Against the Tide (29 page)

I tug her to the doughnut stand at the entrance to the pier. The rich doughy smell fills the air around us and brings back very happy memories for me. “Bag of five, please. Plenty of sugar,” I tell the man that’s serving. He flips and rolls five donuts around in the sugar bowl, then drops them into a bag, sprinkling in an extra spoon of sugar for good measure.

“Your teeth will fall out,” she warns with humour in her voice.

“Hasn’t happened yet, sweetheart.” I take a hot doughnut out of the bag and hold it out for her to take. “Here,” but before she can take a bite I pull back, stopping her, “but no licking your lips.”

“What? That’s impossible,” she screeches.

“No licking your lips, okay? If you lick, I get to choose what ride you go on at the end of the pier.”

“Oh my god, that’s so unfair!”

“It’s the rules. Okay? Go …” We stand in front of each other and take the first bite. It is impossibly hard not to lick my lips and if the concentration on Megan’s face is anything to go by, she’s not finding it at all easy either.

“This is so hard,” Megan laughs trying to keep her lips together to avoid the temptation of licking them and after staring at her sugary lips, I’m finding it hard not to lick them too.

“Yes, it is,” I mumble, not missing the double meaning to my words. With my mind wandering, my tongue sneaks out and takes the sugar from the corner of my mouth.

“You licked!” she yells, practically jumping up and down on the spot. “I win! Does that mean I get to choose what ride you go on?” She makes a show of licking all the sugar off her lips now that the pressure is off. “Mmm mmm, sweet taste of victory,” she gloats, making it difficult not to laugh at her. For someone who wasn’t so keen on the pier just a minute ago, she seems to be coming around to the idea.

“I guess that means I can eat the rest of this bag and not worry about licking my lips,” I say, pulling out another doughnut.

“No, you can’t. You have to share,” she says, trying to dip her hand in the bag, but I snap it closed before she can grab one.

“I didn’t think you were hungry?”

“I’m not, but you can’t just wave doughnuts at me and expect me not to want to eat them! Besides, I wouldn’t eat too much if I were you, have you already forgotten that I get to pick your ride?”

“Can we wait until the doughnuts have gone down?” I pout.

“We’ll see.”

I grin at her before tugging on her arm and dragging her along the pier. The music from the arcade gets louder as we approach and I stuff the last half of a doughnut in my mouth so I can get some cash changed up.

“You any good at the two penny stackers?” I ask her.

“The what?” she laughs.

“You know, the stackers. You put your two penny pieces in the top and watch them bounce all the way down to the bottom and see if they push any coins out,” I explain excitedly. “Mum used to treat me and Lizzie once a month. When she got paid, she would bring us down here and give us a pounds worth of two p’s and we would spend ages trying to push as many as we could off the ledges, but everything that fell off, we put back in and always went home with nothing, except maybe a key ring or a lolly that might have dropped down with the pennies if we were lucky.”

She smiles at me warmly, and I realise my mouth just ran away with me. I also realise for the first time, that it wasn’t so painful to talk about Lizzie, not when it’s happy memories anyway.

“Will you show me?” she asks, with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Sure! Come with me.” I take her up to the booth in the middle and change up a five pound note to two pence pieces. I split them between two plastic cups and hand one to her.

“Five pounds worth, Finn?” she jokes, shaking her cup with the pennies in.

“Well, when Mum used to bring us, it was a long time ago, so I figured a pound each wouldn’t be enough.”

“Fair enough.”

“Come on, they’re over here.” I lead her to the huge hexagonal machine where people are playing on all corners except for one. “Use this one.” I place my cup on the top of the machine so I can show her what to do.

“Put your penny in here, but make sure you do it when the moving ledge is in the right place, otherwise it won’t push anything off.”

“You’re a real pro, huh?”

“You better believe it.” I stand behind her, and place my hand on her lower back to encourage her to move forward and have a go. She takes a step and starts to play with her pennies, cursing under her breath when she gets the timing wrong and nothing moves. I lean in closer to her, and rest my chin on her shoulder. She pauses her play of the game momentarily, her breath falters and I catch her look at me out of the corner of her eye. She leans back, just a little, before her mouth curves in a smile that sends my pulse racing. She continues with the coins, as though she isn’t affected by our close proximity, but I know she is by the gentle red blush that creeps across her chest. I push down the urge to move her hair from her neck and suck on her soft, sweet skin, although I’m not sure how long I can wait to do that. I had wanted to take things slowly with her, step by step and one day at a time, to do things the right way. But I’m quickly realising that we were never meant for slow, or easy. It was fast and furious from the beginning.

“Oh, yay!” she shouts, as a load of pennies are pushed off the last ledge and crash to the metal tray below. “Finn, look at all those!” She turns to me and flings her arms around me. Her feet leave the ground and I catch her mid-air, pulling her in tightly to me. “This is so much fun,” she squeals and leans in almost touching her forehead to mine. 

“Yep.” I touch my nose to hers and she moves her head from side to side gently.

“You know, if we were Eskimos, we would be kissing right now.”

“Oh yeah?” I chuckle under my breath.

“Yes, that’s how they kiss!” The excitement is still evident in her voice as she lets the tension go in her arms and slips down until her feet touch the ground. “There’s a spare side here, Finn. Come and play with me.” I’m actually enjoying myself just watching her excitement. Seeing her smiling and happy makes me happy. Who knew?

I can’t believe how much fun I’m having. I never thought in a million years that Finn would have such a playful side to him, and I never thought I would enjoy being on a date at the pier. It just goes to show, that it’s not what you’re doing, it’s who you’re with.

“So you liked the two penny stackers?” Finn asks as we walk further along the pier, hand in hand.

“I love them! Never knew they could be so much fun.”

“So what do you wanna play next? We can go on the tin can alley and see if we can win a cuddly toy? Or−”

“I think it’s time for your forfeit.” An evil grin creeps across my face and Finn follows my line of sight over to the rodeo bull simulator. There’s a young guy, maybe nineteen, climbing on ready to start.

“Really, Meg?” His eyes widen as I giggle like a schoolgirl.

“Oh, yeah. It’s perfect. Have you even been on one?”

“Nope.”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

“You’re pretty cruel, you know that?”

“Aww, don’t be like that, you might be really good.” Just as I say that, we hear a thud and turn back to see the guy get thrown into the padded wall of the bull circle.

Finn looks at me with his eyebrows pulled right up to his hairline, but takes a deep breath. “Okay, a forfeit is a forfeit. Let’s go.”

“You shouldn’t have anything to worry about. You already told me you’re badass,” I tease.

“Yeah,” he mumbles. “I might have lied.”

Finn pays his money and takes his shoes and socks off before getting ready to climb on. The plump man running the ride gives him the instructions and he gives me a nervous smile as he climbs on board and gets himself comfortable.

“Okay, if you can stay on until the end, you win a bottle of champagne. If you stay on longer than the two guys before you, you get a cuddly toy. Grip with your thighs, and only hold on with one hand. You left or right handed?”

“Left,” Finn answers.

“Okay, hook it under here, and hold on for your life.” He throws his head back and bellows with laughter.

“Good luck!” I shout and he grimaces, but in good humour. He actually looks very comfortable and like he’s done this before. He actually wouldn’t look out of place with a cowboy hat and some chaps, now there’s a thought. As the bull starts up with a jolt and moves slowly back and forth, his eyes widen at the movement and I know it’s his first time. It twists side to side and jerks forward but Finn throws his hips forward too, following the movements. Everyone around us cheers, which gathers a wider crowd as the bull starts to move really fast. When it shoots one way then the other, Finn starts to slip sideways. One final jerk and he lands on the padded matting with a thud. He rolls from his side on to his back with his arms spread wide and a smile on his face. Everyone watching whoops and hollers as he gets up and takes a bow. He staggers over to me, trying to catch his breath.

“That was …”

“A piece of cake?”

“Yeah, easy, could do it again no problem.” He rolls his eyes and drops his head dramatically into the crook of my shoulder.

“Well done, mate. Here’s your prize!” The ride operator thrusts a giant, white, very oversized bear with a pink bow around its neck into Finn’s arms. It has to be at least a third of the size of him and I hear him mumble a ‘thank you’ from behind the mass of fur before he turns to me and peeks around the side of it.

“Now that’s what you call a fucking bear.”

“A
fucking
bear?” I choke out a laugh and he drops the bear down so it rests on the ground.

“You have a filthy mind.”

“Yeah, I do,” I answer honestly with a wink and he shakes his head at me laughing from deep down in his belly.

“So where are we taking the bear next?” Finn asks, before grabbing up his shoes and hopping over the barrier to me. “You up for the rollercoaster?”

“Uh, no thank you.”
Are pregnant women supposed to ride on rollercoasters?
God, my head is a mess.

“Too chicken?”

“Nope, too motion sick,” I fib. Finn slips his shoes on and tucks the bear under one arm, holding out his other one for me to link with mine.

“Well, this date is all about having fun and I don’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to, so, how about we go down to the marina and check out the new steak house?”

“Steak? You serious? You just ate pretty much a whole bag of doughnuts, then got thrown around by the rodeo bull. Do you think you can handle it?”

“Sweetheart. I have a cast iron stomach. Doughnuts aren’t classed as food anyway.”

“Oh yeah? How do you work that one out?”

“Well, what I mean is they’re not classed as a meal, they are pleasure food. I’m a growing boy, I need a meal too.”

“You’re weird,” I mumble to him playfully.

“You’re weird, too,” he shoots back.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Oh, I almost forgot, wait here …” He unlinks our arms and jogs over to the sweet shop in the middle of the board walk. In just a couple of minutes he’s back at my side and pulls out a giant piece of rock from behind the bear. “Ta da!”

“Rock?”

“Not just any rock, sweetheart. Brighton rock. You can’t go to the pier without having a stick of rock!”

“If you say so.”

“I do. Come on.” He takes my hand, curling his fingers around mine and squeezing gently as we walk back down the length of the pier and out on to the promenade.

He stops after a few minutes and tugs my arm to sit on a bench overlooking the beach. He places the bear next to me and stretches his long legs out casually in front of him. “I am sorry, you know?” he says apologetically.

“It’s okay.” I turn to face him, giving him a small smile.

“No, it isn’t. I‘m sorry I was such a prick to you.” He leans forward and holds my gaze conveying his heartfelt feeling.

“I understand, Finn. I didn’t like it. You made me feel like shit actually. But, I do understand.”

“Why do you make it so easy to be around you, huh?”

I shrug and purse my lips. “Dunno. Guess I’m just awesome like that.”

“Yeah, Meg, you are awesome.” He leans into me and tilts his face toward mine, inching closer. “Thank you for giving me a second chance,” he whispers and his words brush sensuously across my lips. My pulse quickens as he presses his mouth softly against mine. His kiss is surprisingly gentle, like nothing we’ve had together before, but it’s no less powerful, and when he pulls away, I gasp to catch my breath as heat creeps through my body. Finn takes a deep breath and he draws in a slow, steady smile of happiness, which I return. That was quite a kiss.