They walk to the edge of the surf and she pulls him gently along down the beach. The ice cold waves lap at her feet and she enjoys the cold until her feet begin to cramp.

Pulling him away from the waves, she sits down on the cooling sand, and sighs taking in the orange, pink and purple hues of the sky.

He sits down next to her and crosses his legs. She smiles at the way he plays with his fingers, almost like a nervous habit.

'I love Cape Town sunsets, they are the prettiest in the world.' She says in awe of the way the colors tint the clouds that are now rising over the horizon.

He smiles and nods his head, 'I have to agree, especially with a pretty girl to make the experience even better.'

He looks at her from the corner of his eye for a second, but keeps looking over the ocean. Chantel is glad about that, because she has an embarrassed blush over her cheeks.

She clears her throat quietly, shifts slightly so she is facing him and asks, 'so where are you from?'

He looks at her hesitantly, but answers after a moments pause… 'I am from LA. My family and I are on vacation here…'

'So what do you do in LA? Chantel asks him.

'I…, umm, I am in a band with my brothers.' He says, but keeps facing forward. She smiles at him, 'will I know some of the stuff you do?'

'You might. My last name is Lucas. As in Joe Lucas,' he sighs and says, 'I am one third of the band Jonas.'

Chantel looks at him for a second, as if she is trying to place his face and then giggles…. 'Well you look much better in person than you do on the TV or in a magazine…'

He lets out a sigh of relief and smiles shyly at her. 'So you do know who I am.'

'You looked familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. My little sister loves you guys but you aren't such a big thing over here… you rarely hear anything of yours on the radio…,' She smiled and playfully ruffled his hair, and teased, 'but with this wild wave of hair, I should have known…'

He smiles uncomfortably, 'I know, that's why we came here for some down time. We could move around anonymously.'

'Ok, my turn.' he moves a bit so that they are facing each other. He leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. 'Why did you try to walk off the edge off the cliff today?'

He is staring at her expectantly, forcing her to look up at him, even if it was only for a moment. She gets up, and picks a long stick out of some debris that has washed up.

Joe doesn't say anything, and keeps sitting where he is. He is used to waiting for answers people don't really want to give. He does this with his little brother all the time. The trick is to wait and not say anything that would make the other person believe that they are off the hook…

He can hear her dragging the stick though the damp sand, and is very tempted to turn around to see what she is drawing in the sand. He knows he must resist the urge to break the silence. After what felt like ages, he heard her footsteps come up behind him, and then she sat down right in front of him and pulled her knees up to her chin.

'It's just silly…,' she starts softly, the wind almost carrying her voice away. 'I know that it's going to sound so silly.'

Joe keeps quiet, waiting for her to speak again.

She sighs, and in a dead voice continued, 'my fiancé told me last night that he didn't love me anymore. We had been together for years and years; he tells me this the week before we are supposed to get married.'

'So, I got in my car and started driving… and landed up on the cliffs.'

She looks into his eyes and a tear escapes down her cheek. 'I was stupid, I know that now. He isn't worth it…' she whispers.

Joe reaches out and wipes the tear away with his thumb, and then takes her hand in his. He scoots forward and lays his head on her shoulder and whispers into her ear, 'I am so glad you see that now…'

The tickle from the breath of Joe's whispered words sends a shiver down her spine. She can feel her heartbeat speed up and internally her warning bells starts ringing. Ignoring them, she closes her eyes as his lips come into contact with the soft spot in her neck, and she feels him smile against her skin. Her brain and body want different things at that moment, her body wants his lips on every part of her skin – her brain is shouting warnings to get as far away as possible from him.

He nuzzles her neck and hums an approval. 'You smell good, like sun and salt and …' his lips trail their way down to her collar bone, 'and marshmallows.'

With those words, the spell is broken; she gratefully lets the giggles bubble up and gently pushes him away.

She looks at him and shakes her head cynically, 'Romeo, does that line work where you come from…?'

She uncrosses her legs and stands up, wiping her hands of imaginary dirt. She doesn't see the hurt expression on his face.

Waiting for him to get up, she stares at the sand with her hands on her hips. Joe watches as she frowns slightly, pick up the stick she scavenged earlier and make a couple of doodles around the sand picture she drew earlier. Finally happy with her handiwork, she dropped the stick and waved her hand toward his stuff at the foot of the cliff.

'Come on, Rockstar,' she said, 'lets get back, pack up and go find something to eat. Your magic cooler has recently turned its last trick. I am starving.'

She looks one more time at the gigantic doodle she made, and giggles, 'Google Earth could have a ball if they could see this.' Her giggles get carried away with the breeze, as she leaves Joe staring while she makes her way back up the beach.

Staring at the doodle that Chantel drew, he frowns as he re-reads her words -Joe Lucas saved my life. He is my hero…

Sighing and following her darkening silhouette, he tries to figure what he said wrong, what he did that was so funny. While his lips tasted her skin, there was nothing but the feeling of peace that ran through him, all the spinning chaos of his life and career faded away into nothingness.

Confused and hungry, he helped her pack up all the hotels beach stuff, drag it up the steps and pack it all neatly in his van.

Cheering up at the prospect of a warm meal, he clapped his hands together as he held the passenger door open for her. 'Right, I am going to entrust you with a very serious task. You have to recommend somewhere good to eat…'

…………………….

Joe drove slowly into the city, glancing quickly at her every couple of minutes. He never saved someone from committing suicide before and all day he has been wondering what to do about it.

Even after she opened up to him a bit on the beach, he couldn't understand how someone would want to do that.

This was a talk he had to have with his family, but for now he wouldn't leave her side. He was responsible for her now.

With the thought of his family, he let out a frustrated sigh and ran his hands over his face. He groaned inward at the conversations he had with his two brothers. They were both angry with him for just asking the hotel to pack him a picnic and leaving at the crack of dawn. Also concerned at the knowledge of what happened and that he did not want to leave her in the hands of someone qualified to handle that sort of thing.

Chantel looked over at him, a worried look on her face. 'I don't want to go anywhere, Joe. I am not hungry. Just take me back to my car. Please?'

He gave her a small smile and shook his head. 'Sorry. I can't just leave you alone on a cliff in the dark. My mom taught me better than that. How about I drop you off at your place….'

She shook her head violently and he nodded. 'Ok, how about this, why don't you come to my hotel, have a shower, something to eat and then we take it from there?' his voice was gentle and understanding.

The hesitant look on her face saddened him a bit, but he tried not to let it show. 'Don't you trust me yet?' he asked softly. She looked at him and gave him an apologetic smile. 'I am sorry, I am being rude. I owe you my life.'

He cleared his throat and tried to lighten the mood, 'um, you are going to have to direct me to the hotel. I am totally lost. Driving on the wrong side of the road has totally messed me up…'

……………………

Pausing at the door to the suite, he smiled at the sight of her. Her cheeks were sun kissed and her hair was windblown. Her bare feet looked out of place, against the fancy plush carpet, but never had he seen anyone more beautiful.

Her blue eyes have become the darkest blue he had ever seen. For a second the world stood still and nothing mattered, but him and those eyes.

Hearing the soft murmur of voices behind the door, he sighed and tried to warn her before it was too late. 'My family is angry with me for going AWOL this morning. Just a little heads up.'

When she looked at him, dubiously, he smiled encouragingly and took hold of her hand. 'Don't worry, I will introduce you and then we will go to my room. No biggie.'

Chantel was not so sure, but with her hand in his, there was nothing she feared. Strangely, he made her forget about everything. About Tony and the breakup. About all the plans that need to be cancelled before the end of the week, and all the people she needs to uninvite…

Shaking her head, as if trying to get rid of anything that doesn't have to do with then and now, she smiles at him and gives him a peck on his cheek. His eyes light up and she notices they aren't just brown. They were the color of a dark honey and held a million questions, answers and dreams… Those were the eyes that a girl could get lost in for hours.

Keeping her fascination with his eyes to herself, she smile and said lightly, 'come on, Marshmallow boy, lets get this over with. I could really do with that shower.'

He frowned slightly at the name but gave her hand a squeeze and opened the door, and walked in, pulling her with him.

…………..

There was something happening in every part of the living area of the huge suite. There were a teenager and a younger boy playing Wii in the corner, a couple playing some board game.

There was a big black man walking out on the patio, talking in a deep no-nonsense tone into his cell.

There was an older couple in the kitchen talking, while the woman was slicing some kind of fruit.

Chantel could see the resemblance in her face and immediately knew that this was Joe's mom.

As she and Joe walked into the room, everyone turned; stopping what they were doing and turned to us.

'Joseph!' Mrs Lucas exclaimed, dropping the knife and holding out her arms. 'Where have you been? I was worried sick.'

Not letting go of her hand, he walked over to his mom and gave her a hug. 'I am sorry, Mom. It won't happen again.'

He gave his Dad a nod and looked around the room. Everyone else kept looking at us, silently waiting for Joe to say something else.

She gave his hand a squeeze and he cleared his throat, 'everyone, this is Chantel. She and I spent the day on the beach.'

He made everyone's introduction, the girl playing Board games with Kevin, he name coming back to me as he said it, was his fiancé Daniella.

Everyone greeted me politely and Mrs Lucas gave me a little hug.

There was an awkward silence that followed; Joe came to the rescue again.

'Chantel wanted to shower and get something to eat, so we're just going to go to my room.'

Looking at his mom, he said, 'don't worry mom. We will get room service. Thanks.'

He smiled as he pulled her toward a passage and opened door, and led her into a room that had the most breathtaking view of the city lights and the ocean. Before he closed the door, the whispered voices of his family drifted down the passage and gave Chantel a weird feeling of apprehension...