Page 18 of An Island in the Sun

‘Ha, yes! And I’m just glad that you ended up being, well, you.’

He was utterly gorgeous when he smiled and his comment left her feeling appreciated. A warm fuzzy feeling spread inside, stirring something she hadn’t felt for quite a while, along with a desire to spend more time with him.

Raff’s beer and Tabitha’s lemonade arrived with their food and Tabitha was grateful to switch her attention away from how Raff made her feel. Fudge half-heartedly lifted his head from his paws, sniffed the air, then immediately flopped back down again.

Tabitha’s grilled cuttlefish, prawns and peppers on skewers was so good, all she could do was make ‘mmm’ noises for a moment, while Raff tucked into a huge bowl oflapas, limpets drenched in butter, garlic and lemon served withbolo do cacobread.

It was good for the soul, as Raff had pointed out earlier, being somewhere like this. Tabitha always found being by the sea soothing. Not that she was averse to city living, having lived in London for years. Some of her favourite places had been cities, but they were brief stops, and she understood how different it would be to permanently live somewhere such as Paris or Barcelona. Although perhaps living in a city by the ocean would be ideal.

‘Do you like travelling?’ she asked once she’d finished chewing a lemony prawn.

‘Yeah, I do. I haven’t had the chance to travel as much as I’d like over the past couple of years, though.’ He sipped his beer and looked at her over the top of the glass. ‘I definitely crave the freedom of being able to do what I want when I want.’

‘Is that a money thing, or being held back by someone thing?’ Tabitha braved an attempt to dig a little deeper into his life.

‘It’s both.’ Raff laughed and skewered a limpet. ‘But for you, bouncing from place to place, doing all this pet sitting, is because of itchy feet?’

Tabitha shrugged. ‘After growing up with a nomadic sort of life, moving countries every couple of years, I’ve struggled with the idea of settling down in one spot.’

‘But why do you feel the need to?’ Raff asked. ‘You obviously do a job where it’s possible to work from anywhere. And it must involve the opportunity to travel too? Am I right?’

‘Yeah, you’re right.’

‘Then why has it been an issue feeling stuck somewhere?’ Raff took another sip of his beer. ‘It was because of someone, right?’

Tabitha shifted in her seat. ‘Yep.’

‘Isn’t it always.’

‘It’s the same for you? What you said before about doing what you want when you want – you were held back by someone?’ Tabitha had noticed how quickly he’d turned the conversation back on her, but she didn’t want to be the only one to open up, particularly when it came to revealing past heartache.

‘Yeah,’ Raff said, relaxing back in his chair and resting his foot on his knee. ‘I made the mistake of buying a place with my ex-girlfriend. We shouldn’t have moved in together, let alone made a commitment like that. The crazy thing is, deep down we both knew we wanted different things, yet we went ahead and did that anyway.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know, I figured it was the next natural step because at the time I wanted to be with her, and in hindsight I know it was because she wanted that sort of commitment and more. Well, a lot more actually, which was the root of the problem.’

‘Because you didn’t want to commit?’

‘Uh-huh. Story of my life.’

While he seemed willing to talk, Tabitha decided to go with it. ‘What’s the deal, though, with you and your parents? If you have a strained relationship with them – which I presume you do—’

‘I do, yeah.’

‘Then why come back?’

‘Because they’re not here and I’ve been going from one place to another for the last few months because of the whole break-up situation. I figured I’d make the most of them being away, except I hadn’t factored you into the equation.’

Tabitha looked across the table at him and smiled. She liked the way he said that, as if she was a good thing. It was foolish to think that way about someone she’d only just met, but she liked the effect she seemed to be having on him.

‘I used to wish that my parents had bought a place in Funchal, you know, where something actually happens, but in their wisdom,’ he said in a tone that suggested the complete opposite, ‘they thought it would be a good idea to buy a place out this way, where lots of other Brits live – great for parties, lots of space and suited their lifestyle – if they’d been a childless couple. For people who like to socialise, they like to do it on their own terms. And when they do go out in Funchal, they have the money to get a taxi there and back. It’s a pretty sweet life they’ve made for themselves.’

Tabitha frowned, wondering how to go about unpicking the animosity coating his words. He was an adult, yet his comment about them being a childless couple must have stemmed from way back. For Raff to effectively be breaking into and creeping around his parents’ house while they were away, there were probably an awful lot of skeletons in the closet. Considering that she was taking care of their house and pets and they didn’t know their son was here, perhaps it would be for the best if they remained locked away.

They finished their meal and sat in comfortable silence, soaking up the sun. The ocean bubbled gently onto the shore and a buzzard soared high overhead. Tabitha paid and, with effort, they woke Fudge and Bailey, encouraging them to leave the shade of the table and walk back to the car.

Fudge jumped into the boot, but Bailey refused to. Raff and Tabitha laughed as she scooped him up and secured him safely inside.

‘Hey,’ Raff said, his fingers brushing her arm, stilling her breath momentarily. ‘I know this is a lot to ask, but if I could just stay another night while I try to sort something out. You won’t even know I’m here.’ His smile showcased his perfect white teeth, his eyes crinkling at the corners in a way that at least looked genuine.

Tabitha was certain that she’d notice him, because she already had, in a way that made her insides go mushy and her thoughts fixate on just how noticeable he was. And the way he’d been looking at her and the things he’d said…

---