Chapter One
Sofia Barnes lay back on her sunbed and stretched her arms out wide, wide enough to hold hands with the two women on the beds either side of her.
The view of the infinity pool and the glittering blue sea beyond was breathtaking. From behind her designer sunglasses Sofia watched a yacht with billowing white sails slowly make its way across the horizon. To her left a whitewashed town rose up in the distance like an elaborate wedding cake, dotted around with the turquoise roofs of churches clinging to the hillside.
Sofia squeezed both the hands she held hard, very hard.
‘Wake up, you two. What a view! Can you believe we’ve made it? We’ve finally started out on our very own Greek odyssey. We get to explore three gorgeous islands together in all their glory. This is the life!’
‘Ow!’
The woman to her left, Maddie Stevens, sat up abruptly, knocking her pink crocheted sunhat to the floor, and rubbed her palm.
‘Sof, careful, that hurt.’
Charlotte Trent, lying on the other side of Sofia, just murmured and shimmied down the sunbed a little more, the toes of her long, curvaceous body, in its low-cut red costume, almost over the edge of the bed.
‘Yes, leave us alone, Sof. Let us sleep if we want. You forced us to have two Aperol Spritzes the second we arrived at the hotel, one after the other. We’re not twenty anymore. What did you think would happen? And what’s wrong with a little snooze anyway? We’ve been travelling most of the day.’
Sofia leapt up off the sunbed and stood in front of her friends, blocking their view. She pointed up at the castle that stood atop the white icing houses. She couldn’t keep still a moment longer.
‘Boring! We’re here to celebrate fifty years of knowing each other. Fifty years! How many friends can say that? We’ve got to make the most of our time together. We need to go into that town up there and check it out as soon as we can.’
Maddie reached over, picked up her hat from the sun-warmed tiles and plonked it back on her head, stuffing her flame-coloured hair underneath as best she could. She’d made the hat herself and been stunned to learn that crocheted hats and even dresses were all the rage now. There’d been plenty on sale at the hotel boutique, at ridiculous prices. Perhaps she should change jobs, leave the care home and its lovely but demanding residents far behind, and go into fashion design. She stared up at her friend.
‘Calm down, Sof, for God’s sake. I’d forgotten for a moment what it’s like spending more than a couple of hours with you. You’re manic. You were like this at school, bloody exhausting.’
Sofia drew herself up to her full height of five foot two, tiny gold string bikini glinting in the sun.
‘Charming, both of you. Is this the thanks I get for single-handedly organising the whole trip? Three weeks of bliss, without either of you having to lift a finger?’
Maddie smiled at the woman who’d been part of her life for so long.
‘Yeah, sorry, Sof. It’s a fabulous idea, and you got us a such a great deal. I still can’t believe it’s costing so little. Especially when we’re staying in places like this. I know June’s not high season for Greece, but even so…’
Sofia clocked Charlotte’s frown at the comment, shook her head in her friend’s direction and put her finger to her lips. Luckily, Maddie was applying yet more suncream to her pale skin and didn’t notice. Eventually, Maddie settled back down on her sunbed, sequinned kaftan billowing around her, and sighed.
‘You can call me naïve if you like, but I just thought I might have a few moments to relax occasionally. I’m quite keen to do some snoozing in the sun.’
Maddie glanced up at the town, the blinding sun reflecting off the white of the houses.
‘There’s no way I’m trekking up all those steps in this heat anyway, especially with my skin. I’d be a leathery old prune in minutes.’
Sofia tutted.
‘Less of the old. That’s a banned word on this holiday. Sixty is the new forty you know. We’re still in our prime.’
Maddie snorted.
‘Well, you may be… Not sure I am.’
‘Of course you are.’
Sofia sat at the foot of her friend’s sunbed and tickled her feet.
‘Get off!’
‘I know you’ve had a truly horrible time, Mads, the worst, but we’re here to help you. Tony wouldn’t want you to sit around moping for the rest of your life, would he? He was always so full of fun, the?—’
