Sharna awoke with the sun on her face. Feeling a lot more peaceful but still a little groggy from her impromptu nap, she put up her hand to shield her face and squinting, she opened her eyes.

“Morning sunshine.”

“Gah!” Someone unfamiliar was sitting cross legged on the grass next to her. Shocked into alertness, Sharna hurriedly pushed herself up and away into a sitting position.

“Very eloquent there,” he smirked, obviously enjoying her confusion.

He was blonde, around her age or a little older, very long limbed and very attractive. Self consciously, Sharna ran her hand over her hair and adjusted the hem of her skirt. “Hello?”

He smiled and held out his hand, “I'm Link, mum came over to see Myra, and Laynie and I tagged along. They sent me out to find you when you didn't come back.” Sharna shook his hand, it was warm and dry and marked with calluses. “Don't worry, I haven't been here long, I would have woken you up if you hadn't started stirring soon.”

“I'm Sharna, nice to meet you.” Sharna pulled her hand back quickly, reddening, how long had he been watching her sleeping? What if she had been drooling!

He smirked again, as if reading her thoughts. Then looking down he started pulling out the grass, “so you're going to be staying here for a bit? That's good, mum said you'd be helping with her dress so Myra must think pretty highly of you.”

“Oh no, Myra's just being kind and letting me help.”

Link looked sceptical at her response but said nothing and looked back down to continue pulling out the grass.

“So you’re Deidre’s son?” Sharna guessed. “You must be excited that your sister is getting married soon.”

“Yeah, she's so old now, we thought it would never happen.” Link shrugged and looked bored with the topic.

Sharna was confused. “How old is Laynie? How old are you?”

Link chuckled, “there’s a bit of a gap. There's 6 of us, mum and dad had the first three right after they got married. Laynie is number three. Then ten years later they had three more. So she's 33, practically over the hill. Apparently she was at school with your mum. I heard her telling Myra when she found out who you were, then they all kicked me out to go and find you. I'm 19, the baby, they saved the best for last.” Link said this last part smugly, then looked confused, “wait, how old does that make you?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Sharna’s mind was racing, she had just been talking about her mother and now one of her schoolmates showed up? That was some crazy coincidence. She answered, slightly bemused, “I'm 17, my mother had me very young, she must have been a year or two above Laynie.”

“Oh, that's good,” Link looked relieved at this news.

Sharna was confused, “is it?”

The tips of Link's ears reddened, which Sharna found surprisingly attractive, “well yeah.. Just.. You know.. It's a good age.. To.. Start an apprenticeship, yeah, that’s what I meant, it's the perfect apprenticeship age.” Pleased with himself, he smiled at Sharna.

Sharna narrowed her eyes at him, feeling like she had missed something important but didn't know what it was, so she decided to move on. “Have you been camping before?”

Link relaxed and started shredding a leaf. “Yeah, dad used to take us all the time, the younger half of us anyway. Why do you ask? Haven’t you been camping?”

“I've always wanted to go but my grandmother hated camping. I was thinking I'd love to come and camp here during the summer, maybe go swimming too. It's so beautiful,” Sharna looked at the creek longingly.

“Aww, why didn't your parents just take you then?”

Sharna cringed and paused, wishing that she didn't have to repeat this so frequently. Link looked across at her with head tilted as the moment lengthened, “uh, my mother died when I was little and I don't have a father.” She rushed out and then added, so she could get it all over with at once, “also my grandmother died recently.”

Link stopped ripping up the leaf and his eyes softened with sympathy. “That sounds really rough, I'm sorry.”

Sharna shrugged, “thanks.”

There was silence for a little while but it wasn't uncomfortable. Link found another leaf to break apart and Sharna adjusted her seated position so that she was now holding her knees.

“I'm pretty sure the others spend a bit of time down here, don't know if they have camped though.” Link scratched his head, “we probably have some extra camp stuff at home if you want to borrow it. And if you let me know when you're camping then maybe I can join you with a couple of buddies?”

“That sounds great!” Sharna hugged her knees gleefully, “hopefully it’s okay with everyone else.”

Link smiled and leaned closer, “Hey, maybe some time -”

“Well, well, well, what have we here?” A very amused Gogo was standing at the end of the path with her hands on her hips, smiling hugely at the two of them.

“Great, there goes our peace,” Link sighed and leaned back.

“You move pretty quickly,” Gogo said, looking appraisingly at Link. “She only got here yesterday.”

“Not quick enough,” Link muttered under his breath.

“What was that, didn't quite hear you?” said Gogo, holding her hand behind her ear dramatically, eyes glittering mischievously. “Deidre sent me to come and get you because you never came back. Don't worry, I can let her know that you two -” she stressed the word “- are busy, I'm sure she and Laynie won't mind at all when I tell them.”

“I'm up, we're coming” said Link, jumping up instantly and brushing off his pants. He held out his hand to help Sharna up, she blushed as she met his eyes and grabbed his hand again, enjoying the feeling of his fingers in hers.

Gogo walked over and purposely bumped Link as she passed, knocking his hand out of Sharna’s, and linking arms with Sharna instead. Sharna smiled at their antics, they seemed very comfortable with each other.

Link rolled his eyes at Gogo, “you're such a pain, Gogo.”

Gogo smiled sweetly at him and escorted Sharna back to the house as Sharna chatted with her about summer camping plans. Link following behind.