Hello, Again by Isabelle Broom

Author:Isabelle Broom [Broom, Isabelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529325041
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2020-06-03T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 29

‘I can’t remember the last time I did this.’

Finn paused in his application of sun lotion, one outstretched leg smeared white.

‘Did what – ate ice cream?’

Pepper looked down at the scoops of salted caramel and Belgian chocolate that were beginning to melt and run down the sides of her cone.

‘Yes – but also just sat on the beach, on a blanket, with a man,’ she said. ‘It’s nice – I should really try to do it more often.’

Finn smiled at her, his hands returning to their task.

‘You are lucky,’ he said. ‘To have this beach so close to your home. In Hamburg we have the river, as you know, but it is not the same as this. There is something very special about the sea; the feeling you get when you stand – or sit – and look out at it.’

Pepper bit into her wafer and a shoal of crumbs cascaded down the front of her swimsuit.

‘Leave them,’ said Finn slyly, as she attempted to fish them out. ‘Something for me to nibble on later.’

Samuel had stayed long enough for the three of them to finish the bottle of champagne the previous evening, after which she and Finn had called for takeaway and sat together under a blanket on her sofa, feeding each other duck pancakes and prawn crackers dipped in sweet chilli sauce. Eventually, it got so late that Finn had fallen asleep, his long limbs dangling off her settee at all angles and his blond hair tossed artfully against the cushion. Loath to wake him, Pepper had crept around clearing up, stacking empty bottles in the recycling bag and using a dustpan and brush to sweep all the remnants of her broken jar into the bin. The tea towel that Finn had commandeered to catch the bat had ended up filled with ice for the lump on his head – a souvenir from his mid-air slam dunk with Samuel.

Once everything was washed, dried and put away, she had gone back into the front room and lowered herself down onto the carpet until she was sitting cross-legged beside him, allowing herself a few precious moments to take in the light stubble that was just starting to re-emerge across his jaw, the shadows his lashes cast across his cheeks and the soft fullness of his lower lip. The need to kiss him had burnt through her, the compulsion to touch him too strong to ignore. Leaning forwards, Pepper had pressed her own lips hesitantly against his own.

Finn didn’t open his eyes; he simply gave in to a sleepy half-smile and pulled her against him, hoisting her up onto the sofa until she was lying across him. Wrapping his arms tightly around her, he had drawn her close until her body slotted in around his.

‘Hallo,’ he murmured, and when he kissed her, Pepper had felt all her recent anxiety drain away. Finn was her spoonful of medicine, her remedy to the trials she faced – being with him made her feel protected from the world, and from herself, too.

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