‘Just keep swimming,’ said Rebecca, paddling towards him.
‘Certainly wakes you up,’ he said.
‘Some of us need to go to work,’ said Felipe, hauling himself up and out of the water, and Rebecca wondered if it was a deliberate show of his athletic prowess. She couldn’t help admiring the way the muscles in his back rippled as he raised his body up onto the side of the pool, nor could she help remembering what those muscles felt like beneath her hands as she explored his body, ran her fingers down his spine, learned the dips and rises of the landscape of his back just days before.
Felipe walked away and Rebecca forced herself not to watch, although she had no trouble imagining his loose-limbed walk, the memory of which, a naked version, was already etched into her head.
She swam a leisurely length, realising that her crawl outstripped Will’s untidy breaststroke. She stopped and waited for him at one end.
‘What sort of work does he do?’ asked Will.
Rebecca shrugged, glad that she could answer honestly. ‘I haven’t a clue. Something around the hotel, I think. His family owns it.’ And that was a good reminder as to why Felipe wasn’t for her. By his own admission, he wasn’t looking for anything more than fun, which they’d had, but perhaps now she ought to be thinking about her future.
‘Nice place. Very peaceful.’
‘It is. I’ve got a class starting in an hour so I need to shower and have breakfast.’
‘Why don’t you have breakfast with me?’ suggested Will. ‘That terrace is a beautiful spot and I’d love to spend some time with you before I start work.’
‘It will have to be a quick one,’ she said, catching her lip and giving her watch a quick look, not wanting to disappoint him. She’d probably have time to swallow down a glass of orange juice.
‘Okay. I’ll see you in the restaurant in half an hour. And what about this evening? I have a work call at eight but we could go for a drink.’
‘Are you not going to stay to swim?’
With a shudder, he stood up and began to wade to the steps. ‘Too cold for me.’
Feeling obliged to get out as well, she swam to the steps and got out of the pool.
‘Someone’s left their sunglasses behind,’ said Will, stooping to pick them up.
‘Oh, they’re Felipe’s. I’ll give them back to him.’
She walked over to Will, her towel in her hand, conscious that this was as naked as she’d ever been in front of him, but he didn’t even give her body a second look, just handed the glasses over. He picked up his own towel, wrapped it around himself and busied himself putting on his sandals. She guessed it was new territory for both of them and Will had always been very methodical and precise. He didn’t like to be hurried into anything. She’d waited this long for him, she ought to have a bit of patience with him.
‘Hey, Rebecca, Felipe says you want us to help you with some fashion advice,’ chirped Cristina the second she set foot in thekitchen on her way to breakfast with Will. Rebecca shot an accusing look at Felipe, who merely shrugged.
‘Seize the day.’ Then he addressed his young cousin. ‘Just don’t make her look like Barbie.’
‘As if,’ sneered Cristina.
Ana appeared with her usual basket of pastries and greeted Rebecca, who handed Felipe his sunglasses. ‘You forgot these.’
‘Don’t worry, Rebecca, one of us has taste.’ She winked as Cristina protested, ‘I have taste.’
‘I have the best taste,’ announced Katerina, swanning in.
Rebecca eyed her distressed jeans which were more holes than denim and the tiny crop top that encased her generous chest. Dramatic dark kohl outlined her pretty brown eyes with little cat-eye ticks that Rebecca didn’t think she could emulate in a million years.
‘I’m not sure I could carry that look off.’ She glanced at Ana, enviably elegant in simple, flowing white linen trousers and a red T-shirt, her long dark hair scooped up in a messy bun. She was equally certain she couldn’t carry that style off either. Basically, she was clueless.
‘I don’t know what I want. I just need some ideas because I don’t have any.’ And didn’t that sound woefully pathetic? She hadn’t had the sort of relationship with her own cousin where they’d swapped confidences, let alone clothes. She felt a bit guilty about that. Her cousin had very much been the odd one out in the family. Orphaned in her teens and catapulted into the sports-mad Hayes-Love family. At the time, Rebecca had been too busy jockeying for her own position to pay much attention to her younger and very different cousin. But Anna had found true love and Rebecca was genuinely happy that she’d found her place in life with a man who loved her as much as she loved him. If only she could discover that place.
Almost as if he read her mind, Felipe spoke. ‘Rebecca needs to find her own style. You can help her.Helpher, not bully her into something that will make her feel uncomfortable.’ Felipe gave his two younger cousins a stern stare.
‘Rebecca and Felipe sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G,’ sang Cristina.
Both Rebecca and Felipe turned on her and glared with such ferocity that Ana giggled.
