SUNLOUNGER 2: Beach Read Bliss (Sunlounger Stories) Read online

  He returned, and Katie snuggled under her blanket and pretended to fall asleep.

  I wrapped myself in a towel. ‘So your mum’s from Cornwall?’

  Will smiled at me and my heart shimmered like a parrotfish’s fins. ‘Yeah, she grew up there before getting a job with British Airways. She emigrated out here when she met my dad in the seventies. “Brits love the Aussie accent” she always told me. But she died when I was eight, so I’ve never been over there.’

  ‘Oh that’s rubbish. I’m sorry.’

  ‘Thanks. She was awesome, the best mum ever. No offence meant to your own mum, who I bet is pretty spectac’ too.’

  ‘She’s lovely.’

  ‘Where does she live?’

  ‘On the south coast, about an hour from my house.’

  ‘Lucky.’

  ‘Yeah, I’ve been spending a lot of time there in the last couple of months. I recently had a change in situation…’ Oh come on, he was telling me about his deceased mother and I couldn’t even reveal I’d split up with my boyfriend? How self-involved was I? ‘My boyfriend and I were together about seven years, then he dumped me. So I was loitering at mum’s about two weeks ago when I decided to take this trip.’

  ‘You only decided to fly around the world two weeks ago? Wasn’t your boss mad?’

  ‘I’m a teacher, so I’d just started six weeks off school with nothing planned but twiddling my thumbs, and a bank full of savings that were supposed to go towards the buying of a Grown-Up House.’

  ‘How did…this…happen?’ he gestured at the large expanse of twinkling ocean around him.

  I studied his (beautiful) face for a moment. Was he going to think I was crazy? Did it matter if he did? This whole trip is about being carefree. ‘Don’t laugh.’

  ‘No promises.’

  ‘Fair enough. Term finished and I moped my lonesome way back to mum’s, and sat in my teenage bedroom looking at my Leo DiCaprio poster montage and wished there were boys like Romeo or Jack out there for me.’ Will, to his credit, was trying really hard to flatten the smirk that was trying to form on his lips. ‘I was feeling very sorry for myself, watching old Friends episodes, listening to a lot of Alicia’s Attic, when I found a box of magazines I had as a teenager.’

  ‘You kept them?’

  Katie snorted in her pretend sleep; she’s always considered me a few clothes hangers short of a hoarder.

  ‘Yes I did,’ I said proudly. ‘Because I always knew they’d hold some advice in them that would prove useful one day. That would change my life. Or if nothing else might tell me how to properly pluck my eyebrows.’ I immediately felt self-conscious of my eyebrows. ‘And I was right, because in one of them I found a piece on how to have your best summer ever.’

  ‘From a teenage magazine?’

  ‘Yes, the fact it was from a teen mag was even more important!’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because at the end of term, the kids I teach – teenagers – made me want to do something this summer.’

  Will nodded. ‘They do say kids are inspiring. So they inspired you?’

  ‘Oh no, they were little shits. They were all, “Miss, I’m gonna snog Justin this summer,” and “Miss, d’you reckon you’ve actually gotta be eighteen to go on an eighteen-to-thirties holiday?”

  ‘Sounds like they liked you.’

  ‘I like them too really, but it wasn’t inspiration that led me to that magazine, it was pure jealousy.’

  ‘You were jealous of the teenagers? Gross, why?’

  ‘Because they’re so carefree, so up for anything. So ready to throw caution, and their money, to the wind. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a carefree summer with no responsibilities. So here I am. Boom.’ I looked around.

  ‘Boom,’ he smiled.

  ‘Will you tell me about your mum? It sounds like she had a really interesting life. I mean – you don’t have to.’

  ‘Actually that’d be really nice, I haven’t told anyone her story in a really long time. Then you have to tell me everything you know about Cornwall.’

  ‘Deal.’

  *

  Katie opened an eye and reached out for her wine. ‘Are you feeling better?’ I asked, slapping a concerned smile over my big, I-fancy-a-boy one.

  ‘Um…how much longer ‘til we get back to shore?’ she asked, swigging.

  ‘Nearly there,’ said Will, catching my eye for a second.

  ‘Oh.’ Katie sat up and downed her wine, then reached for some leftover cheese. ‘In that case, I feel much better.’

  ‘Are you in Cairns for long?’ Will asked.

  ‘We leave the day after tomorrow.’ Boo. I didn’t want to leave him yet. How teenage was that?

  ‘And then you’re heading down the coast? Where to?’

  ‘Ultimately Sydney, but we’ll have about a week to get there. We haven’t really planned the itinerary yet, so if you have any suggestions?’ Like that you want to come with us?

  ‘I’ll be in Sydney myself in a week, for a mate’s wedding. I can certainly give you suggestions for your trip down. Do you wanna meet up tomorrow evening and talk about it? If you’re not sick of me already?’

  I glanced at Katie, who beamed at me. ‘That would be brilliant.’

  We walked down the pier away from the boat, me stealing glimpses back at Will and my heart swooning like a sunfish.

  ‘How was that for a first-day-of-the-holiday?’ grinned Katie, chomping on a handful of stolen cheese cubes.

  ‘It was the best day ever, I want to be a scuba-diving instructor and live in Queensland and gaze at parrotfish all day.’

  ‘Just at parrotfish?’

  ‘And rays.’

  ‘And…?’

  ‘And clown fish.’

  ‘And how about at hunky Australian men with nice hair?’

  I’d blushed more today than I had since I was seventeen. ‘Yeah, that would be OK as well. I think the sun and wine have gone to my head, because all I can think about is that Katy Perry song, “Teenage Dream”.’

  Katie enveloped me in such an enormous hug that I dropped my flip flops. ‘As someone who’s been painfully aware of you listening to “All By Myself” on repeat for two months, this is the best news ever. I actually think your silly old magazine might be on to something.’

  *

  The next morning we stopped by a supermarket for supplies of Tim Tams and spent the bulk of the day on the esplanade, taking dips in the saltwater lagoon swimming pool and cooking a huge packet of sausages on one of the public barbecues.

  I stared across the water with pathetic longing, munching a hot dog and looking like I’d lost the love of my life and not just a dreamy boy who’d made eyes at me for half a day.

  ‘Oi. You’ll see him tonight. Can you last that long, Hannah Montana?’

  I laughed, my eyes trailing the sky, which this morning seemed to be getting more and more speckled with blobs of cloud. ‘I suppose. Do you think it’s going to rain?’

  ‘No, I think it’s against the law to rain in Australia.’

  An hour later and we were back at the Kove. ‘Another round of Scattergories?’ asked Katie. The rain was relentless, and pounded against the balcony doors like it was very angry at us for trying to ditch it in England.

  ‘No,’ I said, standing. ‘Board games do not a “Best Summer Ever” make. The longer we do this, the less I can tick off the list. How do you fancy helping me dye my hair, making me the “coolest girl on the beach”?’

  ‘We’re really going to do it?’ Katie marveled, grabbing the Sun-In and the crunch spray. ‘You’ve never dyed your hair. Even as we were buying the stuff I thought we were just humoring you.’

  ‘It’ll be interesting, won’t it? To see what I look like, different.’ As Katie spritzed, and I sat, my bravery packed its suitcase and left. ‘Can we wash it off now?’

  ‘You have to leave it twenty minutes.’

  After fifteen minutes I couldn’t take it anymore and dashed to the shower, exami
ning the ends of my wet hair, trying to predict the results.

  I crept back into the bedroom where Katie waited. ‘I’m going to dry your hair, and then beachy-wave it, OK? I want you to trust me and not look in the mirror until we have the end result.’

  As she dried and scrunched and sprayed and tousled I caught her squinting at my locks.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing. It’s a teeny bit patchy in places – nothing to worry about. The waves help it blend.’

  ‘Oh God, let me see.’

  ‘I think it looks fine. I mean, brilliant.’ She passed me the mirror.

  I surveyed blonde against my green eyes, against my faintly tanned skin. The unfamiliar look of it falling to the top of my shoulders. It wasn’t the best dye job, but I liked the colour – honey blonde, rather than a platinum – and Katie’s beachy waves made me feel like Jessica Alba. ‘Look at us,’ I said to my reflection. ‘We’ve got blonde hair. We like it. We like not being with Sam.’

  ‘Whoa – where did that come from?’

  ‘This is a different, if slightly peculiar-looking, me. And I’m the other side of the world. And it might be raining, and I might have just done my hair in a way that’ll make a certain Aussie hunk now run a mile, but it all seems…OK.’

  ‘Hoorah. We’re on track for the Most OK Summer Ever!’

  The rain skulked off as quickly as it came, and we met Will at a relaxed, fairy-light sprinkled bar back on the harbour. He took a moment to recognize the blonde and not-bikini-clad me.

  ‘It looks nice,’ he said when we’d ordered some drinks and nachos, reaching over and touching my hair between his fingers. It felt like such an intimate moment that my breathing stopped while his hand was so close to my cheek. ‘It looks sunkissed.’

  Dear God, what was he doing to me, saying ‘kissed’ in this proximity?

  ‘It looks like yours,’ I proclaimed. ‘I mean, not deliberately, I’m not one of those girlfriends who starts morphing into her boyfriend’s looks.’ The words were out and I looked at Katie in panic. He was going to think I was a total stalker. ‘Fr-friend. Friend. Giiiiiirly….’ I gulped.

  ‘Anyway,’ Katie cut in. ‘You’re heading down to Sydney too, right? When?’

  ‘The journey’s not planned yet. I’m off work for the next couple of weeks, so I was just going to make my way down. Maybe fly, maybe hire a car.’

  ‘Maybe hitch a ride?’

  I gave Katie The Look. I could see one of her ‘ideas’ forming. Her ideas were always incredible, and far-fetched, and when she gets one in her head she won’t let up.

  ‘You should come with us,’ she cut to the point, ignoring The Look. ‘It would be brilliant.’

  ‘That’s nice of you,’ Will laughed. ‘But no need for you to do that.’

  ‘You have to.’

  ‘You wouldn’t want me there; I’d be a total buzzkill on your girls’ holiday.’

  ‘You would not be a buzzkill, you’d be our bodyguard – or did you want us to die?’

  ‘You don’t even know how annoying I am yet.’

  ‘You don’t know how annoying I am,’ she challenged. ‘Jen, don’t you think it would be perfect if Will came along?’

  ‘Only if he wants to.’

  ‘Of course he wants to, don’t you Will?’

  I met his eyes and wondered if this was a good idea, or a really bad one. I also wondered if his lips tasted of salt.

  ‘Well, you don’t seem like psychos—’

  ‘Apart from when I dye my hair to look like yours,’ I chortled. WHY did I bring it up again?

  ‘Apart from then. So if you’re sure, that would be pretty ace.’

  ‘Really?’ cried Katie.

  ‘Yes please.’

  ‘I’m going to get some beers to celebrate,’ she said, running off and leaving the two of us alone.

  ‘Are you sure you don’t mind?’ I scrunched my nose at him. He was probably scrambling around his brain trying to think of a way to get out of this.

  ‘No, I think it’ll be ace! Unless you mind?’

  ‘No, no, I just thought you might have…minded.’

  ‘No, not unless you mind.’

  ‘So neither of us mind. It’s a ringing endorsement,’ I teased, a beam working its way onto my face.

  ‘I can see you guys reminiscing in ten years’ time: “Do you remember that guy Will, the one we didn’t mind?”, “Yeah, he was just OK”.’

  ‘We won’t say that; we probably won’t remember you at all by then.’

  Will guffawed, and then went serious, looking out at the sunset. I watched his profile, his skin glowing in the burnt-sugar coloured light. He turned back to face me, catching me staring, and met my eyes. ‘Hey, thanks for yesterday, for telling me about Cornwall.’

  ‘It’s no problem – just let me know if there’s anything else you want to know.’

  ‘Thanks. I don’t really have anyone to talk to about that stuff, and I really feel like I might know my mum a bit better now. I can kind of…picture her there.’

  ‘Maybe you should come over sometime, I could take you to see the places she lived and grew up?’

  He reached over and placed a big hand on mine, just as a thank-you gesture, I’m sure, but it still made me hold by breath and forget all the words in the English language. Thankfully, Katie then returned clutching three stubbies, and Will let me go and sat back.

  ‘We’ll have just over a week on this road trip, right?’ asked Will. ‘What kind of things do you want to do?’

  ‘I want to see koalas; maybe hold a koala,’ I said.

  ‘And kangaroos,’ added Katie.

  ‘And I want to get my legs covered in red outback dust.’

  ‘And we need a beach barbecue.’

  ‘And a bonfire,’ I added, thinking of the list. ‘And to learn to surf.’

  ‘And to drink wine as the sun sets over the Opera House.’

  ‘Maybe we need to go in the Opera House?’ I suggested.

  ‘Alright, alright,’ Will pulled out his phone and accessed the maps. ‘Let’s see if we can make a plan…’

  *

  Will met us at the harbour first thing in the morning, armed with a duffel bag and three cartons of iced coffee. Katie nipped in to a local café to use the loo, and I leaned against the car, enjoying the sun on my face.

  The car sighed as Will rested beside me. ‘Are you sure you guys don’t mind me coming? I feel like I’m invading your trip.’

  ‘You’re not invading our trip, you’re like…adding a satnav. I do have one concern though.’ I opened my eyes and squinted at him. ‘The thing is, you’re really nice to the fish, but you might be a murderer.’

  He nodded. ‘Good point.’

  ‘I think you should know that Katie does boxing classes back in England.’

  ‘I think you should know I have no upper body strength, and I’m generally pretty lethargic in the mornings and from about 3pm onwards.’

  ‘You could have a weapon. Or drugs. Road trip rules – no weapons or drugs.’

  ‘That seems fair. I think it’s going to be fun, hanging out with you.’ He smiled at me, studying my face as if there were a lot of thought happening behind his eyes, and in that teenage way, when a boy smiles at a girl, my heart started singing Joss Stone’s ‘Super Duper Love’.

  I took a few moments too long to think of an easy-going, flirty comeback and Katie reappeared so instead I blurted, ‘Nice wee?’

  ‘Fantastic thanks, made some room.’ She took one of the iced coffees and slurped. ‘Are we good to go? Who’s driving first?’

  ‘I will,’ I volunteered, otherwise I’d just spend several hours fan-girling over Will.

  ‘Will, you have to direct her,’ said Katie. ‘I’ll sit in the back, but you also need to be car DJ.’

  ‘You can play anything you want, as long as it’s from the nineties playlist,’ I told him, handing him my phone. I climbed into the driver’s seat and my new man, who was so not ‘my’
new man, climbed in next to me and we looked like the loveliest, happiest couple in the whole wide world.

  ‘Awesome,’ Will said. ‘You’ve got Savage Bloody Garden on here!’ He cranked up the volume and ‘I Want You’ aptly filled the car, with him singing along. I glanced in the mirror at Katie, dancing to his off-key voice. She caught my eye and mouthed ‘MARRY HIM!’.

  I laughed joyfully and with Will’s blonde hair flicking back and forth in the corner of my eye started the engine and began our Aussie road trip.

  One and a half hours later and my bladder was banging it’s fists against the seatbelt, angry at being filled with a whole carton of iced coffee. ‘Anyone fancy a break?’

  ‘If you can wait about twenty minutes I’ll show you something spectacular,’ said Will.

  ‘How spectacular?’ Katie piped up.

  ‘Twenty-six foot of golden spectacularness.’

  My bladder sat back, curious. She could wait twenty minutes.

  ‘Throw a leftie at the next exit,’ he instructed, leaning forward in his seat. I glanced at the back of his neck. Would I ever get close enough to be kissing it?

  Focus on the road.

  We pulled into a small town which was inexplicably cloaked in cloud, despite the sunshine only minutes away by the coast. ‘This is one of the wettest towns in Australia!’ Will explained with pride. ‘There’s actually an ongoing competition between here and three other towns for which has the most rainfall. The prize is a golden gumboot.’

  ‘A golden gummy bear?’ asked Katie.

  ‘No, a gumboot. Like…a welly boot.’

  ‘Just one?’ I asked.

  ‘Yeah, but that’s just a little trophy. What I’ve brought you here for…is…’ He led us around a corner, his chest bursting with excitement. ‘THIS!’

  In front of us was a massive, two-story-building-sized wellington boot, standing in the middle of the street, painted a greenish-gold with a large, 3D frog stretched across one side.

  ‘It’s a Big Thing,’ I marveled. ‘I’ve heard of these! You guys have Big Prawns and Big Bananas and things all over the place, right?’