Page 37 of The Island of Hopes and Dreams

‘I do not. And I don’t have a type either.’ She attempted to ignore the knowing look Mirabel was giving her, but realised her protestation was an outright lie, something that had become clear over the last week. Okay, fine. Maybe she did have a type, but didn’t everyone?

‘I’m just saying I’m surprised by you and Rhys because he’s not someone I’d ever thought you’d go for. He’s good-looking but not in the way you rate.’ Her voice softened as she touched Lola’s arm. ‘It’s a good thing and I’m happy for you.’

‘I do rate personality,’ Lola said, unable to control the edge to her tone. ‘It’s just I keep getting it wrong.’

Epically so, was what she didn’t say. Mirabel knew an awful lot, but she didn’t know everything and not as much as Rhys now knew. Not sharing everything had been Lola’s way of protecting her friend, because she knew that Mirabel had held back her true feelings about Jarek, not wanting to dampen Lola’s spirits when she’d been in love. And she certainly wasn’t going to risk talking about him now and adding an extra layer of worry to Mirabel’s shoulders when Jarek was on Sardinia. That was something she needed to deal with alone. Actually, not alone – with Rhys.

She glanced back across the beach to where she’d left him perched on a rock bathed in the late afternoon sun. Dependable, kind, thoughtful and supportive Rhys. She hoped he’d remembered to apply his factor 50 this morning.

‘What do you want to do?’ Lola asked, turning her attention and the conversation back on her friend.

‘I don’t want to go back, not yet.’ Mirabel visibly shuddered. ‘The thought of another evening being a mediator and attempting to please everyone, I just can’t do it.’

‘You need to talk to Fabs though – you can’t let him worry that you might want to call the whole thing off.’

‘Oh God, that wasn’t my intention at all.’

‘He needs to know that.’

Mirabel scrunched her nose and dug her fingers deeper into the sand.

‘Why don’t we get Fabs to come out here,’ Lola suggested. ‘Rhys drove me; I’ll get him to call him.’

‘I’ll let Mum and Dad know where I am too, so they don’t worry, and maybe the four of us can go somewhere this evening – I could do with the easy-going company of our best friends.’ She suddenly grinned. ‘I’m sorry what I said before about you favouring looks over personality, I know it’s not just about that and I honestly didn’t mean to make you sound shallow?—’

‘It’s okay, and I know my track record with men has been shocking. Rhys has opened my eyes to that because I’ve got to know him slowly rather than jumped in feet first.’

‘If you say so!’ Mirabel said. ‘I’d say you moved pretty fast. I never would have put you two together, but somehow it works.’

Lola’s smile hid her true feelings because Mirabel had a false idea of her relationship with Rhys. They were friends, nothing more, and yet they were obviously doing a convincing job of pretending they’d fallen for each other.

22

After sitting in the sun for what seemed an age, Rhys had been mightily relieved when Lola had messaged asking him to call Fabs. With his arms and the back of his neck feeling hot and tingly, plus a numb bum from sitting on a hard rock, he was more than happy to phone his friend, then find a shady spot to sit with a drink. Yet by the time Fabs arrived in a taxi over an hour later, Rhys was cursing Mirabel for having retreated so far away.

Fabs may have sounded okay on the phone earlier, but his face was pinched with worry and his broad shoulders were hunched. He walked towards him with the gait of a man who’d had enough.

They hugged and thumped each other’s shoulders, although Rhys noticed Fabs held on for a touch longer than normal.

‘Where’s Mirabel?’ Fabs shoved his hands in his pockets.

‘Still on the beach with Lola. You want to join them?’

‘No, let them talk. There’s a pizzeria where we can wait. You must be hungry.’

There was no argument from Rhys about that. They set off along the sun-blasted road that skirted Costa Paradiso and overlooked the iron-red roofs of stone and honey-coloured houses. Beyond them, the sea foamed against the small clusters of rocks that dotted the northern coastline.

They’d walked halfway to the pizzeria before Fabs said anything. ‘I nearly proposed to Mirabel on Cala li Cossi the first time I brought her here. It was her first time in Sardinia, first time meeting my family, and we’d only been together a few months, but even then I knew how much I loved her and that I wanted her to be my wife.’

Rhys glanced at his friend as their feet pounded the tarmac road. ‘What stopped you?’

‘Worrying about what everyone would think, my parents in particular, jumping into a serious relationship so quickly?—’

‘Your parents married young, surely they would have understood?’

‘They married young because it was the done thing back then; mynonnawould not have tolerated Mamma living with Papa before they were married. But yes, their views have changed since then.’

‘If that wasn’t the problem, what was?’

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