Page 99 of The Island Villa

“Then why are you sounding as if you’ve just sung yourself hoarse at a stadium concert?”

All those things she’d thought she’d known about love, she’d never known it could ache like this. She almost said something because her feelings were stronger than her sense of dignity or self-control. But she didn’t want to put him in a difficult position. She didn’t want him to feel awkward, and have to find a gentle way to tell her that she was and would always be his dearest friend but he didn’t think of her that way.

“Too much crying,” she said. “Sorry. I’m glad Suzy is there with you.”

There was a pause. “Are you?”

“Yes, of course.” The idea of it was killing her, but she loved Oliver. She wanted him to be happy, and if that meant being nice to Suzy, then she’d be nice to Suzy. “I don’t need you to come. It’s great just to chat, although I didn’t mean to interrupt your evening.”

“You weren’t interrupting anything. Will you let me know how are you? I want updates. Call me.”

“Sure. I’ll call.” She imagined Suzy picking up his phone and seeing the caller display. It’s Cass, she’d say, and they’d both roll their eyes and try to figure out how to gradually squeeze her out of Oliver’s life.

She wouldn’t be calling.

“Cass?” Oliver’s tone was sharper and she wondered if he’d read her mind. “I’m here for you, you know that don’t you?”

“I know. I feel better already from just having talked to you, and I’m going to do what you said and let it simmer. Bye.”

She ended the call as quickly as if he were a stranger trying to sell her windows she didn’t need or offering her a new phone plan.

Cassie dropped her phone onto the lounger.

She’d always thought love would look a certain way. She’d always thought she’d know it the moment she saw it. But now she realized love was as specific to the person as all the other things that made a human being individual and unique. One person’s romantic disaster might be another person’s happy-ever-after. Why hadn’t she seen it before?

She was in love with Oliver, and the only reason she hadn’t seen that was because she’d had this clear image of what love should be. But that image had been a mirage and it was gone now.

Love, for her at least, was what she felt for Oliver.

She slumped back on the lounger, feeling as if she’d aged a decade. Usually she felt nothing like an adult, but tonight she felt the full weight of being an adult.

She heard the sound of footsteps and then her name being called.

“Cass?” The urgency in Adeline’s tone alarmed her.

“What?” She was already sitting up and reaching for her shoes when Adeline appeared, breathless.

“It’s Mom. She’s collapsed. Chest pains and struggling to breathe. They’re taking her to the hospital now. My father is going in the ambulance with her.”

“Ambulance?” Cassie stared at Adeline, her brain numb and working in slow motion.

“But that isn’t possible. She’s super healthy. She eats salad and seafood. She swims and does yoga.” She was ignoring the fact that a person could do all those things and still get sick.

“Dad thinks maybe it was the stress of telling us, and thinking about Rob.”

Cassie jammed her feet into her shoes, hurting her toe in the process.

This was all her fault. She was the one who had forced her mother to confront her past. She was the one who had insisted that her mother tell her everything, even though it was clearly a traumatic time in her life.

And now she being rushed to hospital. What if she died?

Cassie hadn’t even had the chance to tell her she loved her. That she understood and would probably have done the same thing in her mother’s position. Instead, she’d been cold and more than a little judgmental. What if it was too late and she never got the chance to say those things?

Just when you thought life couldn’t get worse, she thought, it got worse.

21

Adeline

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