Chapter Two
Kivi
“You’re an absolute dork,” Kivi said to Toto as he completed his fourth lap of beach zoomies.
As if he heard her and understood, he skidded to a halt in front of her, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth in the derpiest grin possible.
He then proceeded to shake, sneeze, and resume lolloping over the shingle, although with less freneticism than before.
She watched him gallop further up the beach, and her eye was drawn to a small figure, sitting on one of the taller rocks.
Her eyes narrowed. People seldom came this far up the beach – the only reason she did was because Toto’s energy levels were boundless.
She didn’t recognise the figure. Could it be a lost tourist?
As she got closer, she called Toto back to her side and leashed him.
He loved people, but she was always aware that not everyone liked dogs.
Death By Golden Retriever Slobber was not always the way people wanted to go, as she’d been shown by a number of more finicky guests over the years.
The figure still hadn’t moved, and she felt a lurch of concern.
She continued to walk towards it, and the figure became a person.
A person with a shock of coppery-auburn hair, but who had knees to their chest and their face buried in them.
“Excuse me?” Kivi said at about fifteen feet away, and the person jumped, unfolding from their curled-up position into a woman. She would have been utterly breathtaking – and indeed, Kivi’s heart did give a little flutter – if it hadn’t been for the scowl she was shooting down at the pair of them.
“What do you want?” Her voice was harsh.
“I…” Kivi was lost for words. “I just wanted to see if you’re all right.”
“Oh yes, I’m fucking brilliant,” the woman said, looking out towards the ocean. Kivi’s stomach lurched. She looked like she was about five seconds away from walking out into it. That or just hurling herself off the rock altogether.
“Do you… need help? Do you… want to talk about anything? I’m told I’m a good listener.” Kivi shrugged self-deprecatingly. “If you put a gag over my mouth.”
The glare the woman sent her way would have reduced her to ash if she hadn’t been used to the public, but Kivi stood her ground. Quite clearly, the woman wasn’t okay, and she was directing her ire onto the closest available target. As long as she didn’t direct it at Toto, Kivi was fine with that.
Right on cue, Toto seemed to register that there was a new human being in front of him, because he tore his attention away from a nearby seagull and started straining at his leash.
His tail waved from side to side and Kivi just knew he’d have a goofy grin on his face.
The woman turned her attention to him, but rather than glaring, she looked at him as if mystified.
“This is Toto,” Kivi said. “He wants to say hi. Are you all right with that?”
“I suppose so,” the woman said.
“Then get down off that rock, please.”
Now the woman rolled her eyes. “What, do you think I’m going to jump? Hurl myself down in some half-arsed suicide attempt? Dear Lord.” But she did as Kivi bid, and soon she was standing on the sand next to Toto, who was beyond excited at the hand she was cautiously ruffling through his fur.
Now she was closer, Kivi felt she could get a proper look at her.
The woman was taller than her – around five-foot-eight to her five-four – and willowy where Kivi preferred to think of herself as ‘solid’.
Her skin was ivory – almost translucent in the dullness of the cloudy day – and spattered with freckles.
And her eyes were green. Red hair and green eyes…
a classic combination. And devastatingly beautiful.
“Did you say his name was Toto?” Now the woman was staring at the dog, but speaking to Kivi.
“Well, technically Toby. But yes, I call him Toto. After the dog in The Wizard Of Oz. My name’s not Dorothy, though.”
“Then what is your name?”
“Kiera.” Her real name, because ‘Kivi’ felt too informal, under the circumstances.
“Oh.” The woman made no move towards offering her own name, but just as Kivi was about to ask for it, she spoke again.
“Well, thank you for approaching me, but I’m fine.
It was good to meet you, but I’d better head back to the village.
I walked further than I thought, and I have somewhere to be at three o’clock. ”
“Actually, so do I,” Kivi said, checking her watch and surprised to find that it was gone one-thirty. Thank God there was a shortcut back to the guest house from here. “I’ll just finish taking this one for his walk. Well… good luck. All the best to you.”
It was a formal way to finish the conversation, but something about the woman warranted the courtesy.
With a half-wave, the woman picked up her handbag and started walking back the way Kivi had come.
She didn’t look so angry any more, but the set of her body was glum.
Kivi wondered what she was here for. In her peplum blouse, trousers and wedge boots, she implied more ‘corporate’ than ‘holidaymaker’.
But then, not much could be gleaned from a person’s outfit.
Not down here. She needed to lay off the fashion magazines.
Once she was sure the woman was a good distance away and out of Toto’s remit, she unclipped his leash again.
All that wagging and attention-seeking must have worn him out, for he didn’t stray far this time as she continued to walk up the beach.
It wasn’t long before they came to the steep, winding set of stairs that would spit the two of them out at the top of the village.
She needed to step on it, though, if she had any hope of being ready for her next guest, who was arriving sometime after three.
“Come on, dorky dog,” she shouted, and upped the pace. Her mind was already racing, thinking of everything she had to do when she got home – relieve Eva of her duties, make sure the new guest’s room was set up, have a shower…
But the forlorn look on the beach woman’s face stuck in her mind, even as she headed for home. Somewhere, while she was fussing Toto, there had been a chink in her armour. Kivi silently wished her well, that her pain would end soon. It had been palpable, even by a stranger.