‘Can’t you just not go?’
‘It’s difficult. The Paines are friends of Lynda’s—that’s how we ended up here. I haven’t been back in London that long, and the summer holidays seemed like a good opportunity to take Sophie away and spend a proper chunk of time together. It suited Lynda, too. She had some conference or something to go to, so we agreed that I would have Sophie for three weeks.’
‘It’s a very isolated place to spend three weeks,’ commented Thea. ‘I think I’d have taken her to somewhere more lively.’
Rhys nodded ruefully. ‘That’s what I should have done, but I didn’t even think about going to a resort. I thought a beach would get really boring. You can’t just lie in the sun for three weeks.’
Couldn’t you? Thea looked at him. He was obviously one of those hearty ten-mile walk before breakfast types who always liked to be doing things. The art of lying on a sunbed and flicking through magazines with nothing more strenuous to do than contemplate what to eat and drink next would be quite lost on him. Shame, really.
‘If I’d been a more hands-on father I’d have known what Sophie would like.’ Rhys was frowning down at his glass. ‘As it was, Lynda told me that the villa here was available because the friends who were originally coming out with the Paines had dropped out.
‘It seemed like a good idea at the time,’ he went on, lifting his eyes to Thea once more, obviously trying to justify the decision to himself. ‘I thought that if the Paines were friends of Lynda’s, Sophie would know the children and be able to play with them, but as it turned out they’ve got absolutely nothing in common.
‘Meanwhile, Kate and Nick are desperate to look after us. Lynda obviously confides in Kate—she seems to know an unnerving amount about my marriage and divorce—and because they’re friends, short of being outright rude, I can’t get out of it.’
‘It sounds a bit of a nightmare,’ said Thea sympathetically.
‘It is,’ said Rhys, reaching for the jug of retsina and topping up her glass. ‘Kate’s impervious to hints that I’m quite capable of looking after myself. She went on and on about all these single friends of hers she wants to introduce me to when we get home, and I could foresee endless dinner parties if I didn’t put a stop to it. Eventually I just told her I had met someone special already and that I was committed to her.’
Thea was conscious of a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she didn’t want to analyse. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Have you?’
He gave a short, mirthless laugh. ‘When would I have been able to meet anyone, let alone anyone special? I’ve been working in the middle of the desert for most of the past five years, and in the few weeks I’ve been back every minute of my time has been taken up with settling into a new job, buying and moving into a house and trying to coax two words out of my daughter.’
‘You lied,’ said Thea admiringly, trying to ignore the sudden lightening of her spirits at the news that Rhys did not, in fact, have a girlfriend.
‘I had to,’ he said, assuming a mock martyred expression, and she laughed as she picked up her drink once more.
‘Well, thanks for the tip. I might invent an adoring fiancé back home myself before Kate gets me in her clutches!’
‘Unless you’d like to be my girlfriend?’ said Rhys.
Thea paused with the glass halfway to her lips. ‘Sorry?’
‘Well, if we’re both going to pretend, we might as well back each other up,’ he pointed out. ‘If my supposed girlfriend was here in person, that would really shut Kate up.’
‘But she’d know that I wasn’t your girlfriend,’ objected Thea, not entirely sure whether he was joking or not.
‘How? I’ve never told her a name or anything about my girlfriend other than the fact that she exists, and Kate doesn’t know who was booked into the villa. She told me herself that she was wondering who would turn up and hoping that it would be a “nice family”. They didn’t see you arrive last night, and they were off on some day trip before you got up, so she still doesn’t know how disappointed she’s going to be.’
His face seemed straight, but that was definitely an ironic gleam in those disconcertingly light eyes, and Thea was pretty sure she had seen the corner of his mouth twitch. So he was joking.
Phew.
She thought.
Sipping her retsina, she decided that she might as well enter into the spirit of the thing. It was just a joke, after all.
‘Wouldn’t you have told her I was coming?’
‘Maybe you decided to surprise me?’
Thea laughed. ‘What, by barging into the middle of the holiday you’d planned to spend alone with your daughter? I think that’s a bit tactless, don’t you? Frankly, I can’t believe I’d be that insensitive!’
He was good at keeping a straight face but there was a definite twitch to his mouth now. ‘Perhaps we’d originally planned to spend it together but you couldn’t make it?’ he suggested.
‘But if I know you’re going to be pleased to see me, why book a separate villa?’ Thea was beginning to enjoy herself. ‘I mean, we do sleep together, don’t we?’ she joked.
Rhys looked across the table at her, his gaze dropping from the wide, quirky mouth to the generous cleavage revealed by her sundress. ‘Definitely,’ he said and, when he looked back into her eyes, Thea was mortified to find herself blushing.
‘That’s good,’ she said, although not quite as casually as she would have liked. ‘I wouldn’t want Kate to think that I was no fun.’
‘No danger of that,’ said Rhys, taking in the wide grey eyes and the mobile mouth that tilted up at the corners and seemed permanently on the point of breaking into a smile.
OK, this was getting silly. Look away from his eyes now, Thea told herself. Now, she added urgently and at last managed to jerk her gaze away. This was just a joke, she reminded herself as she tried to get her breathing under control. That was it, inflate the lungs, breathe out…and again…
‘Ah, so you just want me for my body?’ She tossed her head and the cloudy brown hair tumbled around her face. ‘I thought you loved me!’
‘I do,’ said Rhys. ‘Madly. You’re the woman I’ve been waiting my whole life for.’
Thea hated the way he could say things like that and look so normal, as if the idea—absurd though it was—wasn’t causing little flutters in the pit of his stomach or interfering with the smooth functioning of his lungs at all.
‘Then why aren’t we sharing a villa, if you love me so much?’ she asked almost tartly.
Rhys thought for a moment. ‘You’ve got Clara with you because of your sister’s accident and you need more space?’
Thea wrinkled her nose. ‘She and Sophie could always share a room,’ she pointed out. ‘It’s not as if the villas are pokey. There’s plenty of room for four in ours, and—oh, I’ve got it!’ She held up a hand dramatically, and Rhys lifted an amused eyebrow.
‘Go on, then.’
‘You’ve kept me a secret from Sophie so far,’ she said slowly, thinking her way through it as she spoke. ‘You’re not sure how she’ll react when she finds out that you’ve got a girlfriend.’
He nodded encouragingly. ‘OK.’
‘And I’m a bit fed up with this. If you love me as much as you say you do, why won’t you introduce me to Sophie? She’s the most important part of your life, and I want to be part of it too. You keep saying