Chapter 42
‘Come on, you said you’d go with me,’ Naomi protested the following morning as Sam was making excuses as to why she wouldn’t go horseback riding with her after their massage.
‘I’m sorry but I’m actually dead on my feet.
I guess I didn’t anticipate how exhausting walking around in this heat would be and I haven’t had a chilled-out day since we got here.
I’d really like to flop by the pool today,’ she insisted.
‘Forgive me?’ Her friend gave Naomi a sheepish look and held out her arms to hug her.
‘I don’t want your hug,’ she protested, laughing despite herself. ‘I want you to get your butt on a horse with me.’
‘I know, but my butt wants a sunlounger. Ask Greg.’
Fat chance of that.
Several minutes later, Naomi was still standing in The Palms lobby, trying to figure out what to do. Since Sam had reneged on her, she was contemplating whether to reschedule the outing or cancel altogether and swap it out for some other excursion.
Unlike her friend, she wasn’t a lounge-by-the-pool kind of girl, not when there was so much on this beautiful island to see. There was a catamaran cruise on offer that looked interesting, and a treetop zipline adventure, but Naomi wasn’t particularly energised about either.
‘Naomi? What are you up to today?’ she heard her dad call out from behind and turned to see that her parents weren’t alone.
Will and Holly were chatting away to Janice as if they’d all been friends for ever.
‘Good morning,’ she greeted brightly. ‘I was just trying to decide, as it happens,’ she said, explaining that Sam had ducked out on their planned horse riding.
‘Oh, I was hoping to do that too actually,’ Will commented. ‘But Holly is still a bit young, plus she’s not keen on horses.’
‘Horses are ick,’ his daughter complained. ‘And they throw you off.’
‘She got thrown off during a riding lesson once,’ he told them, grimacing. ‘And that was the end of it.’
‘I’m sure the horses here wouldn’t do that,’ Naomi soothed. ‘They’re very gentle and specially trained to take people on smooth rides.’
But Holly shook her head vehemently. ‘Nu-uh, I’m not going near any horse.’
‘What about a pony then?’
‘That’s a small horse though,’ she quite rightly pointed out.
Janice spoke up then. ‘Naomi, why don’t you and Will go? He said he wanted to, and seems you’ve already booked for two.’
‘Ah no, I couldn’t,’ Will interjected. ‘Not without Holly.’
‘She can stay here with us – that’s if she doesn’t mind,’ Janice suggested, and the little girl immediately brightened up. ‘We weren’t planning on leaving the resort today either. We’re going to go to the activities centre for a basket weaving class, so Holly might like to join us?’
‘Yay, I’d love that. Can I, Daddy, please, please?’
Naomi studied the delighted looks on both faces at the suggestion and couldn’t help but think that her mother may well be feeding her own desires to be a grandmother.
Judy didn’t want kids, Karen and her husband had yet to have any and, of course, the older Naomi got, the more touch-and-go her prospects would be.
And especially when, as far as she could tell, kids didn’t seem to feature anywhere in Greg’s plan.
‘What do you think, Will?’ she questioned, quite liking the idea too. ‘I’d be glad of some company.’
‘Go, Daddy!’ Holly urged, and took a step closer to Janice as if to illustrate.
‘Well, seems like the decision’s already been made for me, doesn’t it?’ He chuckled. ‘But if you’re sure you don’t mind, I’d love to.’
The sun was like white gold on the sand as, a little later, Will and Naomi’s horses strode behind the pack of other tourists. Everyone was chatting animatedly or commenting on the scenery.
Naomi, while thoroughly enjoying the experience, still had a lot on her mind.
She was still thinking about Greg’s excuse about that lunch.
Something didn’t add up. The trouble was she couldn’t be sure what.
He had no reason to lie about it either.
If he had arranged a meeting of some kind while here in St Lucia, there was nothing wrong with that surely.
He was always looking for an edge. It was the way he was made.
‘You doing OK over there?’ Will asked from beside her. ‘You seem very distracted.’
‘Sorry, yes, just thinking,’ Naomi told him. ‘About my friend Sam who was supposed to come with me today. I think I might have told you that she recently broke up with her partner.’
‘The one with the young toddler?’ Will replied, and she was taken aback by how attuned he was to the little details of stuff they’d talked about before.
Unlike Greg, he paid attention.
Stop it, Naomi remonstrated herself. She should not be comparing her partner and hopefully soon-to-be fiancé to some random guy she’d met on holiday.
‘Yes. I suppose I shouldn’t be too hard on her for wanting to chill out really. She’ll need to soak up all that relaxation before she goes home and starts job-hunting.’
Will raised an eyebrow. ‘Brave. Parenting alone isn’t easy, but trying to do it while working too is a whole other story.’ He chuckled. ‘Take it from someone who knows.’
Again Naomi thought she needed to find a way to introduce Sam and Will to one another before they left for home.
Both single parents who lived in London and on the surface could be a perfect match.
Though she doubted Sam would be up for another relationship so soon after Harry.
But even as she made excuses, something inside her sort of wanted to keep Will all to herself, and she wasn’t sure why.
The group rode several miles along the white shore as they basked in the sun’s warmth along the way, and watched some of the horses frolicking in the water. Eventually, they came to a spot where the guide instructed them to dismount and remove their saddles. It was time for everyone to get wet.
Naomi had prepared for this part. She wore moisture-wicking gym shorts over her bikini bottoms to avoid feeling too soaked after, and on top was a loose cotton V-neck T-shirt with her two-piece underneath.
Will had also come prepared in a cotton shirt of his own and light khaki shorts, so as they once again mounted their horses and started towards the water, neither was particularly worried about getting wet.
The water was so gentle in the bay that you could hardly see the waves coming in. Naomi was watching some of the group who were already in the sea with the horses; others had declined the ride and opted to go for a short swim instead.
‘Ready to brave this then?’ Will asked over his shoulder.
She smiled at the enthusiasm in his voice. ‘Definitely.’
He assisted Naomi back onto her horse while he effortlessly made the mount on his own, before leading the way toward the water’s edge.
They were one of the last few to take the plunge, and as they neared the water, she could feel her stomach flop slightly and her heartbeat quicken a little in anticipation.
The sea was vast and there was no end to it. What if the horse got swept away in the current? What then? Then she scolded herself at the ridiculous concerns suddenly filling her mind. She’d wanted an adventure and this was part of it.
So despite the nerves, she continued to follow Will out further into the ocean. The seawater was warm as it slowly began to creep up her legs and she let out a relieved chuckle as the gentle lapping of the waves undulated above her knees.
The horses seemed unaffected by the fact that they were now shoulder deep in water and when Will questioned the guide about it, he explained that though a fear of water could be common in horses due to a lack of depth perception, it was the trust they built with humans that helped them overcome it.
‘Interesting. You learn something new every day,’ he said to Naomi as the group tracked along the shore in the water on their way back to base.
‘Must be nice to be a horse. So much simpler,’ she commented. ‘To have someone take care of your needs and be able to trust that person so implicitly that you would follow them wherever they led.’ She patted the neck of her own horse gently.
‘I don’t think it’s too different from being a person all the same,’ Will replied, and when she gave him a curious look, he explained further.
‘A horse doesn’t have a choice. If the person you trust mistreats you, then you can leave.
A horse can’t. They have to accept whoever they’re given.
So it all comes down to the person you find yourself with.
A good one, the right one, can make the hardest time easier.
But the wrong one can make even good times seem uncertain. ’
Something deeply unsettling resonated in her when he said this, but Naomi was determined to laugh it off. ‘Do you read self-help books or something?’
‘No,’ Will replied. ‘I just had a very wise grandmother who taught me to always trust my instincts.’