‘I was tired, too, but the saltwater really brushes off the cobwebs.’ Colette shivered a little as a light breeze hit her drenched skin. ‘I’m going back in before I freeze. Coming?’ she said to Annie, who nodded.
‘In a bit. Just getting a drink.’ She reached for a bottle of water beneath her things as Colette ran back towards the water.
‘I really like her,’ Kim chuckled as she watched Colette tumble into the waves. ‘A real breath of fresh air.’
‘So do I. I have to admit, in the beginning, I wasn’t so sure about you, but I was wrong,’ Annie admitted.
Kim was surprised, not at her candour – she’d learned very quickly that Annie spoke her mind and called it as she saw it – but at the admission itself. ‘Really? Why?’
She shrugged. ‘Dunno. I suppose I thought you were this stuck-up trust-funder who looked down on people.’
Kim sat quietly. She hadn’t expected the bluntness, but she would’ve been lying if she said she hadn’t heard the same before. People always thought they knew who she was – the irony was she barely knew herself.
‘Whereas you’re actually all right,’ Annie continued jokingly.
‘So are you,’ Kim replied. ‘Colette, too. I know we haven’t known each that long but I feel lucky to have met you both. Feels like fate brought us together at the villa.’ She’d come across an apt quote in the book just now about that very same subject.
Strangers are just friends waiting to happen.
The pair lapsed into casual conversation and Kim reluctantly put the book aside. She’d read some more later. Whoever the writer was, the insights penned were well and truly hitting home with her. Stuff about being true to yourself, letting go, and taking risks spoke straight to Kim’s soul.
‘What’s that?’ Annie frowned then, as some commotion further down the beach got their attention.
Kim sat forward and screwed her eyes up against the sun.
‘I don’t know. Looks like something happened.’ She jumped to her feet quickly then, when she spotted a guy run back up with the beach with a woman in his arms.
It was Colette.
The girls rushed down to the shore to meet him and saw that Colette seemed to be bleeding from her temple.
Then all of a sudden, a lifeguard was speaking rapidly in Italian and neither Kim nor Annie had a clue what was being said.
The man who had apparently pulled Colette from the water was speaking with him and before the others knew what was happening, some paramedics and a stretcher had arrived to take their friend away.
‘Wait, what’s going on?’ Kim grabbed at the Italian man’s arm.
‘It’s OK. We follow in my car. We go to the clinic. They take Colette there,’ he replied.
‘Who are you? And how do you know our friend’s name?’ Annie demanded.
‘I am Luca. I explain in the car,’ he said as he turned and stalked away towards the steps up to the car park.
‘Who?’ Annie asked Kim as they gathered up their things and moved to follow the stranger. ‘Did Colette say anything to you about some Italian guy she knows?’
‘Nothing,’ she replied. ‘I can only guess they got talking on the beach.’
‘But what the hell happened? And how do we know we can trust this fella?’ Annie said.
‘How can we not at this point? Do you speak enough Italian to know what’s going on?’ Kim pointed out.
‘Still, are we really getting in a car with him? He could be some psycho.’
‘We’re just going to have to trust that he isn’t. And we have to be sure Colette’s all right.’
‘OK, but I’m going to keep my eye on yer man.’
Kim looked balefully at her. ‘For safety or for other reasons?’
