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Holly couldn’t breathe. The cheese was only seconds away from toppling, and her hands were trembling far too much to do anything about it. Fortunately, before she could even move to put the items down, Giles grabbed them from her. He stood less than a foot away. After taking the cheese, he then took the honey and the crisps. It was as if time slowed. All Holly could do was watch as Giles gave the items back to her in a perfectly organised manner, his fingertips barely even brushing hers as he did so. When he was done, he stepped back, and even though Holly knew everything was perfectly secure, she felt peculiarly unbalanced.
The last time she had seen Giles was in the hospital ward, just hours after Hope was born. And the last time she’d heard from him was when he’d sent a gargantuan gift basket as a farewell. She had spent the last eight months of her life convincing herself that she was better off without him. That letting him go had been the best thing for her and that her feelings for him had never been more than a mixture of hormones and fear. Yet her heart was hammering in her chest and those feelings suddenly felt far closer to the surface than she wanted.
‘You seemed to be making quite a scene there.’ He smirked in a typical Giles manner.
Holly opened her mouth, soundlessly at first, until she managed to choke out a small cough.
‘My trolley…’ she stuttered, only to turn around and see the woman walking away with it. All those items Evan had chosen for her to try were being pushed out of sight.
And she didn’t even care.
As she turned back, Holly half expected Giles to have vanished, as if he was just an apparition of her overly tired mind, but it didn’t happen. Instead, he was standing right there in front of her. His grey eyes unblinking. It took several seconds before she managed to clear her throat, and went to speak again, only to be cut off by the ringing of a telephone. Giles cursed under his breath as he pulled the device out of his pocket, and looked at the screen.
‘Sorry, I really need to take this. Just… don’t go anywhere? Okay? Don’t go anywhere.’
Holly nodded. The way her feet were grounded and her leg muscles quivering she doubted she could’ve moved had she wanted to. Instead, her gaze remained fixed on Giles. How was he here? And why? What did it mean that he would show up now, just as she was letting herself relax with Evan? Holly continued to stare until a pair of hands grabbed her from behind.
Startled, she jumped around and found herself face to face with Evan. Just to the right of him, and slightly fuller than it had been, was a trolley.
‘You picked up some other things,’ he said, looking at the items in her hand. ‘I think we’ve already got some of those cheeses, but no harm in having some more.’ Holly was barely listening. Instead, she was staring at the trolley. Their trolley. A rush of embarrassment flooded her cheeks as she scanned the aisle again, this time looking for the woman. Thankfully, she seemed to be gone, though that did little to quench the humiliation Holly felt.
After taking the items from her and placing them in the trolley that was definitely theirs, Evan planted a kiss gently on her lips, although unlike the other times they’d kissed that morning, Holly couldn’t respond and when he broke away, Evan was frowning.
‘Are you okay? You look pale. Your ankle’s not hurting again is it? I didn’t think about that when I said we should come here.’
‘No, no, my ankle’s fine.’ She fought the heat that was flushing her cheeks and almost involuntarily, twisted her neck to face the space where only moments before, Giles had been standing. Now, however, there was nothing but stocked chiller shelves and an old woman with a wicker basket.
Manoeuvring herself out of Evan’s hold, Holly walked to the end of the aisle, looked both ways down it, then back again. She even took a couple of steps to see down one of the other aisles too. But as her stomach sank, she knew without any doubt the truth. Giles was gone.
‘Holly? Are you okay?’ Evan had moved the trolley beside her again and was looking at her with deep concern.
With a blink and a shake of her shoulders, she forced herself to smile. ‘Yes, yes. I’m fine. We should probably go pay though, don’t you think? The others will be wondering where we’ve got to.’
* * *
Holly’s mind was a mess. Had she really seen Giles Caverty in a supermarket in France? She thought she had, but then he’d vanished. Gone without a trace. Even though he was the one who had told her to stay where she was. Why would he do that? Why would he tell her to stay put only so he could disappear? But then, why did Giles do half of the things he did?
It hadn’t helped Holly’s head that Evan continued to be the most perfect gentlemen, packing all the bags, offering his arm as he worried about her ankle. And when they arrived back at the Vespa and he handed her a helmet, it had felt entirely natural to kiss him again. Slightly longer and more intense than any time that morning. Perhaps just to check he was really there, and not a figment of her imagination too.
‘Is it wrong that I wish I had you all to myself for today?’ he asked, his hand on the base of her spine. ‘We could let the others go on the yacht and stay at the villa?’
‘You want me to miss out on a day on a yacht? You’re nice and everything, but you’re notthatnice.’
‘I’d miss it for you.’
‘But you’ve been on yachts hundreds of times. Besides, it’s for Jamie and Fin, remember? And you’re the one that arranged everything. You can hardly plan a day and not turn up.’
She pulled on her helmet and climbed on without hesitation. It was crazy how quickly she had got used to being on the back of the Vespa. Almost as crazy as how quickly she had got used to being with Evan.
‘Fine, but I will get you to myself, Holly Berry. I promise you that.’
When they returned to the house, the others were all downstairs.
‘Thank God, we’re starving.’ Spencer grabbed the bags of pastries before Evan had even got into the kitchen.
‘Holly gets the first pick,’ Evan said, tugging them back away from him. ‘It’s her privilege for getting up early and going to the shops.’
‘What shops did you go to?’ Fin asked. ‘You’ve been gone ages.’
