by Kate Frost
‘It sounds a wonderful idea.’ A little hope seeped among the worry at the thought of her still having a purpose.
‘The questions is,’ Meena said. ‘Where?’
‘How about on the beach close to Reef,’ Freya said. ‘We could put some of the shelving beneath a tree and with an ocean backdrop it could be rather special. It’s sheltered, guests can browse the books and get a drink from the bar. Even borrow a book and read there all afternoon.’
~
The idea was a winner, although Zander decided that instead of being right on the beach, they’d use a quiet corner of Reef. This meant the temporary bookshop would still have an ocean view, Freya would have shade, and with the seating rearranged, guests would have somewhere comfortable to sit with bar staff on hand to take their order too.
Freya spent the afternoon at Reef, wiping down the driftwood shelves and arranging the books into some sort of order. A mish-mash had been saved, lots of fiction, a few nature ones, a couple of the signed Mia Jacobsen novels, but so many had been destroyed or were past saving.
It felt strange being close to the main guest area rather than in the secluded clearing where guests had to make the effort to venture to. After the events of the last couple of days, Freya was rather glad to be surrounded by friendly faces. The bar staff paid her plenty of attention and kept her topped up with cooling virgin cocktails, while guests popped over to say hello and to have a quick chat before relaxing with a drink overlooking the lagoon. By the time the sun had set, Freya had everything sorted. While guests headed for candlelit tables and their three course dinner, Freya took one last look around her new bookshop set up and called it a day.
She waved goodbye to the local guys behind the bar who’d made her feel so welcome. So far everyone had been more caring than Aaron who’d left the island without even checking she was okay. Anger simmered inside her again. She stalked back to the staff village and by the time she got there, she was as flustered as she was sticky. The air was stiller than normal. Surrounded by trees and hemmed in by the staff quarters, it felt far removed from the day she’d spent on the over-water restaurant, being plied with cool delicious drinks.
‘The fish curry you love is on the menu again,’ Drew said, walking past her with a tray.
Freya realised she was standing on the edge of the courtyard in a daze. She caught Drew’s raised eyebrow and concerned look. Food, that was what she needed even more than a shower. She queued up and got a plate of curry and rice, poured herself a glass of iced water and joined Drew.
‘You okay?’ Drew asked as she sat down opposite.
‘Yeah, just miles away before.’ She blew hot air over her even hotter face. ‘I walked back too fast.’
‘I hear the bookshop’s moved to Reef.’
‘Yep,’ Freya said through a mouthful of lightly spiced fish curry. ‘It’ll do while the bookshop’s being rebuilt and at least I now have a job again and can write something semi-positive in my next blog.’
‘I’m glad. You’ve looked so lost the past couple of days. Understandably so.’ Drew scooped rice on to her fork. ‘And at least Aaron will be back tomorrow. It’ll be good for you to see him.’
‘Uh huh.’
Drew leaned back and studied her. ‘What’s up? I thought you’d be happy to see him? You don’t sound pleased.’
Freya sighed and sat back in her chair. ‘I’m not sure what I think at the moment. It’s been suggested that Aaron being at the bookshop that night was...’ She pushed the curry around her plate not really sure if she wanted to say anything else.
‘Was what, Freya?’
‘Nothing. It’s just rumour and gossip.’
‘Then you have to tell me. I live for gossip.’
Freya took her time chewing her mouthful of fish curry and rice. Saying what she was thinking out loud added weight to the idea. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to do that.
‘What do you honestly think of Aaron?’
‘I er...’ Drew frowned. ‘I think he’s a top bloke. Super good looking obviously, fit as anything...’
‘Yeah, but what about him, his personality.’
‘You couldn’t meet a friendlier guy.’
Freya pushed the curry around her plate with her fork.
‘To be honest, I didn’t know him that well till I met you. I mean, he was always friendly and said hi, but I’ve only really hung out with him since you got friendly with him.’
‘So, you don’t know anything about his past or that he has a problem with Zander and there’s a whole load of stuff I don’t really understand.’
‘God no, if I had an idea about any of that, I’d have been all over it.’ She looked across the table and took Freya’s hand. ‘Don’t look so worried. He’ll be back tomorrow. Talk to him then. I’m sure whatever it is you’ve heard is all a big misunderstanding.’
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Freya watched the seaplane glide in. From just a distant dot in the blue sky, it circled round and started to make its descent. She wondered if Aaron could see her from up there. She was probably an ant-like dot standing on the edge of the wooden walkway. The knot of nerves twisted tighter in her stomach.
Maybe she shouldn’t be here. What was she supposed to do or say? Was she the loving girlfriend welcoming him back or was she about to accuse him of something she could hardly bring herself to believe he could possibly do? And anyway, their short-lived romance had faltered.
The seaplane was getting closer. Half of her was desperate to see him, the other half wanted to avoid him, although she couldn’t do that forever. She turned and paced away, kicking up sand as she strode back across the beach and on to the walkway that led to Reef. It was easier to avoid him for the moment.
Tucked behind the driftwood bookshelf in the corner of the over-water restaurant, Freya could see across the glowing lagoon to the jetty. Staff holding a tray of cool towels had replaced her on the end of the walkway, ready to greet the newly arriving guests. The seaplane glided on to the water and taxied up to the end of the wooden jetty. The guests were welcomed and handed the cool towels, and their bags left on the dock to be taken to their villas. Aaron was the last one off, a gorgeously familiar figure, tall and eye-catching, relaxed in his own clothes, his T-shirt pale against his dark muscular arms, a bag slung over his shoulder. She wondered what he was thinking as he started to make his way along the walkway to the island. Was he thinking about her? Had he even once wondered if she was okay?
‘This is the new bookshop then?’ A deep Australian twang pulled her back to the present and away from the sight of Aaron disappearing beneath the trees.
She turned to the Australian couple. She’d spoken to them the previous week, when they’d spent a couple of hours browsing the shop and reading out on the deck.
‘For the time being, yes.’
‘Glad you’re okay,’ the wife said. ‘The fire’s been quite a talking point these last couple of days.’
‘Tell me about it.’ Freya laughed. ‘Are you after something new to read?’
~
Freya stayed at the makeshift bookshop until after dark. It was different being close to the heart of the island with guests coming and going all day. She knew she was delaying going back to the staff village and seeing Aaron. But she’d finished for the day, and guests were arriving to enjoy a candlelit dinner overlooking the glowing lagoon, so there was no longer an excuse. It was a magical spot with glass panels in the wooden floor next to each table with a view down into the coral reef.
Freya left and walked along the wooden walkway back to the beach, taking the path towards the staff village. The prospect of the inevitable conversation she had to have with Aaron hung like a dark cloud over her. It was winter in the UK, whereas the time of the year had become meaningless here. She adored the ease of throwing on summer clothes knowing the day would be hot. Even in the rainy season it would be the same, no umbrella or coat needed. On the walk back, to combat her churning stomach, she reminded herself
of all the reasons she adored being on the island.
The courtyard was filled with people, but no Aaron, only his dive school colleague.
‘Bohdi, have you seen Aaron?’
‘I think he’s gone up to his room.’
Damn, she thought. She glanced around unsure what to do. Sod it. She’d built herself up all day to talk to him and after chickening out earlier, she wasn’t going to do the same again now.
Everyone was busy eating and chatting, so she slipped into the men’s block. She’d never been inside but it was the same layout as the women’s and she knew the floor and number of Aaron’s room. She raced up the stairs and snuck along the corridor. Aaron lived on the same level as she did in the women’s block, but his room was on the other side facing the trees.
Without coming across anyone else, she reached his room and knocked. The door swung open.
‘Freya.’ His hair was wet and his chest bare with only a towel wrapped round his middle. She didn’t know where to look. He glanced along the corridor. ‘You should not be up here.’ He smiled and pulled her into his room.
‘I know. Actually, I don’t know what I was thinking.’ She turned to go. ‘I can talk to you later.’
‘Don’t be silly.’ He pushed the door closed behind them.
His state of undress was a huge distraction. His muscles flexed as he finished rubbing his hair and dropped the towel on the back of a chair. He took her in his arms and Freya allowed herself to relax against his damp chest. The towel round his waist hid nothing. His hands dipped beneath her top, her earlier mistrust and confusion erased by a kiss. He manoeuvred her gently back against the wall. And then the image of him in the darkness, his face lit by flames, flashed across her mind.
She pulled away, put her hands firmly on his chest and looked up at him. ‘I came to talk. We need to talk, Aaron.’
He sighed and let go of her.
‘If this is about the other night, I’m sorry I didn’t come back. I went to get help, then there was such a commotion I was stopping people from heading that way. Then I was up early to catch the plane.’
‘So you didn’t once think to check on me?’
‘Honestly, Freya, it wasn’t that...’ He leant back against the opposite wall, his arms folded across his chest.
‘Then what was it? Because I’ve heard other things.’
‘Like what?’ His tone was as defensive as his stance.
Now she was in front of him, she wasn’t sure she should say anything. It was gossip and assumption, both what Meena had said and Zander had hinted at. They were alone and he looked hurt and upset. A small part of her wanted to go over and kiss him, push him on to the bed and repeat that night in his family’s guest house when everything had felt so easy and happy and exciting. But life was never as simple, kind and straightforward as that.
‘What were you doing there?’ Even in the compact room, her voice sounded small.
He looked at her stony-faced, his cheeks clenched. He turned away, picked up a pair of shorts and pulled them on beneath his towel.
‘You shouldn’t have come up here.’ He discarded the towel on his bed.
He’d changed his tune now sex was no longer an option.
Freya sighed. ‘None of it makes sense, Aaron. Why you were at the bookshop that time of night. Why you didn’t get help. Why you never came back. Zander suggested...’
‘Zander suggested. What poison has he been filling your head with?’
The hatred that coated his words took Freya by surprise. It seemed inconceivable that it could have been Aaron who started the fire. She couldn’t even bring herself to say the words out loud. For what possible reason could he have been there that late at night? Yet he had so much anger simmering away, a side to him she’d never seen before.
Freya’s faltering gave Aaron time to pull on a T-shirt and stuff the key to his door in his pocket. ‘Let’s get out of here, before people start talking.’
She followed him back along the corridor and down the stairs. They passed one of the waiters on the way out. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. The door banged shut behind them. The courtyard tables were still full. The spiced scent of curry made Freya realise how hungry she was.
‘So why were you there then?’ Her words sounded more accusatory than she meant.
‘I went for a walk.’
‘You do that often, do you?’
‘It was a fucking walk, Freya. And what were you doing there?’
‘Getting my book from the shop. I couldn’t sleep.’
‘Well, there we go then.’
Freya folded her arms. ‘That answers nothing. Like how exactly the fire started.’ Despite the way he was glaring at her, she held his gaze. She wanted everything to go back to normal between them, like it had been in those first few weeks. She hated that she was so conflicted about him.
‘Are you actually suggesting what I think you are?’ His nostrils flared, his jaw clenched and he took a step back. ‘Is that what Zander’s been saying? And you believe him over me?’
‘I don’t know what to believe, Aaron. It’s been a weird and messed up few days.’
‘I saw this coming.’
‘You saw what coming?’
‘Zander and you.’
‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘He’s really good at snaring beautiful young women with his looks and his money and his fucking villa on the beach, using them and dumping them when he’s had enough.’
Freya’s eyes narrowed. She took hold of Aaron’s arm and walked him away from the staff accommodation, aware of his voice rising and the amount of people milling around. She didn’t stop until they reached the far side of the beach where the water lapped the pearly sand.
‘Where’s this coming from, Aaron? Zander’s been nothing but decent to me, particularly since the night of the fire.’
‘Yeah, by all accounts you’ve been spending a lot of time with him.’
‘What is wrong with you? Of course I’ve been spending time with him – the bookshop burnt down. It’s where I work, the whole reason I’m here.’
‘I only got back this afternoon and it’s all everyone’s talking about, you and the fire, and you and Zander...’
It felt like the island was closing in on her. There was no privacy; nowhere to escape to. The staff village had become a melting pot of gossip, of people who thought they knew everything and assumed too much about things they had no clue about. Or was it Aaron simply reading too much into everything, the way he’d flipped as soon as she’d questioned his reason for being at the bookshop that night? If she hadn’t said anything, would he even have mentioned the fire or asked her if she was okay?
Freya folded her arms. ‘And if there are rumours about me, then you shouldn’t be surprised there are rumours about you too.’
‘Yeah, fuelled by Zander.’
‘It’s not just Zander. Meena too.’
‘Yeah, that makes sense. Zander’s bitch.’
Freya stepped back. She didn’t recognise him as the warm, friendly man she’d got to know over the past couple of months. The obvious hatred he had for Zander was spilling over to other people associated with him, including her. Maybe he realised how he was coming across because his clenched cheeks softened and he relaxed his balled-up fists.
He looked at her pleadingly. ‘It’s what he does, Freya. He charms women, puts them in positions where he can seduce them. He’s done it before; he’ll do it again.’
‘I don’t know why you think that, but that’s so far from the truth and my experience of him.’
‘You’re honestly telling me you’ve not slept with him?’
‘My goodness, Aaron, no. Is that what you believe?’
‘Not even when you stayed the night with him? Drew told me.’
‘I stayed because I passed out after the fire. If you’d come back and helped, it might have been you taking care of me. But you didn’t even go and get help. Why the hell woul
d you not have done that?’
‘Is that what he told you?’
‘It’s what Hassan said. He raised the alarm because he heard me shouting. It was Zander who was there first helping me.’
One of them was lying to her, they had to be. Aaron, the gorgeous and friendly dive instructor who’d made her feel so welcome from the minute he met her, who’d become friends with her and taken her back to his home, introduced her to his family, had seduced her in the best way possible. Or the multi-millionaire whose past was documented for all to see: his wild boy band days, the womanising, the smart business-minded entrepreneur who’d made his fortune. And yet, while she hadn’t immediately warmed to Zander, and had been wary of him for the reasons Aaron was suggesting, as she’d got to know him little by little and that playboy exterior had been chipped away, she’d seen a different side to him. The same way little things about Aaron had been revealed; the son he’d failed to mention, the breakdown of the relationship with the mother of his child, the jealousy that had been hinted at that was now manifesting itself in front of her.
Freya shook her head and walked away. There was nowhere to escape to, no privacy on an island this size. Except one place. Freya paced back up the beach.
Aaron’s voice cut across the thrum of the waves folding on to the sand. ‘He had an affair with Zahida. The boy’s his, I’m certain of it.’
Freya swung back to face him. ‘Are you serious? Zander and your ex? Something else you’ve not told me about.’
Aaron rejoined her and took her hand. ‘He ruined my life once. I won’t let him do it again.’
Freya shook her head. ‘This is too much. I need time to think.’
She yanked her hand away and continued up the beach, not daring to look back, not wanting to be torn between wanting to kiss and hit him.
She skirted the edge of the sand, keeping away from the courtyard. The same way she didn’t want to speak to Aaron anymore, she didn’t want to bump into Drew or anyone else. Her head and her heart were in turmoil. She went to the only place she knew no one else would be at this time of the evening.