Page 19 of The Island Villa

She was surprised by the strength of her emotional response, given how much time had elapsed.

“It’s not that I don’t like her. I don’t really know her. I haven’t seen her in years.” And that was her fault. The truth was that she found it hard being around Cassie. “None of it was Cassie’s fault.”

“It wasn’t your fault either.” Mia gently brushed a bee away from her leg. “What’s she doing now?”

“She’s just finished at Oxford. I have no idea what she’s doing next. We haven’t been in touch.” Guilt flushed through her again, sharper this time. That was her fault too.

“Maybe the two of you will finally bond.”

That wasn’t going to happen.

“I don’t suppose she is looking forward to seeing me any more than I’m looking forward to seeing her.”

Her mother and Cassie.

It was going to be a wedding to remember, for all the wrong reasons.

5

Cassie

“How about this one? Too daring for a wedding? It’s slit up to the thigh, but unless there’s a strong breeze, it’s only going to show when I walk. I thought maybe, as it’s Greece, I could get away with showing a little flesh.” Cassie emerged from the changing room and gave a twirl, almost losing her balance in the process. It always surprised her just how much of an effect clothes could have on mood. Clothes changed the way a person felt about themselves, an observation she was careful to use in her writing. The character she was writing currently dressed to blend into the background. She would never have worn the dress Cassie was modeling. “I think this could be the one. It says feminine. Carefree. Summer.”

It didn’t seem to be saying anything at all to Oliver, who was staring at his phone.

The drama of the moment lost, she snapped her fingers. “Hello? Earth to Oliver?”

He looked up, a vague expression on his face that showed his mind was elsewhere. “What?”

“Focus! You came here to help me find the perfect dress.”

“That was three hours ago, Cassie. My concentration checked out a while ago.”

She looked closer and realized he looked tired. Was that because Suzy was keeping him up at night? Something else?

“It’s true that this has taken a little longer than I originally planned, but it’s important to find exactly the right dress for this occasion, which is why I needed you here. Clothes can say so much about you as a person.”

“Thirty-two dresses in three hours tells me you’re indecisive. Buy it, and then we can go home and start researching antiaging techniques to erase the damage of the past few hours.”

It was a relief to hear him sounding more like himself. He’d been behaving oddly since she met up with him for a late breakfast.

“Unless you take this seriously, I will be advertising for a new best friend.” She removed his phone from his hand. “I need your opinion and I need it immediately, preferably before they decide I’ve been wearing this dress for so long I’m now its legal owner.”

He sighed, studied her with exaggerated patience and then gave a slow shrug. “It looks great, but so did the thirty-one dresses you tried on before this one. A dress is a dress.”

That patently wasn’t true, but he was her best friend and he was here with her despite his limited interest in fashion and a dose of sleep deprivation, so she was filled with goodwill. And she had to admit it wasn’t the easiest thing for him to comment on. If he’d said she looked awful, he would have hurt her feelings. She should ask a more specific question. “What was your first thought when you looked at me?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Please let her choose this one so we can go home before the turn of the next century? I’m hoping it’s a case of thirty-second dress lucky.”

“You’re very unsupportive.”

“How am I unsupportive? I have given you an opinion on each and every one of the thirty-two dresses you have tried on.”

“Not true. You always say the same thing! You always say you look great.”

He spread his hands. “You do look great.”

“Ha. I did not look great in that yellow abomination with the weird bow on the hip.”

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