I had once thought I could have felt like that about the person who had given me my first kiss and I had certainly still believed it might be possible the day he dramatically pulled me away from the cliff edge, or rather rescued me from his dog who was intent on tipping me over it, but my memories were a fantasy. That kiss hadn’t been what I remembered at all, just like lots of other things in my life, including my parents’ far-less-than-perfect marriage. It seemed I had skipped merrily through life either wearing rose-tinted specs or a blindfold.

Before I had a chance to check them, I felt warm tears running down my face. I quickly wiped them away with the back of my hand, stood up, turned my back on the party and walked down the beach back to the shoreline. I wasn’t quite as steady on my feet as I would have liked, but I needed to compose myself away from the group. Sophie’s punch was clearly having an impact I hadn’t expected. It was releasing my pent-up emotions as well as relaxing my body – a truly heady combination as it turned out.

‘Tess!’

I closed my eyes and ignored the voice behind me because it was the last one in the world I wanted to hear.

‘Hey!’ it called again. ‘Wait up.’

‘I just need a minute,’ I croaked, still not looking back and taking a few further steps.

My voice was filled with so much emotion, I knew he wouldn’t leave me alone, but I wished he would. Perhaps that was what I should have wished for when we burned the sparklers: to free myself of the stupid feelings I had for a man I couldn’t have.

‘Are you all right?’ Sam asked, eventually catching up with me and sounding out of breath. In my haste to get away from him I’d forgotten that he found walking on the sand so difficult. ‘My singing wasn’t that bad, was it?’

He was trying to coax a smile, but he had no chance of achieving that.

‘No,’ I said, ‘of course not.’

I shook my head and took another step. There’d been music the night I went out with Joe, but it had been loud, brash, raucous and fun. What Sam had just delivered was completely different. Stirring, sensitive, and expressive, he had moved me in a way I hadn’t been touched in a very long time. Probably forever. It had felt like far too intimate a moment to share with someone who was supposed to be just a friend, and a friend who was attached to another friend at that. I couldn’t let him see the impact his impromptu performance had had on me.

‘It was wonderful,’ I sniffed, pulling my sleeves down over my hands and staring out to sea.