Never the Bride (Dilbury Village #1)

by Charlotte Fallowfield

  ‘How the hell did you get engaged to Greg then, or lose your virginity?’ I uttered, not following her crazy, twisted logic at all.

  ‘Because I liked them, I didn’t like them, like them.’

  ‘There’s a double-like system in place? When did that come into play?’

  ‘Oh, you know what I mean. Look at you and Heath. You like him, I think in time you could even go on to date him, but you don’t like him enough for him to be “the one.” You’d be settling for Mr. “Ok for now”, instead of waiting for Mr. Perfect. And that’s what I did, though I didn’t realise it at the time. Subconsciously I think I did know, as I didn’t feel any stress or tension around Greg or the other guys I dated. Like it didn’t matter if they got to know the real me and decided they didn’t like me, it wouldn’t be any great loss. But with Mr. Perfect …’ She trailed off, a dreamy look in her eyes, until I snapped my fingers and broke her out of her daze. ‘With a guy that I feel an attraction that strong to, there’s a risk. It matters, you know?’

  ‘So you’re saying a few looks at a hot face and body jogging past for the last few days and you think you’ve found Mr. Perfect?’

  ‘You make me sound really shallow,’ she protested before slurping up the remains of her drink. ‘But I just took one look at him and felt like I’d been winded. Then he caught my eye and smiled, and it was like someone had sucked all of the air out of my lungs. It was like I felt this connection to him, a total stranger. It scared me, so every time I see him coming up the beach now, I make myself not look.’ She bit her lower lip anxiously as she studied my face for my reaction.

  ‘Ok, I sort of get that. I felt the same way the first time I saw Miller at Rachel’s wedding. But what I don’t get is you closing yourself off to the possibility of meeting someone who might be your happy ever after. By letting him think you’re not interested, you probably lose any chance of finding out if there’s something there. By letting him know, by maybe having a few drinks with him, the worst that can happen is you don’t get on and he walks away. No harm, no foul. You’re no worse off.’

  ‘But–’

  ‘No buts, because there’s a chance that he could really like you too, Georgie. A chance that you could have a relationship, a chance that I might have to put on bridesmaid dress number thirteen for you. Isn’t that worth the risk?’

  ‘Of you being a spinster for the rest of your life? Hell no!’ she retorted.

  ‘Take me out of the equation. There’s no way Pippa’s going to last a week in a convent, she’ll change her mind and be getting married before we know it, and she’ll put the curse on me. You said on the plane ride over here that you’d do anything to see a smile on my face again, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ she replied cautiously.

  ‘Well, I’m calling in that promise. I want you to smile back at him next time he jogs past, and to keep smiling every time he looks at you, and to say yes when he asks you to drinks or dinner, which I guarantee he’s going to do. No,’ I warned as she went to interrupt me. ‘You promised, Georgie. This is what I want.’

  ‘You’re so mean to me, Abbie Carter,’ she pouted. ‘I’ll only promise if you promise to open up to me before we get on that plane home. Deal?’

  Bugger, she had me there, but I wanted to see her moving on from the disaster of Greg, to realise her self-worth again. Slicing open some fresh wounds was a small price to pay for my friend’s happiness.

  ‘Deal,’ I confirmed.

  Tuesday

  ‘I can’t do it,’ I stated firmly, shaking my head as I stepped back from the cliff edge for about the fourth time.

  ‘Oh come on, Abbie, it’s not that high, and it’s not like there isn’t a beautiful lagoon to catch you at the bottom,’ Georgie urged. ‘Look, look, are you going to let a precocious twelve-year-old show you up?’ She pointed at the young boy who’d been taunting me as he’d queued behind. He gave me a smug look as he jumped over the edge with a whoop of joy.

  ‘Cocky little bugger,’ I muttered, craning my head to see if he’d made it safely, but secretly hoping he’d landed on the rocks and broken his leg. I sighed as I saw him swimming away on his back, then gasped as he stuck his thumb and index finger up to his forehead in a “Loser” gesture as he grinned up at me. ‘Right, that’s it, I’m jumping!’ I announced as I pushed Georgie out of the way, needing to do it before I lost my nerve. I took a deep breath and told myself not to look down as I did a standing jump off the cliff.

  ‘Don’t forget to ….’ Georgie’s voice was obliterated by my scream as my stomach remained up there with her, and I looked down to see the lagoon below racing towards me. Out of instinct, I started flailing my arms and legs, like that was going to suspend me in the air, Roadrunner style, and stop me from reaching my destination. I tipped forwards and could have sworn I heard a chorus of people hissing through their teeth as I slapped onto the water’s surface, my chest, stomach and thighs taking the brunt of the impact, then rapidly sank below the surface. I came up spluttering and choking, my body stinging like I’d just been paddled to death with ping-pong bats. ‘You ok?’ yelled Georgie.

  ‘Great,’ I yelled back, trying to make myself look casually nonchalant about the whole thing, while that damn kid roared with laughter somewhere in the distance.

  ‘You looked like you hit the water hard,’ she called. ‘You were supposed to tombstone, cross your arms in front of you and go feet first.’

  ‘Never one for tradition, this way was far more exhilarating,’ I called back. Bugger, my body was on fire. I managed to swim away from the landing zone and made it to a shallow part of the lagoon where I could stand up and try and catch my breath as I watched Georgie jump. Instead of my bloodcurdling scream of fear, she let out a ‘Yippee’ as she did exactly as we’d been instructed to do and disappeared into the water like a knife slicing through butter. She surfaced and swam over, then walked up towards me, looking annoyingly like a sexy Ursula Andress or Halle Berry, straight out of a Bond film.

  ‘Wow, wasn’t it amazing? I want to do it again,’ she grinned.

  ‘Feel free. I’m fancying a tour on the lazy river,’ I shrugged. There was no way I was going up there again.

  ‘I’ll come back later, I’d rather be with you,’ she smiled, grabbing my hand. ‘Come on then, let’s go and float around the resort. I’m so glad we came, it’s amazing here.’

  She was right. Although my body currently felt broken, this water park was just amazing. Calling it a water park made it sound like some kind of man-made theme park. It wasn’t. This part of it was made up of natural coral reefs and saltwater lagoons, where fish swam alongside you, sea turtles flapped past, and brightly coloured parrots flew overhead. After lunch, we were heading to the section where there were some water slides, and we’d booked an intimate swim with the dolphins. Other than my water slap just now, I was feeling a lot less tense. Daily massages out in a private cabana above the ocean had helped to ease out a few kinks as well, as had the decision to leave my phone behind. I needed a complete break from Miller to think about what I really wanted, as this constant up and down with him wasn’t working for me.

  With the exception of that damn obnoxious kid taunting me with ‘Hey look, it’s the chicken,’ as he hung over each of the wooden bridges we passed under in our giant inflated rings, the lazy river was gorgeous and relaxing. After lunch, we spent an hour sunbathing as people snorkelled past, then Georgie begged me to climb up the steps to the tallest water slide, which undulated in a straight line all the way down into another lagoon below. I gritted my teeth as we worked our way up. I was really aching from that cliff jump earlier, but wasn’t going to moan about it all day. The member of staff at the top grinned widely as Georgie and I stepped up to the slides, checking us both out.

  ‘You, chute one, sit and hold the rails until I tell you to let go,’ he instructed Georgie, who did as she was told. She looked striking in a turquoise crochet bikini, which matched her eyes and the blue water that surrounded u
s.

  ‘You, chute two, lie face down and hold the rails until I tell you to let go,’ he ordered me.

  ‘Face down? Are you sure?’ I asked, not overly enthused at the prospect of putting my already tender front in the firing line.

  ‘Face down,’ he nodded, gesturing for the next couple to step forwards for chutes three and four. I groaned and rolled my eyes as my tormentor swaggered over and looked me up and down.

  ‘Oi, you can knock that off for a start. You look about twelve, I’m old enough to be your mother,’ I warned him as he cocked his head to check out my bottom. ‘I’m going to sit down, like my friend,’ I called over to the member of staff as he ordered another boy to sit for chute three, then told the irritating lad to lie down in the fourth chute.

  ‘What’s the matter, too chicken to go head first?’ the little tyke called as he got into position. ‘Too scared I’m gonna beat you?’

  ‘What did I do to get him riding my arse today?’ I asked Georgie, astounded, as I flicked my thumb over my shoulder at him. She giggled and shrugged.

  ‘Didn’t you know boys always pick on girls they fancy, Abbie? Go on, do it, wipe that smug smile off his face by beating him.’

  ‘Fine,’ I grated, shooting him a glare as I got into position, the glare turning to a fierce scowl as he winked at me.

  I took a deep breath as they counted us down, my arms at full stretch as I gripped the rail tightly. The second the word “Go” was called, I propelled myself forwards and shot out of the flat starting area like a canon.

  ‘Ha, take that!’ I yelled as I went over the brow and tipped forwards. I gulped as I saw how much of a drop there was to the water out below and ahead of us, but there was no turning back now. I plummeted, then levelled off, then went over the edge again, picking up speed. By the third drop, I was going so fast I could hear the wind whistling past my ears and I lifted slightly, landing back down on the hard, wet surface below with a slight “Oomph.” The slight “Oomph” became a loud one, then a forcefully ejected swear word. By the time I was approaching the last few undulations of the slide, I wasn’t just lifting in the air, I was freakin’ Superwoman, taking off and flying through the air before smacking back down and having the stuffing knocked out of me. I could hear Georgie whooping with glee somewhere behind me as I was launched again like a missile. ‘Brace for impact,’ I screamed as I landed with a heavy thud and took off again from the final hump, slicing through the air.

  Instead of just slapping the water for the second time today, like that wouldn’t be enough torture, I skimmed across it a number of times like a bouncing bomb. I gasped for air just as I went under, swallowing a load of the salty water as well as something solid. I came up choking and struggling to breathe, with the horrible feeling of something wedged in the back of my throat. One of the lifeguards at the edge waded over to help me and escorted me to the side, encouraging me to spit it all out.

  ‘Oh my God, Abbie, are you ok?’ Georgie uttered as she came up beside me. She screamed and covered her face with her hands as I coughed up a load of water, and something light brown in colour spewed out with it as well.

  ‘Is that … is that … a friggin’ corn plaster?’ I shrieked, then choked, hardly able to believe what I was seeing.

  ‘I’m going to be sick,’ Georgie moaned, her tanned and freckled face turning a light shade of green.

  ‘Not in the water,’ the lifeguard quickly replied.

  ‘Oh no, we don’t want puke in the water, do we? I mean, that would just up the gross factor even more than me swallowing someone’s manky toe covering,’ I coughed, fighting the urge to be sick myself. My stomach started roiling as I continued to gag, so I quickly turned around, not wanting to look at the offending item. Instead I was confronted by the kid, whose eyes ejected on stalks as his mouth gaped.

  ‘Abbie, your top’s missing,’ Georgie giggled, pointing to my chest. I quickly covered my bare breasts with my hands, my cheeks turning the same colour as my slide-slapped chest, stomach, and thighs. The lifeguard looked around, spotted it floating in the water not far away, and raced off to retrieve it.

  ‘Great tits!’ muttered the boy, still staring.

  ‘Don’t think I won’t slap you just because you’re a kid,’ I hissed at him.

  ‘Go on then, it’d be worth it when you have to let them go to do it. I wouldn’t mind another look.’

  ‘Yeah, me neither, Todd,’ nodded his friend, who’d sidled up beside him. I just stood there, speechless, still trying to catch my breath from the shock of my journey and impromptu meal, the thought of which made me cough again.

  ‘That was so cool, the way you were flying through the air,’ Todd grinned, looking suitably impressed.

  Cool? With bad boys my size? Cool was the opposite of how my chest and stomach were feeling right now. They were on fire from the succession of beatings they’d taken as I’d bounced my way down. Never had I wished for a flat chest more than I had during that descent. In fact, I was amazed my boobs were still facing forwards and not as flat as pancakes or poking out of my back. ‘You need the kiss of life?’ he asked, looking hopeful.

  ‘No!’ I retorted. ‘Look, don’t you have girls your own age to go and flirt with?’

  ‘Yeah, but you’re like … a Playboy model. You’re hot.’

  ‘Your friend is super fit, too,’ Todd’s friend added. ‘I’ll have her and you can have Supergirl.’

  ‘Jesus,’ I sighed, looking at Georgie for help, but she was too busy laughing and no use at all. ‘Just tell me I beat him, that I beat you all, and that all the humiliation and the disgusting snack was worth it.’

  ‘Win? You set a new record, lady. Instead of just a free picture of you coming down the slide, my manager’s confirmed you’ll get a free video of it as well,’ nodded the lifeguard as he handed Georgie my white bikini top.

  ‘Oh wonderful, my pain and shame immortalised, I’m thrilled,’ I replied with more than a hint of sarcasm, which seemed to go completely over his head. But despite being in some serious pain, I was secretly chuffed I’d beaten Todd. And being seen as hot by a twelve-year-old, while incredibly wrong on so many levels, was also kind of a morale boost. ‘You and you, beat it,’ I ordered, flicking my head to them both as they just stood there, transfixed on my hands and hoping for another glimpse. I sighed when they made no move to disappear and turned my back on them as Georgie quickly helped me to dress.

  ‘Quite the fan club you have going on,’ she observed with another giggle.

  ‘I can just see the headlines back home if we don’t shake them off soon. Abbie Carter, the flying water slide flashing speedster, jailed in Mexico for grooming young boys. Seriously, where are their parents?’ I shook my head as I started having a coughing fit, the thought of that gross plaster making me want to throw up.

  ‘Kids now get so much more freedom than we ever did,’ she agreed. ‘Come on, let’s go and get you some water. You need to sit down for a while and rest after that. Didn’t it hurt?’

  ‘Like you wouldn’t believe. I’m in so much pain right now,’ I groaned.

  ‘I’m good at massage,’ came an adolescent voice behind me.

  ‘And I’m good at spanking, so you’d better scuttle off unless you want to be hauled over my knee,’ I warned, shooting him a look over my shoulder, then coughing again.

  ‘Can you report a teenage stalker?’ I asked as I zipped up my wet suit. I’d just spotted Todd and his friend watching us from the benches that were dotted around the lagoon the dolphins were in.

  ‘It is starting to get a bit creepy,’ Georgie agreed. ‘I’m just hoping we don’t roll over on our sun loungers at the hotel tomorrow and find them both there, staring at us.’

  ‘I think your new beau will have something to say about that,’ I grinned, elbowing her in her ribs. She blushed and giggled.

  ‘He’s not my new beau.’

  ‘I have a feeling he will be soon. We’ve moved from him smiling at you, to you smiling back, to hi
m waving, to you waving back, then the exchange of the word “Hi” to each other as he jogs past every half an hour. You’ll be on a date pretty soon.’

  ‘Shut up, he’s just being polite,’ she grinned as we padded along the floating deck platform to where the trainers were waiting with the other couple doing the swim with us. Four dolphins were zipping back and forth in the water, occasionally sticking their heads up, looking as excited as we were.

  ‘He doesn’t direct his smiles and sexy, deep-voiced “Hi” at me, Georgie. And seriously, with a body like that, he doesn’t exactly need to jog the amount he does. It’s just an excuse to see you. You wait until we’re home and I feed the data I’ve been collating into my spreadsheet. You’ll see it’s gone from one jog a day to ten in just over a week, increasing exponentially.’

  ‘We’re not going on a date. I’m not after a quick, hot holiday romance, and he could live anywhere in the world. I may never see him again.’

  ‘He’s got a very British “Hi,”’ I observed. ‘I’d lay bets on him being an army officer or something.’

  ‘Look at you, Miss “FBI profiler” from one word.’

  ‘Ask him out then and prove me wrong,’ I challenged.

  ‘Damn it, fell right into that one, didn’t I?’

  I laughed and we shut up as we joined the group and listened to our brief. One by one, we were each asked to sit on the edge of the platform, with a bucket of fish behind us, and our dolphins were called over for an introduction, for which they’d be rewarded. Georgie and I gave each other a watery-eyed, emotional, and excited smile as the first dolphin squeaked excitedly and rose up to offer the lady a kiss. They were such adorable creatures. It swam backwards and did a somersault, then came back for its reward.

  Georgie giggled her head off as her dolphin rested its head on her thigh and smiled up at her, allowing her to stroke the underside of its snout, then it shot off to do some acrobatics and came back for its fish.

  ‘Ok, Abbie, you’re next. Sit down, legs apart, so Mahi can get up close. No fish until he’s performed for you.’