She set off again, taking the steps on the twisty path two at a time. Soon she was gasping for breath, but at least she’d shaken Gabe off.

When she finally paused again, leaning on a handrail at the top of the hill, he was out of sight. She couldn’t even hear him. However, she also couldn’t afford to hang around too long so she forced herself onwards and reached the top of the cliff where the gradient levelled off. It was high tide and the waves crashed on the beach seventy feet below, buffeting the sea wall that had been built to protect the clifftop homes from tumbling into the sea.

‘Sam!’

She gasped. Gabe was clambering over the edge of the cliff a few yards ahead. It wasn’t possible … but yes, he’d actually climbed up a crumbling section of path that had been undercut by the sea in the previous year’s storms. It was a quicker and more direct route but also happened to be incredibly risky as no one knew when parts of it might collapse. Her pulse rate ramped up even though he was safe now.

He hauled himself up onto the grass.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ Sam asked him.

‘I took a short cut,’ he said, getting to his feet.

‘Around the cliff fall?’

‘If you mean the old coast path. Yeah. Why not?’

‘Didn’t you see the signs? It’s unstable and dangerous since the winter storms. Parts of it are liable to collapse and someone slipped last month down there and had to be rescued by the coastguard. They could have died, which is why it’s been diverted further back from the cliff edge and up here.’

Gabe brushed mud off his jeans. ‘I thought it was a risk worth taking.’

‘You’re barking mad.’

Gabe grinned. ‘You already knew that.’

She shook her head. ‘You could have fallen onto the beach … hurt yourself or worse.’

‘Is that what you want to happen?’

She imagined him lying on the rocks at the base of the cliff, his body broken and suppressed a shudder. ‘If you think that, you really are out of your mind.’

‘Sometimes I wonder, the reception I’m getting from you.’

‘Are you surprised?’

‘Yes. No.’ He raked his fingers through his hair, all trace of bravado gone. ‘I don’t know what to think, but I do know we need to talk and we need to do it now. I can’t function around you, or in Porthmellow with the way things are between us.’

‘Right. OK. So, you want us to be friends?’ Sam asked.

‘I want us to be on friendly terms, especially with the festival coming up, but first I want us to be honest with each other.’

She blurted out her response. ‘Right I see. Honest … So, Gabe, is this you trying to use the festival to blackmail me into forgiving you?’