Page 20 of The Summer Island Swap
‘In fact,’ he said, warming to his subject, ‘Sarah insists on being the first to empty the compost toilet. Isn’t she a star? Anyone who genuinely wanted to go home would never do that.’ He gave the brightest white smile.
‘Oh, that’s a shame. I was going to volunteer,’ said Amy. ‘My dream, one day, is to own a house with a huge garden where I can have a compost toilet of my own – along with a bee hive, a hedgehog house, feeders for birds and a large house for the battery hens I’ll adopt…’
‘Sounds great,’ said Rick. ‘You’ll learn a lot here, such as how to choose plants to attract butterflies.’
They chatted for a moment and I zoned out, wondering how bad the meals here would be.
My eyes followed his tall frame when he headed off humming. Suddenly Rick spun around and fished two water bottles out of the bag.
‘I forgot to give you these,’ he called.
‘I’ll go,’ I said and hurried over to where he was standing. ‘There was no reason to go quite that far,’ I said in a low voice. ‘You heard my sister – she’d much prefer to clean out the toilets.’
‘I’m all for throwing people in at the deep end and there’s no avoiding any tasks here. We all muck in – literally.’ His eyes flickered with amusement. ‘I get it, you not wanting to lose face in front of Amy. And you might be thanking me by the end of this week. Doing this first will make the rest of the tasks seem easy in comparison.’
I took the two bottles.
‘Although… it’s none of my business, but don’t you think it might be better just to be honest? Tell her that it’s not really your cup of tea but you’re prepared to give it a go? In my experience lying never ends well.’ His face darkened and he stared past my shoulder for a moment.
‘No. Amy mustn’t get a whiff of the fact I want to leave. She deserves to enjoy this month without worrying about me. It’s best this way.’
‘She may not think that. Being lied to always brings hurt.’ His face flushed. He gave a small bow and walked off.
I made my way back to Amy. ‘Can we get on with our unpacking?’
‘Everything all right? Between you and Rick?’ she countered.
‘Of course. He… he seems like a great bloke.’ For some reason I blushed.
Amy took my hand and pulled me into the forest. Birds called overhead. Tree canopies threw shade. Twigs snapped beneath our feet.
‘Amy? What are we doing? The toilets are the other way if you—’
Finally she stopped and placed her hands on my arms. ‘Are you absolutely sure, Sarah? About not going home? Look… I can see how lots of women would find Rick attractive – I could understand if he managed to sway your opinion with some smooth talking.’
‘He hasn’t—’
But we’re here for four weeks. I… I would understand if you wanted to book the first plane out of here. Granted, Rick’s charming…’
Is he?
‘… and Jonas is funny. Jackie’s so nice. Helga is interesting. But the novelty of a new crowd might wear off after a few days. When reality sets in about the kind of holiday this is… the physical work… the lack of mod cons… I don’t want you to regret committing to it.’
‘You think my opinion has been swayed by Rick? That I find him good-looking? I think you’ve had too much sun.’
She gave me a curious look. ‘You don’t think he’s fit? Remember, I’m the person who once worked out you had the hots – no pun intended – for candlestick Lumière fromBeauty and the Beast.’
‘It was a long time ago. Please never repeat that to anyone.’
‘Rick’s not my type,’ she continued. ‘We’ve too much in common. Unlike you, I believe in opposites attracting. It’s more exciting…’
‘Hmm. I remember the butcher you briefly dated.’
‘Don’t remind me! But I totally get why you’d go for his humorous, whole Indiana Jones take-me-to-bed vibe. In fact, he’s nothing like the recent guys you’ve dated. Perhaps you are coming around to my point of view, aboutuncommon ground being sexy.’
Amy was right about my previous boyfriends. They weren’t remotely flirtatious. In each case our relationship had started off as a friendship. They were sensible. Liked routine. Weren’t especially sociable. Trying to be funny wasn’t part of their agenda. But this was no accident. As an adult I’d eventually grown to avoid men of a certain type. Those who were deemed handsome. Who were charismatic. Who were difficult to ignore, like Rick.
I had very good reason.
