Page 29

As we wade through the water towards the beach after our chat, I feel a sharp sting in the ball of my foot as I step on something jagged, but I ignore the pain, amazed at the success of today and looking forward to getting out of this clingy, damp wetsuit.

Suddenly, Leo’s hand grasps my wrist, pulling me to a stop.

‘Iris, what’s wrong?’ he says, his expression full of concern as he stares down at the water around my ankles.

‘Hey!’ I say, looking at him strangely. ‘You called me “Iris”. I’ve been getting used to my nickname.’

‘Look,’ he insists, bringing my attention to the wisps of blood appearing in the sea.

‘Oh shit.’ I wince, taking the weight off my aching foot. ‘I thought I stepped on something.’ I gasp, gripping his forearms. ‘Do you think it was a crab? Oh my God, why is this happening to me again ? I swear, Leo, sea creatures hate me. They sense the fear.’

‘Lean on me,’ he demands, ignoring my ramblings.

Sliding an arm around my waist whilst throwing mine over his shoulders, he pulls my body against his before I can protest.

Not that I would.

‘I’m sure it’s not that bad,’ I reason as he leads me ashore, even though now that I think about it, it does actually hurt quite a lot. ‘It’s probably just a small… oh .’

We’ve reached the edge of the water, and I’ve lifted my foot up to discover the underside of it is covered in blood.

‘How were you walking on that?’ Leo asks, aghast before looking at me crossly. ‘You should have said something.’

I’m unfazed by his anger towards me because his face is so close to mine that it’s impossible for me to really focus on anything he’s saying or the tone in which he’s saying it. He has the perfect lips. They look so full and soft.

‘Put your arms round my neck,’ he instructs.

Mesmerised by his features so close to mine, I do what he asks, and in one swift motion, he lifts me up into his arms like I don’t weigh a fucking thing, and he carries me up the beach.

I feel so safe and secure cradled up in his arms like this.

And he looks so adorably worried, the creases across his forehead etched with a mixture of concern and determination.

I don’t realise I’m holding my breath until we reach Marina’s Bar and her voice cuts through the haze I’d floated into whilst admiring the sharp line of his jaw.

‘What happened to you?’ she asks.

‘She cut her foot,’ Leo says, lowering me gently into a chair before he swings another one round to prop my foot up onto.

‘I can see that, genius; I meant how.’

‘I stepped on a crab,’ I murmur dreamily, watching Leo pick up another chair to put it right by my leg, before reaching round to unzip his wetsuit, peeling it down to his waist and sitting down to inspect my foot properly.

Thank fuck I got a pedicure before I came here.

As he peers at the injury, I stare at his torso, glistening with water droplets.

‘You what ?’ Marina says, wrinkling her nose.

‘We don’t know what happened,’ Leo says plainly, reaching to grab cushions from other chairs to stack under my foot. ‘Can you get the first aid kit, Marina?’

‘Coming right up,’ she says, hurrying off, muttering, ‘ She stepped on a crab, ’ in disbelief under her breath as she goes.

‘You’re going to be okay,’ he tells me as if I give a flying fuck about my foot right now and I’m not fully distracted by the way he carried me in his strong arms. ‘We’ll get this cleaned up and then we’ll be able to tell what we’re dealing with.’

Marina returns with the kit, holding it out to Leo, who gets to work straight away, cleaning the cut.

With Marina present, I try not to be too obvious when I observe the way Leo’s arms flex as he works, and how shimmering and smooth the skin of his carved bare chest looks, and how defined his abs are, even when he’s sitting down, hunched over my foot.

Marina clears her throat. ‘Iris? Did you hear me?’

I snap my head up to look at her and find her watching me, smirking.

‘S-sorry,’ I stammer, forcing my face into serious mode. ‘Did you say something?’

‘Yes, but it looked like you were in some kind of daze there,’ she says with a tone of humour swirling round her words. ‘I was asking if you were okay.’

‘Yes, thank you,’ I say crisply, sitting up a little.

‘Good, it doesn’t look very deep,’ Leo announces, as I wince when he dabs it with something that stings. ‘The blood made it look worse than it is. You’re lucky.’

‘And just when you were getting the hang of popping up on the board,’ Marina remarks, putting her hands on her hips. ‘Not sure you should surf tomorrow; you need to let that heal.’

‘That’s a shame,’ I sigh.

‘And no wearing those high heels of yours,’ she adds.

‘ What? It’s not that bad,’ I protest sharply.

I notice Leo smile to himself.

‘Glad you’re feeling yourself, London,’ he mutters, still focusing on nursing my foot.

‘I’ve got to serve these customers and then I’ll go get you guys some water,’ Marina says, her eyes flickering between us.

‘If you need anything else, shout. Otherwise, I’ll be back in a bit.

’ She comes over to rest a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it.

‘Well done for today. You looked great out there.’

‘Thanks, Marina.’

Leo and I fall into comfortable silence when she leaves, both of us concentrating on the task at hand: he’s busy wiping the blood from my foot and I’m taking the opportunity to admire him openly without any judgement from another party.

‘Okay, that will have to do for now,’ he says eventually, looking up at me. ‘How does it feel? Are you in a lot of pain?’ He cranes his neck to see where Marina is. ‘Once we have some water, you can take some painkillers, then you should get to a doctor.’

‘Leo, I’m fine.’

He stands up. ‘I think Marina may have been distracted; I’ll go get some.’

‘No, don’t go yet,’ I say a bit too abruptly, my hand reaching out even though he’s too far away for me to grab and hold onto.

I drop my hand, my cheeks flushing.

What the fuck am I doing? Why am I acting as though I’m a little kid who has hurt herself and needs someone to look after me? I don’t need anyone. I’m mortified.

Leo stares at me, a little stunned by the feeling in my voice. I’m not surprised.

‘All right,’ he says eventually, sliding his chair up so he’s nearer to me rather than my elevated foot.

‘I just wanted to… thank you for speaking to me today,’ I say hurriedly, lifting my chin and doing my best to act like a grown-up again.

‘I know that can’t have been easy, revisiting the past, especially when you went through such a traumatic event and I don’t want you to think I’m not…

grateful. That’s the wrong word, I think. Hang on, let me think of a better one.’

He smirks. ‘It’s okay. You don’t have to thank me. I wanted to talk about it. I’ve been thinking about it and if telling my story helps one person out there to feel less alone, then it’s worth it. I’ve been carrying around the shame of it a long time.’

‘There’s no shame in losing your way.’

‘There’s shame in treating your friends and family badly,’ he counters. ‘I never apologised to them: the mates I grew up with in Victoria. That’s haunted me ever since I left.’ He hesitates, his dark eyes softening. ‘I know they think the worst of me.’

‘I’m sure that’s not true. Even if it is, they’ll read this article and understand what happened,’ I assure him gently. ‘And you can always apologise to them in person when you’re in Australia.’

He grimaces. ‘Saying sorry has never come easily for me.’

‘I can relate,’ I say, laughing. ‘But it does feel better when you do. And anyway, they’ll forgive you. Come on, you were young. You were mini grooms.’

He laughs and corrects me, ‘ Groms . We were on surfboards, not in stables.’

‘Right. Mini groms. We’re all idiots when we’re young. Look at me and the incident in Cornwall. I have no one to blame for that but myself.’ I pause, watching him thoughtfully. ‘What about your mum?’

He stiffens. ‘What about her?’

‘Have you ever spoken to her properly about what happened and how you felt at the time? I get the feeling that you’re not… close. And you were obviously upset about how she went about organising this article. But tell me to shut up if I’ve got that wrong.’

‘I’m not sure I’d ever get away with telling you to shut up, London.’

‘True. Do so at your peril.’

He gives a small smile, rubbing the back of his neck.

‘Is this off the record?’ he checks.

‘If you want it to be.’

He exhales. ‘I was surprised that she was so interested in me taking part in Bells Beach again. I didn’t realise it would be on her radar. But, yeah, maybe her pitching this article is a step in the right direction.’

‘Sounds like she’s proud of how far you’ve come.’

His eyes fall to the ground, as though he can’t let himself believe it.

I watch him retreat into himself again; beneath that strong, muscled chest is a heart that’s as brittle and delicate as anyone else’s.

I think it’s been broken and taped back together long before now, the heart of a boy who somewhere along the way accepted that he would never be enough to earn the approval he clearly craved.

How I wish I could reach out and hold him.

Clearing his throat, he lifts his head to smile apologetically at me, blinking away any hint of vulnerability. ‘Look, I don’t want to talk about… that. How are you feeling?’

‘Me?’

‘Yes, you,’ he says, the playful side to him re-emerging. ‘You stood up on a board today. You surfed.’

‘ And I survived a crab attack.’

He gives me a look. ‘You did not step on a crab.’

‘Got the cut to prove it.’

‘It was probably the edge of a rock.’

‘It stuck out its pincers when it saw me coming and went for the kill.’

‘That is very unlikely.’

‘Bloody villainous crab.’

Using the arms of the chair, I push myself up so my back is straighter, sliding my foot down from its elevated position. Leo instinctively reaches forward to grab my arm.

‘What are you doing? You should keep it up,’ he says crossly.

‘It’s fine; it’s a cut.’