Summer at Tiffany's (24 page)

‘Oh, you've got to be joking. Another one?' Suzy looked at her husband for answers, though the expression on his face told her he had none; he was as oblivious as the rest of them.

Cassie clutched the paper tighter in her hands. It was Henry's lists for her in Paris, New York and London – devised to get her ‘under the covers' of each city – that had brought them together in the first place. In spite of her friends' best efforts to spell out new identities for her, it was Henry's lists that had been the tools that had really set her on the path to self-awareness after she had lost such confidence in herself following the breakdown of her marriage that she couldn't put an outfit together, much less a new life. And now there was another list, just as she faced another crisis of confidence.

‘He really can't help himself, can he? It's like some sort of compulsion. God forbid Cass should be allowed to just sit on the beach.' Suzy looked back at her. ‘So what's he got you doing, then?'

Cassie smoothed a blonde tendril of hair back from her eyes. ‘Well, I've got to catch a wave.' She bit her lip; she could barely balance on a yoga mat, much less a surfboard. ‘Can we cheat and make it a Mexican one?'

‘Actually, I think that's rather fun,' Archie said cheerfully, while grimacing at the sugary taste of his drink and staring at it suspiciously. ‘You can't come down here and not get in the sea. I'll join you. I've always wanted to learn how to surf.'

‘Arch—' Suzy began.

‘Gentle exercise, the docs said. What could be more gentle than standing on top of a board in the sea, darling?'

Suzy rolled her eyes, biting back the roll call of potential disaster scenarios – being swallowed by a basking shark, going into anaphylactic shock after a jellyfish sting, being carried out on a rip tide . . .

‘What else?' Archie continued, before his wife could.

‘Oh Lord, he says I've got to race a gig.' She pulled a face. ‘What's a gig? It sounds like a long-legged bird. If so, I don't fancy my chances.'

Archie chuckled. ‘It's a boat. A very big rowing boat. You'd better start eating lots of spinach and grow some muscles.'

‘Ha, ha. And how exactly am I supposed to do this? Where would I even find a gig? Who would I race against?'

‘Oooh, where there's a will . . .' Archie winked, looking over at Suzy. ‘Gig racing's famous down here in the summer. I don't think it'll be too much of a problem to get you put in a crew.'

‘“Give a Cornish gift.”' Cassie looked up blankly. ‘What the devil's that?'

‘That's a local saying – it means if you've got something you don't want or need, then give it to someone else,' Suzy explained.

‘You mean like my present-recycling drawer?'

‘Yeah, sort of.'

‘Were you in on this?' Cassie asked Suzy, eyes narrowed as she waved the list around. ‘Be honest.'

‘Categorically not. Henry doesn't tell me anything he doesn't have to.'

‘Hmmm.' Cassie went back to reading again. ‘“Eat a pasty on the sand.” Well, now that I can do . . .' She frowned. ‘It says I've got to jump from the bridge into the Hidden Lagoon.'

Suzy's eyes brightened. ‘Oh my God!' she gasped. ‘The bridge.'

‘Should I be worried? How big is this bridge? Are we talking suspension?' Cassie demanded nervously.

‘I'd completely forgotten all about that place.'

‘Where is it?' Archie asked, a little hurt. ‘We've never gone there together. You've never even mentioned it.'

‘Because I'd completely forgotten all about it, you daft nana! What did I just say? It's down on the Lizard, about an hour away. It's at the far end of a cove where you can only get to the beach at low tide. Bit of a tricky path down to it, as I recall, but so, so worth it. The water is turquoise. You'd never believe it was the Atlantic.'

‘Well, that sounds good too,' Archie said, mollified, looking back at Cassie. ‘This is a kind list. He's obviously going soft in his old age – there's nothing too scary on there at all so far. Is there anything else?'

‘Just one,' Cassie mumbled.

Suzy's eyes narrowed as she looked at Cassie's expression and she stepped round to read over her shoulder.

‘“Choose.”'

He'd left the scariest for last.

They were all tucking in to muesli the next morning – Archie looking near tears as the bacon sat untouched and forbidden in the fridge – when Gem bounded in, using her own key.

‘Morning!' she sang, stopping in her tracks at the desolate scene. ‘Oh. Did someone die?'

‘Beginning to wish I had,' Arch said mournfully, pushing his muesli – which did look like wet cement – around his bowl.

Gem laughed, hoisting herself up onto the island worktop. She was wearing a pair of rainbow-coloured tie-dyed leggings and a fuchsia-pink vest that had been seemingly shredded by something long-clawed, a light sheen of sweat glistening on her skin.

‘You've been up for a while, then?' Suzy asked with a curl of sarcasm.

‘Oh yes. I like to rise with the sun. I've already done an hour of yoga on the beach. I just love feeling the sand in my toes and that slight instability – it's so good for tightening the smaller support muscles and really engaging your core, you know?'

‘Not really,' Suzy grumbled. ‘The last core I found was in a tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.'

Gem laughed, as though Suzy was joking. ‘How about you? Did you all get a lie-in?'

Arch went to reply, but before he could get a word out, Suzy got in first. ‘No. Velvet had a bad night. We've been up for hours too.'

Cassie tried not to choke on her food as she heard the lie tripping so easily from Suzy's tongue. Suzy's arm extended across the table towards hers, rubbing it sympathetically. ‘Sorry, Cass. It's so unfair on you to have to put up with it. We're used to it, but you must be shattered.'

‘No, no, it's OK,' Cassie mumbled, glaring at Suzy for including her in the deception. Again.

‘You do all look pretty rough,' Gem said sympathetically.

Now Suzy almost choked on her breakfast.

‘Is everything all OK in Snapdragons?' Cassie asked brightly.

‘Loving it. It's so
cute
. It's got the same flowery wallpaper I remember from when we were little. Nothing's changed at all. And I think some of the chutneys and dried herbs are original too,' she laughed, giving an all-over body shiver.

‘So what are you up to today?' Cassie asked, wondering if it was bad form to put sugar on the muesli.

Gem shrugged happily. ‘I dunno. We thought we'd see what you guys wanted to do first.'

Suzy's eyebrow lifted up like it was being pulled on a string. ‘Oh, well, don't let us hold you back. I bet Laird wants to do loads of sightseeing, and we're probably going to be really old and boring and just stay here and chill for a bit. Arch needs to convalesce. Velvet needs her naps. You know . . . boring.'

‘Oh.' Gem's face fell and it was like the sun going behind a cloud.

There was a small silence and Cassie felt bad at how Suzy kept pushing her cousin away.

Then Archie gave a slight cough. ‘Actually, Cass and I were going to have a surf lesson this morning. Care to join us?'

Cassie looked at him in surprise. ‘Wait, I know the list said to catch a wave, but I don't think he meant
twelve hours later.
'

‘No time like the present, though, eh, Cass? If my heart attack taught me anything, it's that,' he winked. ‘Carpe diem.'

‘Oh.' It was hard to argue with someone who now had the benefit of near-death wisdom.

‘But are you up to it, Archie?' Gem asked, jumping off the island and coming over to the table, concern on her face.

‘The doctors are actively encouraging me to do exercise.'

‘Gentle exercise,' Suzy said sharply.

‘Exactly,' Archie beamed, not looking at his wife. ‘Join us.'

‘Join you? I can do one better than that!' Gem squealed delightedly. ‘Laird can teach you. He'd be totally stoked if you'd let him. He's just itching for an excuse to spend the day in the water.'

‘Brilliant!' Archie declared, as if he'd known she was going to say that all along. ‘What are the tides in Polzy? You guys got a tides book yet?'

‘It's low tide at 11.04 a.m.,' Gem said, glancing up at the wall clock. It was just gone ten now.

‘Even more brilliant,' Archie exclaimed again, pushing away his muesli. He couldn't have looked more pleased with himself. ‘As long as someone turns the mirrors to the wall so I don't have to see myself in my budgie-smugglers, we—'

‘Budgie-smugglers? Arch, wear that bloody wetsuit we bought for boogie-boarding or you'll die before you get your knees wet. You're bad enough when the shower runs cold when I run the taps downstairs.'

Archie chuckled, reaching over to kiss his wife on the cheek. ‘Quite right, darling. Well, then, I think we should be ready to go in . . . what? Half an hour? That'll give us time to get down there and find Cass a suit and board.' He clapped his hands together. ‘Perfect, no?'

‘No!' Cassie and Suzy replied in unison.

Gem laughed, jogging happily back down the hall. ‘Brilliant. We'll meet you down there. I'll go tell the others.'

The door slammed behind her as Suzy and Cassie looked at each other in despair.

‘Hang on a minute,' Suzy frowned. ‘What others?'

It wasn't quite
Baywatch
. For one thing, the surf guards sat in their red-and-yellow Jeeps rather than prowling around in red skimpies in beach towers, but the black-and-white chequered flags flapped noisily in the breeze, and there were enough people in the water who knew how to ride to imbue the rest of the beach with some serious surf cool.

Everyone parked their cars on the hard-packed sand at the back of the beach, and Cassie spent a rather ignominious twenty minutes in the rear of a high-sided truck trying to zip herself into a long-limbed wetsuit as a guy with a hot-pink goatee threw various colour options in her size at her. She took the first one that fitted. Getting into these things was like jamming balloons into drainpipes.

She came down the steps self-consciously, hoping no one would pay any attention to her, but before her foot even touched the sand, Archie had taken a photo of her on his phone. ‘As proof,' he smiled before she could protest.

Archie threw the phone back into their car and held out the board she had been fitted for before getting changed. It was at least half her height again, and bright, shiny yellow with a red rim and purple hibiscus print on the underside. His wetsuit was still rolled down to his waist to stop him overheating – Suzy was keeping a very close watch on his colour as she played with Velvet in the rock pools – and even with his recent weight loss, he looked well padded.

‘Laird's meeting us down by the water,' he said, tucking his board under his arm and heading off with a jaunty stride. Cassie trotted by his side, wishing she hadn't zipped her wetsuit all the way up now. She was so hot, and the waterline was a good quarter of a mile away. As they walked, she watched the smattering of serious surfers kicking turns over the waves, the more amateur boogie-boarders thrashing in the surf further up the beach between the red-and-yellow flags.

‘Arch, I'm actually quite nervous about this,' she said, as they drew closer and the waves seemed to increase in height.

‘Really?' Archie asked, but she was sure his voice had gone up an octave too as they watched a surfer get dumped by a roller.

‘When I fall off, you will check that I resurface, won't you? I mean, I don't know Laird that well and—'

‘There's absolutely nothing to be worried about, Cass,' he laughed, striding onwards.

‘Yeah, but . . . you will, right?'

‘Of course!'

Laird was already in the water. He was easy to spot, skimming the surface of the water with a relaxed agility that even Cassie could see showed he was used to bigger and badder seas than this. She watched in awe as he manipulated the board with the merest ankle flex, carving 180-degree turns with a shift of his hips and trailing a languid hand through the underbelly of the wave before allowing the board to slow and sink below the surface as the wave crashed and the power and speed dissipated.

‘That'll be us by the end of the week,' Archie quipped as Laird spotted them both, throwing his arm up in greeting before hoisting himself, face down, on the board and paddling in quickly to them. He ran through the shallows looking every inch Patrick Swayze in
Point Break
, water droplets cascading off his hair and a smile that could light Wembley Stadium on his face. His shyness from the party the other night had completely gone. He was, quite literally, in his element.

‘Hey,' he panted, drawing level and nodding happily at the sight of them both in full kit. ‘Looks like they know what they're doing at the rental place all right.' He inspected the boards quickly. ‘You ready for this?'

‘Mm-hmm,' Cassie said, not quite trusting her voice to convey a sense of excitement right now. She was a good swimmer, but she was also the girl who had to hold her nose every time she jumped in the pool. How exactly was she supposed to cope with being tossed about like a cork out there?

‘Now listen, mate,' Archie began. ‘I don't want to be a bore or anything, but as you probably know, I very nearly popped my clogs a couple of weeks ago, and if I was to overdo it and die out here, my wife would absolutely kill me all over again. And probably you too.'

Laird laughed.

‘So, by all means, strut your stuff, but I'll have to make some judgement calls along the way as to what my old ticker can put up with.
I
, obviously, want to go all cylinders firing, but Suzy's very . . . overprotective, as you've probably gathered by now, so if you see me hanging back a little, it's simply to pacify her. Don't worry at all.'