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‘Evan, dude, how far away is this place of yours? Are we nearly there yet?’ He sounded like a child, but Holly was grateful; she had wanted to ask the same question herself.
‘It’s about a twenty-minute drive,’ Evan replied. ‘The coastline is pretty impressive, though.’
Pretty impressive was an understatement. The roads wound up and down, with a view of the sea out on the left, unlike anything Holly had ever seen. The crystal blue expanse was dotted with ships, from pristine white sailing boats, all the way to full-on cruise liners.
‘If we were staying longer, we could have headed to Monaco,’ Evan said from the row in front of Holly. ‘But we’ve got a pretty packed schedule as it is. Maybe next time.’
‘Does he mean Monaco as intheMonaco? With all the casinos, and the crazy sports cars and ridiculously wealthy people?’ Caroline hissed to Holly.
‘I think he might.’ Her tension loosened by a fraction as she found herself grateful that they hadn’t had time to add that excursion onto the trip. There was no way she could afford a night outing at a casino.
The conversation turned quickly to flights. How long it had taken everyone to get there, what the food was like, and if anybody besides Holly had suffered from sickness. Apparently, she was the only one.
‘I used to get travel sick as a kid,’ Evan said. ‘Not on planes, but cars. And crazily bad. My parents didn’t take me on a vacation one year. They left me with my aunt and uncle instead, because they were driving up to these lakes in Ohio, and knew I was going to get travel sick.’
‘That’s terrible. They didn’t take you on holiday?’
‘I probably made that sound worse than it was. My uncle and aunt lived on a farm. Well, a ranch I suppose. Tractors, horses, proper wild-west set up. I probably enjoyed that more than I would have with them. And one of my sisters got food poisoning while they were away, so I think I lucked out if I’m honest.’
‘I get seasick.’ Naomi joined in the conversation from the front row of seats. ‘So I’m not looking forward to the boats. I figured I’ll drink my way through it.’
‘I’m pretty sure the drinking will make it worse,’ Zahida replied.
‘We’ll see.’
As the roads continued to twist and turn, Holly’s eyelids struggled to stay open. She hadn’t woken up particularly early that morning, but it had hardly been a restful sleep. Not that she had anyone to blame other than herself and her own anxiety. Hope was a dream at bedtime. And with all the worry stories she had heard at the mummy-baby groups, Holly knew just how lucky she was with a baby who slept six hours solidly from four weeks old. But the nerves had kept her awake. Covering her mouth, she allowed herself a yawn that stretched out far longer than expected.
‘Why don’t you close your eyes?’ Caroline said in her amazingly motherly voice. ‘They’ll be plenty of time to see the view when we get there.’
As much as Holly wanted to stay awake, she knew Caroline was right, and using her jumper as a pillow, she rested her head against the window and was fast asleep within minutes.
* * *
The shaking on her shoulders was confusing. As was Caroline’s voice, telling her she needed to wake up. For a split second, Holly assumed she was at the shop and had fallen asleep upstairs while weighing out sweets. It wouldn’t have been the first time since Hope had been born that she’d done that, but as she felt the softness of the seat beneath her, she realised that no chairs in the sweet shop were this comfortable. Blinking herself awake, the morning came back to her with a rush of excitement and fear. Today was the day she was leaving Hope. No, she remembered, she had already left Hope – and the UK. She was on holiday.
‘We’re at the villa.’ Caroline was still shaking her arm. ‘You’re gonna wanna wake up and see this.’
The villa. Once more, Holly’s stomach dropped. Did she really want to see the hovel they were staying in for the next four nights? Not particularly. As the dread settled, she remembered what Caroline had said to her before she fell asleep. This wasn’t about her. It was about Jamie and Fin and, whatever state things were in, Holly was determined to be positive. And perhaps even enjoy herself.
With one more steadying breath, she forced her eyes open and looked out of the window.
‘Crap.’
13
‘Don’t worry about your bags. I’ll get Hugo to bring them in.’
Evan stood outside the villa as he spoke, although Holly was barely listening. Instead, she was staring at the gargantuan twists of metal and wood that made up the front door. If you could call it that. It was more like a gate to a fortress. Something you would see on a Hollywood set marking the entrance to a home of a billionaire tech wizard or a mafia drug lord. Actually, she thought, as she drew her eyes away from the door and scanned the rest of the building, the entire thing looked like it belonged on a Hollywood set.
Rather than a normal electric doorbell, it had a large, physical, cast-iron bell with a heavy rope which dangled down. A wrap-around balcony swept around the entire first floor and large, curved windows displayed a glimpse of the world inside. Overgrown plants cascaded over the red-brick walls, allowing glimpses of the vivid, yellow flowers hiding within the foliage.
‘Hugo? Who’s Hugo?’ Holly tuned in to what Evan was saying, realising she had missed some important information while she was asleep.
‘He’s the driver,’ Caroline caught her up.
‘He’s more of an all-around handyman,’ Evan added. ‘He’s going to be with us for the entire trip to drive us to places, like the waterskiing and the yacht. He’s planning on tidying up some of the garden as well. As you can see, it’s overgrown a lot. And he cooks too. He’s in charge of dinner tonight.’
‘Wow. Okay.’ When Evan turned back to the door, Holly whispered into Caroline’s ear. ‘Does that mean we’ve got our own chef?’
