Tall, Dark & Distant Read Free

surfboard or obscured by a sun shelter.
    ‘Don’t you think, Georgia?’ Ella asked as Georgia squinted to get a better look at a guy swimming across the bay. He was wearing a yellow cap. It was unlikely to be Hot Running Guy, but she wanted to make sure.
    ‘What do I think about what?’ Georgia asked. She’d completely lost track of the girls’ conversation.
    ‘Are you even listening?’ Mei asked. ‘You can’t stop fidgeting.
    What’s going on?’
    ‘I’m listening, I just missed the question,’ Georgia lied. ‘Hey, would you swim out to save someone if they were attacked by a shark?’
    ‘Not a chance,’ Mei said.
    ‘It’d depend who it was,’ Ella replied.
    ‘How about a complete stranger?’ Georgia said. ‘Would you help a complete stranger?’
    Ella looked at Georgia with a confused expression. A stranger was well and truly off her rescue list.
    ‘People do it,’ Georgia said, shrugging. ‘Remember that woman last summer who just dived into the water when she saw a kid in trouble? Blood in the water and the shark still out there. It didn’t stop her. She saved him.’
    ‘So you’d rescue a stranger?’ Ella asked.
    ‘Yeah,’ Georgia nodded, reddening slightly as she imagined Hot Running Guy in the jaw of a shark. ‘I think I would.’
    ‘This game is not normal, Georgia,’ Mei said. ‘It’s one thing to spontaneously dive into the sea in the heat of the moment. It’s another thing entirely to actively plan it, in case a random stranger needs your help.’
    ‘Wait a minute,’ Ella said slowly, narrowing her eyes at Georgia. ‘This isn’t some random stranger we’re talking about here – is it? This is some particular stranger who has his leg in the mouth of a bull shark and is screaming for help. And you’re planning to rescue him.’
    Ella paused for a response. Georgia’s eyes met her friend’s. Her hypotheticals had been uncovered for what they really were that day – an excuse to daydream about Hot Running Guy.
    ‘I was just thinking about someone I saw running this morning,’ Georgia said as nonchalantly as possible.
    ‘I knew it!’ said Ella triumphantly. ‘Georgia, your face is like a book. You’re so easy to read.’
    ‘Who did you see?’ Mei whispered, edging a little closer to avoid the boys overhearing.
    ‘I ran past this guy. I gave him a smile and he said hello.’
    ‘Was he hot?’ Ella asked, eyes shining at the promise of gossip.
    Georgia nodded and smiled. ‘Gorgeous. But there was something else as well. In his eyes. There was this … intensity. I don’t know. It’s hard to describe.’
    Georgia trailed off. She had already said too much. Ella and Mei both had boyfriends now – boyfriends with names and identities. Ella’s boyfriend spent so much time with the Simm family that he was practically one of them. And Mei had some guy in a pink polo shirt. Georgia was rambling about a guy who had picked up a hair-tie. She didn’t know who he was and would probably never see him again. She sounded like a complete nutcase.
    ‘And he said hi to you?’ Mei said.
    ‘Actually, he said good morning,’ Georgia said. ‘And then I said hello. But it came out more like, oh , because I was running. Then I dropped my hair-tie somewhere on the path. He found it, followed me down the path and gave it back. Then he ran off.’
    Ella tapped her bottom lip thoughtfully. ‘So, he followed you down the track to return some manky old hair-tie that was lying in the dirt? The guy is clearly mad about you.’
    Georgia wasn’t sure how Ella knew this, but her friend was the expert. In biology and physics, Georgia was top of her class.
    But when it came to boys, she was a D student at best. She and her schoolfriends didn’t have a single boyfriend among them and, even though they discussed guys endlessly, she had to admit they were all pretty clueless. But Ella was a family friend. They only saw each other once or twice a year – in the holidays, when their