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‘Now?’
‘Now.’
It must have been a testament to the urgency with which she spoke that Caroline immediately stopped pouring. Jumping from their seats, they both followed Holly up to the bedroom, where she closed the door behind them.
‘I’m thinking of going to see Giles. To be sure there are no feelings left there. I need you to tell me I’m not insane.’
She looked between them, waiting for a response. It didn’t take long.
‘Nope, can’t do that.’ Jamie was straight in with her opinions. ‘You are 100 per cent utterly insane. He was a pig. A liar and a manipulator. And you are on to a good thing with Evan.’
But Caroline was quick on Giles’s defence. ‘You’re forgetting the fact that Giles is crazy about her. And people change. Even you have to admit that he’s changed.’
‘Okay, so he had some mildly redeeming features,’ Jamie conceded, ‘but where does this leave Evan?’
‘Evan is the one who told me to go.’ Holly interrupted before the girls got too absorbed in their own conversation and forgot about her.
‘What?’ Both flinched in disbelief as the spoke in unison. ‘Why?’
Holly shrugged. It had sounded sensible when Evan had suggested it. Romantic, even. But now she was saying it aloud, she felt more than a little insecure.
‘He said I should know the truth about how I feel about Giles. Before he and I take things too far. That he wants to make sure I’m all in.’
‘That sounds sensible,’ Jamie said.
‘Or it sounds like a test,’ Caroline countered.
‘A test? What do you mean, a test?’
‘Like he doesn’t want you to go. Clearly, he only said that because he wanted you to pick him immediately. No person in their right mind would send the woman they like into the arms of another man she had feelings for.’
‘Once had feelings for,’ Jamie stressed. ‘Unless he’s completely secure. And genuine.’
Holly considered what Caroline had said. ‘I don’t think he’s manipulating me like that. I don’t think that’s what Evan’s like.’
‘Well, if he is, then he’s not the type of guy you should be with. I say go. And I love you and Evan together, I do. But I don’t think you’ll ever let yourself be with him properly until you’ve got this Giles thing out of your system.’ Caroline folded her arms to demonstrate her certitude.
‘Jamie?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t, Holly. I’m sorry, this is a decision you need to make on your own.’
Holly nodded. It was hardly the answer she wanted, but deep down, she knew it no longer mattered. She knew what she was going to do.
41
Holly Berry was driving a Vespa on her own. Less than twenty-four hours ago, she had never even sat on one, but now she was going solo down a very winding hill. In fairness, she was driving very slowly, her hand barely touching the throttle as she let gravity take her down, and could probably have jogged as fast, but she wasn’t taking any risks.
The scariest parts were when a car or motorbike flew past her, and it felt as if her heart leaped out of her chest. But finally, the lights of the marina came into view.
Of all the crazy things she had done in her life, this one had to be up there. Higher even than buying a sweet shop on a spur-of-the-moment decision. She was borrowing her current fling’s vehicle to see her past fling, and for what? To see if she still loved him? If she ever loved him in the first place?
She hadn’t seen Evan before she left. If she had, she would have second guessed herself, and ended up not going. What she wanted was to go back to the way things were the previous night, but now she had seen Giles, that couldn’t happen. Not now a seed of doubt had been planted.
At the signpost for the marina, she flicked on her indicators and turned off the main road into an even narrower and steeper one. She had thought some roads around the Cotswolds were steep, but these were crazy, so after deciding she didn’t want to risk her neck, or Evan’s bike, she found a place to park up and walked the rest of the way.
The marina was an entirely different place at night. Even before she reached the waterfront she could hear the music and laughter filling the air. Taxis were lining up in the taxi rank, mostly having dropped people off, while couples and families spilled out of little side roads, chatting and laughing.
If this week had felt like something out of a romance movie, then this place was where the final big scene would take place. All around the water’s edge, restaurants had set up their tables, with candles flickering on white, linen tablecloths. Fairy lights hung around windows while large parasols remained open from the heat of the day. But the edge of the water was nothing compared to the water itself.
