Laurie Ellingham - One Endless Summer - Heartwarming and uplifting the perfect holiday read

Voices, laughter and the distant beat of music echoed around the terminal. The whir of suitcase wheels rattled on the floor as men and women in black suits wheeling miniature cases strode purposefully around her. Groups of people sat in huddles on the floor, their luggage strewn around them as they ate sandwiches and salads out of plastic packets.

A movement from her left caught her eye. As she turned, the wheel of a luggage trolley clipped the side of her ankle sending a searing pain up her leg.

‘Sorry, did I get you?’ a red-faced man in a dark polo shirt asked before turning away. ‘Kids, calm down, please .’

‘It’s fine,’ she said, rubbing a spot at the bottom of her combat trousers where the pain had already started to dull.

Jaddi watched the father with the overflowing trolley of suitcases take the path of least resistance through the airport as three young children danced and skipped around his legs.

She should be feeling that child-like buzz. Tomorrow she would be in Thailand, absorbing a culture and a history she’d dreamed about since her eleventh birthday, when her uncle Prem had given her a light-up, plastic globe. She’d loved spinning the sphere on its axis until the greens and blues had blurred into one, then stopping it with a jab and reading the tiny place name under her finger. She would go to bed every night dreaming of adventures and undiscovered lands.

Instead, all she could think about was Suk, and their argument. If she could still call it that. Did it count as a fight if they’d repeated the same words over and over for the past year? It had started with raised voices and accusations, but after so long, and with no resolution in sight, their tones had mellowed.

‘We really should get married,’ Suk had said, nuzzling her neck as they’d sat behind the black-tinted glass of one of her father’s town cars.

‘Are we going to do this again, now? When I’m about to get on a plane and leave for three months?’ Jaddi touched Suk’s leg, hoping to cause a distraction.

‘You know it makes sense.’ Suk sighed. ‘If we leave it much longer then you know our parents will decide for us, and I’ll probably end up in India.’

‘I’ve told you, I’m not ready to get married.’ Jaddi slipped her hand inside Suk’s. The warmth of their touch spread through Jaddi’s body. ‘Things are great between us right now. Why can’t we carry on as we are?’

‘Because I’m sick of living with my parents and working for your dad’s car service.’ Suk shifted away from Jaddi and leaned against the door. ‘In case you’ve forgotten, your family are a lot more relaxed than mine. We’ve been seeing each other off and on for twelve years. We need to settle down before one of our families find out. Unless this is just a game to you?’

Frustration and hurt wound through Jaddi. ‘How can you even suggest that? Do you know how hard it is for me to lie to Lizzie and Samantha? They are my best friends; they deserve my honesty. Instead they think I hook up with a different guy every week, when really I’m seeing you. I’m the one that wants to tell them. Come with me now if you don’t believe me. We can still keep it a secret from our families, but wouldn’t it be nice to be a proper couple—’

‘Don’t speak like that,’ Suk cut in. ‘Don’t even think it. No one can know. If we tell even one person, our families will find out. Marriage is the only way to decide our future for ourselves.’

‘I have to go, I’m late as it is,’ Jaddi said, staring into Suk’s dark eyes. Her heartbeat ramped up a notch. One lie on top of another. What would happen when the three months were up? Jaddi shook her head; she couldn’t think like that. This had been her idea, and she had to make it worth it. Live in the here and now, that’s what she’d said to Lizzie and Samantha, and that’s what she had to do.

‘Here,’ Jaddi said, holding out her door keys, ‘take these.’

‘Why?’ Suk asked.

‘I don’t know, just have them. Our flat is going to be sitting empty for three months. I’ll probably just lose them if I drag them around in my backpack with me.’

Suk nodded. ‘Will you … promise me you won’t … you know.’

Jaddi laughed, her smile widening as a rush of love covered her fears. ‘I’ve been with someone else once, Suk. Once, in twelve years. I was away at uni. We’d had a huge fight and you’d broken up with me, remember? You really should come and meet Samantha. She’ll tell you how drunk I was that night.’

‘Why would Samantha—’

‘Because she never lets me forget it, and the fact that he was someone she liked.’ Jaddi shook her head. ‘I love you, that’s what matters. I always have, and no one will get in the way of that.’

She slid across the smooth leather seats towards Suk until their bodies touched. They kissed, tentative and slow as the remnants of their fight hung between them, then faster as desire took hold. Jaddi could still feel the pressure of Suk’s lips on hers as she weaved through the terminal.

Jaddi caught sight of Samantha, shifting from foot to foot, by the check-in desk. Samantha had yet to shake the blanched pallor from the breakfast interview.

Had she pushed Lizzie and Sam too far this time?

Lizzie’s eyes caught hers and she waved. Pushing the thought aside, Jaddi bounced towards them with a wide grin. She’d get a drink into Samantha after take-off; that would cheer her up.

‘Here she is,’ Samantha said. ‘I told you she’d be late.’

Jaddi laughed. ‘Of course I’m late. I’m always late.’

Lizzie leant forward and pulled Jaddi into a tight embrace. ‘I thought for a minute you might not make it,’ she said in a quiet voice. Jaddi drew back as the pinch of Lizzie’s nails dug into her back.

‘I’m here now,’ Jaddi said, staring into Lizzie’s wide, blue eyes and willing her to relax. Tomorrow they would be in Thailand and it would all be worth it. It had to be.

‘Jaddi,’ Caroline said from behind her. ‘Now that you’re here, I’d like to introduce you to the cameraman.’ Jaddi let go of Lizzie and spun around.

‘Ouch,’ Samantha cried out as Jaddi’s backpack caught her arm. ‘Watch it.’

‘Sorry, Sam, are you OK?’ Jaddi shrugged her backpack away from her shoulders and dropped it to the floor before she could do anymore damage.

Samantha rolled her eyes as she rubbed at her arm. ‘I’m fine,’ she said, the hint of a smile twitching on her lips.

‘Jaddi,’ Caroline said, ‘I’d like you to meet Sherlock. He’ll be your cameraman for the next three months.’

‘Sherlock?’ Jaddi turned to face the man towering over Caroline. He was tall, with cropped, brown hair, cut short to a bristly number one and almost enough dark stubble on his face to be considered a beard. The arms protruding from his navy T-shirt weren’t the toned biceps of someone who spent hours in the gym, but his shoulders were broad and muscular.

‘Ben Holmes,’ he said, pushing his black-framed glasses closer to his eyes before offering a hand to Jaddi. ‘Sherlock is a nickname.’

‘It’s nice to meet you.’ She grinned as his hand wrapped around hers.

‘I was just explaining to the others that you’ll need to tell me whenever you plan to go anywhere. Even if it’s the middle of the night and you decide to go out for a bottle of water, I need to know,’ he said.

Jaddi nodded. ‘Yep, sure. No problem.’

Lizzie mumbled something inaudible under her breath, causing Ben to glance at her with narrowed eyes before directing his focus back to Jaddi. Jaddi had the distinct impression that she’d just walked into the middle of an argument between Lizzie and their new travel companion.

‘Here’s your microphone pack,’ he said, holding a small, black box with a wire wrapped around it. ‘The battery clips on your waistband at the back, and the lavalier – this bit,’ he said, tapping the small, black head, ‘clips onto your collar or the top of your vest. I’ve got a monitor which will tell me when the batteries are running low, and I’ll swap them when necessary.