Poppy Blake - The Windmill Café - Christmas Trees

“Come on, ladies. Let’s get over to the finishing line. You too, Penny – we might need a photo-finish! Coming Zara? Abbi?”

Rosie watched Abbi stand on her tiptoes to scan the fringe of the woodland for any sign of Dylan, anxiety creasing her forehead as she chewed on her lower lip. It was a few nerve-wracking minutes before she spotted him fifty metres of so behind Sam.

“Oh, thank God! There’s Dylan – bringing up the rear as usual!” Abbi sighed, but Rosie saw the relief spread across her attractive features. She might bemoan her boyfriend’s lack of expertise when it came to vehicular activities but she clearly worried about him all the same. “I thought he might have fallen off or something.”

Everyone rushed through the drizzle to where Penny had crouched down onto her haunches next to a wooden post and levelled her mobile phone camera, poised to snap a picture of the victor’s triumphant achievement.

“Yay! Yay! Josh!” screeched Grace, rushing forward to embrace her fiancé before reaching up to kiss him tenderly on the lips. Her evident excitement lit up her pretty face, framed by a ruffle of damp corkscrew curls that sprang from beneath her woolly bobble hat.

Freddie was next over the finishing line, a wide grin splitting his freckled face as he yanked off his safety helmet and strode over to offer Josh a congratulatory handshake.

“Great ride, Josh, especially the last hundred metres!”

“You too, mate. That was awesome. I might even be forced to rethink my earlier criticism of Theo’s insistence that we start the stag celebrations with a gruelling cross-country race! Now I can’t wait to have a go at the Ultimate Adventure’s obstacle course and the zip wire. Although don’t tell him I said that. He has a habit of letting compliments go to his head!”

Matt skidded to a halt next, his whole body covered in random speckles of flying mud, even his cheeks, followed by Sam. Rosie’s stomach gave an uncomfortable twist when she saw that Matt was looking directly at her. However, before she could say anything to him, Abbi had shoved her to one side to welcome Dylan like a conquering hero.

“Yay! Dylan! You did it!”

Dylan removed his helmet and ran his fingers through his spiky ebony hair, his face a curious shade of overworked putty, his jaw clenched tight after being forced to endure his personal idea of purgatory. His relief the ride was at an end was palpable.

“Never, ever, ever ask me to do that again!” Dylan spluttered, his breath coming in ragged spurts as he struggled to regain his composure. “Why couldn’t we have gone for a few drinks at the local pub like any normal stag party? Theo Morris has to be one of the hardest task-masters I’ve ever come across and that includes the physio guys at the hospital!”

“Speaking of Theo, where is he?” asked Rosie, looking back down the winding, leaf-strewn roadway towards the stone pillars that guarded the entrance gate to Ultimate Adventures. Everyone paused in what they were doing to squint through the gloom of the trees but there was no sign of the director in charge of Dylan’s horror movie.

“Actually, I have to admit that I thought it was strange he wasn’t in pole position,” said Josh, draping his arm around Grace’s shoulder and pulling her close. “I just assumed he’d found a short-cut and would be waiting for us here with that irritatingly superior smirk he usually wears when he’s about to be crowned the winner of something again.”

“Come to think of it, I didn’t see him after we entered the woods, either,” said Matt, refastening the chin strap of his helmet. Instead of remounting his cycle, he strode into the wooden storeroom next to the lodge and jumped onto one of Ultimate Adventure’s quad bikes. “Maybe he’s lost. I’ll see if I can find him.”

“I’ll come with you,” offered Freddie, running over to reverse another quad bike from the shed. He cocked his leg over the seat and revved the engine, expelling a cloud of grey exhaust fumes into the wintry air. “Ready when you are.”

“Me too!” said Mia, clearly not wanting to be left behind when there was fun to be had. She leapt behind Freddie and snaked her arms round his waist, her expression brooking no argument.

“Count me in,” added Zara, hopping onto Freddie’s cycle and pedalling over to Sam. “What do you think’s happened to him?”

“Nothing,” tutted Penny, rolling her eyes as she stuffed her phone into the pocket of her black jeans. “This is probably his idea of a joke to get us all as rain-soaked as possible! Theo is so selfish when it comes to competitions – it’s always got to be all about him winning the top prize. But you’re not leaving me behind. I’m coming with you so I can give him a piece of my mind.”

Penny grabbed Matt’s discarded cycle, struggling to climb on. When she had, she folded her arms and turned to stare expectantly at Abbi and Dylan.

“Well? Are you coming?”

“Don’t look at me like that,” pleaded Dylan, his Adam’s apple working overtime as the full horror of what Penny was expecting him to do dawned. “I’ve just cycled ten miles!”

“I think someone should wait here,” reasoned Abbi, coming to Dylan’s aid. “Just in case we need to summon for help. I mean, what if something awful has happened to him? What if he’s fallen off his bike and is lying in a ditch somewhere writhing in agony?”

“I’m sure he’s fine, Abbi,” said Grace, smiling at her best friend. “But that’s a sensible idea. We’ll call you when we find him - probably propping up the bar in the Drunken Duck!”

“Rosie?” asked Mia.

Rosie glanced around the gathering. All eyes were now on her as the last one to join the party of intrepid rescuers. Should she stay behind with Abbi and Dylan? That was what she wanted to do, because the only alternative was to ride with Matt on the back of his quad bike and that experience filled her with absolute terror. After the recent cooling of their friendship because of Harry’s reappearance on the scene, her stomach churned with indecision. She really didn’t want to sit astride the mud-caked, over-grown bluebottle as they bounced over the uneven terrain, but the real reason for her reticence was the fact that she would have to mould her body to Matt’s in order not to fall off. Could she do that?

“Rosie, come on!” urged Mia, flashing her eyes impatiently at her.

She chanced a glimpse at Matt’s face and when she saw the crinkle of amusement in his eyes, heat flooded her cheeks and she relaxed, enjoying the sensation of being in Matt’s company once again, not to mention the fact that there seemed to be no awkwardness in his demeanour. One of the things she loved about being with Matt was his constant urging that she grab her courage by the scruff of its neck and experience things outside her comfort zone. Life wasn’t a dress rehearsal and every ounce of pleasure should be squeezed from each new adventure. That was the mantra Matt’s father had lived by and he’d achieved more than some people would in three lifetimes before the climbing monsters claimed him for their own.

“Scared?”

“No way!”

Rosie shelved her fear, took a deep breath and climbed onto the back of Matt’s quad bike, wrapping her arms around his muscular torso and leaning in close. He smelled of fabric conditioner from his damp cycle gear mingled with his familiar citrusy cologne, and every one of her senses sparkled at his proximity. When he revved the engine, a whip of excitement shot through her body and headed southwards. Her thoughts zoomed to the forthcoming weekend when, had Harry not made his unscheduled appearance, she would be starring in the role of Matt’s Plus One at Grace and Josh’s wedding.