‘Hey, where’d you disappear off to last night?’
Sadie flops onto the sun bed beside me, her neon-pink bikini as shocking as her question, and I almost throw chilled orange down my ivory kaftan – which would be tragic. Though not as tragic as the thoughts my brain’s been entertaining since sunrise.
All of them circling one man.
The same man whose room Idisappearedinto.
Not that I’m about to answer her question with the truth…
‘What are you talking about?’ I say, grateful that between the wide brim of my hat and my oversized shades, she can’t see the panic in my eyes. ‘I was right here when you went off canoodling with Theo in the sea…’
That’s it, throw the focus onhercanoodling, rather than your own…
Guilty conscience,moi?
‘Canoodling?!’ She bursts into laughter, clutching her stomach. ‘Did you really just say canoodling?’
‘If you prefer it, I could say?—’
She slaps her hand over my mouth, butting the straw from my juice aside as she jerks her head towards a fast-approaching Lottie and hisses, ‘Little ears.’
I hear that phrase far more often than is necessary. What exactly did she think I was about to say? Unless… kissing wasn’tallshe and Theo got up to in the shallows last night.
Ugh. Brain, stop.
Says you? Miss Get-yourself-off-in-front-of-Axel, then Get-yourself-tied-down-and-ravaged-by-him-too.
‘What’s so funny, Mummy?’ Lottie says, coming to a sudden stop, bucket and spade swinging, her ballerina swimsuit covered in sand.
‘Your Aunt Tay-Tay,’ Sadie says, lifting my niece up to sit between her legs and almost losing an eye to one of her fluffy pigtails. ‘She’s using funny words while lookingfar too serious,’ she adds, scrunching her face into a deep frown as she leans into me.
‘I’m not being serious,’ I baulk.
‘No? If you looked any graver, sis, you’d be six feet under… What you got there, darling?’ she says to Lottie, eyes on the bucket though it’s clear her focus is still with me.
‘Treasure! Parker ’n’ Josh helped find it!’
Parker and Josh are Lottie’s besties from London. Sadie met their mums when she moved back, and like the kids, they’ve been thick as thieves ever since. After immediate family and Axel, they went straight on the guest list. It really did work out perfectly. My sister didn’t just get babysitters for the wedding; she got a built-in playgroup too. Genius. Axel wasn’t wrong.
And there he is again, taking over my thoughts like sand getting into places you never knew existed.
Uncomfortable. Irritating. Impossible to shake.
‘Amazing!’ Sadie coos, then, in a completely different tone, adds for my benefit, ‘So come on, what gives?’
‘Nothing gives.’
She eyes me over her shades while Lottie tips the bucket onto the sun bed and starts arranging shells and pebbles according to her own made-up rules: something about princesses, pirates, and a crab called Mr Pinchy.
‘Tell that to the sun-warmed juice in your hand,’ Sadie murmurs as she plucks a broken shell from Lottie’s collection and tosses it aside.
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ I take a defensive sip – and almost spit it back up. Warm juice really is grim.
‘Told you,’ she says smugly. ‘Your bum has been welded to that bed so long, it’s going to walk away with an imprint for days.’
‘And?Last I checked, the schedule for today wasLa Dolce Vita: to relax however we see fit.’
‘It is.’
