Page 28 of The Island of Hopes and Dreams

Even now, back at the villa, there was an invisible divide that she didn’t know how to cross. Rhys was in the living room talking to Barnaby, while she was on the terrace with her friends and Gareth. Making them cocktails had been an excuse for him to join them because he seemed to be fishing for something, the looks he kept sending her way indiscernible. He definitely wasn’t hitting on her; Sarah had revelled in telling them the gossip earlier about the bed swapping that had gone on while they’d been in Bosa.

Apart from Deni’s ‘get a room’ comment when they’d been at the restaurant, she hadn’t commented further, but why would she when she’d believed that kiss had been one of many and not Lola and Rhys’s first?

Shit, they’d had their first kiss. Lola hadn’t expected him to kiss her back, at least not in the way he had, like he meant it. And enjoyed it. And it had been a proper kiss, a toe-curlingly good one. The look of shame or embarrassment she thought he’d given her when he’d pulled away had perhaps just been confusion. Gareth was the exhibitionist, Freddie too to some extent, while Rhys was thoughtful, sensitive, giving, kind, not one for being in the limelight.

Shit, shit, shit, she thought again as she tuned back in to the conversation bouncing between Gareth and Sarah about which famous person each of them resembled.

A message pinged on Lola’s phone and she scooped it up as a throaty chuckle erupted from Sarah at Gareth’s suggestion that she had a passing resemblance to Sheridan Smith.

‘I wish!’

Lola clicked on the message. There was only an image from an unknown number. Everyone around her faded away, their voices becoming distant as she stared at the screen, her heart juddering as she took in the image. She slammed the phone face down in her lap and looked up to find Rhys watching her. He flicked his eyes away. Deni and Sarah were focused on Gareth and, despite being surrounded by friends, she felt utterly alone. She knew the message was from Jarek.

Clutching her phone to her chest, she slipped away, sensing Rhys’s eyes on her retreating back as she escaped to her room.

Perching on the end of her bed, she clicked on the photo again. It looked very much like Sardinia. She fought back the urge to scream. He was still finding ways to mess with her. It was probably a stock image from somewhere to screw with her head, because of course he knew she was here for Mirabel’s wedding. It wasn’t a secret, not with all of her friends posting countless photos to their socials over the past few days.He’s a controlling narcissistic bastard, she told herself,nothing more. He wanted to unsettle and upset her.

She tried her hardest to force those panicky feelings down and was about to delete the photo and block the number when she froze. The location in the photo wasn’t just Sardinia, it was of the riverfront in Bosa, close to where they’d stayed. She hadn’t immediately recognised it as the angle was from across the other side of the river. Oh God was he clever. He’d obviously spent time trawling through social media, looking at what her friends had posted to work out where she’d been. He was digging in his claws, twisting and hurting her just like he’d done when they’d been together.

Throwing the phone on the bed, she stood and paced across the room, the fear and upset having morphed into rage. She slammed open the French doors to her garden terrace and breathed in the sweet night air.

A knock on her door made her jump. She sighed as she went back into her room, pulled open the door and came face to face with Rhys.

‘Hey, are you okay? You seemed upset.’

‘I’m fine,’ she snapped, immediately regretting her tone.

Rhys visibly leaned away. ‘Sorry, I just thought… If it’s about what happened earlier, then?—’

‘It’s got nothing to do with that.’ The message had left her rattled, but she didn’t want to talk about it, at least not with Rhys right now. ‘It was nothing,’ she said dismissively.

He did take a step back this time. ‘Yeah, well, I thought not. It’s fine, I get it, we made a mistake. I’ll leave you alone.’

He pushed away from the edge of the door and started down the hallway.

‘That’s not what I meant,’ Lola called after him, but he kept walking.

Lola slammed her bedroom door closed and threw herself face down on the bed. Jarek had his claws in and the one person she’d opened up to while here, she was pushing away. Talking about the message and sharing her worries made it real. But if it had been Deni or Sarah who’d come knocking, would she have reacted the same way? Probably not, because pushing Rhys away felt easier than acknowledging that their kiss had sparked both joy and confusion. But it was more than just how it had made her feel. Being contacted by Jarek reminded her of the risks of letting someone into her heart again. That was what scared her and made her want to run away. The more time she spent with Rhys, the more they’d talked and laughed together, coupled with that earlier kiss, well, he’d managed to chip away at the barrier she’d put up and she didn’t know how to deal with that.

17

Lola woke with a raging headache, not because she’d drunk too much the night before, but because she’d cried herself to sleep. She hated how Jarek had so easily got under her skin, and yet she was more upset about the sharp words she’d had with Rhys. He’d only come to check on her and she’d reacted thoughtlessly.

She decided to skip breakfast, because she didn’t want to face him. A cowardly reaction, but her swirling emotions were too confusing to deal with.

Of course her friends noticed her absence and Sarah came knocking, finding her still in her room long after breakfast would have been cleared away. She sidled in with a plate of cornetto, a freshly made Italian version of a croissant, and a cappuccino.

‘I thought you might be hungry,’ she said, setting the plate and cup on the coffee table between the two armchairs that faced the garden. She sat down in one of them and crossed her legs. ‘Lovers’ tiff last night?’ At Lola’s blank face, Sarah continued. ‘You left abruptly. Rhys followed soon after and came back with his tail between his legs.’

‘Oh no, it was nothing like that…’ Lola trailed off, but why the hell was she hiding what was going on? Twice now in the last few weeks Jarek had contacted her at the times he knew he’d upset her the most, almost as if he was reminding her that wherever she went, he wouldn’t let her forget about him. Why was she trying to deal with this on her own? ‘It was just I got a message completely out of the blue?—’

Sarah’s phone ringing stopped Lola short.

‘Hold on; it’s Harry. Sorry, I need to take this.’ Sarah stood up and answered her phone. ‘Everything okay, love?’ she asked as she headed into the garden.

Lola sighed but gratefully tucked into the pastries and coffee, slowly feeling more able to face the day as the caffeine began to work its magic. She was even more grateful when Sarah didn’t return, but not because she didn’t want to talk. The burning feeling of anxiety in her chest would only grow if she didn’t have an outlet, but Sarah wasn’t it, because she wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut to Deni, to Gareth – hell, to anyone, friend or stranger – and Lola didn’t want a whisper of Jarek to reach Mirabel’s ears.

But there was one person she could talk to, who happened to be the one person she needed to apologise to as well.

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