Page 115 of Second Chance Summer
Lily tried to call Sam as they jogged along but her calls went straight to voicemail. How had she ever thought it was a good idea to get a lift with two mad teenagers in a tiny RIB with an overpowered engine?
She clung to the straps of the boat for dear life as the craft smacked over the swell with Damon at the helm. Morvenwas laughing and speaking to him, though Lily couldn’t hear a word above the roar of the outboard and the slap of waves against the hull every few seconds. Within minutes she was soaked through, but being wet was the least of her worries. Staying alive was the priority, with Damon whizzing past razor-sharp rock pinnacles. She didn’t dare try to call Sam again.
Somehow they survived, and Morven tied up at the pontoon at St Mary’s while Damon ushered Lily onto the back of his brother’s quad bike and set off along the main street and up the hill towards the airport.
He dropped her off outside the terminal, sodden and shaken to bits. ‘I’ll park the bike and hang around in case you need a lift.’
Lily ran inside to find the terminal almost deserted and a plane taxiing along the runway.
‘Is that the flight to Land’s End?’ she said to a uniformed man at the check-in desk.
‘It is.’
‘I’ve missed it!’
The plane hurtled towards the end of the runway.
‘It was fully booked anyway,’ the man said.
Lily’s heart sank into her soggy trainers as the plane soared off over the cliff. ‘I was looking for Sam Teague. You don’t know if he was on board?’
He sucked in a breath. ‘Sorry, I can’t give out information about passengers.’
Although ready to burst into tears, Lily restrained herself. ‘I understand that.’
‘Uncle Jack!’
The check-in man grinned. ‘What you doing here, Damon?’
‘I gave Lily a lift.’
Lily looked from one to the other. ‘This is your uncle?’
‘Yeah,’ Damon replied as if she should have telepathically known that.
‘You didn’t say you were with Damon,’ Uncle Jack said with an eye roll, ‘or I’d have told you Sam was on board straightaway.’
Finally defeated, Lily collapsed onto a seat.
‘I’m sorry you’ve missed him,’ Jack said, sympathetic now.
Lily nodded. ‘Is there another flight to Cornwall this afternoon?’
‘Nothing off the islands from here today.’
‘Helicopter?’ she said hopefully.
‘One, but you’ll never get to Tresco in time for it.’
Lily felt drained. ‘OK, thanks.’
Damon sat next to her. ‘We could try going to Penzance in the RIB,’ he said. ‘But it would take ages and I’m not sure the tank holds enough fuel.’
‘God, no!’ Lily cried, at the thought of a deep-sea crossing over the world’s busiest shipping lane in a rubber dinghy. ‘I mean, thank you for the offer but I wouldn’t put you in danger.’
‘Could be pretty awesome, though,’ he said, his eyes lit with zeal. ‘I could take some spare cans of fuel.’
‘I don’t think that would be a good idea,’ she insisted. ‘I’ll try to call Sam when he lands. He’ll be there in ten minutes.’
