AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now on her feet, she marched towards the door, only for her balance to fail three steps in. Giles caught her by the arm and lowered her down onto a chaise longue that was conveniently placed.
‘It’s fine. Your phone was out of battery, so I put it on charge. And…’ He paused. His eyes shifted. Holly may not have seen Giles for a long time, and she may have been as hungover as hell, but she knew that look meant he had done something. Something he probably didn’t want her to know about.
‘Giles.’
‘Ben kept ringing. I assumed he was calling so you could talk to Hope.’
A layer of dread cemented itself in Holly’s alcohol-filled stomach. Yes, Ben had a girlfriend now, but she could only imagine the way he would respond to Giles answering her phone.
‘Please tell me you didn’t pick up?’ The sound of her voice was enough to make her head pound even harder.
‘Of course I didn’t pick up. I’m not a fool. But I sent him a message from your phone. Said you’d got on an early-morning sailing trip and the reception wasn’t good enough for a video call. Then added a photo from the other day, too. Just so it was believable. You know.’
‘Wow,’ Holly replied, needing a minute to take it all in. That was a lot to unpack. It was no wonder Giles had fooled her so well during those early months at the sweet shop if this was how well he could cover things up.
‘How did you know my password?’ she said after a pause. She had taken a moment to think about her photo roll, and whether there was anything incriminating on it. But other than half a dozen photos of cracked nipples from when Hope was first feeding, everything was very much U-rated.
‘Hope’s birthday,’ Giles responded to her question. ‘Though I tried yours first to be fair.’
‘You know my birthday?’
‘Of course I know your birthday.’
With a long sigh, Giles took a seat on the couch.
Now that she was fully awake, she could see just how amazing the room was. Everything was sleek and white, accented with dark navy blue. The large bed was surrounded by built-in cabinets, and the marble ensuite glinted in the distance.
‘Holly, I’m sorry about last night. About you turning up. If I’d have known you were going to come…’
‘You’d have told your girlfriend to make herself scarce?’ Holly laughed. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. It’s me who should apologise for turning up unannounced. And then being so drunk, you had to bring me back here.’
‘It wasn’t an easy feat. You’ve no idea how many times I thought you were going to fall off the jetty and into the water.’
‘It wouldn’t be the first time.’
‘That doesn’t surprise me.’ He chuckled again, only to stop abruptly. ‘Holly, last night, before you passed out, you said something.’
‘Oh, God.’ She covered her head in her hands. This was why she hated getting drunk. If the physical effects of the hangover weren’t bad enough, the mental torture of wondering how much of a fool she’d made of herself was even worse. Of course, she knew already she’d made a fool of herself in front of Giles, but the soberness of his tone now made her worry just how bad she had been.
‘What did I say? I’m so sorry. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking. I can say horrible things when I’m drunk. I don’t mean to. I think I’m being funny.’
Giles took a deep breath in before he spoke.
‘It wasn’t anything bad. I promise you. Or at least, I didn’t think it was. I just need to know if you meant it.’
‘If I meant what?’ The nausea that struck was only partly to do with the drink. Giles’s eyes were locked on hers, and his hands, she realised, were still holding hers too. This closeness wasn’t something they’d shared that often, even when they were seeing each other every week.
‘You said that you loved me. Was it true?’
47
Holly was having difficulty locating the exact source of the spinning that was going on in her head. Given that she was on a boat, it could well have been the water beneath her. Equally, it could have been the drink. Yet deep down, she couldn’t help but think it was the third and final option. She had told Giles she loved him. How? When? And why? It didn’t make sense. But as the gnawing crept from the pit of her stomach, she knew he was telling the truth.
‘I… I was drunk,’ she said.
‘Yes, I’m aware of that,’ Giles chuckled. The laughter creased his eyes, though the creases faded as he continued to look at her. ‘What I did before – putting you on the spot when you were with Ben – that wasn’t fair of me. I’ll be honest, I don’t get many things right when it comes to you. But that doesn’t mean what I felt wasn’t real and true. You’re not with Ben any more, Holly. There’s no one here you need to protect. It’s just you and me.’
Just Giles and her. Her mind returned to the car journey to the airport, where Caroline had asked her about the other one. Not to mention Evan’s response. And the way her mum had brought him up more and more. Holly had assumed it was because her mother thought a reconciliation with Giles was the swiftest way to ensure Holly wasn’t on her own, but perhaps it was because she had seen how much Holly had missed him.
