Summer Loving (21 page)

As you probably have guessed, I also let my hair go back to its natural colour of chestnut brown. While we were still in Italy, I had it chopped into a really short style (in a male barber shop!), so that the transitional phase of colour change wouldn’t look too tacky. I found a nice photograph of Natalie Portman with short hair which I took to show the guy who did it. He asked if he could keep the photograph.

I must point out that this was not the sort of short hair that Natalie Portman had in
V
for
Vendetta
.

Kirstan loved it short. He kept running his fingers through it, saying that under certain circumstances (you’re not getting any details), it was as if I was a different woman.

Kirstan started teaching surfing again, while becoming quite a star at the local competitions. He worked out of Lachlan’s surf school, though Lachlan wouldn’t ever regard him as an employee. As you might expect from someone who was a surfer
and
Janica’s brother, he was far too cool for that.

We rent a small place overlooking the wonderfully named Boomerang Beach (just up the coast from Blueys Beach!). It’s one big room with a bedroom at the back and two smaller rooms. I’ve never been so happy.

In the mornings, Kirstan stands looking out at the sea, hands on hips, just like he used to in the old days. He says he’s checking out the waves, but I know that he’s really looking for signs of sharks or jellyfish. Lachlan tries to allay this fear. He says that no one has been taken by a shark around here for three years. To Kirstan, that means that the chances of it happening again are increasing with each day that goes by. Lachlan just smiles and shakes his head.

Sometimes, you can see dolphins about a quarter of a mile out, leaping in and out of the waves, showing us humans how it should be done. Occasionally, one of them will catch the same wave as a surfer, riding it in as far as they dare, before turning around and heading out to sea again. This hasn’t happened to Kirstan or I yet, but we live in hope.

I work three days a week for a small company that specialises in coastal, marine and hydrographic analysis. The pay isn’t great, but it helps the environment, so I feel like I’m doing something useful at last. I knew that geography degree would come in handy one day!

Oh. I almost forgot. My surfing skills. I can’t cope with the really big waves yet, but Kirstan reckons that a naïve passing tourist with poor eyesight would easily mistake me for a proper surfer (how generous of him!).

I can finally carve across the front of a wave now, as opposed to just taking a straight line into the beach, though the number of scary wipe-outs I’ve had has increased. I’m thinking of taking swimming lessons. I did see a big, nasty-looking jellyfish out there once (plainly not camouflaged), but I didn’t tell Kirstan. Besides, they aren’t all deadly.

I quite like jellyfish, actually. They may well cause your death, but it isn’t personal in any way. They don’t even know you’re there.  I think of them as being the dangerous animal version of a stinging nettle. At the moment, though, Kirstan isn’t keen on me going in the sea at all.

It’s a warm evening and we’ve decided to take a walk down the beach. Kirstan is walking next to me, his arm around my waist. Occasionally, he’ll spin me around to face him and kiss me. His kisses are soft, sensual and last for a very long time. They make me feel dizzy, intoxicated and slightly faint. I can feel my heart fluttering.

I can see a woman approaching us who I recognise as one of the surfing instructors from another surf school further up the coast, near Charlotte Head. Her name’s Addison and she’s an athletic-looking redhead.

As she gets closer to us, I can see she’s grinning.

‘So, lovebirds! When’s it due?’

I unconsciously run a hand across my swollen belly. ‘Two months to go,’ I say.

She shakes her head. ‘It’ll change your life, darling. You just wait. It’ll change your life.’

I laugh and high-five her. I don’t worry about life changing experiences. As far as I’m concerned, they can only be a good thing.