Chapter Fourteen

‘ I t's beautiful.' Lowering herself to the checked picnic blanket, she looked around the cove. With the sand dunes behind them and cliffs surrounding them on three sides, they could almost be in a world of their own. ‘I never knew this place existed.'

‘I didn't until a few years ago, either.' He looked out to sea. ‘We only have about an hour or so before the tide comes in and we're stranded, though.'

‘So you're telling me to eat quick, then?' Debbie laughed.

‘Haha, yes, but I wanted to show it to you. And with the moon full, this was the perfect time.' He began unpacking the picnic basket, opening a box of strawberries and laying out plates of sandwiches on the blanket between them.

‘It is perfect. Even if we can only spend an hour or so here.' She looked across at him and touched his arm, waiting until he met her gaze. ‘I still can't believe that after all this time we've met each other again. And recognised each other.'

‘I know what you mean, although I think I'd always recognise you. The hours I spent staring at you during that summer we spent together, I think I'd have been able to spot you in a crowd of a million.' He rolled her eyes and chuckled. ‘A teenage kid in love.'

‘We'd just been friends.' Debbie shook her head. They may have only been friends, but they had spent hours together, leaving the house on their bikes just after sunrise and not cycling home until gone dusk.

‘No.' Richie shook his head. ‘That's what you thought. The reality was I had a huge crush on you from the moment you ploughed your bike into my forehead.'

Debbie giggled. ‘You make it sound so much more dramatic than it was.'

‘Hey, I was a wimpy kid. I needed to dress it up a little.' He shrugged. ‘And when I say you ploughed into me on your bike, what I really mean is I got clipped with a pirate's sword.'

Grinning, Debbie leaned back on her elbows and looked up at the sky. The full moon sat perfectly in the centre of the sky, allowing her to watch the seagulls as they drifted to their homes in the cliff edges. ‘Hey, what do you mean you had a crush on me? You never said anything.'

‘Of course I didn't. You remember what I was like? I was lucky you were willing to associate with me at all. I wasn't about to push you away by admitting I fancied you.' Richie chuckled.

Pushing herself to sitting again, she looked across at him and sighed. ‘You really did have a tough time at school, didn't you?'

Richie ran his hand over his face and nodded. ‘Uh-huh, I did. And when I think back to those days, I just want to take my younger self by the shoulders and shake me, tell me to stand up for myself and that it wouldn't last forever.'

Debbie swallowed. They'd both had a hard time growing up by the sounds of it then. For different reasons but still tough times. She reached across to him again and touched his forearm. ‘I'm sorry to hear that. I wish the kids at school had seen you the way I had that summer. And for the record, I'd have said yes if you'd asked me out.'

‘You would have?'

‘Hey, I would have loved you to have been my first boyfriend. Instead, I suffered two months of spending time with Samuel Sampson, throwing chips down my throat as quick as I could just so I could get away from him.'

Shaking his head, Richie grinned. ‘Seriously?'

‘Uh-huh. That's the only place he'd take me, to the chip shop because his dad owned it so he could get them for free.'

Chuckling, Richie covered his hand with hers. ‘Oh, to be thirteen again.'

‘That was the worst of it. I wasn't thirteen. I waited years for my first boyfriend, daydreaming as girls do about how perfect it would be, but I didn't have a boyfriend until I was seventeen and Samuel Sampson will forever be a part of my history as being my first boyfriend.' She laughed.

‘Now I wish I'd mustered the courage to have asked you and saved you the trauma of Samuel Sampson.'

‘I do too.' She scrunched her nose up. ‘Why don't you ask me now?'

‘Ask you what?' Richie frowned.

‘Ask me out. As you wanted to do all those years ago.' She traced a line in the sand to the side of the blanket. Why had she said that? Just because they were reminiscing about being teenagers again, it didn't mean they were. She should have just enjoyed their time together.

‘Oh.' Straightening his back, Richie looked out to sea.

Glancing across at him, Debbie swallowed. Even though she wished she hadn't asked him to define what was going on between them quite as she had, she had been curious to know how he saw her. And judging by his reaction, he certainly didn't view them as steady or together. Why would he?

He looked back towards her. ‘I rather hoped the kiss would have done the talking.'

‘What?' She frowned.

‘I don't just go around kissing any random woman, you know.' He chuckled. ‘I only kiss the girls I want a relationship with. However heavy that sounds.'

Debbie caught her breath in her throat. ‘Really?'

‘Yes, really.' He took her hands in his and met her gaze. ‘Will you go out with Debbie?'

Feeling a flood of heat creep across her cheeks, she nodded. It sounded so silly now, but she'd needed to know. She'd wanted to know if he saw this as being something rather than nothing, a holiday fling. ‘I guess I'd have to answer with a yes, then.'

‘You guess? After all these years? After me being the perfect gentleman and not letting you kiss me after you'd had a few too many cocktails and all I get is an ‘I guess'?' Pushing the plates and tubs of picnic food to the side, Richie slid across to her and reached for her armpits.

‘No! Don't you dare!' Jumping up, Debbie squealed, clamping her arms to her sides as she ran across the sand. ‘I remember now. I remember the way you used to tickle me!'

‘Haha.' Jumping to his feet, Richie chased after her.

Feeling his strong arms wrap around her middle, she sank to the floor, laughing, but instead of tickling her under the armpits, he kissed the nape of her neck, releasing a thousand butterflies in her stomach.

‘I won't tickle you. I promise.' He whispered, his voice muffled by her hair. ‘But we should eat the picnic before we have to leave.'

‘Okay.' Turning over on the sand, she cupped his cheeks, pulling his face towards her and kissing him back before letting him stand, taking his hand and following him back to their picnic.

‘What I meant to say is that I won't tickle you this evening. I can't promise I won't another day.' He grinned as he passed her a strawberry.

Taking the strawberry from him, she leaned her head back and laughed. This really could be the beginning of something quite wonderful.