Page 51 of Somewhere Only We Know

No.

I couldn’t go home. Not yet. I wasn’t ready after all. She and I had more places to go.

I ran my fingers over the top to locate my bookmark. I’d left it by the last entry for Nepal. Slowly I opened the book, spurred on by the anticipation on Marta and Skye’s face. ‘It’s been a long time since I was open to adventure, but let’s see, shall we?’

Brontë’s Gap Year

G’day Australia!

I had no idea until I started researching this trip how hu-u-u-u-ge this country is! I’d do it all if I could, but there’s that boring thing called a budget – my mother taught me well. Koalas, kangaroos, didgeridoos, kookaburras, Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Bondi beach … literally so many iconic things to see in this place. So I’m starting in Sydney. Harry’s Uncle Pete moved to Australia for ten pounds when he was eighteen. It’s going to cost me a lot more. I’m thinking, maybe get some work? Loads of backpackers work on farms, so it shouldn’t be too tricky.

Harry is planning on visiting his uncle in the Blue Mountains for a month, and if the stars align, he should be there the same time as me. If he hasn’t got fed up with waiting for me and gone off with somebody else by then, we’ll be meeting up. Joke! He WORSHIPS me. And we’ll be missing each other like crazy, so Australia will be the place for lurve. Maybe I’ll persuade him to earn some money with me, although I can see him fitting in more behind a bar with a cocktail shaker in his hand than shearing sheep, but you never know … After that, who knows, travel up to Byron Bay, learn to surf maybe? Apparently my dad was a surfer dude, so hopefully it’ll be in my genes and I’ll ace it. Anyway, first stop is a hostel on Kent Street, bang smack in heart of Sydney …

Chapter 16

Maggie, Bali, 2000

Midnight was my favourite time and the beach was my favourite place. Lying next to me, his fingers laced through mine, was Jackson, who was very quickly becoming my favourite person on the planet. Today he’d spent hours trying to teach me to surf. I hadn’t mastered it, but I had enjoyed being rescued repeatedly by him.

‘I wish I could stay here forever,’ I murmured.

Jackson’s hand squeezed mine. ‘Me too.’

So, this was it. First love. I’d spent hours listening to my friends mooning about how perfect their boyfriends were, and I’d spent almost as many hours comforting them when those relationships finished. Never once had I imagined the sweet bliss I’d feel when it happened to me. I felt like a Disney princess, permanently smiling and my heart full of joy. I was half disappointed not to see a gang of tiny animals and birds following me when I looked over my shoulder.

I wanted to tell him that I loved him. But I didn’t want to spoil the moment in case he laughed or looked horrified, or reacted in any way that showed me I’d got it wrong.

Jackson and I had volunteered to do night patrol. Mostly because no one else liked to do it, and it meant we had the beach to ourselves. So far we hadn’t seen any sign of turtles climbing up the beach to lay their eggs. Technically, we could both go back to our rooms now if we wanted to.

I still slept in the girls’ room and he still slept with the boys, but as the days passed, we were finding more and more ways to spend the nights together.

We were at the narrow end of the beach, our feet inches from the water. Every so often a wave would rush up the sand and touch our toes. Behind us in the trees, the occasional hoot of a bird would interrupt the incessant buzzing of cicadas. The sky was clear tonight, and the longer I stared at it, the more stars appeared. Millions upon millions of glittering diamonds. This was the most exotic and romantic place I’d ever been.

‘Maybe we should sleep here.’

Nights were hot and sticky in Bali; the heat in the dorm when all four of us were in was oppressive. But out here on the beach with damp sand beneath us and a faint ocean breeze cooling our bodies, it was bliss.

Jackson’s hand stroked the length of my arm. ‘When you say sleep …?’

‘Of course, I forgot,’ I said innocently, deliberately misunderstanding him. ‘We’re supposed to be working.’

‘Then how about a kiss to keep me going?’

‘Another one?’ I teased. ‘If you must.’

I’d always liked boys. I was confident and flirty, the girl in my group sent to approach a crowd of boys with the ‘my friend fancies you’ messages. I had the one-liners and the cheeky smiles, all the banter. I was still that person, but with Jackson my smiles were warmer, my sharp edges smoother, my heart in a constant flutter. My feelings for him were, at times, too big for my body. I’d never been in love before so I had nothing to compare this to, but he had lit a fire inside me that I could never imagine burning out.

He turned onto his side to face me, his cheek resting in his palm. ‘I must.’

He pulled me tightly into him and kissed me with an intensity I’d never known until I’d met him. His lips, his scent, his skin against mine gave me a headrush. I never wanted this to end.

This was a holiday fling, I kept telling myself. My stint as a conservation volunteer would end and we’d go back to our normal lives. Me to finish off my degree and a career in psychology, him to living by the beach and following his dream. But it didn’t feel like a fling; it felt as if I’d found my person. The person I wanted to share my secrets with, the one I looked for in the crowd, the one I wanted to tell whenever I saw something amazing. He had even changed the way I saw myself. He’d helped me to discover the real me, the Maggie who could do anything, who could have adventures and shoot for the moon and not worry about paying next month’s rent.

‘How have I only known you for three weeks?’ I murmured, snuggling into his neck after the kiss ended. I traced the muscles of his chest with my fingertips and felt his breath catch as my hand moved lower.

‘The best three weeks of my life,’ he said huskily.

I propped myself up to look him in the eye. ‘Really? That’s so sweet.’