The Trouble with Love (11 page)

TWENTY-TWO

The sun was warm against the cliff. Polly could feel the heat through her dress as she leaned against the rocks with Sam's arm round her and a bottle of cold juice in her hand. The remains of a cheesy potato nestled in fire-blackened foil beside her. Sam clinked bottles and smiled into her eyes.

“Having fun?” he said.

“The most,” Polly sighed. If she closed her eyes she could feel the sun warming her eyelids. She felt loose and calm, full and happy and loved. It was a combination that didn't come along very often.

Ollie's dance music echoed and boomed off the rocks surrounding the cove, and there were people dancing everywhere. One or two braver guys had gone swimming, and were now chasing each other across the beach with handfuls of sand.

Rhi was laughing so much with Lila that she sprayed half a chocolate banana over her T-shirt. The chocolatey mess only made her and Lila laugh even more as they danced wildly to the music.

What a difference a week makes
, Polly thought, remembering how distraught Rhi had been on the boat trip. She hadn't seen Max since then, and as for Eve. . . She shuddered as she remembered Eve's attempted seduction of Sam at Heartwell Manor. It was hard to imagine going back to school tomorrow. It felt as if she had lived a whole new life since the last time she set foot in the classroom.

Polly realized that Sam hadn't been sitting beside her for a while. Turning her head, she surveyed the rounded, bumpy-looking sandcastle he was making.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“What is it?”

“A seal, of course. The small bump's its head” – he patted the rounded shape to demonstrate – “and the rest is its body under the water.”

Now that he'd said it, Polly could see the resemblance. He had even added stripes in the sand for the seal's whiskers.

“Brilliant,” she said. “Now can we stomp on it?”

“You can't stomp on a seal!” Sam objected.

Polly jumped to her feet. “Watch me,' she said teasingly.

“That's vandalism!” Sam protested, grabbing her round the waist and pulling her down on to the sand with him.

“OK, so I'm a vandal,” Polly said, smiling up at him. “What's my sentence?”

“The longest kiss that you can stand,” Sam answered. “Starting now.”

In the middle of their kiss, Polly heard a strange sound. She twisted her head and stared at the rocks behind them.

“Can you hear that?”

“All I can hear is the beating of my heart,” Sam announced.

Polly gave him a shove in the chest. “Seriously,” she said, grinning. “Listen.”

“
Help! Help us!
”

“That sounds like it's coming from inside the cliff,” said Sam.

It did. Polly got to her feet and rested her ear against the rock. The shout was still faint, but clearer.

“
Help us!
”

“They must be in the caves,” Polly said, realizing. “These cliffs are riddled with them. Whoever it is sounds like they're in trouble.”

“How do you get inside?” asked Sam, staring up at the golden cliff face.

Polly grabbed his hand and pulled him down the edge of the cove. “Here,” she said, pointing at a small black entrance near the water. “You can only get inside when the tide goes out.” A nasty thought struck her. “The tide's going to turn soon. Whoever's inside needs to get out, fast.”

Sam pulled a torch from his back pocket and flicked it on. “Be prepared,” he said, smiling at Polly's surprised face. “That's something you learn as a scout, and keep learning as a sailor.”

The cave was low to begin with, dank and dripping. Polly had never been inside before. She was glad to have Sam with her, his comforting bulk wriggling through the rocky passages in front of her. The sand was wet for the first few metres, then grew drier as they rose above sea level.

“Help!”

This time the shout ended on a sob of panic.

“We're coming!” Sam shouted back.

There was the sound of scuffling somewhere up ahead. Polly held on tightly to Sam's hand, her free hand brushing up against the damp rocks.

“We are going to be able to get out of here,” she said a little weakly. “Right?”

Sam checked the luminous face on his watch. “We have a little while until the tide turns. Provided we find these guys, we'll be out in plenty of time.”

They walked on. The light from outside barely penetrated this deep inside the cliff. In the gleam of Sam's torch, Polly saw messages scrawled on the rock faces, hearts and dates carved everywhere she looked. Heartside Bay is the capital of love inside
and
out, she thought.

The tunnel widened out into a cave. Sam's torch lit it up in its entirety, high-roofed and bone dry save for a small spring trickling clear, cold water in one corner. The perfect hiding place, Polly thought, gazing around in wonder. This was the kind of cave that smugglers dreamed of.

“Oh thank
God
!”

Someone threw themselves out of the shadows, clutching at Sam's sleeve with a set of long, grubby fingers tipped in chipped red nail polish. A dirty, dusty figure with sand in her tangled red hair staggered into the torchlight, holding her hand up to shade her eyes from the bright light.

“Sam! Polly! I thought we were going to be in here
for ever
,” Eve whimpered, weeping uncontrollably. “Max's stupid torch went out and we couldn't find our phones in the dark and—”

“It was your fault we came in here in the first place,” Max complained, slouching into the light of the torch behind Eve. His hair was covered in silvery spiders' webs and his jumper was torn. “You said it would be romantic. If crawling around in the pitch dark is your idea of romance, then I'm with the wrong girl.”

“Oh, like you didn't think it was the best idea you'd ever heard?” Eve snapped, a flash of her usual sharp-clawed self emerging through the tangled hair and frightened eyes. “Get us out of here before I murder him, Sam, will you? We've been shouting for
hours
.”

Eve's tone of voice suggested that all this was somehow Polly and Sam's fault for taking such a long time in coming to the rescue.

“Fine,” Sam said equably. “We'll leave you then, shall we? The next lot will probably get in after the tides have turned, so if you can hang around until the morning for a more suitable rescue party. . .”

Polly giggled at the look on Eve's face.

“The exit's this way,” Sam sighed, relenting.

It was typical of Eve not even to thank them, Polly thought as they negotiated the tunnels sloping back down towards the water level. Sam flicked his torch off as the daylight grew stronger. Polly could hear Eve and Max behind them, bickering like angry wasps the whole way.

“Next time I want to hang out in a cave I'll join a speleological society.”

“Next time you want to hang out in a cave, I'll wall it up and leave you there!”

They all crawled out of the cave mouth, wading through the inches of water which had started gathering among the rocks as the tide started to creep back into shore. Eve was an even more pitiful sight in the sunshine. Her make-up was streaked down her face and there was a long ladder in her tights. Polly knew it was bad to enjoy her enemy's misfortune, but she allowed herself a private grin.

Lila was the first to explode with laughter as the dusty couple sidled up the beach towards the campfire.

“You two are the best thing I've seen in ages,” she said in delight. “Halloween isn't for another six or seven months, Eve.”

“Shut up,” Eve hissed, her shoulders hunched and defensive. “I know I look like hell, OK?”

“Go ahead and laugh,” Max added sourly. He snatched up a can of Coke and drained it in one go, wiping his mouth and smearing the cave dirt sideways across his face. It just made the crowd laugh even more.

“Oh, we will,” Ollie assured him, grinning.

“Cut them some slack, guys,” said Rhi, surprising everyone.

Polly saw that Max had the decency to blush as Rhi approached him looking calm and serious. Eve folded her arms more tightly and stared at the sky.

“They look like they've had a tough time,” Rhi went on. She considered Max's dirty face. “I used to think you were handsome,” she said in surprise. “Now I realize you're just a clown.”

Max silently swigged the rest of his Coke, and stared at the sand in defeat.

Good for you Rhi
, Polly thought.
That took guts.
She needed guts like that to break the news to everyone that she was going to America.

Or did she?

Like the horizon after a storm, something started coming into focus in Polly's mind. She stared at her friends, at the campfire, at Ollie laughing with his buddies. At the way the sun striped the sand and the cliffs glowed like gold in the afternoon light. She felt Sam's hand in hers, and the ridged sand under her bare feet. She felt rooted, suddenly, like she hadn't felt in a very long time.

“Oh, and Eve? You and Max can both stay for the rest of the party,” Rhi added, breaking into Polly's whirling thoughts.

Eve stopped staring at the sky. “What?”

“I'll never forgive you,” Rhi said, looking steadily at Eve, “but I can't keep avoiding you. So let's all just move on.”

Eve brushed fussily at her clothes to avoid looking at Rhi's face. “Look at me,” she grumbled. “I'll have to go home and shower first.”

Max gave the first real smile Polly had seen all day. “Oh, that's easily fixed,” he drawled.

Before Eve could react, he had scooped her into his broad arms and was sprinting towards the sea.

“Don't you dare!” Eve shrieked in horror, fighting to get away from him. “Max Holmes, if you—”

There was a splash as Max tipped Eve into the freezing waves. After a split second of shocked silence, there was a piercing scream of rage.

“This . . . tank . . . is . . . CASHMERE!” Eve roared, belting Max around every part of his body that she could reach.

“That's got to hurt,” Lila observed.

“Max will get over it,” said Rhi. She laughed. “I don't know about that tank, though.”

The last piece fell into place for Polly. She had been running away instead of facing things, she realized. Her life was here, with her friends. There was plenty of time ahead to make a life in fashion, not to mention long vacations with her dad in California, helping him with the store and the website. She could have all the good things this way, both at home and in the States.

Suddenly she couldn't wait to get started.

Heartside isn't perfect,
she realized, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes and resting her head on Sam's shoulder.
But it's home.

TWENTY-THREE

“Let's take a walk,” Sam said in Polly's ear.

The tide really was creeping back to shore now, closing the gap between the sands of the secret cove and the town beach. Polly let Sam lead her towards the path, the sound of music and laughter and Eve's screams following them on the air.

“You're going in a minute,” she said as they walked. “Aren't you?”

Sam indicated the way the water was creeping back in to shore. “I have to go with the tide. But my boat's moored a little way up the beach. We still have time.”

They walked around the whole of the beach, hand in hand. Gulls wheeled overhead, screaming and swooping and squabbling over squashed and crumpled bags of chips left lying along the harbour wall. Sandcastles, some as ambitious as whole towns and others simple turrets of sand decorated with shells, were starting to leak back into the sea as the tide brought them gently crumbling down, leaving nothing behind to show they had been there at all. The town clock chimed over the noise of the waves, solid and reassuring.

They looped back the way they had come, and stopped by the sweeping outcrop that pointed its long rocky finger at Kissing Island. Polly recognized his boat, now bobbing at anchor just off the shoreline.

“It was here, wasn't it?” Sam said. “Our campfire?”

Polly could see their little driftwood fire in her mind's eye, and bright and flickering as if it were still there. “Pretty much,” she said.

He shaded his eyes against the setting sun, pointing out to sea. “And your rock was that one, right?”

Polly's throat was filling up. She nodded as tears spilled down her cheeks.

“Don't cry, mermaid,” he said with a smile, brushing her tears away with his fingers. “Too many tears stop your scales from shining.”

Polly sniffed hard. “Stay,” she blurted.

“I can't,” he said regretfully. “This London internship is too good an opportunity. I'm going to be the change I want to see, Polly. And it all starts here.”

He took her cheeks in his hands, just as he had that first afternoon, and kissed her tenderly. Polly stood on tiptoes with her arms around his neck and her fingers stroking the soft bristly hairs on the nape of his neck. She loved the way Sam had opened her eyes to the wider world. But Lila was right. She would always be second best to Sam's ambitions. And as much as she admired him for his political passion, she deserved to come first.

This was OK, she realized. They were young. Time would heal it all, leaving nothing but sunny memories. She would always be grateful to Sam for that. And she would never forget him.

He kissed her one last time, then waded out to his boat, which was tugging and straining at its anchor. “Stay in touch!” he called as he leaped aboard. “And make sure you vote for me one day!”

It's a fitting end
, Polly thought, watching through her tears as the wind filled Sam's sails. She remembered the first time she had seen him and his cherry-coloured jumper and the white lines of his boat on this very shoreline.
A perfect circle.

Polly watched and waved until Sam was out of sight. Then she turned back towards the town. She would go home, she decided. She wasn't in the mood for any more partying.

Ollie stood a little way up the beach. He raised his hand as Polly approached.

“Hey,” said Polly, stopping in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

Ollie shrugged. “The party's over. So I thought I'd come and see how you were doing.” He gazed over Polly's shoulder at the little dot on the waves that maybe was and maybe wasn't Sam's white boat. “So he's definitely going to London?”

Polly nodded.

“Too bad,” said Ollie. “I may not have liked the guy, but I wasn't the one going out with him. You were. So.” He scratched his ear. “Are you OK?”

Polly thought about the last time Ollie had tried to cheer her up, out in that moonlit lane on Thursday night before it had all gone wrong.

“I'm fine,” she said honestly. “It hurts a bit, but I'll live.”

“Kind of like ripping off a plaster,” Ollie said, nodding. “Fast is best.”

Polly giggled. “Are you comparing my relationship with Sam to a plaster?”

“Yeah,” Ollie agreed. “One of those big ones that stick to the hairs on your legs and hurt like hell unless you soak them off in the shower first.”

Polly wanted to hug him. “Sheesh,” she said, grinning. “You really have the scope of the thing, don't you?”

“Don't take the mick,” he said, with a lopsided smile.

She didn't want to, Polly realized. Ollie's plaster comparison was the perfect description. Funny too.

“You always know how to make me feel better,” she said wonderingly.

He looked disbelieving. “I had the opposite effect on that hill last week.”

“I wasn't at my best last week,” Polly confessed.

“Me neither.”

He ran his hands through his blond hair, looking up at her from beneath his eyebrows in that sweet, quirky way he had. And there it was. The pinging feeling in her gut was back. She had liked Sam, but she had always –
always
 – liked Ollie more.

“Friends again?” he said.

Polly nodded. “Friends again.”

“You know,” he said, scuffing at the sand with the toe of his trainer, “I have a feeling me and Lila are at the plaster-ripping stage.”

Polly suddenly felt shy. “That's too bad.”

He looked up again, frowning. “It is?”

Don't make an idiot of yourself
, Polly ordered herself.

“Well,” she fumbled. “It's too bad if
you
think it's too bad.”

He quirked his mouth. “And if I
don't
think it's too bad, too bad?”

It was impossible to get too serious with Ollie around. Grinning at Polly's laughter, Ollie slung his arm round her shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

“Shall we go find the others?” he asked, looking down at her.

Polly barely heard the question. She had seen something in his eyes. . .

She remembered Lila's words.

I think he's got secret feelings for another girl that he's hiding from me.

She had feelings for Ollie, she knew that much.

Was it possible that Ollie had feelings for her too?

“Hey, you,” Ollie said gently. His arm was still there. “Are we walking or standing still?”

“Walking,” said Polly after a moment. “We're walking.”

This wasn't entirely true. Inside, she was flying.