Chapter Thirty-Three
Blushing, I broke away. He places me back in the cold water, the underwater sand tickling my feet. Between us was silence. The sound of children splashing in the water disappeared, the sound of seagulls squawking was non existent – all that mattered was our lingering eye contact. Carefully, he raised his hand, wiping a water droplet from my face.
“You’re beautiful, Lacey,” he whispered, his hand lingering on my cheek.
Blushing again, I turned away from him.
“I’m hungry,” I said, breaking the moment. “Shall we go find somewhere to eat?” He frowned for a second before grinning.
“Sure,” he agreed. “I’ll get the same fish and chips as last time – I mean sausage for you, right?” I was surprised he remembered.
“Thank you,” I said. “I can’t believe you remember that.”
“I remember everything about you, Jennings.”
Heroically, he carried me from the sea, knowing that I hated it when sand dried on my wet feet. He placed me down on the harbour wall, leaving my legs dangling over the side.
“I’ll be back soon,” he told me, holding the bottom of my legs. “Don’t fall off, clumsy.”
“I won’t, I promise,” I said before he left me sitting there. “Hey Jackson!” I called when he was some distance away. “I’m not clumsy!” I heard his chuckle from all the way over here.
“Boo!” somebody shouted from behind me when I’d been sitting there for fifteen minutes. Almost falling from the wall, I steadied myself.
“Jackson,” I groaned. “I almost fell.”
“Sorry, clumsy. Now hold onto these while I try and get up.”
Surprisingly, he managed the task quite easily, so now he was sitting next to me, sorting out our lunch. He handed me a paper bag and we ate.
“You are definitely right when it comes to that shop,” I said when I’d finished. “It is the best in the world.”
“Well, you’ve not tried chips from all over the world, Jennings. How can you know that?”
“Shut up,” I laughed freely.
“Come on, clumsy. I have something else I want to show you.” Confused, I followed him.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Wait and see.”
Trampolines. Gigantic springy trampolines. That’s where he’d taken me. They were on the beach near donkey rides and swing boats. Glaring at him, I let out a laugh.
“You want me to go on the trampolines?” I questioned.
“Yes,” he said. “And the swing boats.”
So that’s what we did. On two trampolines near each other, we bounced around crazily among the young children. He somersaulted, making me stand in awe.
“Dude, that’s crazy skills,” I laughed, still doing regular star jumps.
“I can go backwards too, watch!” True to his word, he somersaulted backwards, landing in the centre.
“I didn’t know you did trampolining,” I shouted to him in admiration. He had a little crowd forming now as he bounced back and forth, flipping over and showing off.
“Number six, no somersaulting on the trampolines!” a voice bellowed. It was the operator, pointing to a sign that said no somersaulting. Lewis raised his hands.
“Sorry man,” he said. “Short sighted.”
“Times up anyway,” the man grumbled.
Laughing, I punched him in the arm affectionately.
“Short sighted – really?” I teased.
“Couldn’t think of anything else. “Anyway, swing boat time, Jennings. This is where the real fun begins.” Warily, I let him lead me over the swing boats. There wasn’t a queue, so we got straight on.
“What do I do?” I asked, looking puzzled at the hanging ropes.
“You’ve never been on one of these?”
“No,” I said, embarrassed.
“Well, just follow me lead.”
We had to pull the ropes in a systematic way, but I eventually got the hand of it. We swung higher and higher until I was lifting off my seat. When the boat stilled, he kissed me playfully, cutting off my care-free laughter.
“Thanks for today, Jennings,” he whispered.
“No, thank you,” I replied quietly. “Now go win me a teddy. If I remember, last time I wasn’t very polite.”
“It’s on,” he chuckled.
Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry this took so long. I've been working on my Vampire Hunter story, Painted Red and kinda neglected this one. So yeah, really sorry!
Hope you like this one, thanks for sticking with me for so long. It's nearly been a year since I started this story. It should have been finished ages ago. I've been a bad writer, haha.
Thank you for reading!
Picture at the side if you don't know what a swing boat is. x