Soul Beach

long as we can, to postpone the inevitable disappointment. His palm is smooth, white, the hand of a boy who was on the edge of becoming a man. A long, softly curving lifeline stretches from his chunky wrist up around to the wide space between thumb and forefinger.
    He shouldn’t be dead yet. Even though, if he was alive, we would never have met.
    Somewhere, in another universe, my mobile’s ringing. But it could be the Queen or the President of the United States and I still wouldn’t answer right now.
    ‘Ready?’ he asks.
    ‘Ready.’
    The gap between our hands closes, millimetre by millimetre. At the last moment, I close my eyes, so that I won’t have to see the exact moment when our bodies miss each other, light years apart.
    Now . . . or now . . . or . . .
    I feel warmth. Touch.
    My eyes spring open. His mouth is curved in a perfect, shocked circle. Now we push our hands together, thumb to thumb, fingers against fingers.
    How can one person’s hand against mine feel like a miracle? The warmth floods my body, and it’s like I’ve been frozen ever since my sister died, and this is the first time I’ve thawed.
    Our hands stay together as we stare at each other over the tops of our fingers.
    ‘Does that mean . . . ?’ I say, but I don’t dare finish my sentence.
    ‘I think it might,’ he replies.
    And then he leans forward, and I taste his breath – fresh, green, alive – and even before our lips touch, I know this is going to be the kiss of my life.

An Indigo ebook
    First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Indigo
This ebook first published in 2011 by Indigo
© Kate Harrison 2011
    The right of Kate Harrison to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent publisher.
    A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
    eISBN: 978 1 7806 2112 8
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