While he’d been unlucky with the wind, he’d been fortunate that he was surfing at a beach where there was a rescue boat patrolling and Kane had been about to launch his own kite and seen it all. He and the rescue crew had hauled him from the water and called the paramedics.
Why had he asked someone he was trying to impress to watch him kitesurf when he wasn’t 100 per cent sure he’d make it back out there? The words had just slipped out, as if he couldn’t stop them, as if he was compelled to ask her.
He tried to rationalise his decision. There was always a reason behind everything. He wasn’t naturally impulsive and yet he’d made so many snap decisions since meeting Tammy. The fact she could only come and watch on the Sunday was a plus. It was better than her being there if he chickened out of his first try. He hoped he’d be feeling more confident and competent by then.
Perhaps he’d asked her precisely so hecouldn’tchicken out.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Tammy decided to take the back road from Porthmellow to Marazion to avoid the worst of the tourist traffic and also because the route had been a childhood favourite.
The little town set on the glorious sweep of Mount’s Bay had been the site of her first sand art creation – she was probably about ten. Her dad had been in his prime then, free from most of the worries and cares that had dragged him down as he’d grown older.
Tammy’s heart swelled at the happy memory as she drove towards the long flat beach and big skies that seemed almost to taste of freedom. This place always made her happy, and every association with it was filled with joy. She hoped today’s meeting with Ruan would only add to that feeling and start pleasurable new memories.
After she’d parked, she grabbed her hoodie from the passenger seat.
There was a keen edge to the breeze on this fresh June morning, pushing white clouds over the sky. She inhaled the seaweed scent in the air and sighed with pleasure. Was there anything better than being outside on a gorgeous Cornish beach on a beautiful day like this?
The beach in front of the kitesurf centre was a scene oforganised chaos. People in wetsuits and harnesses milled about with sails and lines. Others were holding the kites while the sailors prepared to launch and then letting the kites go.
She looked around for Ruan, but he wasn’t outside the centre and he could have been any of the dozen or so people flying across the water.
A blonde woman in a shorty wetsuit approached her and for a moment Tammy thought she was someone she knew but couldn’t place. ‘Have you come for a trial lesson?’ the woman asked.
‘No, thanks. I’m, um, looking for a friend.’
‘Well, if you feel inspired to have a go, there’s a trial lesson in an hour and we still have one place.’
‘Thanks, but I think I’ll keep my feet on the ground,’ Tammy said cheerfully.
The instructor jogged away to do something with a tangle of lines and Tammy walked on to the beach, watching the dance of sails around St Michael’s Mount. The island castle rose from the sea like something from a Disney movie, only far more beautiful and imposing.
It had been a stunning place to create her first piece of art and the memory once again brought a tear to her eye. She brushed it away quickly. It had been one of the best days of her life.
That’s how she remembered it anyway, although she was aware that her memories might have been gilded by time and wishful thinking. Her life with her father hadn’t always been stressful and tense.
Suddenly she remembered who the instructor had reminded her of and her mood dipped a little. A couple of years after her mum had left home, her father had found a new girlfriend who worked in the Porthmellow library. Tammy had thought Gill was funny, and Gill had spent a lot of time ordering in obscure books on art and the sea for her.
Sadly, the relationship had ended after a few months. Tammy wasn’t sure why, but it had been awkward in the library after that and not long after, she heard that Gill had transferred to another library. Gill wasn’t her mum, and she’d never tried to be, but Tammy had come to view her as a cool auntie whom she could confide in. She was now sure that Gill had left because she couldn’t cope with her father’s increasing gambling problem.
That was in the past, yet it felt like another person had walked out of her life just as she was growing close to them.
She pulled her hair out of her eyes and secured the stretchy band that kept it in its ponytail. Dwelling on the past led to regrets and she didn’t want today spoiled in any way. She refocused her attention on the beach, loving the way pools of water had formed in shallow depressions, on the ripples of sand, and the glorious setting in front of St Michael’s Mount.
She’d love to do another design here one day soon – just for herself – and she knew exactly what it would be: a kitesurf-inspired artwork. It would have abstract sails dancing, swirling, scudding across waves, their sharp forms a contrast to the churning chaos of the waves and foam.
Even as she watched the surfers battling the waves,Tammy wondered what attracted Ruan to an activity that involved trying to tame the elements. He’d said he liked order and rules in his day job. Why, then, did he love this extreme sport with the possibility – reality in his case – of being dragged along the water, dumped in the sea and crashing into rocks?
Tammy mouth grew dry. The sea took people. It had taken her father. Whether he’d gone into the water voluntarily or not, she’d never know.
She’d spent so much time wondering and helpless, trying to understand what had led to him ending his days washed up on a beach. For a few months, she’d stopped going to the beach altogether. It had become a place of misery and loss; yet gradually, the lure of creating her art had eclipsed the unhappy associations.
Her father would have wanted her to carry on. Whatever his troubles, he had loved her, and he would have hated her to ruin her own life by perpetually mourning him.
Just as she felt she might be on the verge of tears, she saw a tall figure approaching, waving and calling out her name.
‘Hey there!’
