Chapter Thirty-Four
Matt had waved the last of the kids off and stayed to help wash out the wetsuits, a job no one relished but which had to be done.
Vince patted him on the back. ‘Hey, Matt, thanks for all your help and for staying all day. I know it wasn’t in your plans.’
‘You’re welcome, mate. I have to admit I enjoyed it.’
Vince chuckled. ‘You always used to … and I know you’re a busy man, but it would be great if you could find a couple of hours for us more often. You’ve already done a lot for the club but you were a natural with the kids. We need all the help we can get.’
‘If I can find the time, I will. I mean, I will try.’ He couldn’t say what he really felt: that it would torment him to stay in the area if Zennor and Trev ever got back together. He’d already had to listen to several parents and club members praising Trev’s donation to the youth squads.
Matt hated himself for feeling cynical and jealous and he would never wish for that vital funding to be cut off – so he’d smiled and nodded and focused on sharing a beer and a burger with some of the volunteers who’d set up their own barbecue on the beach.
One of the reasons he’d got so involved in the lifeguard drills – apart from thoroughly enjoying it – was that the activities demanded his whole focus. He didn’t have time to dwell on Zennor. However, now his duties were done and he should have been relaxing, all he could think about was her.
He assumed she was in the green-room marquee with Sybil and her other clients.
There had been a brief lull in the entertainment while the stage was reconfigured for the band and fire show.
The food stalls were busy and the RumJar distillery stand had a queue that only seemed to grow longer.
The younger children, including Paul’s theatre school, had long gone home and only older teens were left.
The sun was sinking lower, becoming an orange ball in the sky.
Matt finished his burger and flipped open a can of Coke, wondering where Sybil was.
The last he’d seen of her, she was sharing a G he’d done the right thing to act cool with her earlier, even though it had almost killed him.
He wasn’t a good thing for her. His threat to Sybil to leave Cornwall hadn’t been an idle one.
He could not exist in the same space as Zennor and Trev.
He should have known that when he moved back west.
Matt trudged off across the beach towards the sea; every step felt like treading on sharp stones.
The music was much louder and the MC was warming up the audience.
‘Evening, everyone, we are back and, in a few minutes, I want you all to give a massive St Eia welcome to tonight’s headline act, the Driftstones. ’
Cheers and applause rang out but Matt only wanted to see and hear the ocean and try to calm his confused thoughts. He didn’t know where he was heading other than away from the stage, from the people, and – if he could – from himself and his dark mood.
‘Matt!’
He sensed rather than heard someone behind him and, even before he had turned to see who it was, Zennor’s hand was on his arm.
Her hair had come loose and she was breathing hard as if she’d run after him.
But how and why would Zennor ever run after him?
She stopped suddenly, pink in the face. ‘Wait, p-please.’
He felt light-headed. She was more beautiful than he’d ever known.
He could have walked off, and he should have, but he was helpless in her power.
‘Is everything OK?’ he asked and dreaded her asking him the same.
‘Yes.’ She shoved her hands through her hair. ‘No. No, it’s not OK. It hasn’t been for a long time. For years. Matt, this has to be the worst timing ever.’
‘Hello, Sea Fever!’
The band were on stage and the volume had been amped up to the max. Lights flashed across the stage and swept over the audience. The sun had set and the sky was turning deepest sapphire.
‘Are you ready to party?’
‘Yeahhhh! Wooooo!’
‘Then let’s do this!’
With a kerrang of electric guitar and a drum roll, the band launched into their cover of ‘Best Day Of My Life’ by American Authors. The crowd whooped and cheered, already on the band’s side.
‘What?’ he asked, leaning in so close to Zennor that he could smell her perfume. ‘What’s the worst timing, Zennor?’
‘Us. This. What I want to say to you – have to say to you.’
He almost staggered forward in shock. He didn’t dare to believe what he might be hearing. ‘I thought there was no us. I thought – you’re getting back with Trev, aren’t you?’
‘Trev? No! I – No. I’m talking about the us as in you and me. I thought there couldn’t be an us, but now I realise I’ve been trying to fight it, to deny that I still – I still have feelings for you.’
‘F-feelings?’ Matt stammered. ‘You mean the kind that I have? That have never died, despite everything. I don’t dare believe it …’
She stepped closer and that heady fragrance filled his senses again.
‘Believe it. I’m trying to say that I’m still in love with you.
I always have been. That’s why my marriage to Trev didn’t work – and you only told me what I already knew deep down.
That I should have taken more time before committing to Trev.
Then I might have realised … it wasn’t fair to him. And it hurt us both.’
‘This is so sudden, Zen. I can’t take it in. It’s wonderful. It’s amazing but what’s changed your mind?’ Even now, he daren’t believe his own eyes and ears. It would finish him if he had his heart ripped apart again.
‘It’s not sudden because I’ve known it for so long. I did love Trev, but it was in a different way than with you. I was – I let myself be swept away by him but that’s not his fault. It was all my responsibility.’
‘But, Zen …’ Matt wanted to tell her that it was Trev. That he had very much done wrong but he couldn’t destroy this moment he’d dreamed of for so long.
‘No. Let me speak. After the divorce, I spent a long time wondering: what if you hadn’t crashed our wedding? I blamed you for causing the split but you only highlighted the truth: that I wasn’t in love enough, not deeply enough or in the right way, to make our marriage last.’
Matt’s heart was fit to burst with joy, yet he had to let Zennor get everything out.
She took hold of his arms and looked up into his face.
‘Even after the divorce, I did everything I could to deny that. I threw myself into making the business work. There was no point looking back. I’d lost my marriage and you were never going to be on the scene and then you landed back on my doorstep.
Literally on my doorstep and I was so angry. ’
‘God, don’t I know it …’ Matt murmured, feeling shaky that the tantalising prospect of everything he’d wanted for so long was within his reach; so close he could reach out and grasp it.
Yet he’d thought for so long that the prospect was gone that he didn’t dare accept it. It had to be a dream, or it was about to be snatched away again.
He shivered. ‘I’ve made so many mistakes, so many stupid decisions of my own …’ he said, holding her hands now.
‘You have. I have.’ She laughed. ‘But today – earlier – when I saw you with the kids on the beach and how much you cared and how much real connection you have to the club and people you love … it was seeing you just being you. You can’t help it, with your maddening, annoying way …
and it was such a contrast with …’ She shook her head.
‘That doesn’t matter. No one else matters but us and I – I had to run down here and tell you before I lost my nerve. ’
Matt felt almost light-headed at this magical, miraculous turn of events.
He ought to be full of joy because this was the moment – right now, right here – when all his dreams came true with fireworks and bells ringing.
This should be their happy ending – happy beginning, all of those things – and yet …
‘Zennor, I – This is wonderful. It’s incredible …’
‘Then kiss me or something. Sweep me off my feet. Just do something.’ She laughed.
Needing no other invitation, he pulled her into his arms and their bodies and mouths met and everything around them disappeared. There was only the two of them, alone together, in a kiss that was the best of his life by a million miles.
‘Oh my God!’
They both flinched as a bang exploded, so loud it could be heard above the band. Flames and smoke billowed out from the area behind the stage.
Then Matt realised. ‘It’s the marquee!’ he yelled, letting her go. ‘It’s on fire!’
He took off with Zennor half a second behind.
She caught up with him metres from the marquee. One side was ablaze, flames shooting up against the darkening sky. The music had stopped, replaced by screams from the audience.
‘Move everyone back!’ Matt shouted but people were already scrambling to get as far away from the fire as possible. The stewards were taking over, marshalling them away from the stage and off the beach.
Matt’s mind leapt from one horrible thought to another: what about the electrics on stage and in the marquee? What stuff had the fire jugglers stored in the vicinity? Was there anyone in the marquee?
Roadies hustled the band away from the stage while others carted away the instruments and equipment. The fire jugglers had found an extinguisher but were beaten back by the flames.
‘Is anyone still in there?’ Matt asked one of them.
‘I don’t know …’ the juggler said. ‘Maybe the storyteller, Sybil. I saw her in there but that was ten minutes ago. I – can’t say. This is – a total fuck-up!’
‘Forget that now.’ Matt’s heart pounded. ‘We have to get Sybil out. I’ll run around the front.’
The flames were spreading, eating the marquee from the rear.
‘Sybil!’ Zennor ran up to him. ‘Is she in there?’
‘We don’t know,’ Matt said. ‘And you can’t go in.’
Ignoring him, she dashed up to the front of the marquee. Matt tore after her, realising she was going to try and enter from the front.
‘Stop!’ he yelled but Zennor was metres ahead.
It was so like her: bold and daring, but he didn’t want her in danger for a second. He could feel the fierce heat of the flames against his bare arms.
‘You can’t go in there!’
‘I have to …’ Zennor stopped, shielding her face with her hands when Tyler raced up.
‘Have you seen Sybil?’ she asked him.
‘She ran into the marquee! She thought you were in there.’
Zennor threw her hand over her mouth and then moved like lightning. ‘I’m going to find her!’
‘No, wait!’
She raced forward, followed by Matt. He grabbed her arm but she slipped from his grasp and hurtled into the entrance of the blazing tent.