The sun shimmered over the trembling water. In the distance Apiata sat washed in soft yellow light.
The two fishermen had reached the rock outcrop at the foot of the headland and were preparing their lines. Shawn looked up and waved. Blythe waved back.
‘You’d know everyone around here?’ Jas guessed.
‘Just about.’ Blythe sat on the wiry dry grass at their feet, drawing up her legs and hugging them. ‘My brothers and sister and I spent lots of holidays here with my grandparents. Everyone was great to Gran and me after my grandfather died—and since she went the locals have all looked out for me.’
Jas sat with a forearm draped across a raised knee. Below, the fishermen threw out their lines and within ten minutes Tau reeled in a struggling silver fish.
‘That didn’t take long,’ Jas murmured.
They watched Tau and his son bring in more fish, and admired the changing play of the gradually fading sunlight on the ocean, until the dazzling disc had settled on the horizon. Then Blythe stirred. ‘We’d better go down before it gets dark.’
Jas offered her his hand, and although she didn’t need help she took it, oddly disappointed when he dropped hers immediately afterwards. She wondered if her eyes, like his, reflected the fire of the setting sun.
‘Let’s go this way,’ she suggested.
‘Down the cliff face?’
‘It’s quite safe if you know what you’re doing.’
She showed him the almost invisible steps in the cliff, and the handholds she’d known since childhood. Near the foot of the climb she grasped at the branch of an old pohutukawa, and the wood gave way. She heard Jas give a sharp exclamation, felt herself slide, and came to an ignominious landing on her behind in a rock pool.
Jas was beside her before she’d struggled to her feet, his hands lifting her. ‘Are you all right?’
Blythe laughed, despite the sure knowledge that she’d have a thumping bruise by tomorrow. ‘I’m okay. Lucky I was nearly down, anyway. Thanks for picking me up.’ She pushed a loosened curl from her eyes.
‘Nothing bothers you, does it?’
He sounded oddly tense, and she cast him a wary look of surprise. ‘A bit of water and a sore behind isn’t worth making a fuss about.’
Shawn came bounding towards them across the uneven rock shelf. ‘Blythe? You okay?’
‘I’m fine! Really.’ Shawn’s father was holding two rods and looking anxiously towards her, and she lifted a hand in reassurance. ‘Just wet.’
Shawn followed her rueful gaze down at her jeans, soaked from waist to knees, and said cheekily, ‘Suits you.’ His admiring dark gaze returned to her face, and she gave him a primly reproving look, then spoiled it by laughing when he looked instantly abashed.
‘We got some fish for you,’ he said.
They picked their way across the rocks, and Tau turned to greet them again. He offered his rod to Jas, and when Jas shook his head, saying he’d no experience of fishing, Shawn cast him a look of teenage scorn, but Tau insisted on teaching him, while Shawn tied a couple of fish together and handed them to Blythe.
Blythe watched Jas’s efforts with amused interest, and teased him with exaggerated admiration when he reeled in a respectable schnapper.
Jas grinned rather narrowly at her as he handed back the rod and thanked his tutor.
‘Know how to gut it?’ Tau asked him.
Jas shook his head. Blythe said, ‘I’ll do it,’ and expertly cleaned and gutted the catch and attached a loop of twine while Jas watched with interest. She handed it to him and rinsed her hands in one of the rock pools, shivering in a gust of wind coming off the sea.
Tau said, ‘You’re cold. Want to borrow my jacket?’ He indicated it, lying on the rocks.
‘Mine’d fit better,’ Shawn offered eagerly.
‘No, we’re on our way,’ Blythe told them, ‘but thanks. And thanks a lot for the fish.’
‘No problem,’ Tau assured her. ‘We’ll have to be packing it in soon too.’
Carrying his fish and hers, Jas walked beside her to where they could climb down from the rocks, and she paused to remove her shoes, ready to walk on the soft sand. Jas jumped down and turned to offer his hand. Blythe paused and stared at his palm, marred by a dark, bloody scrape. ‘You’re hurt!’
‘It’s nothing.’ He transferred the fish to that hand and reached up with the other, gripping her hand.
She climbed down and grabbed his wrist as he swapped the fish back to his uninjured hand. ‘That must sting.’
‘I said it’s nothing.’ He pulled away from her.
‘You did that coming after me when I fell?’
‘It’s not your fault.’
‘You really didn’t need to worry.’
‘I wasn’t the only one. Your young friend’s a bit precocious, isn’t he?’
‘Shawn?’ Blythe smiled. ‘I’ve known him since he was knee-high. He’s just being a teenager… practising. I’m sure his parents don’t need to worry.’
‘Are they worried?’
‘He’s been running round with an older crowd, boys who’ve left school. Tau and his wife think they’re a bit rough. He’s got a great family—he’ll come right.’
‘You think that will stop him going off the rails?’
‘I’m sure it helps. Don’t you agree?’
‘Oh, yes.’ His voice sounded flat. ‘A caring family with decent values can make all the difference in the world.’ As she glanced at him, he added smoothly, ‘Isn’t that what all the psychology books say?’
‘I haven’t read a lot of psychology,’ Blythe confessed. ‘But it seems plain common sense to me.’
He smiled suddenly, almost indulgently, his eyes warming in a way that made her heart skip a beat. ‘And you have a lot of that.’
Blythe hoped it was a compliment.
When they reached the sandy flight of steps to the cottage Jas made to hand over Blythe’s fish.
‘Come in,’ she said, ‘and let me see to your hand.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with it—’
‘Yes, there is. And I feel responsible.’ She gripped his wrist. ‘Come on.’
He could have pulled away, but instead he followed her up to the cottage, depositing the fish on the porch, and let Blythe lead him to the bathroom and switch on the light. She inspected his hand. ‘That needs cleaning.’
She ran warm water into the basin and poured in a little disinfectant. But when she made to clean the wound, Jas firmly removed the cloth from her hand and did the job himself.
Blythe found a clean towel and gently blotted the water from his palm, then placed a piece of gauze over it. As she leaned forward to tape it with sticking plaster she felt his breath stir the tendrils of hair at her temples. But there was a resistance emanating from him, as though he hated her touching him.
Not a touchy-feely person, she thought, concentrating on her task.
As soon