Then her thoughts floated on to the current day and she inwardly pinched herself at the surreal nature of the moment. The thrill of acting spontaneously, even if she had panicked when Ellis had climbed over the fence. With hindsight, she was pleased that he had, for otherwise she wouldn’t be sitting by Connie’s pool right now and enjoying the magnificent scenery all around her. And for one bizarrely strange moment she wondered if this was what Matthew and the Perky Yoga One’s lives were like. Sunbathing by infinity pools in paradisiacal places.

Hmm, maybe it had been at the start, but then she remembered the last time she had looked at Matthew’s Facebook page. It had been on that evening when she’d been at a low ebb after Cora had created such an almighty fuss about the spa trip. On Facebook, Matthew had been bemoaning the lack of sleep that came with having toddler twins, and how he was having to ‘swerve the rugby boys’ weekend away this year because of FAMILY COMMITMENTS’ followed by the rolling eyes emoji, but he ‘wouldn’t have it any other way’ … so perhaps not.

Maybe the grass wasn’t greener on the other side after all … and she had spent all those lonely evenings stalking her ex-fiancé to see what she had perceived as being perfection, a gloriously happy life, when in reality it was all just an airbrushed façade. She could see it now. Or perhaps it was because right now, right here, she felt happy in herself and so the need to live vicariously, and with a degree of self-loathing and inadequacy, had vanished. She was content.

Chapter 18

The next day, and Grace was feeling very fragile as she climbed inside the taxi that had arrived to take them to Portofino to visit the jeweller’s. One look at Ellis and she could see that he felt the same way too, with his Ray-Ban shades firmly in place and a pale tinge to his usually tanned face. His dark brown curls were much messier than usual too.