Page 64 of Hot Greek Summer

Gavin.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

‘Oh my God,’ Frankie mouthed, subconsciously touching her face where Seth had kissed it.

‘Oh shit me, Frank,’ Stella whispered, and Winnie made the kind of sound you might when you stub your toe but are in public so can’t swear like a sailor.

Their startled reactions to the newcomer weren’t lost on Seth and the others, who all turned to review the new arrival with interest.

‘Gav,’ Frankie said, floundering as she walked around the desk to meet him halfway across the room. ‘What …?’ She ran out of words, because his presence here was so utterly out of place. ‘Oh God! Is it one of the boys? What’s happened?’ She went from calm to instant heart-attack level in a blink, clutching his forearm like a vice.

‘They’re fine, the boys are fine,’ he said, looking like a fish out of water, uncomfortable and wishing he were back in the safety of his bowl.

Frankie slowly released his arm and placed her hand over her beating heart while she calmed down. ‘Thank God for that, you gave me the fright of my life.’

‘I should probably have called,’ he said, looking down. ‘I just …’ It was his turn to be lost for words to explain what the hell was going on. ‘You look …’ He stopped again, and scrubbed a hand over his dark hair. ‘Different.’

Winnie grimaced. It was hideous to watch, so God only knew how Frankie was taking it. Stepping forward, she gave Gav a brief hug and said hello, then turned to Frankie with a ‘what can we do?’ face.

‘Why don’t you guys go down to the kitchen?’ she suggested, plumping for the only place she could think of that wasn’t a public space or Frankie’s bedroom.

Frankie looked at her, glazed, and then seemed to see the sense in it and nodded.

‘Come through,’ she said, leading Gavin away from the others. He walked past the band, then backtracked and stopped, staring at Seth.

‘Don’t I know you, mate?’ he asked, studying his face.

Seth shook his head, glancing quickly at Frankie. ‘I don’t think we’ve met, no.’ He smiled vaguely.

Gav took another look, and then shook his head. ‘It’ll come to me,’ he muttered, following Frankie down the hallway towards the kitchen.

‘Her husband, I take it?’ Seth asked thoughtfully, watching them leave.

Winnie nodded, troubled. ‘Ex.’

Gavin’s arrival was a bolt out of the blue, and for Winnie an unwelcome reminder that however much they thought they’d left their old lives behind, their old lives could turn up unexpectedly on their doorstep. Frank had taken it quite well, to be honest. If Rory arrived on Skelidos, there was every chance he’d go home in a box.

‘Hm.’

‘Sorry?’ She tuned back in and realised that she’d missed whatever Seth had just said.

He shrugged. ‘Doesn’t matter.’ Turning to give his band members the nod to follow him, he headed back upstairs to their rooms.

Down in the cellar a couple of hours later, Stella and Winnie sat Frankie down on the stool and huddled around her. They’d put Gavin in one of the owner’s accommodation bedrooms, because now the band had booked the place out they were officially full for the summer. The block booking suited them because it meant that they could stay in their rooms on the top floor, and thankfully it now also meant that Frankie could truthfully tell her ex-husband that he couldn’t possibly stay on.

This was the first chance the three of them had had to talk privately since Gav’s arrival.

‘It comes to something when we have to meet underground to speak freely,’ Stella said, looking at Frankie. ‘What’s going on, Frank?’

Frankie puffed her fringe, shaking her head with an expression that clearly said, ‘I don’t have a bloody clue.’

‘I can’t believe he’s here,’ she said, baffled. ‘I could count all the random things Gav’s ever done on one hand, and then this? It’s just so unlike him.’

‘What has he said?’ Winnie asked, perplexed.

‘Not enough,’ Frankie said, twisting her hands in her lap. ‘He wanted to see where I was living. Fancied some sunshine. Thought we should stay in touch because of the boys. That sort of thing.’

‘Has he not heard of the Internet?’ Stella said.

---