The Boy with the Board: A Short Story

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The Boy with the Board: A Short Story
Katey Lovell

A gorgeously romantic short story, part of The Meet Cute series.When her beloved mum dies suddenly, Helena escapes to sunny California. Determined to live for the moment, she puts aside her fears and signs up for the surfing lessons she's always dreamed of – with the added distraction of hunky instructor Ashton.

PRAISE FOR KATEY LOVELL (#u3984272e-eefe-5c88-8ed6-cf515269dd2d)

‘Magical and sparkly short stories, highly recommended’

Sky’s Book Corner

‘I’m so glad I picked this up, it’s gorgeous!’

Rather Too Fond of Books

‘Swooning all the way through’

Reviewed the Book

‘An absolutely wonderful debut’

Little Northern Soul

‘Quirky, cute and utterly romantic’

Bestselling author Rebecca Raisin

‘Sweet, romantic, perfectly formed coffee break reads. I loved them’

Bestselling author Carmel Harrington

The Boy with the Board

The Meet Cute Series

KATEY LOVELL

A division of HarperCollinsPublishers

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

HarperImpulse an imprint of

HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2016

Copyright © Katey Lovell 2016

Cover images © Shutterstock.com (http://www.Shutterstock.com)

Cover design by Books Covered

Katey Lovell asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International

and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

By payment of the required fees, you have been granted

the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access

and read the text of this e-book on screen.

No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted,

downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or

stored in or introduced into any information storage and

retrieval system, in any form or by any means,

whether electronic or mechanical, now known or

hereinafter invented, without the express

written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © May 2016 ISBN: 9780008166458

Version 2016-05-06

For Skye Peto, with love

Table of Contents

Cover (#uf4a82896-ed45-5e83-8877-4f597b26b301)

Praise for Katey Lovell (#u09bbfcbf-1699-581c-a047-26752ad4d14a)

Title Page (#u7c3f73fe-1e33-5607-8014-d2d40fbd617f)

Copyright (#u13f90fca-4d61-509b-845c-685aa0e91464)

Dedication (#u2f5da0a5-801a-5049-abed-0b2b9c31b232)

The Meet Cute Series (#ua60d829b-4d85-546d-aeb3-37303be971f0)

The Boy with the Board (#u4d0d5777-69ea-5fdc-8e4d-1c872d638a3e)

Acknowledgment (#litres_trial_promo)

Coming Soon from Katey Lovell (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Katey Lovell (#litres_trial_promo)

Katey Lovell (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

About HarperImpulse (#litres_trial_promo)

The Meet Cute Series (#u3984272e-eefe-5c88-8ed6-cf515269dd2d)

The Boy in the Bookshop

The Boy at the Beach

The Boy at the Bakery

The Boy on the Bus

The Boy with the Board

The Boy with the Boxes

The Boy at the BBQ

The Boy under the Mistletoe

The Boy and the Bridesmaid

The Boy with the Board (#u3984272e-eefe-5c88-8ed6-cf515269dd2d)

He was the most gorgeous person on the beach, hands down. No one else came close. The rubber of his wetsuit glistening under the sunlight, his long hair the stereotypically sun kissed Californian blonde, an arse that was surely too pert and round to be real – he must be the male equivalent of Beyoncé.

As views go, this was a pretty good one. Breath-taking, in fact.

I’d never planned to come to Avila, never thought I was the sort of girl who’d just up sticks and leave home. I’d grown up in a terraced house in Wakefield. It was nothing fancy, an ordinary small, cosy house that was extraordinary because it brimmed with the warmth of love. My Mum had been exceptionally house-proud, the type of woman that never sat still. I remember her making me feel giddy as she darted around with a duster or pushed the Hoover over the well-worn carpets for the umpteenth time.

My elder sister Maria and I shared a bedroom, the walls plastered with posters of unattainable hunks from the magazines we bought using our dinner money – who needs food when you can have David Beckham in his underwear?! We were best friends, as well as sisters, possibly because of our family situation. Mum and Dad divorced when I was six and Maria was eight. But there had never been any animosity; I’d had a very happy childhood.