Page 98 of Suddenly Beck

I look over and see Georgie waving at me. Apart from organising several surf events over the next couple of days, she volunteered to host the sandcastle building competition. This time however, she’s decided to go with a theme. All the contestants have two hours to build their own pirate ship made entirely of sand.

I find myself checking out all the entries as I head toward Georgie shaking my head. I come across Jesse who has not only buried Quinn in the sand but is recreating the scene from Friends where they cover Joey in sand and give him a mermaid’s body complete with breasts. However, given that this is a family event, he has at least given him a couple of seashells for modesty’s sake. Chuckling as Quinn grins and gives me a thumbs up, I stop at one of the large holes that has been dug in the sand and peer in.

‘Molly?’ I laugh.

Her head pops up out of the hole where she appears to be building a bench to sit on, and she cackles loudly. She’s wearing a rather risqué peasant blouse and corset, with tight fitting trousers. Her hair is tucked under a pirate hat, and she has large gold hoops dangling from her ears. To my utter delight, I see she’s wearing her crocs, only this time they’re a bright lime green pair.

‘Nat! Ahoy there!’ She looks down. ‘Mid-shipman! Friendlies off the port bow!’

Suddenly another head pops up out of the sand.

‘Bernard?’ I grin.

His head is covered with a knotted red and white handkerchief, and his bushy white handlebar moustache has been waxed into Salvador Dali curls at the edges. He’s wearing an eye patch and has an inflatable parrot attached to his frilly shirt.

‘Ahoy!’ he booms. ‘Permission to come aboard… come on, lad, grab a bucket and spade.’

‘Thanks.’ I grin widely. ‘But I have to be down at Sully’s soon, I just wanted to see Beck first.’

‘Very good then.’ He nods. ‘Carry on. You’ll find the object of your esteem somewhat to the stern, about fifty paces as the crow flies.’ He waves a pink plastic spade in that direction.

‘Thanks, have fun guys!’ I move on.

‘Nat,’ Georgie calls out as she tosses me an ice cold bottle of water from the cooler next to her. ‘Beck’s further down the beach, make sure he drinks plenty, it’s going to be a hot one.’

I shoot her a salute and make my way further through the throngs of people. Finally, I see a low barrier where a section of the beach has been divided off far enough back that it won’t be disturbed by the tide.

I stop and stare in amazement. Where there had been a huge pile of damp builders sand delivered a few days earlier, there is now the beginnings of an incredible sand sculpture.

It’s a huge pirate galleon, which has been split down the middle, and from which protrudes a giant sea monster, its tentacles wrapped around the ship. Although the rough shape of the Kraken and the stern of the ship are there, they don’t yet have as much detail as the rest of it. Beck’s been working on it since dawn, and it’ll probably take him all day to finish before he’ll move onto the next section of the beach, which has been ear marked for him to create a different sculpture tomorrow.

I move further through the people, watching in fascination and stepping closer, so I can marvel at the incredible detail. He’s created waves made of sand all around the base of the sculpture that look so real with their foamy swells crashing over each other. The tentacles of the Kraken are exquisite with small round suckers clinging to the ship as it tears it apart. The front section of the ship has a mermaid figure head, and you can see the detailed wooden planks. It even has little cannons poking out of the small square hatches. Once again, I’m absolutely blown away at the talent of my boyfriend.

My boyfriend… I beam, glancing down to see the object of my affection as he moulds another cannon from damp sand.

‘You look hot.’ I grin, holding up the bottle of water and waving it. As he looks up, I see he’s wearing my aquarium baseball cap with a little black fin shark on the front.

His gaze skims down my body, and I flush as his eyes darken. He stands and moves over to me slowly taking the bottle gratefully. He unscrews the cap and takes a long gulp. I watch his throat muscles as he swallows and wish we weren’t in such a public place, so I could do extremely dirty things to him right now.

‘You’ve got a whole sexy Orlando Bloom/Will Turner thing going on right now,’ he says quietly, his voice a delicious rasp that coils around my stomach and squeezes. ‘I wish we were alone.’

‘That’s just what I was thinking.’ I smile slowly.

‘Later, baby.’ He winks. ‘And I want you to keep the costume on.’

I glance down at my pirate outfit. ‘Really? A pirate?’

He shrugs. ‘Like I said, Orlando Bloom.’ As if that explains everything, but being an Orlando fan myself, I can’t really disagree.

‘Fine.’ I grin. ‘Then you can’t complain when I put the elf ears on you, so you can be Legolas.’

‘An elf?’ He blinks.

I eye his blonde hair, which is long enough to touch his shoulders now, tied back in a messy knot beneath the baseball cap at the nape of his neck.

‘Uh, hmmm.’ I nod, and he chuckles. ‘This looks incredible by the way,’ I tell him, turning my attention back to the sculpture.

‘It’s coming along,’ he agrees modestly. ‘You heading down to Sully’s?’