Two Days in Biarritz (5 page)

Annabel smiled at the compliment but this wasn’t exactly how she felt when she was accompanying Kate on those family excursions.

“What about the night of that storm on the ferry, will you ever forget it?” Kate said with amusement.

“No, never,” Annabel shook her head but the reasons she would never forget that night were very different from Kate’s.

“I felt bad leaving you in the cabin on your own but that French guy was the cutest holiday romance I ever had,” Kate said with a mischievous grin as she got to her feet. “I have to go to the loo, back in a sec.”

Annabel was glad to be left for a few moments. She hadn’t been on her own in the cabin that night. She would never forget that night as long as she lived .
. .

The ferry tossed and turned like a pea in a pot of boiling water. Most of the passengers were spewing the contents of their stomachs into the many latrines dotted around the ship or were trying hopelessly to sleep. Under the barrage of waves that smashed relentlessly against the cabin’s porthole, the lovers lay entwined in their forbidden embrace.

Annabel was finally with him. She had known since she first laid eyes on him that he was the one, but she never dreamt that it would come to this. The circumstances
were somewhat unusual but she hadn’t conjured up the force seven gale. She was here now and for this moment everything was perfect. It could never last. It would probably never happen again, but it was so much better than the innocent fumbling she had experienced with boys in the past. Now she knew what it was like to really make love.

She dribbled her fingers along the fine hairs on his chest and felt him shudder under her touch. He raised his head slight
ly. She lifted her head off his chest and turned around until her gaze met his.

“Oh Annabel!” h
e said in a tone of despair and sorrow, mixed together like a potent cocktail.

“I love
you,” she replied. “I’ve always loved you.”

Again he replied but this time w
ith a sigh. “Oh, Annabel!”

She blinked back the
well that was starting to fill up in her eyes. She knew the answer but she had to ask him . . .

“Where will we go, when there’s no storm to protect us?” The words rolled off her tongue as she repeated them quietly, twenty years later.

“Have you started talking to yourself? You’re only turning forty – it’s a bit early for senility to be setting in!” Kate said jokingly.

Annabel was shaken out of her trance by her friend’s return. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you come back.”

“Do you fancy going
to the hotel?” Kate asked. “The room must be ready.”

“I wouldn’t mind a shower,” Annabel replied, keen to wash the thoughts she had rekindled out of her head.

“You can have a long luxurious bath – no kids pestering you tonight!”

“It’s been total bliss sauntering around all afternoon like this,” Annabel agreed. “What are our plans for later?”

“We could always check out the casino after dinner.”

Annabel was well acquainted with Kate’s love of slot machines. They would end up there regardless.

* * *

The foyer of the Hotel Windsor was littered with surfboards and broad-shouldered young men in wet suits who were briskly taking their keys from reception and bounding up the stairs.

“I didn’t think the view would be this good inside the hotel!” Kate smiled a wicked smile at Annabel.

“You’re insatiable,” Annabel berated. “Give yourself a chance – you’re only separated a couple of months!”

“We haven’t got time to be sensible. Mind you, I can’t remember ever being sensible. That’s why I was so lucky to have you.”

Annabel smiled at the compliment but wondered how sensible she really was. Nervous, yes, cautious definitely, but sensible was not how she felt. Kate on the other hand was the opposite. Annabel could predict her moves no matter what the situation and nine times out of ten the result would turn out to be wacky or adventurous.

An athletic surfer in his twenties with a mop of sandy hair burnished from the saltwater and sun, brushed by Annabel. She couldn’t help staring at his muscular physique. What would Colin say if he saw her looking at him?

“What a dish! I think we have to find out where these young guns are going tonight and that’s where the fun will be,” Kate whispered in her ear.

“Are you going to lead me astray, as usual?” Annabel asked.

“Always,” her friend assured her.

Chapter 3

A couple of hours later the two women sat in front of a gin and tonic and Martini with ice, in a little bistro next to the hotel.

“We haven’t seen any surfers yet,” Kate observed.

“I hope they don’t go to bed early,” Annabel replied, getting into the swing of their self-indulgent night out.

“We’re probably old enough to be their mothers.”

“You know, I get a shock every morning when I look in the mirror. I have to ask myself who this middle-aged woman is,” Annabel said despondently.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Kate nodded in agreement. “And it can only get worse.”

“Lots of women around Howth are going under the knife – would you consider it?”

“Ten years ago I’d have said no way, but you can never say never.”  

“Colin thinks it’s great and said he’ll even treat me to a course of Botox.”

“The cheek, and him like a wrinkled bulldog!” Kate said with horror.

“Colin’s holding his age well,” Annabel said defensively. “Isn’t he?”

Kate couldn’t win this one, so she wasn’t even going to try. “He looks very well, Annabel, but you’re a stunning woman that he’s very lucky to call his wife – don’t forget that.”

Annabel always felt confident and buoyant after spending time with Kate. She wondered if Kate was able to say the same about her in return.

“Don’t look now but Sandy Hair is at
three o’clock,” Kate said, leaning over her gin and almost knocking it in the process.

Annabel turned her head instinctively and fixed her gaze on the dishy surfer who was accompanied by an equally attractive dark-haired friend. He seemed to recognise them from the hotel and casually waved over.

Kate gave a little shake of her wrist in return and leaned forward until she was almost on top of Annabel.

“Is that not a bit keen?” Annabel said, arching her eyebrows. “They will think we’re two desperate oul’ ones.”

“I know what I’m doing,” she assured her. “They scrub up well, don’t they?”

“That’s the luxury of youth,” Annabel said, nodding her head in agreement.

“I hate to say it but I’m famished – will we go?”

“Seems like a shame now that there’s a bit of entertainment. But one good thing about turning forty – you learn to get your priorities right.”

They left a ten-euro note on the table and wandered out into the night. The town was hushed and sleepy, unaware that it was meant to provide an entertaining ambience for its guests. Each restaurant that they walked past seemed emptier than the previous one.

“Maybe that fish place we saw earlier will have some atmosphere,” Kate suggested.

The streets were calm all the way down to the seafront and the two were surprised to see only three tables occupied in the brightly lit seafood restaurant.

“We really are off season, aren’t we?” Annabel noted.

Things were looking up however as the sandy-haired surfer and his dark, tanned, friend seemed to have taken a short cut and were approaching the restaurant door simultaneously.

“Hi, again!” the sandy-haired one said in a strong British accent.

“Hello,” replied Kate who already had the surfer’s cards marked.

A small rotund waitress in a striped dress and pinny ran up to the four in a flap. They obviously hadn’t catered for such a large crowd tonight.

“Une table pour quatre?”

Sandy Hair looked back at the women and raised his eyebrows slightly.

“Would you like to join us?” he asked.

Kate didn’t give Annabel a chance to answer but Annabel would have been more surprised if she had. She had always made the decisions for both of them.

“That would be very nice, if you don’t mind?” Kate said with a wicked grin.

The waitress ushered them down to a table at the window, covered with a crisp white linen tablecloth. The setting was nautical in inspiration with ship’s wheels and ropes decorating the walls.

“I’m Brett, by the way,” Sandy Hair said, offering his right hand to Kate and then turned to shake Annabel’s hand.

“And I’m Nico,” his friend said with an Italian accent breaking through.

He held out his hand to the girls.

“I’m Kate and this is Annabel.”

Annabel gave Kate a churlish look, implying that she was well able to speak for herself.

“Are you girls down for the surfing?” Brett asked.

“Do we look like surfers?” Kate giggled.

“To be honest, no!”

“We’re just getting away from it all. Annabel lives in Ireland and I live in Haute-Pyrénées so we don’t get to see that much of each other. Are you guys on vacation?”

“We’re training for the European Championships in Feurteventura,” Brett answered.

“So you’re professional?” Annabel asked, trying not to sound too impressed.

“We do the circuit in
Europe and the States,” Nico informed them. “We don’t get to Australia every year – only when it’s a major championship.”

Annabel was beginning to wonder what these two hunky guys were really like, sitting with two strange older women. Were there no girls their own age in
Biarritz on a Thursday night? Maybe they had ulterior motives and the idea of no-fuss sex and a mature woman was a novelty! The conversation was spirited, washed down with two carafes of wine and four bowls of delicious mixed seafood.

“Fancy finding somewhere with a bit more action?” Kate asked.

“Desperado’s – it’s where all the surfers go after they’ve been out,” Brett suggested.

“
Why don’t you come to your senses?”
she joked.

Brett looked at her puzzled for a moment and frowned.

“Sorry,” Kate laughed. “I guess you’re too young to remember The Eagles.”

They pushed their seats back and all stood up together.

“I think we’re the couple of Desperados here,” Kate whispered to Annabel when the guys were out of earshot.

Languidly they walked along the shoreline, all wrapped up well, to avoid being chilled by the cool evening breeze. Brett walked alongside Kate, matching her strides step for step.

“Whereabouts in England are you from?” Kate started flirtingly when they were finally walking ahead of the others.

“A few places actually, but at the moment my dad lives in
Poole and I stay with him when I go home. My mother lives in Gibraltar with my stepfather.”

“
Poole’s nice, I’ve been a couple of times – my first husband was a sailor.”

A smile developed on Brett’s face. “You make it sound like you’ve had an array of husbands,” he said with a hitch of his eyebrows.

“Well, no, I mean, maybe . . . my first husband died and my second is in the process of becoming my ex-husband.”

“An experienced woman,” he grinned.

“Really, I’m not that interesting. That’s just the way it is.” Kate was feeling embarrassed, an emotion she usually didn’t experience. “So are you married?”

“I’m married to my board. Crikey, no way, I’m only twenty-eight!” Brett laughed.

“So will you be tied up with your board for life?”

“I guess so – I mean there’s guys in their forties still winning championships,” he said incredulously.

“Really? That’s very old,” Kate said with a smirk. “Have you been to the casino yet?”

“I do all my gambling on the waves.” His bright blue eyes were twinkling as he spoke and a mischievous grin was developing on his face. He was remarkably like Shane in appearance.

Kate glanced over her shoulder to see where the others were and found them walking slowly behind, deep in conversation.
This could turn out to be a cosy little foursome, just like the old days!

“How long are you married?” Nico asked, taking Annabel’s left hand and rubbing his index finger around the diamond solitaire and gold band.

She politely let it slip through his grasp and rubbed her palm off her jacket. “Do I look very married?”

“You want me to answer?”
Nico said with a coy smile.

“I wouldn’t have asked you otherwise.” Annabel threw her head back and laughed.

It had been a long time since she’d flirted with a man, especially one so handsome.

“I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but you seem to be afraid, I don’t know of what.”