Page 30 of Second Chance Summer
‘I got cut off by the tide and had no choice but to swim for it. I didn’t know you’d be along at any moment.’
‘No. It was – fortunate – I was.’
‘Until that wave capsized the kayak,’ she said, hearing the sea rolling in again and recalling her terror and exhaustion. The moment when Sam capsized and she went under for the second time, into the darkness, she really had thought her time was up.
He touched her arm gently. ‘You’re shivering. Are you sure you don’t want me to call the coastguard or air ambulance? Or I could take you over to Bryher in theboat now if you like? Get you checked out by the island nurse?’
‘No. Thanks. I don’t want to get on a boat right now …’Or ever, thought Lily. She also didn’t want her family to know anything about the incident. They’d freak out, especially her parents. ‘I just need a shower, warm clothes, a hot drink.’
‘We both do. Come on.’
As soon as they reached the hub, he found a blanket from the sofa and draped it around her without asking. ‘I’ll take you to your cottage and bring the first-aid kit.’
She tugged the blanket tighter, grateful for the warmth yet determined not to be fussed over. ‘I’ll be fine now. It looks like it’s you who needs the first-aid kit. Why don’t we both get dry and warmed up and meet back here? I’ve done first-aid courses for work. I can take a look at the cut on your head and those grazes on your cheek.’
He nodded and they parted, Lily to her cottage and Sam to his flat.
She’d said she was fine but the moment she shut the cottage door, her legs threatened to give way as the adrenaline ebbed. However, she also knew she needed to warm up. She drank most of a glass of water, showered and put on jeans and a sweater.
She’d stopped shivering. She’d be fine.Fine.
It was Sam who worried her. That cut on his head might not be the only injury he’d sustained. He really needed to be checked over, not her.
She slurped the rest of the water and was halfway out ofthe door to go and join Sam when a flashback gripped her, causing her to lean against the door frame for support.
The shock of the cold water, the roar of the waves … the kayak overturning, just at the moment she’d thought she was safe … and Sam nowhere to be seen.
Slamming the door on the cottage and the memories, Lily hurried to the hub, hoping that she wouldn’t find Sam passed out on the floor.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘Sorry, I didn’t expect you yet!’
‘I can come back,’ Lily said, confronted by Sam in the bar, a towel slung round his neck and another slipping low over his hips.
She let her gaze linger too long on his broad shoulders, toned stomach, and a trail of dark hair that vanished below the towel. Was that wrong after a near-death experience? She shivered again. Surely anything that took her mind off the moment when she’d sunk beneath those waves was a good thing …
‘I was worried about you,’ she said, trying to calm her racing pulse. ‘Your head, I mean.’
Sam clutched the towel tightly to his waist. ‘Yes. Thanks. No. I mean, hang on. Let me put some clothes on.’
Lily heard him thumping around in the upstairs flat then he was back, still barefoot but in jeans and a hoodie. He also carried two mugs of tea and handed one to her. ‘I put sugar in it.’
‘Thank you, just what I need.’ She took the mug, hoping her fingers would stop trembling. She sipped the hot sweet tea. It was, without a doubt, the best drink she’d ever had in her life.
‘Are you OK?’ he asked, sitting down next to her.
‘A few bumps and bruises. My shins are grazed and my elbow’s a bit sore but other than that, I think I’ll survive.’ She stopped, recalling the moment she’d dived under to avoid the wave. She hadn’t expected to surface and then Sam’s hand had reached out to her. A shudder travelled through her.
His brow creased in concern. ‘Are you cold? Shall I get a blanket? I could light the fire.’
‘I’m fine,’ she said, hastily. ‘What aboutyou?’
He shrugged. ‘Grazed in places but otherwise I’ve been lucky – apart from this scratch above my eye. It won’t stop bleeding. I’ve tried sticking a plaster on it but it didn’t work and fell off.’
‘I can see that.’ She grimaced at the oozing cut in his hairline. ‘Do you want me to take a look, pop a dressing on it?’
‘Um. Well …’
