It Started at the Beach - Chapter 1
Sasha Campbell jogged along the seafront, her four-year-old poodle, Precious, trotting merrily beside her.
Life didn’t get any better than this. Dawn in Bondi. With the sun creeping over the horizon, its soft glow warming the air and lighting it up with possibility. Filling her soul with it too.
This was why she’d moved here. Everything about the place made her smile. The glorious beaches, the trails, the food, the people…
Though at this time of day, with very few others around, nothing more than the surf and Precious for company, it really did hit peak perfection.
She forgot about the niggle in her chest that had been getting louder since passing thirty. Three years ago and counting. The niggle that reminded her of what she was missing as she lived for the beauty of the moment.
‘Another sunny day in paradise…’
Precious cocked her pretty white head and gave a, ‘Yap!’
‘Lucky us, hey?’
Because she was lucky. She had a glorious home. A full-time role in the charity she had set up in her late mother’s name. Putting her skills to best use and bringing in much-needed funds to help those in need. Cancer sufferers like her mother had been. A job that gave her more than money and did her father proud.
What had started as a means of ploughing her grief into something worthwhile had become a global cancer charity raising millions. She’d achieved a lot.
Even if the niggle still niggled.
Sasha smiled and slowed her pace as they neared her beachfront home. Taking a long slug from her water bottle, she gave Precious a ruffle. ‘Well done, honey. How about we—’
She broke off, her eyes lighting on her house up ahead and the taxi now parked in front of her ground floor garage. She frowned. A visitor. At six in the morning. Who on earth would…?
The rear door opened, and a bare leg stepped out. Skin the colour of deep gold, a long and lithe leg, adorned with strappy heels that only a woman completely at one with such a shoe would ever dare wear.
There was only one woman Sasha knew…
Her already exerted heart picked up speed, her feet too.
It couldn’t be. It wasn’t…
Gigi?
Her best friend emerged from the car. Long dark hair, glossy and free-flowing down her back as she unfolded with all the grace of the supermodel that she was. Her bold red minidress simple, but against her delicate curves, utterly divine.
And Sasha’s heart didn’t just race, it leapt into her throat, stealing her voice as she fought for calm. Futile though it was. Her heart had its own mind when it came to Gigi. Her presence delivering a charge to her pulse that rarely let up.
Because Gigi was the missing piece in her picture-perfect life.
The one person Sasha had loved for as long as she had known her, and the one person she could never have. Or dare tell.
Her BFF.
***
The tightness in Gabriella Garcia’s chest eased the second Sasha’s home came into view. Just a hint of her best friend’s presence and her life seemed to right itself. As if by magic.
She thanked her driver, who’d made no bones about knowing who she was but had kept his attention mostly on the road and followed her lead — she didn’t want talk. Small talk, especially.
Not when come morning her latest breakup would be everyone else’s business, and the blame would land with her. Always with her.
She rolled her shoulders back, feeling her long haul flight in every tense limb, and smiled up at the house, the owner within—or not?
A runner approached from behind, the beat of their trainers against concrete accompanied by the patter of a dog. She turned as the car pulled away and there she was, Sasha. Coated in a sheen from her run. Blonde ponytail swinging with her tempo. Her smile wide as Precious raced merrily at her side. A welcome party that was worth every travel-weary muscle.
‘Sasha!’
Dropping her bag beside the suitcase the driver had helpfully pulled out, she raced forward, her heels no hindrance as she swept her friend into a tight hug.
‘Gigi, I’m all sweaty! You don’t—’
‘Oh shush! I want and I need. And I knew you’d be up. You’re always up at the crack of dawn, so I figured I’d come straight from the airport rather than kill time in the city.’
‘You’re welcome any time.’ Sasha softened against her, squeezing her back. ‘Day or night.’
Wow. It felt like she hadn’t seen her in years. Though it could only be a couple of months, maybe three. Gigi had been hopping from city to city, country to country, with her modelling contracts. But she’d seen Sasha in Singapore not too long ago. Though right now it felt like too long. Much too long.
Precious pawed at her thighs, her barks demanding attention too, and Gigi laughed. Hunkering down as Sasha kept a hand planted on her shoulder, her touch enough to keep the stress at bay. ‘Hello to you too, gorgeous. I should have known your mum would have you out for your run already.’
She tickled her fur and kissed her head, giggling when the dog nuzzled into her neck unintentionally hitting a tickle spot.
‘What are you doing here?’ Her friend’s eyes sparkled down at her, their blue depths ever more vibrant against her tan and the glow of the rising sun. ‘I thought you were heading to Rome with Antoine…’
Gigi grimaced over his name, her focus returning to Precious.
‘Oh, Gigi, no, you haven’t?’
‘It wasn’t my fault. Not this time.’
It wasn’t. She couldn’t help that she had a job that took her everywhere. She couldn’t help that she had a man who hadn’t understood her career, her commitments, what was truly important to her…
‘But I thought he was the one?’
Gigi gave a wry smile. ‘There’s no such thing. You of all people should know that as well as I do.’
Sasha didn’t respond. Instead, she looked to the sea with a shake of her head. She wasn’t denying it. Surely?
At least Gigi had relationships. Sasha rarely committed to anyone. There’d been the odd woman in the past, but overall…
And then her gaze returned, her smile too soft, too sad.
‘My mother and father were perfect for one another. He was broken when he lost her, and yet, look at him now. Happily remarried. He’s found the one twice over.’
Gigi cursed her big mouth. She should’ve known that’s where Sasha’s head had gone. Should have known and been more sympathetic.
Straightening up, she wrapped her arm around her.
‘I guess some of us are just lucky when it comes to love.’
Whilst the rest of us, the rest of us prefer to avoid its reach as much as possible.
Sasha was the only person in her life that she truly loved.
Tossed between foster homes as a child, Gigi had never formed attachments or set down roots. Her only focus had been on survival and finding a career that would ensure she never needed anyone again.
Then she’d met Sash and found her soulmate. Her best friend. Her everything. The one and only relationship she truly cared about, and the one relationship she would give her life to protect.
‘I don’t know,’ she grumbled. ‘I think it’s quite greedy if I’m honest.’
‘Sash!’ She tickled her in the ribs. ‘How can you say that? You adore Maria!’
‘I do. As stepmothers go, she is the best.’
‘And her daughter?’
‘Still hates us, I think.’
‘Tonterías! She can’t hate you or your father. You’re too easy to love. She just needs more time and then she will love you just like I love you.’
Sasha’s beautiful face pinched. ‘It’s been five years, Gigi.’
‘So? If it takes another five, she’ll come around. Aside from the obvious chip on her shoulder, she seems rather lovely in person. And any lovely person will see the good in you, given time. I promise. And if she doesn’t, then I will be forced to make her see sense.’
‘How exactly?’
She shrugged, but inside she felt no such nonchalance. It made her furious that Sasha’s stepsister still held some kind of grudge against her. The kindest, sweetest, most incredible… She stared into her friend’s big blue eyes and felt a rush of warmth through her middle. A rush that had her stepping back and hurrying to say, ‘I don’t know, but I’ll make it so.’
Sasha rolled her eyes. ‘You need food, you always get extreme when you’re hungry. Breakfast?’
‘Por favore.’
And breathe. The old familiar lust was a thing to manage, to bury; it had no place in their friendship. No place at all…