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The water lapped a gentle, slow rhythm accompanied by the clinking of sails against masts. And though the water was dark, it was mesmerising, reflecting all the light that fell on it and casting it back in sparkling pinpricks as if it was made of diamonds.
The beauty of the scene momentarily distracted her from the nerves that were bubbling away inside. When she had been driving down here, she had assumed that staying on the Vespa and not causing any accidents was going to be the trickiest part of the trip, but now she had arrived at the marina, she saw just how wrong she was. The trickiest bit was still to come.
But first, she had to find the boat.
It didn’t help that Holly hadn’t paid a great deal of attention to where they’d walked that morning, although, in her defence, her priority had been not falling off the jetty again. Now, however, she wished she had paid more attention to exactly which jetty the boat was on.
There were three different routes she could take, and each of those had boats on either side. After a moment’s deliberation, she decided her best option was to go down the middle. That way, even if Giles’s boat wasn’t on that jetty, she could hopefully see which one it was on.
What a way to live, she thought as she passed a boat filled with women scantily clad in bikinis clinking champagne glasses together. It didn’t look like they had to budget for how many glasses of wine they had to make sure they could still afford the taxi back.
As she reached the end of the middle jetty, she let out a groan. Not only was Giles’s boat not moored on this part of the marina, but she realised, with a sense of sickening dread, that he might not be here at all. Boats were still heading out, so it would be perfectly reasonable to assume he may have gone out for a night trip somewhere, or perhaps he didn’t moor there permanently. He could have taken another trip out for the evening, or sailed off somewhere to get away from her and the terrible memories of the day.
‘I’ll give myself five more minutes looking,’ Holly said to herself, only for a couple to pass her with an extra-wide berth. As if talking to herself was the worst thing she could do.
Back at the end of the jetty, she started again down one of the different wooden walkways. It was made of identical planks of wood, but for some reason, this path seemed more familiar to her. Some of the boats looked vaguely recognisable, as if she had already passed them that day. Then, when she was halfway down, she saw him.
Holly had seen Giles Caverty in many situations during their friendship. She had seen the ruthless, cut-throat and downright nasty Giles who had been utterly vile to her when he wanted the sweet shop. But that had been a long time ago. Since then, she had seen the Giles who took pizza to his sister and her colleagues at the maternity ward in Cheltenham hospital. And the one who had driven to Moreton to tell her that her dad had had a heart attack. She had seen him help her with her shopping, week in and week out, and offer her all the words of comfort she could need.
But she had never seen him with a bucket and sponge, cleaning.
A laugh caught in her throat as she stood there in silence and watched as he washed the back of the boat, dipping the sponge in to the bucket and pulling it out again, sodden and soapy. Oh, she loved this. Mr Glamorous doing the cleaning. Even if it was a massive yacht, it still made her chuckle. With her knot of nerves loosened by the sight, she headed forwards, opening her mouth to speak, when she spotted another person on the boat.
Both of the crew members who had been with them that day had been men, but this was a woman, with long hair tied in a high ponytail, who was wearing the type of skinny denim shorts that would look like underwear on Holly. Giles was absorbed in his cleaning and had not yet noticed the woman above him. He was busy dunking the sponge into the bucket when she reached down and grabbed it out of his hands. As Giles turned around to face her, the woman slapped the sponge straight into Giles’s face.
Holly watched on in disbelief as his eyes bugged in shock. Then, before the woman could stop him, he had grabbed the sponge back out of her hand, but rather than soaking her with it, he threw it back into the bucket, wrapped his hands around her waist, pulled her in and kissed her.
42
It felt as though a vice had clamped around Holly’s lungs and yet she couldn’t stop watching. This wasn’t a casual peck on the lips. This was a full-on, bodies pressed together, no coming up for air kiss. Giles picked the woman up so that her legs were around his hips and still the kissing continued. And Holly was only feet away, but Giles hadn’t noticed her. He hadn’t noticed anyone except for the woman in his arms.
Holly backed away, the horror she had felt at seeing Giles in this situation replaced by a wash of embarrassment. What was she thinking, coming down here? It had been eight months. Of course he was seeing someone.
As she stepped back, her foot caught on the edge of the jetty.
‘Crap,’ she whispered as she lurched forwards and dropped onto her hands and knees with a thud.
The laughter coming from Giles’s boat stopped.
‘Is someone there?’
Holly didn’t move, remaining crouched on the wooden planks. Her heart was all the way up in her throat. The only thing that would be worse than her turning up to find Giles with his girlfriend, would be Giles finding her here, crouching on the wet ground as if she had been spying on them. She held her breath, willing the moment to pass.
‘Come on, I need to get out of these wet clothes.’ Giles’s voice cut through the silence. ‘You can help me.’
With her heart pounding, Holly listened to the footsteps retreat, though she still didn’t move. The cold from the damp wood seeped into her knees and she shivered against it. Only when she was certain no one was there did she push herself onto her feet and head back to the marina.
So much for her holiday being a chance for her to get her head straight. She was going to head back in even more of a state than she had left.
What was so infuriating was that she hadn’t even known how she’d wanted the night to go. She had gone to see if she was over Giles, but how did you know when you were truly over someone? With Dan, it had been easy; there had been no way she was going back there, not after how he treated her. And with Ben, it had just been a case of growing apart, possibly before they’d even grown together. But with Giles, she had never thought she needed to get over him. Because she and him could never be. But now Evan had swept in and made her feel like she was ready for another relationship; it was just who that relationship was going to be with that was the issue.
When she reached the cobbled stones of the marina, she placed her hand on the wall and looked out at the boats.
‘Argh!’
Her lungs rattled with the scream just as a couple scurried past. They muttered in French, yet Holly didn’t bother apologising for her moment of insanity. She was insane. Jamie had said it, and now it had been confirmed. One thing she knew, though; she couldn’t go back to the villa now. What would she say to Evan?Sorry, I don’t know if I’m over him or not, but do you still fancy hanging out?
His whole concern had been around being her second choice, and this would make him exactly that. She could lie and say she had spoken to Giles, but then starting a relationship on a lie didn’t feel like a good thing to do. What she needed was time to get her head straight.
