His eyes twinkled with mischief. ‘Thor and I would have toured the North Yorkshire coast offering our removals, relationship advice, courier, superhero, and poetry services of course.’

I laughed. ‘You’d have been amazing at it. I look forward to discovering what other talents you have.’

‘I’ll drink to that.’ Sam clinked his glass against mine.

‘I’ve heard a good way to seal a deal is with a kiss. And I do believe I might have just spotted some mistletoe hanging up by that tree.’

We didn’t make it to the mistletoe. As I kissed my very own superhero, my stomach fizzed and my heart sang. It had been a very bumpy journey to that point and I was still scared about surrendering myself completely again, but I knew that Sam was worth the risk. I suspected that he wouldn’t need to wait for me for very long because I already knew that I loved him and couldn’t live without him. And, after everything I’d been through over the past six months, I also knew that I was stronger than I’d ever realised. Yes, I still sobbed at everything from adverts to films to beautiful, romantic poems but Owen had been right; it wasn’t a sign of weakness. It was because I cared deeply and that was definitely a good thing.

48

Sam

New Year’s Day

‘Are you sure you want to do this?’

Jemma took another look at the sea and nodded.

‘It’s pretty nippy today,’ I said.

‘You said it’s always cold in the North Sea.’

‘It is. But today it’s also dull and cloudy and the forecast is for rain.’

She looked up at the sky. ‘There’s some blue sky right over there.’

I squinted into the distance. It was miles away. ‘I can pretty much guarantee that it’s going to rain before the blue sky hits us.’

‘So what if it does? We’ll already be wet from the sea. A bit of rain isn’t going to make much difference.’

‘I’m just thinking about you. It’s probably not the best weather for your first lesson.’

Jemma removed a hairband from her wrist and tied her hair back. ‘Look, Sam, I want to do this. I know we talked about making our own memories but surfing is part of you – not just you and Nikki – and I want to share it with you. You’ve done something amazing for me by moving back here so I want to do something special for you. Besides, I’ve already done the worst part by shoehorning myself into this thing.’ She pointed to her wetsuit. ‘I might as well see it all the way through. Lesson one, please, Dr Jones.’