High Tide Page 27

  She stepped closer to him.

  ‘What about now?’ she asked.

  ‘What about now?’ He was still cross.

  ‘Do you want to kiss me now?’ She looked at him from under her eyelashes, knowing she was being coquettish. Knowing she was teasing and testing him.

  He stared at her, straight-faced, not replying. She held his gaze until her nerve broke, and she looked away. She’d guessed him wrong. How embarrassing.

  Then he burst out laughing, and grabbed her, pulling her in and looking down on her. ‘What do you think?’

  His expression was intense. He stared right into her eyes. She didn’t think this was a game.

  How did life do this? How did life whirl you from being a Manhattan party planner in head-to-toe Prada to standing in the arms of your childhood crush, in jeans and a jumper and a woolly hat, three thousand miles away?

  Of course, the catalyst had been the death of her mother. Had Joy not died, Kate would be in some meeting or limo or bar, making someone else’s dreams come true. She would, of course, give anything for that not to have happened. Yet it was only by discovering the true nature of her mother that she’d had the courage to turn her back on her old life and step into a new one.

  Rupert hadn’t been part of her decision to stay. At least, she hadn’t thought he was. Although now he was here, staring down at her, maybe he was, subconsciously? Of course, they might only last a few weeks before drifting apart. Or maybe they belonged together. Who knew?

  There was really only one way to find out.

  Just before midnight, Nathan and his grandfather rowed over to the opposite bank and set off the fireworks they had planted out earlier. As the clock struck midnight, a shower of silver and gold shot across the night sky over Pennfleet, lighting up the upturned faces down below. Faces filled with joy and wonderment, happiness and hope. And the clock turned back, and the little town enjoyed a secret hour, a secret hour in which to cement friendships and explore new love and to make plans for the future – a future as bright as the stars above.

  THE END

  OR INDEED, THE BEGINNING

  Author Biography

  Veronica Henry worked as a scriptwriter for The Archers, Heartbeat and Holby City, amongst many others, before turning to fiction. She lives with her family on the coast in North Devon. Visit her website at www.veronicahenry.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @veronica_henry

  By Veronica Henry

  Wild Oats

  An Eligible Bachelor

  Love on the Rocks

  Marriage and Other Games

  The Beach Hut

  The Birthday Party

  The Long Weekend

  A Night on the Orient Express

  The Beach Hut Next Door

  High Tide

  THE HONEYCOTE NOVELS

  Honeycote

  Making Hay

  Just a Family Affair

  AN ORION EBOOK

  First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Orion Books.

  This ebook first published in 2015 by Orion Books.

  Copyright © Veronica Henry 2015

  The right of Veronica Henry to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All the characters in this book, with the exception of those already in the public domain, are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN: 978 1 4091 4684 1

  Orion Books

  The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

  Carmelite House

  50 Victoria Embankment

  London EC4Y 0DZ

  An Hachette UK Company

  www.orionbooks.co.uk