She shook her head and shoved at his chest. ‘I wouldn’t have swum into the rip current for a start.’
‘No, I got that loud and clear.’ He looked back to the sea, to where he’d been making an idiot of himself minutes before and frowned. ‘Not that I understand how you spot one in the first place.’
She turned to look at the water too. ‘You see that channel you were in; you see how the waves are breaking either side, but that strip looks calm, virtually still…?’
He shifted higher onto his elbows and looked to where she motioned with her hand. ‘Yes.’
Her eyes came back to him, sharp, direct. ‘That is a rip current.’
‘Got it,’ he hurried out, which he did, and he would certainly remember it in future. ‘But at the time I was more focused on the dog that—’
As if on cue, said dog trotted up and like his rescuer shook off his hair, showering Todd in another layer of sea water. Only this time the effect wasn’t quite as appealing.
‘It was this one as it happens.’ He nodded his head in its direction and noted how the hound looked far too innocent and in no way in need of rescuing at all. The dog gave a sharp bark in agreement, or to rattle him further – he couldn’t decide.
‘Nalu?’ She still didn’t sound convinced.
‘Na-who?’ He stared at the dog like he could blame it for everything that had gone wrong that day.
‘Nalu…’ She leaned over and ruffled its great big head. ‘He belongs to the surf school further down the coast.’
‘He does?’
‘Yup and that’s why he’s called Nalu, it’s Hawaiian for wave or surf.’
‘Very apt.’ He knew he sounded disgruntled, but he couldn’t help it. If it hadn’t been for Nalu, he wouldn’t have made such a complete fool of himself. ‘I take it he knows all about rip wotsits then?’
She laughed again, the sound even lighter and easy now. ‘Yup.’
Nalu gave a little snort and plonked himself down.
It really was time to bring an end to the whole emasculating experience, but the idea of just walking away from her was worse than enduring it.
Instead he found himself asking, ‘Well, now that I know Naa-luu is safe and I certainly am, because of you, how about a drink to say thank you?’
Her eyes widened. ‘A drink?’
‘Yes… you know one of those things people do for fun?’
She nibbled her bottom lip, a move he found strangely contrary to the confidence she projected both in and out of the water.
‘I can’t, I already have plans.’ She glanced at her watch and gave a curse under her breath. ‘And I’m going to be late.’
She looked back to him as she shot to her feet. ‘Will you be OK getting home?’
Her obvious concern was sweet and frustrating – no, humiliating – at the same time. It would probably be better all round if they never saw one another again. His ego certainly thought so.
‘I’ll be fine, my place isn’t far.’
She hesitated, leaning on one foot then the other. ‘OK. But if you want to swim, maybe stick to the more common areas next time. This section doesn’t get many visitors with it being so overgrown.’
‘That’s what made it perfect.’
Her eyes narrowed and he knew she was trying to suss out his reasoning.
‘Well, next time, maybe just avoid the water and the acts of heroism.’
‘You’re on, I’ll leave those to you.’ He laughed as he said it, expecting her to take that as her cue to leave. Instead she went back to chewing her lip as Nalu trotted around to sit at her feet.
‘You can stop worrying, you know, I’m not about to go back in.’
‘Of course, yeah…’ she glanced away and then back to him. ‘I’ll see you around… come on, Nalu.’
Then she was off, ducking to grab her board on the way and jogging into the foliage that bordered the beach. He was left with his ego in pieces but a strange excitement thrumming through his veins. The come down of the adrenalin, he supposed, only he had a feeling it wasn’t just that…
And he hadn’t even caught her name.
He knew where she came to surf, though… if ever he wanted to engineer a future meet-up…
‘You need to move,’ he suddenly heard from the foliage, not that he could make her out. ‘The tide is about to take your designer trainers out.’
He shot up, she was right, the water was already lapping at his toes.
He launched himself at his shoes, his wet and sandy clothes making the entire move awkward and her soft giggle trickled through the air, tailing off as she went further into the greenery.
He found himself smiling down at the footwear now in his hands. Smiling?!
He could have died and instead of reeling from it, he was grinning like a fool.
He pulled his phone out of his shoes and checked his home screen, cursing when he saw the time.
No more grinning now, she wasn’t the only one about to be late.
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Meet Me in London: The sparkling new and bestselling romance for 2020. Perfect escapism, for fans of Lindsey Kelk and Heidi Swain. Page 30
