Page 26 of The Island of Hopes and Dreams

On the surface, it was an innocent enough question, but it was a loaded one. Her tone was edged with bitterness, or perhaps annoyance. The tightness of her lips and a cool steeliness overpowered her delicate features and made Lola hesitate, unsure how to answer. Zoe was like a cat with her claws out.

Annoyance flared within Lola. Someone who had dumped Rhys, who no longer wanted to be with him and had hooked up with a mutual friend of theirs had the audacity to look pissed off that someone else was with her ex.

Lola placed her palm on the door and leaned in close. ‘Actually yes, a huge amount of fun, thank you.’ She pushed past and didn’t look back as the door swung closed.

And she’d been telling the truth; she was having fun with Rhys, just not in the way everyone was assuming. However Rhys felt about it, she hoped to God she’d managed to wipe the smarmy smile off Zoe’s face. From what she’d seen and everything Rhys had said, she was convinced he was well shot of his ex; she just hoped he realised it too and learnt to move on properly rather than waste any more time and effort on someone who should remain in the past. That was what she was trying to live up to herself.

15

It was late by the time they got back to Villa Capparis, too late to talk to Rhys when all Lola wanted to do was crash into bed and sleep, tired but happy from plenty of sunshine, walking, talking, eating and drinking. Only the argument between the two matriarchs had dampened the jovial spirit, although Mirabel and the immediate family were the ones who’d suffered as a result. Lola gave Mirabel an extra-big hug as they said goodnight; she couldn’t help but worry how she was coping as she and Fabs were ferried across the bay to join their two sets of parents back at the family villa.

The next morning, everyone was left to their own devices, most choosing to lounge about at the villa, reading by the pool or strolling to the beach, only coming together for a light lunch on the terrace. Freddie and Zoe made themselves scarce by going out for the day. Lola was relieved to witness not only Rhys’s spirits lift because of their absence, but that he found a way to be at ease with her again. Perhaps she hadn’t completely messed up by taking things a bit too far the other night.

Later that evening, the friends joined Mirabel and Fabs further up the coast at a restaurant in Porto Cervo. They were seated all together at a long table, the terrace jutting out of the hillside with a garden and pool directly below and an unparalleled view of the marina, which was packed with white yachts. The fading sun lit the sky citrine and blush, reflecting in the restaurant’s windows.

All of the friends were there, including Fabs’s Italian friend Valentino from the first night, and Lola was relieved to be sitting between Rhys and Deni. Freddie and Zoe were at the other end of the table opposite Mirabel, while Fabs was at the head, the sea awash with sunset colours behind him.

Lola was glad their pact had thrown her and Rhys together. Although he was quiet, he was also funny and self-deprecating. They’d had a laugh together as well as bared their souls. She’d forgotten how good it felt to be that relaxed with someone, to be open and joyful without a hint of fear. She swallowed back a wave of upset with a mouthful of ricotta gnocchi. She missed the companionship of a partner, to have someone to bounce ideas off and share the ups and downs of life with, and yet she hadn’t been in a relationship like that since her mid-twenties. Even then, it had been fleeting. With Rhys, she felt she could be herself and not the person her friends still expected her to be, because that wasn’t who she was any longer.

The setting was spectacular, the gnocchi delicious and the citrusy local white wine washed it down beautifully. Mirabel and Fabs seemed far more relaxed without their families around, and Lola was relieved to see a smile on Mirabel’s face. They were the epitome of a couple in love. To find a soulmate like that, someone who would look at her in the way Fabs was looking at Mirabel, what were the chances?

She turned back to pick up her wine and met Rhys’s eyes.

‘They look so happy, don’t they?’ he said with a resigned sigh.

Was he feeling the same? That after his own heartbreak and disappointment, would he ever find a love as wonderful?

‘They really do.’

Maybe she was putting too much pressure on herself to find perfection. Perhaps Fabs and Mirabel were a one-in-a-million couple. Not everyone got so lucky in love. With her track record, she’d settle for someone half decent.

At the other end of the table, Freddie stood up and raised his glass. As everyone’s attention turned to him, the conversation around the table petered out, while the clatter of cutlery and chatter from the other diners rumbled on.

‘Fabs, Mirabel, I just wanted to say thank you for an incredible few days so far, to you and your families for wining and dining us. I can’t think of anywhere more romantic for you to be getting married, which is why it’s also the perfect place for making big romantic gestures.’ Freddie raised his glass higher and glanced down at Zoe. Her cheeks flushed as she met his eyes. ‘So I have a bit of an announcement to make.Wehave an announcement to make.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Earlier today when Zoe and I went off for a picnic, I proposed and she said yes.’

The silence around the table intensified as if everyone had sucked in a breath and were unable to let it out. Lola tensed and Rhys shifted in his seat. She didn’t dare glance at him.

Was that worry on Zoe’s face? Had she not wanted Freddie to announce their news in front of everyone? Fuelled by the uncomfortable quiet, Lola seethed on Fabs and Mirabel’s behalf. To hijack the lead-up to their friends’ wedding and steal the limelight, even for a moment, to announce their own engagement – people just didn’t do that, did they? At least not without the bride and groom’s permission, and if Mirabel’s open-mouthed shock and Fabs’s thinly veiled annoyance was anything to go by, then no, permission had not been sought.

Instigated by Mirabel, glasses were slowly raised and calls of congratulations filtered around the table. Glasses clinked, the sound drifting into the darkening evening, mixing with the chatter from elsewhere on the terrace.

It could have been worse, Lola thought,he could have actually proposed in front of everyone rather than announce their engagement.But that thought faded the second she clocked Rhys’s ashen face. The tightness of his jaw was echoed by his clenched fists. His lips were pursed white as if he was trying to bite back the hurl of abuse he probably wanted to throw at them but couldn’t, because he was decent and thoughtful and wouldn’t dream of making another scene somewhere so public just four days away from his best mate’s wedding.

Conversations had started up again. Lola turned her attention from Rhys back to Zoe. Nope, that wasn’t worry plastered over her face, it was smugness. Lola wanted to wipe the smile off her face so badly. The second Zoe met her gaze, Lola made her move.

‘Just go with it,’ she said under her breath to Rhys as she clasped the side of his stubbled jaw. Manoeuvring herself so they were facing each other, she brought her lips to his and kissed him. He tensed and worry coursed through her that once again she’d pushed things too far, that their ruse would unravel right in front of his newly engaged ex and he’d end up feeling even more mortified. She was about to pull away when suddenly he was kissing her back, tentative but responding, his lips parting, his hand gliding around her waist. They broke apart breathlessly.

Rhys stared at her, his eyes wide as he held her gaze, an unspoken something passing between them. Kissing him had been impulsive and born out of annoyance at Freddie and Zoe’s insensitivity, the only way Lola felt able to help him, an alternative to sticking up two fingers in his so-called friends’ faces. But what she’d intended to be a quick ‘fuck you’ moment to Freddie and Zoe had turned into something unexpected. Her heart raced as Rhys closed the gap between them, his lips finding hers again, and it was far from tentative this time, but a lip-smashing, tongue-probingly good kiss that took her by surprise.

When she heard Deni comment ‘get a room you two’, she was pretty sure everyone at the table was witnessing their very public display.

As if realising it too, Rhys suddenly pulled away. But the look that passed between them spoke volumes. The earlier shock and hurt that she’d witnessed had been replaced with something else entirely. It felt good to be the reason he didn’t look quite so sad. It felt good full stop.Hefelt good.

It was one thing to pretend she was into Rhys, another thing to actually feel something. Them ‘being together’ wasn’t real, but that had been a hell of a kiss.

Deni nudged her shoulder and she didn’t dare meet her friend’s eyes as she tried to cover the thumping in her chest and the confusion in her head with a large gulp of wine.

Perhaps she’d behaved as badly as Freddie and Zoe, although a kiss was nothing compared to an engagement announcement. She drained the rest of her wine and silently told herself it had meant nothing, that she’d only kissed him to help him out, and yet the way he’d reciprocated hadn’t felt like nothing. It had felt like…

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