Page 17 of The Island of Hopes and Dreams

A shadow falling over Lola stopped Rhys short. She looked up to find Deni towering over her, grinning at them both. ‘Okay if I steal Lola away for a bit?’

Lola turned back to Rhys and met his smiling nod. She winked at him and allowed Deni to pull her to her feet.

‘We’re going for a swim and you’re coming with us.’ Deni hooked her arm in Lola’s. Sarah joined them as they left the shade of the sun loungers. As they strolled into the gentle surf, Deni nodded her head back towards Rhys. ‘You two really do only have eyes for each other!’

‘You and Rhys?’ Sarah said with raised eyebrows. ‘Really? I had money on you winding up with Valentino. Sheesh, is he hot!’

Lola bit back a retort, annoyed that Sarah, as well as one of Rhys’s friends, had questioned the likelihood of them winding up together. But then he wasn’t her type, at least looks-wise, although he was easy to talk to and a decent bloke, which was the reason she’d made their love pact in the first place.

‘Yup, me and Rhys,’ she said with confidence, before quickening her pace through the warm shallows.

The water caressed her ankles, while her feet sank into the silky sand. She turned back to see her friends wading after her. Beyond them, Rhys was still sitting in the shade of the umbrella. She gave him a wave and continued on with Deni and Sarah to Mirabel, Fabs and a couple of his friends. The sea only got a little deeper, but it was refreshing as she dipped beneath it, nothing but blue sky, cerulean water and pale sand dotted with beachgoers surrounding her.

Once the tips of her fingers began to wrinkle, Lola waded back to the beach and sat in the warm shallows to let her hair dry in the sun. Watching Deni, Sarah and Mirabel bobbing about made her heart ache in a way that left her conflicted. Happiness radiated off Mirabel, her smile matched by Deni’s. It was good to see Deni enjoying herself when she lived and breathed work. Lola only wished Polly could have been here too. Although she knew ten days was far too long for her to leave her children, she still missed her. Her friends were moving on with their lives and Lola was uncertain where that left her. She was happy with her career and enjoyed living in London for the most part, but something was missing, and it wasn’t a man. That was not the answer.

Rhys sitting next to her in the shallows shut down her thoughts.

‘You don’t want to join them?’ she asked.

‘I might a little later. When it’s cooler.’

She followed his gaze to where Freddie and Zoe were and realised his true reason for not going in.

They sat close enough so their shoulders just brushed. Enough to look comfortable together, as if intimacy wasn’t a problem. They gazed out in a companiable silence that was as surprising as it was comfortable.

Freddie and Zoe were making a great show of splashing about together, frequently wrapping their arms around each other. Lola had only met Rhys the day before and knew even less about Freddie and Zoe, but first impressions had told her enough. Not that she completely trusted her gut; she’d been burned before, thinking Jarek was the bee’s knees. But Rhys, there was a vulnerability about him and an underlying sadness that suggested how much he was hurting.

She rested her hands back in the damp sand and stretched out her legs, relishing the sensation of the warm water bubbling against her bare skin and the whisper of a breeze taking the edge off the September heat.

Lola couldn’t hide her smile when Rhys started lathering on yet more sunscreen. Even though the UK was heading into autumn, summer days would continue on Sardinia for a little longer.

Summertime made Lola happy. Her skin would glisten with sunscreen and she could live in flip-flops with tousled hair. Summer meant long blissful days and hot nights, the fresh scent of cut grass and smoky barbecues, packed pub gardens and delicious fruit cocktails. She’d always been more content in the summer months, even during the times when her life had turned to shit. While growing up, she’d lived for long days on the beach and had loved returning home in the evening exhausted, with salty patterns decorating her sun-kissed skin. The downside to her move to London was missing living by the sea and that outdoor way of life.

As Rhys closed the sunscreen lid and pointed to his pink-tinged shoulders, Lola was certain he felt differently about summer. ‘How? Just how are you sitting in this heat not breaking a sweat or getting burnt?’

‘I’m a natural beach babe,’ she said smoothly.

Rhys hmphed. ‘I just get freckles and bitten by mosquitos. I’m definitely not cut out for this time of year. Makes me pale and interesting though, right?’

‘Most definitely!’

Rhys leaned back and gazed ahead at the sea. ‘I loved staying here when I was younger, but it was not my natural environment. Fabs only needed one day in the sun and he’d wake the next morning looking like a tanned god. I’d emerge a patchwork of insipid white and flaming red. Not a good look. But then I did grow up in Wales, not Sardinia.’

‘I lived for the summer and still do, but it’s different in London than on the coast. Devon summers seemed so short. It could be really wild the rest of the year with the waves battering the coast. Rather different to somewhere like this.’

‘Well, we can make the most of it for the next few days, although with one stipulation.’ He scrambled to his feet, held out his hand and pulled her up. ‘Right now, we head back into the shade. Trust me, the lobster look is not a good one!’

9

Rhys couldn’t have enjoyed Lola’s company more if he’d tried. A weight had been lifted and he felt buoyed by her, and the easy way they’d connected made it hard to believe they’d only met twenty-four hours before.

Rhys knew Gareth was pissed off, even if he was trying to hide his annoyance. Not that he had any claim to Lola, and by all accounts he’d wasted no time in chatting up one of Fabs’s sister’s single friends. Barnaby seemed genuinely pleased for him, but then Barnaby had always been the easy-going, supportive friend.

Lola was more than just a distraction from Freddie and Zoe. Talking to her was effortless, yet he was doubtful that they’d have spent as much time together if it hadn’t been for the pact. She had a natural beauty and an assured confidence that was captivating. And yet, despite that, she’d hinted at her own insecurities and struggles.

After a day on the beach, dinner on the terrace was upbeat, with mounds of rich linguine with bottarga and clams brought out by Chef Carlo, served with copious amounts of local wine. With Mirabel spending the evening with her parents, it was good to have Fabs’s company.

Among the big personalities around the table, Lola commanded attention, not because she craved it or was a larger-than-life character, but because her friends – and his, to be fair – were drawn to her. If they hadn’t stumbled across each other, she’d have been someone he’d have admired from afar, wishing he could get to know her better, while never plucking up the courage to talk to her.

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