Page 20 of The Island of Hopes and Dreams

Giada scooped up her handbag, flashed a glare around the lobby that a Roman emperor would have been proud of, then stormed off in the opposite direction.

‘Shit,’ Deni said as the tense quiet of the lobby returned to a hushed mumble. ‘The next couple of days should be interesting.’

Lola tightened her grip on her bag. ‘Poor Mirabel witnessing that.’

‘And where the hell’s Fabs when you need him?’ Sarah said.

‘He’s probably wherever his mamma has stormed off to. I’m sure he’ll hear her side of it soon enough.’ Lola swung her bag over her shoulder. ‘Come on, let’s check in and make sure Mirabel’s all right.’ She made towards the check-in desk.

Deni grabbing her arm made her pause. ‘By the way, you don’t have to thank me now, but I talked to Mirabel and did a bit of room swapping so you’re sharing with Rhys rather than me.’

Lola’s heart stilled.

Deni frowned. ‘I hope that’s okay?’

‘Of course it’s okay,’ Lola said with feigned confidence despite the sinking feeling that any attempt to challenge what Deni had done would likely unravel her and Rhys’s pretence.

‘Gareth has been doing a bit of rearranging as well – quite a lot of hooking up happened those first couple of nights!’ She leaned in conspiratorially. ‘I figured it was only fair you and Rhys got the benefit too.’

11

While Mirabel spent the afternoon with her parents, Fabs took the rest of them a short way along the coast to Cane Malu, a tidal pool that had been gouged and shaped within the pale volcanic rock over thousands of years by stormy seas and rough winds.

The rock reminded Lola of a huge pumice stone pitted with holes, its rounded sides smoothing down to the pool of rippling turquoise and sea-green water. Fabs had told them that when the wind whipped up and the waves crashed over, it was impossible to dive in, but that wasn’t the case today. Freddie and Gareth wasted no time in stripping off and diving neatly into the water with barely a splash, sending delicate ripples shooting across the surface.

Lola settled herself with the others on a flattish part of the rock facing the sea. Fabs was across the other side with his friends, offering them advice, which they chose to ignore, although they did heed his warning about sea urchins so kept their beach shoes on. Lola couldn’t help but smile at their camaraderie; it reminded her of the good-natured teasing of her own friends.

She glanced at Rhys, perched on the rock next to her, still in his shorts and T-shirt, his lips tight and expression unreadable behind his sunglasses. His arms were wrapped around his knees, which were drawn up to his chest. She wondered if he was longing to join them, but was holding back, perhaps because of the confidence Freddie and Gareth exuded. When Sarah and Zoe wandered round to join them – Zoe clad in a bikini that showed off her trim figure and Sarah in her low-cut swimming costume which covered, in her own words, her ‘mum tum’ – Lola knew there was no chance that Rhys would pluck up the courage to join in.

So she kept him company, resting back on the rough, sun-baked rock and soaking up the other-worldly lunar-like landscape. The sky was streaked with clouds so they got a respite from the sun every few minutes and the breeze swirling off the sea tempered the heat. Freddie and Gareth took it in turns to dive into the water, each of them trying to best each other with increasingly impressive flips. It would have been even more special without the constant testosterone-fuelled showing off.

Zoe only had eyes for Freddie. Rhys kept glancing their way, and Lola cringed every time Zoe trailed her fingers across Freddie’s toned stomach or planted a sensual kiss on his lips.

‘What actually happened with you and Zoe then?’ Lola decided to ask the difficult question and get it out of the way.

‘Nothing “happened”.’ Rhys sighed. ‘That was the problem – we just bumbled along. At the time, her walking out was completely out of the blue, but looking back there were plenty of signs. She would always suggest we do something like go away for a weekend or for meals out, but I just didn’t have the money when I was ploughing it all into my house?—’

‘Didn’t you live together?’

‘For the last year we did. She rented when she first moved back to Bristol, but spent so much time at mine that it made sense for her to move in. Maybe that was part of the problem too – that I always thought of it as my house. I’ll be the first to admit I was a bit of a homebody back then, working on the house constantly. It’s not that we never went out, we just didn’t do anything particularly exciting or spend money on stuff. At least I didn’t. The truth is, she got bored, I did nothing to entice her to stay and then when she got a job opportunity too good to turn down, she went for it.’

‘Without discussing it with you?’

‘Uh-huh.’ Rhys nodded. ‘The first I knew about it was the day she said she was leaving. She’d made up her mind and was pretty blunt that we had no future.’

Lola mulled over his words. ‘Did you see a future?’

‘I had till that point.’ He tightened his hold where he gripped his arms. ‘I’ve spent the past year trying to move on, because in hindsight I accept we weren’t right for each other. It’s difficult when home reminds me of her?—’

There was an almighty splash as Gareth barrelled into the pool, spraying them with a fine watery mist.

‘Watch it!’ Deni called from where she was sunning herself on a towel further along the rock.

‘Come join us!’ Sarah said, swimming her way.

Deni put down her book and peeled off her dress to reveal a stylish black and white swimsuit. She glanced Lola and Rhys’s way, raised her eyebrows and leapt into the pool to a chorus of cheers.

Lola wondered what Deni’s clients would make of that image: their lawyer’s arms and legs akimbo dive-bombing into a pool without a care in the world. She wondered what her husband would make of it too and wished he was here to witness Deni focusing on something other than work.

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