the sea with her, his shoes in one hand and her hand in his other. The sound of the waves rushing onto the pebbles and the seagulls squawking, the scent of the sea air and the warmth of the sunlight on his skin. Right at that moment, he’d never felt more alive.
It must have shown in his face, because she said softly, ‘Told you it was rewarding.’
‘Uh-huh.’ He smiled at her. ‘Talking of rewards...’ He leaned forward and kissed her. But what started out as a sweet, soft brush of her lips against his soon turned hot.
He pulled back, remembering that they were in a public place and with families around them. ‘Claire. We need to...’
‘I know.’ Her fingers tightened round his. ‘And this was what I wanted today. For you to let go, just a little bit, and have some fun with me.’
‘I am having fun,’ he said, half surprised by the admission.
‘Good.’ Her face had gone all soft and dreamy and it made him want to kiss her again—later, he promised himself.
When they’d finished paddling, they had to walk on the pebbles to dry off—Claire clearly hadn’t thought to bring a towel with her—and then she said, ‘Time for afternoon tea. And I have somewhere really special in mind.’
‘OK.’ He didn’t mind going with the flow for a while, especially as it meant holding her hand. There was something to be said about just wandering along together.
As they walked into the town, he could see the exotic domes and spires of Brighton Pavilion.
Another queue, he thought with a sigh. It was one of the biggest tourist attractions in the area. Again, if she’d planned it they could’ve bought tickets online rather than having to queue up. He hated wasting time like this.
But, when they got closer, he realised there was something odd. No queues.
A notice outside the Pavilion informed them that the building was closed for urgent maintenance. Just for this weekend.
Sean just about stopped himself pointing out that if Claire had planned their trip in advance, then she would’ve known about this and she wouldn’t have been disappointed.
‘Oh, well,’ she said brightly. ‘I’m sure we can find a nice tea shop somewhere and have a traditional cream tea.’
Except all the tea shops nearby were full of tourists who’d had exactly the same idea. There were queues.
‘Sorry. This is, um, a bit of a disaster,’ she said.
Yes. But he wasn’t going to make her feel any worse about it by agreeing with her. ‘Carpe diem,’ he said. ‘Maybe there’s an ice cream shop we can go to instead.’
‘Maybe,’ she said, though he could tell that she was really disappointed. He guessed that she’d wanted to share the gorgeous furnishings of the Pavilion with him—and there had probably been some kind of costume display, too.
They wandered through the historic part of the town, peeking in the windows of the antiques shops and little craft shops, and eventually found a tea shop that had room at one of the tables. Though as it was late afternoon, the tea shop had run out of scones and cream.
‘Just the tea is fine, thanks,’ Sean said with a smile.
They had a last walk along the beach, then Claire drove them home. ‘Shall I drop you back at your house, or would you like to come back to my place and we can maybe order in some Chinese food?’ she asked.
Given what she’d said to him by the sea, Sean knew what she wanted to hear. ‘I think,’ he said, ‘we’ll go with the flow.’
Her smile was a real reward—full of warmth and pleasure rather than smugness. ‘We won’t go home on the motorway, then,’ she said. ‘We’ll find a nice little country pub where we can have dinner.’
Except it turned out that every pub they stopped at didn’t do food on Sunday evenings.
‘I can’t believe this,’ she said. ‘I mean—it’s the summer. Prime tourist season. Why on earth wouldn’t any of them serve food on Sunday evenings?’
Sean didn’t have the heart to ask why she hadn’t planned it better. ‘Go back on to the motorway,’ he said. ‘We’ll get a takeaway back in London.’
‘I’m so sorry. Still, at least we can keep the roof down and enjoy the sun on the way home,’ Claire said.
Which was clearly all she needed to say to jinx it, because they were caught in a sudden downpour. By the time she’d found somewhere safe to stop and put the car’s soft top back up, they were both drenched. ‘I’m so sorry. That wasn’t supposed to happen,’ Claire said, biting her lip.
‘So we were literally going with the flow. Of water,’ Sean said, and kissed her.
‘What was that for?’ she asked.
‘For admitting that you’re not always right.’ He stole another kiss. ‘And also because that T-shirt looks amazing on you right now.’
‘Because it’s wet, you mean?’ She rolled her eyes at him. ‘Men.’
He smiled. ‘Actually, I wanted to cheer you up a bit.’
‘Because today’s been a total disaster.’
‘No, it hasn’t. I enjoyed the sea.’
‘But we didn’t get to the Pavilion, we missed out on a cream tea, I couldn’t find anywhere for dinner and we just got drenched.’ She sighed. ‘If I’d done things your way, it would’ve been different.’
‘But when I planned our date, we ended up rushing and that was a disaster, too,’ he said softly. ‘I think we might both have learned something from this.’
‘That sometimes you need to plan your personal life?’ she asked.
‘And sometimes you need to go with the flow,’ he said. ‘It’s a matter of compromise.’
‘That works for me, too. Compromise.’ And her smile warmed him all the way through.
On the way back to London, he asked, ‘So are you seriously going to buy this car?’
‘What’s wrong with it?’
‘Apart from the colour? I was thinking, it’s not very practical for transporting wedding dresses.’
‘I don’t need a car for that. I’m hiring a van for the wedding show,’ she said.
‘So why don’t you have a car?’ he asked.
‘I live and work in London, so I don’t really need one—public transport’s fine.’
‘You needed a car today to take us to the seaside,’ he pointed out.
‘Not necessarily. We could have gone by train,’ she said.
‘But
