Free Misty Falls by Joss Stirling Page A

its moment in the sun. If I posted this on my Facebook page I could guarantee I’d increase the comments from my girlfriends exponentially. I took a couple more shots.
    He had become suspicious of the time I was taking with my allowed ogling via a camera lens. ‘Got enough now?’
    Never. ‘Um, thanks.’
    He came closer and frowned.
    ‘What?’
    He gestured at my nose. ‘You’re burning. You have to be careful with fair skin like yours: the sun’s really fierce by the sea. Not what you’re used to in England.’
    Of course, I would be burning. He looked like the sun merely kissed and caressed him before turning his skin a golden brown.
    ‘Oh great.’ I reached for my sunscreen, then remembered it was at Heathrow. ‘I’ll have to catch up with my aunt. She’s bound to have some Factor Fifty for her children.’
    I was surprised that Alex didn’t take the chance to leave me behind as I turned back. He fell in step beside me, his stride loose and easy, hands swinging loose at his thighs almost close enough to hold mine.
    Stop looking, Misty.
    ‘I envy you,’ said Alex, then frowned. ‘Did I just say that aloud?’
    ‘Yes.’ Maybe I was leaking truth rays again? I wasn’t going to own up that it might be my fault he said such tactless things around me. We were battling enough personality clashes without adding that to the mix.
    He dug his hands in his pockets. ‘I didn’t mean to mention it but it’s true.’
    ‘What can you possibly envy about me?’ Stupidly, part of me was hoping for a personal compliment to make up for the party comment, something about my conversation skills or attractive sense of humour maybe?
    ‘Your family. Your oddly named brothers and sisters. Aunts and uncles—masses of them from what I’ve heard. It’s quite a tribe you’ve got there.’
    Of course, he would envy what surrounded me rather than anything I could claim was down to my character. Still, points for trying to be friendly. ‘I know. I’m very lucky. So you don’t have many relatives then?’
    ‘No.’ He rolled his shoulders to ease tension in his neck. ‘I don’t think I know much about families.’
    ‘They’re all so different. No one really gets what goes on inside someone else’s life.’
    ‘You’re probably right.’
    We turned a corner to see Penguin Pope Brand was still holding the attention of his audience of the faithful. A warden had come out of the visitor’s centre to check our party wasn’t feeding the birds to make them behave like this. Finding nothing to complain about, she was standing with Opal, discussing the weird phenomenon. I could hear Opal explaining that it had to be that Brand had just eaten fish paste sandwiches before arriving and the smell must be attracting the penguins. I don’t think the warden was convinced but that was the only rational answer to a bizarre situation so she had to accept it.
    ‘See, I challenge you to figure out my family. Someone like you wouldn’t understand but this is normal for us.’ I grinned up at Alex conspiratorially, forgetting for a brief while that I didn’t like him.
    Instead of amused, blue eyes, my gaze met a stony expression. He looked almost angry with me. ‘No, I wouldn’t be able understand it, would I?’
    What had just happened? He had been with me one moment and now he was miles away.
    He turned on his heel. ‘I’m going to catch up with Miss Coetzee.’
    ‘OK, you do that then.’ Puzzled, I watched him walk swiftly back the way we had just come.
    ‘Is Alex all right?’ called Opal.
    I ran through our conversation and decided I could not be to blame for him getting the huff like that. ‘I think so. Have you got any sunscreen?’
    She fished around in the side of the changing bag and handed me the bottle.
    ‘He strikes me as very … ’ Opal searched for the right word, ‘lonely. Don’t you agree?’ Occasionally, my aunt’s insight into people was devastatingly on target.
    I watched the upright figure walk