.
After surreptitiously watching them until they were out of sight, she leaned back on her elbows enjoying the sun on her face, and Sophie realised that for the first time in a very long time, she actually felt content and happy with her lot. Carefree, as if a load had been lifted from her shoulders.
Shocked with the realisation, she sat up, digging her hands through the sand, letting the grains run through her fingers, like the memories sifting through her head as she tried to pick through where things had gone wrong.
When she’d come out to the US, she’d been running, with no thought beyond getting on the plane and escaping. Putting herself into limbo. Now she was here, it was liberating because there was no pressure. And with that weightless lack of responsibility here, it came to her that in London she’d been ground down by expectation. So busy waiting for the next step, she’d neglected the now. Ground down by waiting for James. Putting her life on hold in readiness for when he would ask her to marry him, when in fact she’d not been happy. She let out a half-laugh. She’d turned this trip down originally because of him. The usual pattern of not doing things because she was waiting for when he would commit to her. Sitting on the sidelines playing second fiddle to his mother. Playing video games with her neighbour, feeling superior because Conrad needed looking after, when the truth was, she had nothing better to do while she was waiting for James. A continual rubbing away of her self-esteem. Tension cramped her stomach as she remembered being reasonable and not stamping her feet because James always put his mother first. Now she knew why, her stomach knotted with the familiar fury. She’d been so bloody spineless and pathetic. She’d wasted so much time. Her own fault. She’d let herself do that. She couldn’t blame James for that.
And worse still, she’d almost started to walk the same path with Paul. Playing second fiddle at the outset.
She picked up a handful of sand and let it seep away through her fingers. It was a painful analogy for her life at this moment. Letting it seep away.
A shadow came over her and she looked up to see Todd, droplets of water glistening on the hairs on his forearms, standing in front of her.
‘You look fierce,’ he said and with a start she realised she’d been grinding her teeth.
‘And hot …’ he grinned, exuding his usual confident charm. ‘Want to come and cool down in the sea?’ He held out a hand.
All her anger drained away, replaced by amusement at his deliberate double meaning. What was she doing brooding when she should be enjoying the here and now? Life didn’t get better than this. The Hamptons. Sunshine. Todd. With an answering grin, she threw out her hand to grasp his. ‘Sounds like just the thing,’ she said, letting him haul her to her feet. ‘What happened to Marty?’
‘He hooked up with some boys his own age whose parents have a beach house down the street.’
‘That’s good.’
‘Yeah, they’re here for a month. Hopefully it’ll be company for him. I don’t feel quite so bad about only being here for the weekend.’
As they neared the water, she took off, throwing a cheeky grin over her shoulder. ‘Last one in buys champagne at Onyx.’
Laughing, Todd gave chase, splashing after her, deliberately kicking up the water, making her flinch and squeal at the cold spatters. Just keeping in front of him, she ploughed in, slowing as the wet sand caught at her feet, taking sharp indrawn breaths at the water’s icy bite on her sun-warmed skin.
‘Cold, cold, cold,’ she rasped, thrashing through the waves, sucking in her stomach as if that might somehow delay the touch of the water. Todd caught her up, pulled at her hand again to try and slow her down.
‘Not fair,’ she yelled, her hair plastering across her face as she turned to him. He nodded over her shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. When she wheeled round she found a huge wave gathering momentum and heading straight towards them.
Bracing herself for the hit, she felt Todd grab her waist as the wave rolled into them. It was stronger than she’d expected, making her stagger to her knees. Frothing water crashing over her shoulders and chest, dousing her in a wall of instant cold, turning her nipples into tiny pain-filled pebbles, and she was glad of Todd’s support as the undertow sucked at the sand under her forelegs.
‘You OK?’ he asked, laughter dancing in his eyes.
‘Yes,’ she beamed back at him, exhilarated by the rush. With a brief do-or-die moment of hesitation, she rose to her feet, threw herself forward into the water before the next wave came splashing furiously as the cold enveloped her whole body. She swam into the rising swell, hoping her muscles would warm her up.
‘Cold. Cold. Cold. Cold,’ she gasped as the breath stalled in her lungs, her ribcage almost frozen stiff by the chill.
Todd laughed, swimming alongside her, like an expert dolphin. ‘Of course it’s cold. It’s the Atlantic.’
Thankfully, it didn’t take long for her to warm up and together they swam, bobbing over the swell of the waves as they rose and gathered momentum to crash onto the beach. Sophie had forgotten how lovely it was to swim in the sea, but she was nowhere near as good a swimmer as Todd, who dived in and out of the waves. He also stayed close, for which she was grateful, even though there was a lifeguard on the beach. The sea here was much stronger than she was used to.
‘Fancy lunch soon?’ asked Todd as they lazily floated on their backs.
‘Mm,’ said Sophie, closing her eyes, tipping her head up to the sun. ‘That would be nice.’
‘Nice? Don’t let Mahalia hear you say that.’
‘Well, I’m expecting there to be plenty, after I lugged that box all the way here. It weighed a ton.’
‘It would be a stain on her mortal soul for anyone to go hungry on her watch. You should hear her and Rick go at it. He’s the cook, although Mom insists its chef.’ In a falsetto he mimicked, ‘“You no put enough on those plates. What, you want people to starve?” She’ll have packed enough for a voyage to Mars.’
‘Now you’ve made me hungry,’ complained Sophie as her stomach grumbled. ‘Those cinnamon rolls were hours ago.’
‘They were good. You can make them again.’
‘I can, can I?’ she teased, amused by his confident assumption that she would.
‘After those Yorkshire pudding things you promised me, I want to try those again.’
‘You’ll have to wait until autumn, I’ll do a roast. Invite Bella and maybe …’ She didn’t get the chance to finish. Another wave had swelled up in front of them, this one bigger than any of the others. Transfixed for a second, Sophie watched it growing and growing as it headed their way. Like a fish, Todd dived under it while Sophie hoped to bob over it, but she’d mistimed it and just as it reached her it curled over itself, crashing down with white froth coiling around her, gathering pace, and before she knew it she was under the water, being spun around as if she were on a roller-coaster, until she was spat out, skidding onto the sand. She emerged choking and wheezing, thinking she must look like a drowned rat as she surreptitiously tried to shake out the sand which had accumulated in her bikini bottoms.
‘Hey, you OK?’ Todd bounded over, his face holding a touch of uncertain anxiety. ‘That was a …’ His voice died away as she straightened.
‘Huh, j-just got my breath back.’ She swiped her wet hair from her face, trying to smile through the splutters. ‘That certainly woke me up.’
She wasn’t sure he was listening, he looked oddly strained. Then something flared in his eyes, launching a sudden flutter in her chest.
‘Mmm, and me,’ he breathed with a wobbly half-smile, nodding his head towards her chest. ‘Erm, you might want to er … might want to … before you give half the guys on the beach a bonus today.’
She glanced down and blushed, hastily rearranging her bikini.
‘Oh. Sorry.’
‘No need to apologise to me.’ His lips curved in a broad smile. ‘For the record, there’s nothing wonky-looking about those babies to me.’
The warmth in his voice made her nipples tingle and, to her horror, she could feel them tightening into hussy take-me-I’m-here points accentuated by the flimsy Lycra of her bikini top.
She looked away and focused on thrashing through the foaming waves back up the beach, fighting against the sand sucking under their feet.
From behind her another wave caught her and she fell over again, dragging Todd down with her.
He hauled her up again and as she got to her feet another wave crashed into him, sending him toppling into her, and she crashed backwards onto the sand. Todd went with her, landing on top of her, and immediately raising himself onto his arms to take some of his weight from squashing her.
For a moment she lay there as their eyes locked onto one another. A breath caught in her throat, her body going still with heightened awareness as they stared at each other. Her heart thudded, a wake of adrenaline coursing through her system.
As he began to lower his head, never taking his gaze from her, she could scarcely breathe.
The first tender graze of his mouth, so soft, so slow, so tentative, made her chest tighten. His lips were cold, but his breath felt warm. Her pulse kicked in objection when she felt him stop, an infinitesimal moment of hesitation. Without thinking, she slid her hands over his shoulders, even though she knew this was a big mistake, but it was a delicious mistake, made even more delicious when with a tiny moan, he deepened the kiss with slow sure movements, lazily teasing at her lips. Holding himself on his elbows, his mouth roved over hers but with an all-the-time-in-the-world leisureliness and determined, sedate thoroughness that left her reeling.
Despite the careful, unhurried attention, it was without doubt the most passionate kiss Sophie had ever had. Even knowing it was wrong, she couldn’t help herself. With a sigh she melted, giving herself up to pure sensation, her body totally limp.
Every nerve ending was alert to the feel of him, the hair-roughened skin of his thigh, the bone of hip to hip and the odd, cold/hot sensation of their water-cooled skins touching each other.
His heartfelt groan as she pressed her chest into his made her heart leap and she could feel his heart pounding too.
Above them a gull screamed, penetrating Sophie’s consciousness. What the hell was she doing? This was Todd. They were friends. Stiffening, she started to pull away, her eyes darting down to his chest to avoid looking at him. ‘I think that’s Seagull for Get a room,’ he said wryly, rolling to one side and scrambling to his feet before holding out a hand to pull her up.
Sophie’s cheeks turned bright pink and she ducked her head as she took his hand and clambered upright.
‘Well, that was …’ The husky timbre of his voice almost made her heart stop. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard, feeling her heart pounding crazily in her chest. What had she done? Todd was so far out of bounds, it was ridiculous. Too gorgeous for his own good and for her peace of mind. And thoroughly, thoroughly intoxicating. Oh God, she needed to be cool. This was probably all in a day’s work for him.
‘Very nice,’ she said, stretching her mouth into a desperate grin. Keep it light, Sophie. Keep it light. ‘Now I get what all those girls see in you.’
It would have been nice to believe that there was a brief shadow in his eyes before his usual broad smile lit up his face, but Sophie knew better.
‘All part of the service, English. Come on, let’s see what Mahalia’s got lined up for us. I’m hungry.’
Together they walked back to their spot where Marty was sitting on a towel, his back to them, headphones on, attached to his phone, nodding away to an inaudible beat.
‘Hey guys, I’m starving,’ said Marty, looking up as soon as Todd’s shadow fell over him.
Sophie was impressed he hadn’t already made inroads into the cool box. Mahalia had done them proud and as Todd unpacked the picnic lunch, she tried to focus on laying out the different plastic boxes on the towels, but she couldn’t help sneaking the odd peek at him. She found herself drawn to watching his mobile lips as he teased his brother, who was making short work of several rustic, well-filled sandwiches, wolfing them down as if he hadn’t seen food in weeks. Every now and then Todd would shoot her a glance and several times she was mortified when she wasn’t quick enough to look away.
As soon as they’d eaten and Marty had finally given up trying to wheedle his own bottle of beer out of Todd, he spotted his friends who’d also taken a lunch break and, with a spray of sand over the towels, he bounded off to join them.
As Sophie packed away Todd lay on his back, his arms behind his head, his eyes hidden behind the dark sunglasses. With that innate sense, she knew he was watching her. Despite the sun high in the sky, giving off a steady heat, she shivered, packing up quickly.
She needed to clear the air. Wriggling the lid to get it back into place, she sat back on her heels, pursing her mouth.
‘English.’ His low voice and the serious set to his mouth made the butterflies in her stomach take flight and race around like windblown lunatics. ‘You’re thinking so loud you’re giving me a headache.’
‘Sorry. We shouldn’t have done that.’
‘Done what?’ his mouth quirked in one corner, but behind the sunglasses she couldn’t see his face properly. It made her feel at a major disadvantage.
‘You know,’ she said severely.
‘English, it’s fine.’
‘Hey guys, we’re going to play volleyball. We need a couple more on the team. You’ll play won’t you?’ Marty’s yell came from a few yards away.
‘Of course, we will,’ said Sophie, jumping up immediately, kicking sand all over Todd. ‘Although I’m not sure I’m dressed appropriately.’
Marty shrugged with a whatever sort of gesture. Todd narrowed his eyes as he looked at Sophie’s cleavage and then dug around under the bags until he found his Timberland T-shirt.
‘Here you go. Wear this. It’ll stop you getting burned.’