Free Good Enough to Trust (Good Enough, Book 2 - Going Back) by Zara Stoneley Page B

exposed roots, slipped on moss-covered stones, but
something had told us to keep walking. When we’d come to the last part of the
journey, the steep hewn steps, it was almost a disappointment to find a café,
people and cream teas where we’d expected Cornish magic— but then we’d been
pointed in the direction of a second gate, the keeper of the kieve.
    I’d told Holly
what the kieve was - this basin, a pool at the bottom of the waterfall. But it
was far more than that. As Ollie and I stood side by side we had found magic. A
green touch of heaven where the only sound was water, the only time I’d equated
noise with peace. And as I’d clasped his hand in mine, shut my eyes tight to
block out everything that didn’t matter, as I’d drank in the pure pleasure of
this mystical place, it had happened. Far away, another time, another planet,
they’d done it. My parents had left me. Ripped a hole in my innocence with the
kind of violence that should only happen in films.
    My foot slid over
an algae-covered tree root and brought me back to the present, pushed the lump
lodged in my throat back down to the place in my stomach where it normally lived.
    Will had told me
not to follow the path all the way, the café would be shut, the access down to
the kieve closed to protect Cornwall from claims of negligence.
    ‘Can’t have the
emmets diving headfirst into the water and breaking their necks now can we?’
he’d said. Then he’d mapped out a path that wasn’t really a path.
    “Do you know where
we’re going?” Holly was panting as I slithered ahead over the rocks.
    “Not really.” I
grinned back at her, a bit of exertion and a dash of fear was frightening off
the damp. “You can go first if you want, then you can set the pace, slow us
down?” She nodded, not taking offence and walked past me. I knew we must be
nearly there, I could hear the water and I half wanted her to see it first. Be
there with no one else spoiling the view. I wanted my magic place to be magic
for her too. And, okay, I admit I was scared.
    “What the—”
    She stopped
abruptly and I almost ran into her. This wasn’t what I’d expected, not
white-faced shock. Then she relaxed a bit and I shifted my gaze from the frown
on her face and took a step forward so we were side by side. “Why’s he here,
what’s going on?” There was a trace of panic, a tremble in her voice. I looked
down, ahead of us, saw what she had seen and my stomach did a lurch all of its
own.
    “No.” I put a
shaky hand on her shoulder, and took a deep breath to steady my voice. “No,
it’s not Dane.”
    He stood on the
edge of the kieve and the heavy sound of the rushing water must have drowned
out the sound of us crashing through the undergrowth. “That isn’t Dane, it’s
Ollie.” And I could see why, for a second, Holly had thought it was Dane. They
were cousins but they could have been twins, from the outside anyway.
    I stared at that
back I knew so well and it scared me. And then he seemed to realise he was being
watched, and he turned his head, saw us and looked like he’d seen a ghost.
    “You go down, I’ll
see you back at the cottage.” I couldn’t take my eyes off him and Holly gave me
a gentle nudge. “Go on.” And before I could stop her she’d turned away.
    It was slippery
and damp, but I couldn’t help it, I scrambled down over the few tree roots and
boulders, then slithered across the last of the rocks to where he stood at the
water’s edge and he half caught me. The heat of one hand warm against my elbow,
the other sending indecent thoughts from my waist to my pussy. Oh, God, how I’d
missed that touch, even though I’d not acknowledged quite how much until now.
    As he steadied me,
he pulled me in tighter against his oh-so-familiar body and his warm eyes
heated up the parts of me his touch hadn’t yet reached. Dry lips skated briefly
across my parted ones.
    “Shouldn’t you
say, sorry I shouldn’t have done that?” I knew I didn’t